“Corruption has replaced communism as the scourge of Eastern Europe,” you write (“From Bolshevism to Backhanders,” April 16, 2011). I was delighted to read this line, but I was quite disappointed with the rest of the article. First, you do not even mention a single country that used to be part of former Yugoslavia. This is where corruption is rampant, as witnessed by the current abode of the former Croatian prime minister: an Austrian jail. Second, you do not even attempt to explore the corruption-communism nexus. One rather obvious connection is that capitalism is still widely misunderstood in Eastern Europe. Its freedoms are thus occasionally taken to unusual extremes. Less obvious but much more interesting connection is that of “primitive accumulation” in early phases of capitalist development. The transfer of wealth from the public to the private realm cannot possibly be a pretty sight. Concerning both these connections, we can expect corruption to drop to “normal” after a few decades, but it is capitalism rather than communism that is actually behind it.