The paper was published in "The Polish Review" and received attention beyond the academic world. Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, the former director of Radio Free Europe, praised the article in a speech in New York City before former U.S. ambassadors to Poland marking the ten year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nowak-Jeziorański argued Vaughan's article moved beyond the popular media narratives and effectively described the more nuanced elements in Eastern Europe that served to undermine the Soviet empire and help bring a peaceful end the Cold War in 1989.