30 years of independence is a relatively short period for post-Soviet states that were part of the Russian empire for 150 years and then subjugated by the USSR for the next 45-70 years. In the last 30 years, they have faced a task to not only create democratic institutions but unify and modernize the nations that could operate them, replacing the artificial “Soviet identity” with a national one.
Soviet history
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Bohdan Ben: The end of the Soviet Man
A policeman guards the Lenin monument on August, 26, 1991, in Kyiv, after the former Soviet republic had declared its independence from URSS.
