Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-s5tfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-04T05:16:57.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Conclusions: Transiency and Continuity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Elena A. Iankova
Elena A. Iankova
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

When in danger the sea-cucumber divides itself in two:

one self it surrenders for devouring by the world,

with the second it makes good its escape.

It splits violently into perdition and salvation,

into fine and reward, into what was and what will be.

In the middle of its body there opens up a chasm

with two shores that are immediately alien.

On one shore death, on the other life.

Here despair, there hope.

If a scale exists, the balance does not tip.

If there is justice, here it is.

To die as much as necessary, without going too far.

To grow back as much as needed, from the remnant that survives. …

Wislawa Szymborska, Autotomy

In the aftermath of the 1989 breakthrough, two important trends, one harking to the past and one to the future, shaped the emerging new relationship between a politically discredited state and a politically disillusioned, economically choked working society.

First, a confused history of almost half a century cast its long shadow. The year 1989 marked the collapse of the “dictatorship of labor” and the outpouring of decades-old worker aspirations for greater input in enterprise and upper-level governance that erupted in spectacular worker protests against the party-state. The corporatist-like links between a reforming state and the working society that began to develop after 1989 were historically facilitated by these worker aspirations.

Type
Chapter
Information
Eastern European Capitalism in the Making , pp. 172 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×