Reckoning with the past from "summary" of Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum
The process of coming to terms with the past, which involves acknowledging the crimes committed by the regime, understanding how they were committed, and identifying the individuals who were responsible, is a complex and difficult one. In postwar Eastern Europe, this process was further complicated by the fact that the crimes had been committed not by an external enemy, but by fellow citizens, often with the active or passive complicity of others. As a result, reckoning with the past was not just a legal or political process, but a deeply personal one, involving feelings of guilt, shame, and betrayal. In countries like Poland and Hungary, where the communist regimes had been imposed by force, the process of reckoning with the past was more straightforward, at least in the beginning. As soon as the regimes fell, there was an immediate and widespread desire to conf...
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