Add to ORKGIndividualism, collectivism and communitarianism can only be understood in their historical and cultural contexts. The author discusses a post-communist perspective on the relationship between the individual and the community. Stressing the complementary nature of the two terms, the author reviews the pre-communist history of the idea of community in the countries of Central Europe. She also discusses individualism as an expression of humanism in the writings of Herder, Hegel, Bolzano, Masaryk and Havel. She contrasts the destruction of community by modernity and by collective totalitarianism. The latter is achieved by the obliteration of memory, a fear of one's neighbours and the passivity of silent majorities