Reform in Eastern Europe

What has been called Eastern Europe since the end of World War II is a political, not a geographical, phenomenon. Geographically it comprises countries that have always been considered part of Central Europe (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland), as well as countries distinctly East European (Bulgaria, Rumania). What brings them together is neither history and civilization (they belong to traditions as different as West European and Eastern forms of Christianity); nor ethnicity (some are Slavic, ...