Eastern Europe

Pre-1989 division between the "West" (grey) and "Eastern Bloc" (orange) superimposed on current borders: Russia (dark orange), other countries formerly part of the USSR (medium orange),members of the Warsaw pact (light orange), and other former Communist regimes not aligned with Moscow (lightest orange).

Eastern Europe is a socio-political concept mainly influenced by the Cold War, which largely defined its borders. Its boundaries were effectively forged in the final stages of World War II and came to encompass all European countries which came under Soviet influence and control. As such these countries had communist regimes imposed upon them and neutral countries were classified by the nature of their political regimes.

However this definition is outdated - East Germany was absorbed by West Germany through the German reunification, becoming a part of Western Europe by default.

In common perception and usage, Eastern Europe was, and still is in a lesser extent, distinguished from Western Europe by differences of culture, politics, and economics and its borders have little to do with clear and precise geography. The Ural Mountains are a clear geograpically border of Eastern Europe, and therefore of Europe, on the East. On the West however cultural and religious boundaries between Western Europe and Eastern Europe are subject to considerable overlap and – most importantly – historical fluctuation, which makes a precise understanding somewhat difficult.

It includes:

• the European territories of Russia, a transcontinental country.

• the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

• the Balkans: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria.

• Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova.

UN geographical definition

File:Location-Europe-UNsubregions.png

Statistical regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked red):

  Northern Europe

  Western Europe

  Eastern Europe

  Southern Europe

Alternatively for the United Nations, Eastern Europe is also a less-known geographic subregion of Europe that is far more restrictive than traditional political and cultural reckonings; it comprises the following countries:

• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• Poland
• Moldova
• Romania
• Russia, a transcontinental country
• Slovakia
• Ukraine

Classical antiquity and medieval origins

The earliest known distinctions between east and west in Europe originate in the history of the Roman Republic. As Roman domain expanded a cultural and linguistical division appeared between the mainly Greek-speaking eastern provinces which had formed the highly urbanized Hellenistic civilization. On contrast the western territories largely adopted the Latin language. This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire.

The division between these two spheres was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events. The Western Roman Empire collapsed starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as Byzantine Empire, managed to survive and even to thrive for another 1000 years. The rise of the Frankish Empire in the west, and in particular the Great Schism that formally divided Eastern and Western Christianity, enhanced the cultural and religious distinctiveness between Eastern and Western Europe.

The conquest of the Byzantine Empire, center of the Eastern Orthodox Church, by the Muslim Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, and the gradual fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire (which had replaced the Frankish empire) led to a change of the importance of Roman Catholic/Protestant vs. Eastern Orthodox concept in Europe.

The borders of Eastern Europe were largely defined by the Cold War. The Iron Curtain separated the members of the Warsaw Pact (in red) from the European members of NATO (in blue). Neutral coutries were classified by the nature of their political system.

The Cold War divides Europe into the Eastern/Western blocs

During the final stages of WWII the future of Europe was decided between the Allies in the 1945 Yalta Conference, between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin.

Post-war Europe would be divided into two major spheres: the "West" mainly influenced by the USA, and the Eastern Bloc dominated by the Soviet Union. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain.

This term had been used during World War II by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and later Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk in the last days of the war; however, its use was hugely popularised by Winston Churchill, who used it in his famous "Sinews of Peace" address March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri:

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

As the Cold War continued the use of the term Central Europe declined. Although some countries were officially neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political and economical systems. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Eastern Europe and its borders with Western Europe till this day.

A divided Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe was mainly composed of all the European countries liberated and then occupied by the Soviet army. It included the German Democratic Republic, widely known as East Germany, formed by the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. All the countries in Eastern Europe had communist regimes imposed upon them. Most of these countries were officially independent from the Soviet Union, but the practical extent of this independence was quite limited. In some matters many of them were little more than client-states of the Soviet Union.

Under pressure from Stalin these nations rejected to receive funds from the Marshal plan. Instead they participated in the Molotov Plan which later evolved into the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (short: Comecon). As NATO was created, the countries of Eastern Europe became members of the opposing Warsaw Pact.

• First and foremost was the Soviet Union (which by itself included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, etc). Other countries dominated by the Soviet Union were the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia (which later separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania.

• The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (formed after WWII and before its later dismemberment) was not a member of the Warsaw Pact. It was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, an organization created in an attempt to avoid being assigned to any of the two blocs. It was demonstratively independent from the Soviet Union for most of the Cold War period, but because of its communist regime it was widely regarded part of the Eastern/communist bloc.

• Albania broke with the Soviet Union in the early 1960s as a result of the Sino-Soviet split, aligning itself instead with China. Despite this, it had a communist regime and thus was considered part of the Eastern/communist bloc.

Since 1989

With the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 the political landscape of Eastern Europe, and indeed of the world, changed. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the Democratic Republic of Germany, leading to the German reunification. COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

Many European nations which had been part of the Soviet Union regained their full independence, namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.

Czechoslovakia peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (see: Dissolution of Czechoslovakia).

Yugoslavia fell apart, creating new nations: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Macedonia. (see Breakup of Yugoslavia)

The term Central Europe has slowly reappeared.

Many people in Eastern Europe feel the label stereotyping and many in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and former states of Yugoslavia (i. e. Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia) consider their countries to be part of Central Europe. Despite this, many sources, especially in English-speaking countries, as well as the United Nations, continue to classify all these countries as part of Eastern Europe.

The goverment of Estonia has been following a policy of re-affirming its Finnic - Nordic identidy.

See also

• Northern Europe
• Southeastern Europe
• Enlargement of the European Union