In studies of a common European past, there is a significant lack of
scholarship on the former Eastern Bloc countries. While understanding
the importance of shifting the focus of European memory eastward,
contributors to this volume avoid the trap of Eastern European
exceptionalism, an assumption that this region's experiences are too
unique to render them comparable to the rest of Europe. They offer a
reflection on memory from an Eastern European historical perspective,
one that can be measured against, or applied to, historical experience
in other parts of Europe. In this way, the authors situate studies on
memory in Eastern Europe within the broader debate on European memory.