HOW DO EUROPE'S COLD WAR DIVISIONS PERSIST? East was East and West was West - until 1989. The Wall is gone, but are its demarcations still there?

The article shares insights on the persistence of Cold War's economic and political divisions in Europe. Topics discussed include legacy of communist dictatorships and the adoption of authoritarian governance, progressive Western thinking and notions of false consciousness in the haste of states to reject communism, reorientation of Eastern Europe and transfer of power from the Soviet Union to the West within one generation, and Europe's struggle with paradoxical democratic divide.