Common European Home Vision Revisited: ‘Return to Europe’ as an Anticommunist and Transformational Device

The social representation of Europe as a common project driving unification of East and West proved the most powerful tool used in the post-Helsinki Europe to bridge the divisions of the Cold War and subvert the Communist takeover of Eastern Europe. It was endowed with historical legitimacy despite historical evidence in its favor being rather ambiguous, and was used by both Western and Eastern Europe to advance their policies in a combination of self-interest and identity discourse. It was not identical in the West and the East, however, and this article explores these differences.