"Uncaptive Minds provides incisive and important  updates and analysis on the postcommunist world. In doing so, it very often breaks new ground and anticipates issues of genuine political and ideological significance..."   Zbigniew Brzezinski,  Professor of Foreign Policy, School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Uncaptive Minds is a quarterly journal of information and analysis on Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that was published by the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe from 1988 to 1997 (9 volumes, 34 issues). It is the most comprehensive journal from this period about the transition from communism in Eastern Europe that was written by those in the region bringing about democratic change. It provided a vehicle for a wide range of opposition leaders from throughout the region to voice their views to a Western audience about events in the post-communist region and offered a vehicle for cross-border communication. within the region itself.

Today, Uncaptive Minds remains important for its historical content as a place where one can find the full range of opposition and democratic thought in the region during one of the most important periods of political transformation in world history. As such, it remains remarkably current regarding the ongoing political, economic, cultural, and social issues related to ongoing transitions from communism in the former Soviet bloc as well as similar transitions elsewhere in the world. Much of what today is considered accepted knowledge about the region was first identified, predicted, or analyzed in Uncaptive Minds years earlier. The journal includes issues and sections devoted to democratic political and social movements that brought about the fall of communism; their platforms for bringing about change in the region; the evolution of politics after communism; legislative and political battles in bringing about reforms; the rebuilding of civil society; the battles over independent and state-owned media; economic reforms and their effects; decommunization and lustration; analyses of postcommunism; the rise of extremism and extremist parties; minorities and minority rights in the region; the development of a consciousness of human rights; analysis of the legacy of
communism and the phenomenon of postcommunism; and the development of different forms of nationalism in the region and their consequences.

Uncaptive Minds stopped publication due to insufficient funding. It is available at many libraries of universities dealing with international affairs in the U.S. and Europe. [Note: IDEE's new web site, www.idee-us.org, will post individual digital copies of Uncaptive Minds as they become available.]

An Index of Uncaptive Minds may be accessed below by issue, author, and country.

Back issues of Uncaptive Minds are available  in a full set (nos. 1-34) at a total cost of $300 or individually at a fixed rate of $10 per issue plus $2.50 per issue for postage and handling for U.S. domestic mail or at cost for foreign mail. Individual article republication is available at $2.50 per copy plus $1.50 for postage and handling. Requests may be made by mail to IDEE, 1718 M Street, NW, No. 147, Washington DC 20036, USA or by email to [email protected].