Eastern Europe

European regions according to CIA World Factbook     Eastern Europe here is mainly equal to the European part of the former Soviet Union     Northern Europe      Western Europe      Central Europe      Southwest Europe      Southern Europe      Southeast Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern region of Europe. Originally, it meant the countries that were under the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople during the Middle Ages and Western Europe meant those countries following Catholicism or Protestantism. Later, during the Cold War, it meant the European countries that were allied to the Soviet Union. It is now used to talk about the European post-Soviet states and the former Warsaw Pact. Others say that Eastern Europe is a region of mainly Slavic cultures, though other ethnic groups live there as well. Eastern Europe has a large Roma gypsy population.

European sub-regions according to EuroVoc     Central and Eastern Europe     Western Europe      Southern Europe      Northern Europe

According to the widest contemporary definitions - including those used by the UN Statistics Division, several other UN organizations and EuroVoc (the multilingual thesaurus of the EU) - the following states are in Eastern Europe:

1. Russia
2. Belarus
3. Serbia
4. Hungary
5. Moldova
6. Turkey
7. Azerbaijan
8. Armenia

Partly recognized:

1. Abkhazia (part of Western Asia)
2. Kosovo
3. South Ossetia (part of Western Asia)

Alternatives

Since January 1993 some groups have changed their definitions of Eastern Europe. Although the list above is still the most popular and widely accepted definition of this region, some experts divide the region further into subsections. According to such theories: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are in Central Europe (the western sections of Belarus and Ukraine are also sometimes listed as Central European) or East-Central Europe. Finally, the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia are occasionally grouped with a number of other countries into Southern Europe, but more often referred to as Southeast (or Southeastern) Europe.

Eastern Europe Media

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

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  Traditional cultural borders of Europe: usage recommendation by the Standing Committee on Geographical Names, Germany.

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  Regions used for statistical processing purposes by the United Nations Statistics Division     Eastern Europe     Northern Europe*     Southern Europe*     Western Europe

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  Expansion of christianity (public domain map)

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  European sub-regions according to EuroVoc     Central and Eastern Europe     Western Europe*     Southern Europe*     Northern Europe

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  Pre-1989 division between the "West" (grey) and "Eastern Bloc" (orange) superimposed on current borders:*     Russia (the former RSFSR)*     Other countries formerly part of the USSR*     Members of the Warsaw Pact*     Other former Communist states not aligned with Moscow

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  Population pyramid of Eastern Europe in 2023 (UN geoscheme classification)

Other websites

• Civic Education Trends in Post-Communist Countries of Central and Eastern Europe Archived 2007-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
• Information about Eastern European People Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
• Business portal for Central and Eastern Europe
• Slavic and East European Resources
• The Slavonic and East European Review Archived 2006-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
• The Slavic Review Archived 2006-12-06 at the Wayback Machine