Many Russians say the collapse of the Soviet Union has been a bad thing for their country. Nostalgia for the Soviet past also extends to views of Josef Stalin.
Religion has reasserted itself as an important part of individual and national identity in many places where communist regimes once repressed religious worship and promoted atheism.
The impact of the “Fall of the Wall” on American opinions about the Cold War were as profound as the event was dramatic.
Two decades after the Soviet Union's collapse, Russians, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians are unhappy with the direction of their countries and disillusioned with the state of their politics. Enthusiasm for democracy and capitalism has waned considerably and most believe the changes that have taken place have had a negative impact on many aspects of public life.
A Pew Global Attitudes survey finds that members of the post-communist generation, who are now between the ages of 18 and 39, offer much more positive evaluations of the political and economic changes their countries have undergone over the past two decades than do those who were adults when the Iron Curtain fell.
Explore an interactive map to see how Europeans answered key survey questions about the collapse of communism and the effect it has had on their country.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, publics of former Iron Curtain countries generally look back approvingly at the collapse of communism. However, enthusiasm about these changes has dimmed in most of the countries surveyed, and many say that most people were better off under communism.
