Gorbachev and Eastern Europe

The history of postwar Eastern Europe begins with “Yalta.” Why quotation marks? “Yalta” signifies more than the historical meeting of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill in the Crimea, in February 1945. “Yalta” signifies a major trend in the wartime diplomatic efforts of the “Big Three,” manifest in their correspondence as well as the records of their meetings. Paradoxically, “Yalta,” or what it could be said to stand for, had, enthusia...