Slovakia was the one place in what had been Eastern Europe where there wasn't massive austerity- as a consequence, there was far less dislocation there than in Poland, Hungary, and what had been the DDR. In all of those cases, the economy was subjected to "shock therapy", a brutal austerity policy devised by American economist Jeffrey Sachs. The assets of each country, along with effective control of each country's economy. were sold to foreign capitalists at fire-sale prices. The people of those countries, who were fighting, simply and legitimately, for an end to repression, were subjected to a capitalist restoration many if not most of them had not asked for. This helped convince a large chunk of the population of each of these societies that democracy and "freedom" were nothing more than synonyms for poverty and humiliation.