Eastern Europe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geographic features of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus
on the precise area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of
geopolitical, geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. There are
almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region.
[1] A related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial identities
is essentially a social and cultural construct.[2]

One definition describes Eastern Europe as a cultural entity the region lying in
Europe with the main characteristics consisting of Greek, Byzantine, Eastern
Orthodox, Russian , and some Ottoman culture influences.[3][4] Another definition
was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term
Eastern Bloc. A similar definition names the formerly communist European states
outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe.[4] Some historians and social
scientists view such definitions as outdated or relegated,[1][5][6][7][8] but they
are still sometimes used for statistical purposes.[3][9][10]

Contents [hide]
1 Definitions
1.1 Geographical
1.2 Religious
1.3 European Union
1.4 Cold War
1.5 Contemporary developments
1.5.1 Baltic states
1.5.2 Caucasus
1.5.3 Other former Soviet states
1.5.4 Central Europe
1.5.5 Southeastern Europe
2 History
2.1 Classical antiquity and medieval origins
2.2 Interwar years
2.3 World War II and the onset of the Cold War
2.3.1 Eastern Bloc during the Cold War to 1989
2.4 Since 1989
3 See also
4 Notes
5 Further reading
6 External links
Definitions[edit]

The European regional grouping according to The World Factbook

Eastern Europe
Picture shows also Northern Europe, Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern
Europe, Southeastern Europe, Southwestern Europe, and other regions
Several other definitions of Eastern Europe exist today, but they often lack
precision, are too general or outdated. These definitions vary both across cultures
and among experts, even political scientists,[11] as the term has a wide range of
geopolitical, geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations.

There are almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the
region.[1] A related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial
identities is essentially a social and cultural construct.[2]

Geographical[edit]
While the eastern geographical boundaries of Europe are well defined, the boundary
between Eastern and Western Europe is not geographical but historical, religious
and cultural.

The Ural Mountains, Ural River, and the Caucasus Mountains are the geographical
land border of the eastern edge of Europe.

In the west, however, the historical and cultural boundaries of Eastern Europe are
subject to some overlap and, most importantly, have undergone historical
fluctuations, which make a precise definition of the western geographic boundaries
of Eastern Europe and the geographical midpoint of Europe somewhat difficult.

Religious[edit]
The EastWest Schism which began in the 11th century and lasts until this very day
divided Christianity in Europe, and consequently the world, into Western
Christianity and Eastern Christianity.

Western Europe according to this point of view is formed by countries with dominant
Roman Catholic and Protestant churches (including Central European countries like
Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia).

Eastern Europe is formed by countries with dominant Eastern Orthodox churches, like
Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania,
Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine for instance.

The schism is the break of communion and theology between what are now the Eastern
(Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic from the 11th century, as well as from the
16th century also Protestant) churches. This division dominated Europe for
centuries, in opposition to the rather short lived Cold War division of 4 decades.

Division between the Eastern and Western Churches[12][13]

Religious division in 1054[14]

Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Roman Catholic and
Protestant churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian (many times
incorrectly labeled Greek Orthodox) churches in the east. Due to this religious
cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A
cleavage of this sort is, however, often problematic; for example, Greece is
overwhelmingly Orthodox, but is very rarely included in Eastern Europe, for a
variety of reasons, the most prominement being that Greece's history for the most
part was more so influenced by Mediterranean cultures and contact.[15]

European Union[edit]
The official European Union website Europa classifies several European countries as
Central European Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.[16]
[17][18][19][20]

Eurovoc, a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the

European Union, provides a somewhat different view with entries for 23 EU
languages[21] (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian,
Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese,
Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish), plus the
languages of candidate countries (Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian). Of these,
those in italics are classified as Eastern Europe in this source, similar to the
Cold War division of Europe.[22]

Cold War[edit]
Regions used for statistical processing purposes by the United Nations Statistics
Division.[5][6][1][7][8][3][10]
Another definition was used during the 40 years of Cold War between 1947 and 1989,
and was more or less synonymous with the term Eastern Bloc. A similar definition
names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern
Europe.[4]

The fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the EastWest division in Europe,
[23] but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by
the media or sometimes for statistical purposes.[24]

Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or

relegated.[5][6][1][7][8][9][3][10]

Contemporary developments[edit]
Baltic states[edit]

Current EU members
EU members in process of withdrawing United Kingdom
Official EU candidates Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey, and Serbia
States that froze or withdrew their EU applications Iceland, Norway, and
Switzerland
States officially recognized as eligible to apply for EU membership Georgia,
Moldova, and Ukraine.[25]

Since 1989, Eastern Bloc states gradually joined NATO, a Western military alliance.
Current members
Candidate countries
Promised membership
Membership not a goal
Undeclared intent
Main article Baltic states
EuroVoc, National Geographic Society, Committee for International Cooperation in
National Research in Demography, STW Thesaurus for Economics and majority of modern
sources place the Baltic states in Northern Europe whereas the CIA World Factbook
and UNESCO place the region in Eastern Europe with a strong assimilation to
Northern Europe. The Baltic states have seats in the Nordic Council as observer
states. They also are members of the Nordic-Baltic Eight whereas Eastern European
countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrd Group.[26] The Northern
Future Forum, the Nordic Investment Bank and Nordic Battlegroup are other examples
of Northern European cooperation that includes the three Baltic states that make up
the Baltic Assembly.

Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Caucasus[edit]
Main article Caucasus
The Caucasus nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are included in
definitions or histories of Eastern Europe. They are located in the transition zone
of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. They participate in the European Union's
Eastern Partnership program, the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, and are members
of the Council of Europe, which specifies that all three have political and
cultural connections to Europe. In January 2002, the European Parliament noted that
Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future.[27] However, Georgia is
currently the only Caucasus nation actively seeking NATO and EU membership.

Georgia
Armenia
 Azerbaijan
There are three de facto independent Republics with limited recognition in the
Caucasus region. All three states participate in the Community for Democracy and
Rights of Nations

Abkhazia
Republic of Artsakh
South Ossetia
Other former Soviet states[edit]
Main article Post-Soviet States
Several other former Soviet republics may be considered part of Eastern Europe

Russia is a transcontinental country where the Western part is in Eastern Europe

and the rest is in Asia.
Kazakhstan is a transcontinental country, predominantly in Asia, with a relatively
small section in Europe.
Ukraine
Belarus
Moldova
Disputed states