Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-227) and index.

Prelude: Freundschaft -- Postsocialist freedoms -- Fires -- Cucumbers -- Pieces (fiction) -- Belgrade, 2015 (fiction) -- Reuniting the divided -- #mauerfall25 -- The enemy of my enemy -- A tale of two typewriters -- Blackwashing history -- Gross domestic orgasms -- My mother and a clock -- Venerating Nazis to vilify commies -- "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" -- Three Bulgarian jokes -- Post-Zvyarism: a fable about animals on a farm (fiction) -- Interview with a former member of the Democratic Party of the United States (fiction) -- Democracy for the penguins.