For hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance, but with the fall of the Soviet Union, they were forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge; even today, though, whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind legs to dance. Here Witold Szablowski uncovers this and other remarkable stories of nostalgia for the "good old days" of Communism. Creating a fascinating portrait of the seductions of authoritarian rule, Szablowski recounts smuggling a car into Ukraine, hitchhiking through Kosovo as it declares independence, arguing with tour guides at the Stalin Museum, sleeping in London's Victoria Station alongside a homeless woman from Poland, and giving taxi rides to Cubans fearing for the life of Fidel Castro.