Can you mark the beginning and the end of the transition period? What marked it? When was the moment “when history stopped”? The initial point of the transition period in Bulgaria is fairly easy to pinpoint as it coincides with the fall of the Communist rule in the country – 10 November 1989. At the same time, the question of the end of transition is a complex one as some Bulgarians would question whether transition
How is the period of transition framed in your country? What allows us to label a generation the “Transition Generation” as such? What are uniting experiences and phenomena? In the German case the most emotional event of course was the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November in 1989. These pictures are deeply written in the historical memory of the whole nation. But on both sides of the wall, the associations and
Who is the Generation of transition? The Third Generation[1] of East Germany The Third Generation of East Germany is described as those who were born between 1975 and 1985 in East Germany. It involves about 2.4 million young people who can be considered as a generation due to their cohort membership and by a similarly stored imprint of the experience of 1989 and the subsequent upheaval. They were socialist within two systems the socials and
The starting point We began our journey amidst the different countries and faces of transition in May 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Twenty-five years after what can be thought of ‘the revolution’, ‘the change’, after ‘becoming free’ or ‘breaking apart’, we discovered that even the simplest terms that describe the period of transition are not easy to define. At the same time, however, the concepts and ideas that are most commonly used to talk about transition
Mapping a Generation in Transition: Bulgaria The starting point We began our journey amidst the different countries and faces of transition in May 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Twenty-five years after what can be thought of ‘the revolution’, ‘the change’, after ‘becoming free’ or ‘breaking apart’, we discovered that even the simplest terms that describe the period of transition are not easy to define. At the same time, however, the concepts and ideas that are most
We are a group of Germans, Poles and Russians, who came to Moscow to discuss the role of the political and social changes in the 1980s and 1990s in people’s lives and in the recent histories of our countries. While in Moscow for one week in April, we tried to find out about the effects of big changes on Russians’ everyday life, and also about their opinions on these times and on the changes that
Same but very different My story of change in the 90s. Perspectives Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria and Germany. When we think of transition in Germany, we think of reunification of East and West, of living in relation to that other half. In all the states of the former Eastern Block, the so called 3rd Generation – those born between 1975 and 1985 – has made transformation experiences in an age of adolescense. Inbetween breakdown and new
