Initially, most nations exiting from Communism reached out, almost instinctively, to their immediate pre-Communist period. The Baltic states revived their constitutions of the 1930’s, the Armenians and the Azeris revived their political parties of the late 1910’s, and Eastern Europe, with the exception of East Germany, which reunited with the Federal Republic, suddenly became once again Mitteleuropa.
为何会发生如此剧变？起初，大多数脱离共产主义的国家几乎自然而然地回到了其共产主义前期。波罗的海国家重新启用了二十世纪三十年代的宪法，亚美尼亚人和阿塞拜疆人恢复了二十世纪初期的各种政党，东欧（除东德与联邦德国统一外）突然再次成为中部欧洲。