The Communist episode, central to the historical experience of the twentieth century but brought to an abrupt end by unforeseen developments, is now widely dismissed as a failed revolt against modernity. For the victors of the Cold War and for the emerging post-Communist elites, the most convenient way to close the book on Communism is to insist on its pre-, anti-, or pseudo-modern character. The issues this ideological stance excludes from consideration become more visible if we allow for the possibility that the defunct model might–for all its disastrous flaws and irrationalities–have been a distinctive but ultimately self-destructive version of modernity, rather than a sustained deviation from the modernizing mainstream. If Communism can be located within the spectrum of multiple modernities, the crisis and collapse of the Soviet empire may have some bearing on the question of more general crisis tendencies inherent in modernity. At a more practical level, the problems of post-Communist transition take on a new complexion when they are seen as the legacy of a disintegrating mode of modernization: the promise of “shock therapy” could only be taken seriously by those who mistook Communism for a total rejection of modernity, followed by a total collapse. In short, the refusal to grasp the Communist experience as an offshoot of a global modernizing process may be an obstacle to further exploration of the new horizons opened up by its unexpected finale.
