Providing powerful insights into the factors which have affected the economic, political, and social development in Central and Eastern Europe's socialist states since the fall of the Berlin Wall, this one-of-a-kind text offers a broad—yet detailed—comparative study of the politics of Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland—and then uses this information to examine the success or failure of these states in reaching their declared ideological and policy goals. Using a clear-cut organizational framework that is interdisciplinary in approach, it gives students a general introduction to each region; helps them understand why states which shared a common political legacy for 45 years can be so different today; and, most importantly, helps them draw comparative conclusions to determine what is universal and what is incidental.