Two kinds of political myths are presently surrounding the break-up of communist hegemony in Eastern Europe. According to one point of view, communism never asserted that kind of grip over the hearts and minds of the populations in Eastern Europe which its seemingly total control over society seemed to suggest. Totalitarianism was more of a Utopia than a reality. With totalitarianism gone, these societies were free to pursue their "natural" freedom of choice and authenticity. But this return to native, previously suppressed identities also revealed some ugly features from the past which had lain buried under the "artificial" ideological construction imposed by the communists upon unwilling and hostile populations. With no political and ideological barriers left, the Eastern Europeans returned to their history of ancient quarrels and ethnic hatreds, transforming the hopes of a democratic and prosperous future into the "post-communist nightmare".