The crumbling of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the divided Europe that was inherited from Yalta, and the renaissance of Central Europe, so neglected and forgotten that it is often simply referred to as the East. Originally from Prague, Jacques Rupnik is one of the top specialists in France of this "Other Europe". In this work, he delivers the results of a long investigation of both the terrain and the historical thought leading from the nationalisms of the last century to the Gorbachev factor.