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Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern half of the European continent which had been aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It is made up primarily of Slavic Countries, Hungary, and the Baltic States. The post-Soviet transition for democracy has been successful in some Eastern European States, but more difficult in those closer to Russia.
542 Questions
How is weastern Europe different than eastern Europe?
Western and eastern Europe differ in a lot of ways, from climate to religion and politics.
Western Europe is warmer. It has predominantly Latin and Germanic languages, with Christian religions: Roman Catholic in the south and protestant in the north. It also has democratic political stability and it's where most of Europe's richest countries are.
Eastern Europe is colder, with predominantly Slavic languages, although Romania has a Latin-language and Greek has it's own origin. The predominant religion is Christian, with some Roman Catholic regions in the center, protestant in the north, and Orthodox in the east. Islam is also substantially represented in the south and east. The region is less politically stable than Western Europe, with conflicts in Kosovo, dictatorship in Belarus and border controversies between Georgia and Russia, among other issues.
Why did Stalin want to control Eastern Europe?
After WW2 he wanted to install pro-communist, pro-USSR governments. His theory was that because Russia / USSR had been invaded twice in 25 years from europe and Stalin feared another war starting in that way again, so he did everything he colt to keep those pro governments in place.
When did Stalin expand his control in Eastern Europe?
It happened fairly quickly between 1944 and 1948.
What changed did not happen in most Eastern European countries with the end of the cold war?
Citizens showed a renewed interest in communism.
How did people of the Soviet Union to the independence of many eastern European countries?
They staged a revolution against Gorbachev's regime.
The most populous country in eastern europe?
With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the entity known as the Republic of Kosovo has the highest density in eastern Europe, at about 220 persons per square kilometer. However, its independent status is still disputed by Serbia.
The following two, nearly the same, are Moldova and the Czech Republic, each with about 130 persons per square kilometer.
Other than Russia What is the largest eastern European country?
Russia is the largest country in the world, but only part of it is in Europe, the rest being in Asia. The largest country wholly in Europe, which is also in the eastern part of the continent, is Ukraine.
As a result of world war 2 the nations eastern Europe did what?
The Eastern Nations were kept by Stalin and the USSR. They became the Eastern Bloc. They tried to get free of communism but it did not work. Yugoslavia was able to get free of USSR control. In the 1990s they were finally freed of USSR control and able to become self ruling nations with viable economies. Prior to the final end of the war many people did get out of those eastern nations and make it to the Allied Forces to get relocated to different nations.
The Iron Curtain
Why did authoritarian regimes replace democracies in many eastern European countries?
There seems to have been a deep-seated yearning for a 'strong man', a loathing of democratic politicians (parliamentarians) and an utter horror of Bolshevism.
What language family is spoken in Eastern Europe?
Indo-European Languages Balto-Slavic Family Vijay John and Jonathan Slocum The Balto-Slavic languages are spoken mainly in Eastern Europe; they were not attested until late in the first millennium AD.
There are two major groups: Baltic, and Slavic. These two are generally agreed to be closely related to one another and, as a whole, they have always been spoken in the same geographic area, ranging from what is now eastern Germany to modern-day Russia. However, Baltic languages have exchanged "popularity" with Slavic languages: Baltic languages were originally spoken over a much wider area than is now the case, and Slavic languages were originally spoken in a much smaller area. Nowadays, the territory occupied by speakers of Slavic languages has expanded considerably, whereas the territory dominated by speakers of Baltic languages has shrunk to a very small region encompassed by the countries of Latvia and Lithuania.
Currently there are only two surviving Baltic languages, Latvian and Lithuanian, both from the East Baltic sub-group; the entire West Baltic sub-group, most notably Prussian, is extinct. But there are many surviving Slavic languages, and these are divided into three sub-groups: West Slavic, East Slavic, and South Slavic. The earliest attested Slavic language, dated to the 9th century AD, is Old Church Slavonic, an extinct Slavic language that has influenced modern Slavic languages to varying degrees as discussed later.
Baltic The earliest known writings in Baltic languages were quite recent compared to the earliest writings in other Indo-European languages. However, it is known that the Baltic languages were spoken as early as the late Bronze Age from Poland to the Ural Mountains in western Russia. They seem to have been very influential in Eastern Europe, and they were involved in trade with other peoples. For example they interacted with Finnic peoples to the north, who borrowed many words from Baltic languages; these words included agricultural or farming-related terms, kinship terms, and technologies. Although the Baltic languages are now spoken primarily in Latvia and Lithuania, many rivers in Eastern Europe have Baltic names to this day.
The territory occupied by Baltic languages became smaller due to Gothic and Slavic migrations and, later, to invasions by the Teutonic Knights (German crusaders). The Lithuanians controlled a large empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, from 1362 to 1569. The earliest written materials in the Baltic languages appeared only after this empire collapsed, but Baltic languages (especially Lithuanian) preserve a number of early Indo-European characteristics that have been lost in other Indo-European languages. Therefore, although the Baltic languages were attested very late, their conservative nature makes them useful in Indo-European historical linguistics.
West Slavic The West Slavic languages are divided into three groups: Sorbian, Lechitic, and Czech-Slovak. The Sorbian languages are minority languages spoken in eastern Germany. The Lechitic languages are spoken in and around Poland and include Kashubian (a Pomeranian language, i.e. spoken on the border between Germany and Poland), Silesian (on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic), and Polish, which is the third most widely-spoken Slavic language today (and the most widely-spoken West Slavic language); other Lechitic languages were formerly spoken in Germany but are now extinct.
The main Czech-Slovak languages are Czech and Slovak, which did not become distinct languages until the 15th century. West Slavic languages are those that have been least influenced by Old Church Slavonic; this is because Old Church Slavonic spread from the region of the Southern Slavs, and Hungary separated speakers of Western Slavic languages from that region. In addition, Old Church Slavonic was the liturgical (religious) language of the East Orthodox Church. Since speakers of West Slavic languages were converted to Roman Catholicism rather than to East Orthodox Christianity, Latin was generally used as their liturgical language instead of Old Church Slavonic. The earliest full-length texts in West Slavic languages generally seem to date to the 14th century.
East Slavic The East Slavic languages include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn (a lesser-known language spoken in many parts of Eastern Europe). Russian is the most widely-spoken Slavic language, and Ukrainian is the second most widely-spoken. However, just as some West Slavic languages are now extinct, not all East Slavic languages have survived. Two examples of extinct East Slavic languages are Russian Church Slavonic and Old East Slavic. Russian Church Slavonic is a modified East Slavic version of Old Church Slavonic that was originally used as a liturgical language, and Old East Slavic is the ancestor of all modern East Slavic languages.
Overall, the East Slavic languages are more closely related than those of any other Slavic group. East Slavic languages were so strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic that they did not become distinct until the 13th century at the earliest, as literature in East Slavic per se is dated to ca. 1200 in Kiev, which was the capital of the old Russian (or East Slavic) state of Rus' and is now the capital of Ukraine, while there were no large numbers of literary works in distinct East Slavic languages until about 1600. South Slavic Modern South Slavic languages can be divided into two groups: Western and Eastern.
Western South Slavic languages include Serbo-Croatian (Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian) and Slovenian; Eastern South Slavic languages include Bulgarian and Macedonian (not genetically related to the Greek dialect of Alexander the Great). These languages are mostly spoken in the Balkans, especially in Bulgaria and [what was] Yugoslavia. Unlike Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian, Bulgarian and Macedonian have some linguistic features borrowed from non-Slavic Balkan languages, particularly Greek and Albanian. Like the East Slavic languages, the South Slavic languages were strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic.
In fact Old Church Slavonic is often considered to be a South Slavic language, though it also seems to be closely related to the Proto-Slavic language from which all Slavic languages descended. The first modern South Slavic language to be written appears to be Slovenian, in the 10th century.
Recommended Reading
- Comrie, Bernard, "Slavonic Languages," pp. 322-328 in The World's Major Languages, ed. by Bernard Comrie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
- Eckert, Rainer, Elvira-Julia Bukeveciute, and Friedhelm Hinze. Die baltischen Sprachen: Eine Einfuehrung. Leipzig, Berlin, Munich: Langenscheidt Verlag Enzyklopaedie, 1994.
- Fortson, Benjamin W., IV. Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
- Mallory, J.P., and D.Q. Adams. The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Schmalstieg, William R., "The Baltic Languages," pp. 454-479 in The Indo-European Languages, ed. by Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
italic
Mostly Slavic languages such as Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and others, almost every country has its own unique language which may or may not be the offical language.
Languages spoken in Eastern Europe include (but are not limited to) Albanian, Armenian, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish, & Ukrainian.
Most of these languages sound 'Russian' to westerners.
What country occupied eastern Europe after World War II?
The Soviet Union tightened its grip on eastern european nations and Stalin refused to let go, and economic recovery in E. Europe proceeded along the lines that appealed to the Soviets - political and social changes were LARGELY influenced by the changes made in the Soviet Union.
If that didnt answer your question and you were looking for just a one worded answer, its the
Soviet Union.
How do the physical features of eastern Europe influence where people live?
Look in your Social Studies textbook
who ever answer this is a stupid ignorant person!! why else would a person look in the internet for an answer? What a jerk!!
What even symbolized the collapse of communism in eastern Europe?
Communism (classless stateless society based on production for use and democratic control) never existed in Eastern Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolised the end of state capitalism.
What eastern Europe countries touch the Black Sea?
The Black Sea is bordered by Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, The Ukraine, Russia and Georgia.
Of these, Bulgaria, Romania and The Ukraine are considered to be European, while the other three are considered Eurasian, meaning they can be considered to be European and Asian.
Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and part of Turkey.
How did the Soviets keep control over eastern Europe?
Eastern European countries became an unwilling part of the Soviet empire. It was seen by the Russians as necessary to have a buffer zone of friendly if not controlled countries around Russia. As it could not guarantee the cooperation of free democratic regimes in those countries, it imposed a soviet style communist regime on those countries by political manipulation and outright brute force. The communist regimes became extremely unpopular and many people trapped in a communist country tried successfully to escape to the Democratic West. This migration of people from East Germany to the West provoked the building of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960's. Initially Russia never hesitated to use military force if these Eastern European countries fell out of line, as happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the 1980 Poland nearly fell out of line leading to Solidarity's formation and many public protests, but the Polish communist government kept things under internal control thus avoiding a military intervention by the Russians. By the time the East German people (not the East German Gov under Erich Honecker) fell out of line with Russia in 1989 the Soviet Union now with serious internal issues under a more liberal Gorbachev was really in no position internally to intervene and help Honecker, so Honecker was powerless in keeping East German border closed and this led to them be opened and let people freely cross both ways. Finally this led to the popular unplanned bit by bit demolition of the hated Berlin Wall which led to the unification of the Germany and eventually the fall of the Soviet Union.
What are the countries of Eastern Europe that border Russia?
Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. (based on countries either completely or partially in Europe)
Why have so many Eastern European Jews chosen to emigrate?
There are a number of reasons for the Jewish departure from Eastern Europe from the mid-1700s up to the mid-1900s.
1) Border Changes: There were numerous wars in Eastern Europe which lead to some countries (like Poland) expanding to huge sizes before being completely removed from the map. This nearly constant map-rewriting made many Jews flee the oncoming battles and resettle elsewhere.
2) Religious Intolerance: Eastern Europe had a mix of Catholics (who were dominant in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary), Orthodox (who were dominant in Russia, Serbia, and Greece), and Jews (who settled throughout). Religious tensions were common and religious adherence was enforced brutally, especially in Yugoslav States and the Austrian Empire in general. Jews were targeted especially because they were believed by both the Orthodox and the Catholics to be heretics and unable to properly integrate.
3) Ottoman Invasion: When the Ottomans came and conquered the entirety of southeast Europe, many Europeans fled the Ottoman occupation because of fear as to how they would live under the Turks. (Admittedly it turned out that Turkish Occupation was better for the Jews than what they had before, but the fear of what it could be was the dominant factor in their decisions.) Many Jews, like their Christian neighbors, fled north to escape the Ottomans.
4) Economic Pressures: Eastern European land was difficult for many to farm. It did not provide a warm climate or adequate resources to really build the massive farming successes found in Western Europe (with the possible exception of the Ukraine). As a result, the famines encouraged many to seek a livelihood elsewhere.
5) Nazism: Over 5 million Jews in Eastern Europe were exterminated during the Holocaust by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, the Final Solution, Starvation in Ghettos, and other atrocities perpetrated during the Holocaust. (Note: Around 1 million Jews killed came from other regions, which is the difference between this number and the traditional 6 million.) These individuals were incapable of freely departing and were slaughtered.
Why did the Soviet Union aggressively expand into Eastern Europe?
Under the terms of the Russo-German treaty in 1939, the Soviet Union was allowed to invade Poland from the east and to occupy and approximately half the country-Germans the other half. Later, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied all 3 Baltic countries: Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June1941, the countries of eastern Europe became a huge battefield. By the end of the war in May, 1945, most of central and eastern Europe were under the control of the Russian army. There were to be free elections after the war in these countries, but the Soviet Union rigged the elections and forced out pro-democratic parties and leaders. By 1947, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria and Albania were firmly in the control of the Soviet Union. World War II gave the Soviets a great opportunity to expand into the Balkans and eastern Europe and to have these puppet states become a huge buffer zone from future German threats!
Why might Eastern European nations want to join the European Union?
The EU brings many benefits especially to countries with smaller populations or countries which are still poorer than other EU countries. A common market for trade means that a manufacturer in one country now has a market of over 500 million people to whom they can sell without trade tarrifs or other barriers. Open borders mean that there are no limits to persons traveling, residing or working in other EU countries. This also means that businesses and individuals from other countries can invest in that country. If the EU were considered as a country then it would be the richest in the world and with one of the largest populations (after only China and India). The EU also brings peace and stability - why fight over borders when borders mean very little in the present EU?
Which was the first eastern European country to break free from Soviet Union?
Native Americans in 1944, after that india, then mongolia, and last hawaii... hope this answeres all your questins
