Eastern Europe

Digital rendering of Europe, focused over the continent's eastern portion

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, whilst its western boundary is defined in various ways.[1] Most definitions include the countries of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania while less restrictive definitions may also include some or all of the Visegrád group, the Baltic states, the Balkans and the Caucasus.[2][3] A majority of nations situated in Eastern Europe are former socialist republics of the Soviet Union.

The region represents a significant part of European culture; the main socio-cultural characteristics of Eastern Europe have historically been defined by the traditions of the Slavs and Greeks, as well as by the influence of Eastern Christianity as it developed through the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.[4][5] 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.[5][6][7][8][9][4][10][11]

The term is sometimes considered to be pejorative, through stereotypes about Eastern Europe being inferior (poorer, less developed) to Western Europe; the term Central and Eastern Europe is sometimes used instead for a more neutral grouping.[12][13][14][15][16]

  1. ^ "Regions of Europe: Eastern Europe". 10 May 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  2. ^ Berglee, Royal (2016). "Traditional Regions of Europe". University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  3. ^ "Geographic Regions". U.N. Statistics Division. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  4. ^ a b "United Nations Statistics Division- Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49)-Geographic Regions".
  5. ^ a b Ramet, Sabrina P. (1998). Eastern Europe: politics, culture, and society since 1939. Indiana University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0253212566. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  6. ^ "The Balkans" Archived 10 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Global Perspectives: A Remote Sensing and World Issues Site. Wheeling Jesuit University/Center for Educational Technologies, 1999–2002.
  7. ^ ""Eastern Europe" Wrongly labelled". The Economist. 7 January 2010.
  8. ^ "A New Journal for Central Europe". www.ce-review.org. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
  9. ^ Frank H. Aarebrot (14 May 2014). The handbook of political change in Eastern Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-78195-429-4.
  10. ^ [1] Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Eurovoc.europa.eu. Retrieved on 4 March 2015.
  11. ^ "Population Division, DESA, United Nations: World Population Ageing 1950-2050" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
  12. ^ Mälksoo, Maria (2019-05-04). "The normative threat of subtle subversion: the return of 'Eastern Europe' as an ontological insecurity trope". Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 32 (3): 365–383. doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1590314. ISSN 0955-7571. S2CID 159184190.
  13. ^ Twardzisz, Piotr (2018-04-25). Defining 'Eastern Europe': A Semantic Inquiry into Political Terminology. Springer. p. 18. ISBN 978-3-319-77374-2.
  14. ^ Hall, Derek (July 1999). "Destination branding, niche marketing and national image projection in Central and Eastern Europe". Journal of Vacation Marketing. 5 (3): 227–237. doi:10.1177/135676679900500303. ISSN 1356-7667. S2CID 154698941.
  15. ^ Zarycki, Tomasz (2014). Ideologies of Eastness in Central and Eastern Europe. doi:10.4324/9781315819006. ISBN 9781317818571. S2CID 129401740.
  16. ^ "Eastern promise and Western pretension – DW – 09/07/2018". dw.com. Retrieved 2022-11-16.