Question

How did some Eastern European nations try to solve problems caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

What problems? For Eastern Europe the dissolution of the USSR was pure win. You might as well ask how a freed prisoner solves the "problems" caused by regaining his liberty.

Answer 2

Despite the brutal and obsolete nature of the regimes in those satellite states, citizens did enjoy a decent degree of employment and health care. Although their standard of living was far lower than what was enjoyed in the West, stability wasn't a problem. The state "took care" of everything. It would also come to haunt those nations later.

After the USSR collapsed and all of its support for those regimes fell apart, yes, people did enjoy their new found freedom and were relieved not to have to look over their shoulder all the time for someone informing on them.

On the opposite side of the coin once the euphoria was finished, these satellite nations that had lived under communist regulated systems of policy and economic planning for so many years were woefully unprepared for the free market economy that they suddenly had on their hands.

Suddenly, people had to find health care and the money to pay for it, for instance, since the state no longer provided it because. Governments needed to be organized and the tools created to allow its citizens to cope with the changes. It was like taking someone who was isolated from the world for thirty years and then sending them out to open their first bank account or buy a cappucino when they have never done those things before in their life.

In the decade following the Soviet Union's collapse, most of the Eastern European nations managed to form their own democratic governments and push through reforms along with the legislation needed to bring in foreign investment and allow its citizens to compete in business and "join" the rest of the world. The transition to a free market economy from a planned one was a major step forward, but many nations had a lot of hurdles to get over at the same time.

In Romania, for example, a large number of state-owned businesses were opened to privatization allowing citizens to own shares similar to what Russia had done with many of its Soviet-owned companies. Most everything state-owned was now on the market which helped to kick start a number of private businesses. Still, it didn't prevent a massive migration of citizens to other countries that had better opportunities at the time. With the borders now open, there was really nothing to keep them from looking for a better life elsewhere.

On the other side of the coin, the Ukraine suffered massive inflation during its transition until it created its own currency and things began to stabilize. But it also followed the same route that Romania and others did in opening a number of state-owned companies to privatization.

Much of the transition would take place during the nineties. Some might remember how far in the gutter a lot of the economic conditions were in Eastern Europe and Russia during that time after the USSR's collapse with images of a drunken Boris Yeltsin presiding over the Kremlin. But in recent years, they're doing better than they had in the immediate years following the end of communist-led economic policy, though major problems still remain.