ABSTRACT
Eastern Europe has long been associated with nationalism, more specifically nasty “ethnic” or “racial” types of civil wars and pogroms. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, the discourse on post-communist Eastern Europe was divided between the optimistic “return to Europe” and the pessimistic “return to the past.” Although the divisions were never as clear-cut as in these simplistic narratives, this chapter mainly focuses on the forces associated with the return to the dark past of ethnic nationalism. It will chronicle the most important developments within the East European far right, introduce and critically assess the scholarship on the topic, and lay out avenues for future research.
