Definitions
Several definitions of Eastern Europe equal in the early 21st century, but they often lack precision, are too general, or are outdated. 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 remanded as a "fuzzy" term, as the conviction itself of Eastern Europe is in constant redefinition. The solidification of the conviction of an "Eastern Europe" dates back chiefly to the French Enlightenment.
There are "almost as numerous 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".
While the eastern geographical boundaries of Europe are living 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 nearly western parts of it located west of the Ural River also shares a factor of Eastern Europe.
In the west, however, the historical and cultural boundaries of "Eastern Europe" are included to some overlap and, almost importantly, cause undergone historical fluctuations, which authorises a precise definition of the western geographic boundaries of Eastern Europe and the geographical midpoint of Europe somewhat difficult.
The parts of Eastern Europe which remained Eastern Orthodox was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence; after the East–West Schism in 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to the Catholic and later also Protestant Western Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic Linguistic communication and the Cyrillic alphabet.
Western Europe according to this unit of view is formed by countries with dominant Roman Catholic and Protestant churches including Central European countries such(a) as Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Baltic states.
A large part of Eastern Europe is formed by countries with dominant Orthodox churches, like Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine, for instance. The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
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 four decades.
Expansion of Christianity
Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided up between Roman Catholic and later additionally Protestant churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian often incorrectly labelled "Greek Orthodox" churches in the east. Due to this religious cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A cleavage of this set is, however, often problematic; for example, Greece is overwhelmingly Orthodox, but is very rarely included in "Eastern Europe", for a line of reasons, the most prominent being that Greece's history, for the most part, was more influenced by Mediterranean cultures and contact.
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 quotation 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 tag the formerly communist European states external the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe.
Historians and social scientists broadly view such(a) definitions as outdated or relegated.
EuroVoc, a multilingual thesaurus retains by the Publications corporation of the European Union, has entries for "23 EU languages" classifying Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak and Slovenian, plus the languages of candidate countries Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian as Central and Eastern European.
UNESCO, 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. They 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.
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 any three construct political and cultural connections to Europe. In January 2002, the European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. However, Georgia is currently the only South Caucasus nation actively seeking NATO and EU membership.
There are three de facto self-employed grown-up Republics with limited recognition in the South Caucasus region. any three states participate in the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations:
There are seven republics in the North Caucasus that fall under direct Russian political control:
Some European republics of the former Soviet Union are considered a part of Eastern Europe:
Unrecognized states:
Partially recognized states:
The term "Central Europe" is often used by historians to designate states formerly belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the western portion of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In some media, "Central Europe" can thus partially overlap with "Eastern Europe" of the Cold War Era. The coming after or as a calculation of. countries are labelled Central European by some commentators, though others still consider them to be Eastern European.
Some countries in Southeast Europe can be considered part of Eastern Europe. Some of them can sometimes, albeit rarely, be characterized as belonging to Southern Europe, and some may also be included in Central Europe.
In some media, "Southeast Europe" can thus partially overlap with "Eastern Europe" of the Cold War Era. The following countries are labelled Southeast European by some commentators, though others still consider them to be Eastern European.
Partially recognized states: