“Central Europe” here refers to the Visegrád countries of Poland, Hungary, and former Czechoslovakia, on which this study concentrates. “Central and Eastern Europe” includes the Visegrád countries of Central Europe and two largely European countries of the former Soviet Union—Russia and Ukraine.
I use the terms “communism” and “socialism” (as well as “communist” and “socialist”) interchangeably to denote the system that prevailed in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union. I find both these terms somewhat inadequate: while “communism” in its pure form was never achieved, “socialism” would also seem to apply to some vastly different northern European nations.
“Second World” here refers both to the nations of the former Eastern Bloc and the former Soviet Union.