The secret of Poland long-standing success

When and how works the law of Red shifting, which
bringing a real transformation?

When a chance came, Poland as the Check Republic, Estonia, and other east European states quickly ditched communist ideology and heritage of USSR, going on fast into democratic future as irretrievable part of Europe and since then its history is a  story of one unprecedented success and reviving, which lasts more than 30 years.
In contrary to Poland our region exactly within that very hopeful and optimistic time frame after ending of Cold War sagged under heavy propaganda of Kremlin and due to own lack of confidence into post-communist bogus -  in fact, all these years trying to create better democratic future but under the strong poignant lament and nostalgia about the finest Soviet epoch.
This contradiction explained a major part of our bitter failures.
Really, it impossible create better future if you have day by night cried and wept about totalitarian nasty past.
But today we have another best example for imitation and learning and it much more close to us, than Poland - that is Ukraine, which started move much later toward European values but now overfilled with a strong desire and will to end with the post-colonial past and join the European Union as a free and democratic nation.