Public opinion polls of transition populations reveal inter alia a surprisingly high degree of dissatisfaction with the outcome, even in Central Europe where objective measures of income and living standards show large improvements since 1989. This is closely associated to opinions that former communists “stole” state assets and became the new capitalist elite. Like most myths, this contains elements of truth, for indeed many former communists and insiders count among the new rich – especially in the USSR region. But this is far from the case in Central Europe, as has been shown by detailed studies of who the new elite is and what happened to the old nomenklatura. There, former political elites were largely replaced by formal or informal lustration; the only part of the nomenklatura that did relatively well were the Red Directors, especially mid-level managers of the socialist period. The chapter also discusses why many Central Europeans whose incomes have more than doubled are dissatisfied: unreasonable expectations of reaching, say, Austrian incomes were not met. The catch-up was “merely” 60–70 percent thereof. Dissatisfaction is not with incomes but with fact that “others”, the most successful new entrepreneurs, did much better.

The October Revolution in 1917 profoundly shocked the cultural ecosystem. The new authorities recast notions of freedom, of the arts, and of the public. Links between and among audiences at different levels that had thrived in the prerevolutionary cultural market were dismantled. Over time the government imposed strictures on culture requiring alignment with political directives. By 1934, the official policy of Socialist Realism was mandatory and compliance enforced by rewards and terror. The early years of revolutionary ferment yielded aesthetic innovation of the highest order, yet the mounting pressures took their toll on creativity. Writers, artists, and performers responded variously. Some took cover in works employing irony and in the (somewhat) safer terrain of children’s literature. By seeding children’s literature with values counter to those practiced by Soviet officialdom, selected writers and artists spread counter-values to a new generation. They worked with the guile of the fox, the flight of the firebird, and, perhaps, the recklessness of the Fool. By keeping alive Russian stories of wise Fools, sentient animals, and magical powers, their creators carried forward folkloric traditions barred from the reigning Socialist Realism. In doing so, they protected limited public space for artistic innovation.