As the opening contribution to a four-page symposium, this paper provides an overview of the economic transformation in reforming countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, describing reforms, their consequences, and lessons economists might derive from transition. The topics covered are political developments, liberalization, institutional reconstruction, reforms of systems for social protection, and the early results of transition. The final section considers future possibilities in the light of the last few years' events, concluding that the process of democratic capitalism is well established in central Europe, but uncertainty still prevails in most of the former Soviet Union.