Eastern Europe


Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and its western boundary is defined in various ways. Narrow definitions, in which Central and Southeast Europe are counted as separate regions, include Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. In contrast, broader definitions include Moldova and Romania, but also some or all of the Balkans, except East Thrace and Greece, generally speaking, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, and the Visegrád group. In Eastern Europe, Russia is the largest and most populous country.
The region represents a significant part of European culture; the main socio-cultural characteristics of Eastern Europe have historically largely been defined by the traditions of the Slavs, as well as by the influence of Eastern Christianity as it developed through the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Another definition was created by the Cold War, as Europe was ideologically divided by the Iron Curtain, with "Eastern Europe" being synonymous with communist states constituting the Eastern Bloc under the influence of the Soviet Union.
The term is sometimes considered to be pejorative, through stereotypes about Eastern Europe being inferior to Western Europe; the term Central and Eastern Europe is sometimes used for a more neutral grouping.

Definitions

Several definitions of Eastern Europe exist in the early 21st century, but they often lack precision and may be anachronistic. These definitions are debated across cultures and among experts, even political scientists, as the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. It has also been described as a "fuzzy" term, as the idea itself of Eastern Europe is in constant redefinition. The solidification of the idea of an "Eastern Europe" dates back chiefly to the Enlightenment.
There are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related United Nations paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct".

Geographical

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, and is harder to designate.
The Ural Mountains, Ural River, and the Caucasus Mountains are the geographical land border of the eastern edge of Europe. E.g. Kazakhstan, which is mainly located in Central Asia with the most western parts of it located west of the Ural River, also shares a part of Eastern 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 makes a precise definition of the western geographic boundaries of Eastern Europe and the geographical midpoint of Europe somewhat difficult.

Religious and cultural influence

After the East–West Schism of 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic Western and Central Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet.
The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere was formed by Alcuin of York during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time. "European" as a cultural term did not include many of the territories under the influence of Eastern Christianity until the early nineteenth century.
A large section of Eastern Europe is formed by countries with dominant Orthodox churches, like Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine, for instance, as well as Armenia, which is predominantly Armenian Apostolic. Moreover, followers of Eastern Orthodoxy form considerable portions of the populations of predominantly Muslim Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, and Kosovo, both historically and presently. The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. To a lesser degree, forms of Eastern Protestantism and Eastern Catholicism have also been influential in Eastern Europe. Countries where Eastern Protestantism or Eastern Catholicism hold historical significance include Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
The schism refers to the historical break of communion and theology between the Eastern and Western churches. Later developments meant that the divide was no longer solely between Catholic and Orthodox churches. From the 16th century, both Western and Eastern forms of Protestantism began to emerge in Europe. Additionally, Eastern Catholic Churches began to spread in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, following the establishment of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1596. However, the concept of Eastern Catholicism itself predates this.
Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Catholic churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches in the east. The religious cleavage causes Eastern Orthodox countries to be 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 prominent being that Greece's history, for the most part, was more influenced by Mediterranean cultures and dynamics.

Cold War (1947–1991)

The fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the Cold War east–west division in Europe, but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by the media. Another definition was used during the 40 years of Cold War between 1947 and 1989, and was more or less synonymous with the terms Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact. A similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe.
Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or relegated.

EuroVoc

, a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union, classifies Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, plus the candidate countries Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia as Central and Eastern European.

Contemporary developments

In broadest definition, the countries are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and, in rare cases, Greece, which is more commonly classified differently, albeit less commonly placed in Eastern Europe, all of which can be classified into any of the 6 categories below.

Baltic states

, EuroVoc, National Geographic Society, Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography, and the STW Thesaurus for Economics place the Baltic states in Northern Europe, whereas the CIA World Factbook places the region in Eastern Europe with a strong assimilation to Northern Europe. Lithuania may alternatively be included in definitions of Central Europe because of its historical ties to Poland and the Catholic Church. Occasionally, Estonia and Latvia are also included. However, these countries are members of the Nordic-Baltic Eight regional cooperation forum whereas Central European countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrád Group. The Northern Future Forum, the Nordic Investment Bank, the Nordic Battlegroup, the Nordic-Baltic Eight and the New Hanseatic League are other examples of Northern European cooperation that includes the three countries collectively referred to as the Baltic states.
  • Estonia
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania

    Caucasus states

The South 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, Azerbaijan, and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. Georgia and Armenia are seeking EU membership, with Georgia also seeking NATO membership alongside.
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Georgia
There are two de facto republics with limited recognition in the South Caucasus region that exist under the presence of Russian military. Both states participate in the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations:
Former republics with limited recognition:
Some European republics of the former Soviet Union are considered a part of Eastern Europe:
  • Belarus
  • Moldova
  • Russia
  • Ukraine
Unrecognized states:
The term "Central Europe" is often used by historians to designate states formerly belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg Empire, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In some media, "Central Europe" can thus partially overlap with "Eastern Europe" of the Cold War Era. The following countries are labelled Central European by some commentators, though others still consider them to be Eastern European.
  • Czech Republic
  • Croatia
  • Hungary
  • Lithuania
  • Poland
  • Romania
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia