What lessons are learned from the forced and failed communist experiments across Eastern Europe during the Cold War, the Iron Curtain collapse during the 1989 revolutions, and regime transformations afterward? We pay particular attention to the causes of either democratic backsliding or democratic consolidation. Specifically, we compare and contrast the political systems in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, and the Balkans. 3 Cr.