The former Eastern Bloc nations of Europe had remained closely linked
economically after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and surprisingly,
as often as not, politically allied with their former oppressor.
The great "Decade of Change" which shook the Kremlin in the late
twentieth century had forever changed the face of Marxism, and for
nearly half a century the Russians had abandoned all thought of
communism. But decades of poverty, organized crime and ever dwindling
national importance, had brought about a socialist
resurgence---non-violently, through elections this time---and the
creation of the new Soviet States.
With the dismantling of the Eastern bloc, conditional at first, then
with fewer and fewer strings, many had predicted a defiant break with
the grim, iron-fisted oppressor---a label which unfortunately contained
a good deal of truth---and a wild swing back to the West.
But in large part it had not occurred. Possible explanations for this
'non-schism' ranged from political and cultural isolation during the
Cold War, to the eventual success of numbing Marxist propaganda. Even
East Germany, which reunified with the West, had since divided into two
groups, its easternmost peoples falling back on the old alliances.
For if there was a common thread in the weave of East Europeans, it was
a quiet dedication to hard work, and a genuine, even natural
unselfishness---a combination of qualities not highly valued in the
Americanized west. And though to brand one half of a continent more
concerned with the common good than the other is preposterous, there
could be no denying that the two sides of the now extinct Iron Curtain
remained stiffly uncomfortable with one another's professed doctrines
and system of values. Fifty years under vastly divergent philosophies
and spheres of influence could not be broken down in the years
immediately following. And with the subsequent exodus into Space,
learning to live with and understand each other had become largely
unnecessary. In the purest sense of the analogy, Eastern Europe had
taken one road, and the West another. The distances that separated
their lives were now literal.
The nations and alliances resulting from the East-West split remained
estranged, if no longer sharply opposed. And in a war that like so
many others seemed to be drawing boundaries along lines of ideology,
the possibility loomed of their coming together again not with
overtures of peace and understanding, but on the battlefield.