I would call the transition of many former Eastern Bloc countries a peaceful transition from authoritarian to democratic rule. Poland in particular comes to mind, as Poland is very much democratic and successful in the decades since the collapse of the USSR, despite having formerly been under one despotic state or another since the late 20s (when Poland itself fell to a military dictatorship).

While they may have had plenty of troubles in the transition away from communist rule, they didn't fall prey to civil war (such as Iraq) or to yet another dictatorship. However, Poland also has a very long history of democratic traditions, going back to their elective monarchy system in which as many as 10% of the male population was eligible to vote (a staggering number at the time compared to the zero in, say, France).

Sorry, we don't allow throughout history questions. These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again. Alternatively, you may PM /u/caffarelli to have your question considered for an upcoming Tuesday Trivia thread.