Eastern Europe: a conjunction of exceptional demographic circumstances This article raises one issue from the demographic evolution in Central Europe and the states of the former USSR since the political and socio-economic changes. It then endeavours to answer two questions: Do these shocks constitute the continuation of tendencies prior to the changes? Do they demonstrate the irresistible diffusion of the Western European model? In other words, is it a question of whether the combined movement is largely independent of the social conjunction? The observations presented suggest that the demographic shocks in Eastern Europe illustrate the demographic impact of the transition toward a market economy. Simultaneously, they reveal the old stru...