Central Europe on the Way to Democracy
We are no longer in a reformist situation, we are in a revolutionary situation, like in most decolonization processes. Now I think there is no longer the alternative of gradualness. I think that all that 1989 has shown us also for Eastern Europe is that the best-conceived plans for steps and gradual transitions are being overcome by the dynamics of events. I think this is the case also for the nationalities problem in the Soviet Union. I think that by now, the only way in which it's going to be solved, it is in a way from below. From the various republics taking their own fate in their own hands and negotiating with each other. The most hopeful event I think has been this impression since Yeltsin's election that perhaps Russian nationalism, rather than being above all imperial, can also accept the limitation. To deal with the other republics, both economically and otherwise on an equal basis, making the center power almost in a way irrelevant.
