AA in the Eastern Bloc

A few years ago, a single Loner was sober in Czechoslovakia; today, a traditional group is active and there are two meetings in treatment centers. Five groups have sprung up in Hungary, three in the city of Budapest and two others at different ends of the country. Grupa Una in Romania (see page 20) holds the seed of future development. In January there was news of the formation of the first AA group in Bulgaria, groups are emerging in East Germany, and the U.S./Canada General Service Office has received inquiries from Yugoslavia. AA has virtually exploded in Poland over the past twelve years, with 390 groups now in existence organized into a five-year-old service structure. And in the U.S.S.R., with a current total of 25 groups, AA has spread from the Ural Mountains to the Baltic states, with the heaviest AA population in Moscow, followed by Leningrad. The first Russian AA group will celebrate its third anniversary in August 1990.