Return to Europe and the Question of Progress: The End of the Communist Revolutionary Project and European Modernity

While narratives of the rise of European modernity and the progressive unfolding of history tended to emphasize the positive catalysing role of revolutions, the most recent epochal changes in Europe took place against communist regimes that not only claimed to represent the ultimate outcome of progressive historical developments but also managed to institute revolutionary politics in the shape of repressive regimes. Could their fall of 1989 nevertheless be conceptualized as a revolutionary development or did these changes rather resemble restorations? How did these events relate to the European project of modernity? Could the history of East Central European countries still be told in a progressivist key after the fall of communism? How did post-communism relate to communism or, more generally, how could subsequent historical epochs be ordered in a sequence? What did the experience of revolutionary dictatorship and terror mean for the teleology of modern history? Could the latter be salvaged at all?

In short, the events of 1989 and their consequences created a novel problem for narratives of European modernity that understood revolutions as engines of progress. My presentation aims to tackle this conundrum and analyse three interrelated questions in particular. First, I wish to introduce the debate on the character of 1989. Second, I want to survey theories of the communist regimes and study the various ways their place in the story of European modernity has been conceived. Third, I wish to reflect on the wider contribution of the end of communism and the subsequent European integration of East Central European countries to the recent rethinking of modernity and the progressivist heritage.