EXCERPTS

The following is an excerpt from Eastern Europe! by Tomek Jankowski. To read more, purchase the book.

 INTRODUCTORY FAQ

Q: Why am I still reading this?

A: I have a few assumptions about why you’re reading this. They fall into the following categories:

• You’re in the dentist’s office and it’s either this book or the June 1995 copy of Cosmopolitan you’ve already read over the last couple of dozen appointments.

• You’ve inherited a surname with lots of extra letters you’re sure you’re mispronouncing.

• You’re dating someone who has inherited a surname you’re sure you’re mispronouncing, and it’s really starting to irritate his/her parents.

• Someone close to you is in the military and is currently stationed in one of those countries with a severe vowel drought.

• You accidentally moved pictures of your boss you’d “tweaked” in Photoshop™ onto the company intranet, and now you’re the office manager for your company’s Albania branch.

• There’s a Ukrainian church near your home that sells the most amazing pierogis on Saturdays, and you’re trying to pry the recipe out of those little old ladies with the babushkas.

• You’re a government employee who was just tasked with researching some detail about Trghksbjndkltsylvania or Phgdvnmtrzcdograd.

• Junior just called from his/her exchange program in Prague, and you couldn’t tell from his/her slurred speech whether the country was famous for its beers or bears, so you figure you’d better pay him/her a visit.

• You have a crucial exam tomorrow morning for a 400-level class and you’re hoping to God this book explains who Tycho Brahe was, what he did, and when and where he did it.

Well, whatever your reasons for reading this book, we’re here to help.

Q: What is Eastern Europe?

A: You would think the answer would be easy; just grab a map of Europe and look at the eastern half—but it’s not quite that simple. Defining Eastern Europe throughout history is sort of like playing the proverbial wack-a-mole game. The Romans thought of Eastern Europe as everything east of what they controlled—which meant the Balkans were a core and integral part of Roman civilization, while Britain was an outlying barbarian border territory. The breaking of the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves muddled the East-West border somewhat, but Charlemagne’s empire put a stake on the Elbe and Danube rivers as the West’s outer eastern boundaries. (This meant that Vienna was a border town, while modern cities like Berlin and Copenhagen were in the barbarian East.) The Great Schism in Christianity, the Steppe invasions, the Ottoman Empire, the rise of the German Empires, the rise of Russia—and its doppelgänger, the Soviet Union—all kept reshaping and redefining Eastern Europe for each new generation.

The term “Eastern Europe” only came into use in the late 18th century as an increasingly prosperous and powerful (and self-aware) Western Europe wanted to distinguish itself from the backwards, decaying medieval relics in the east. In the late 17th century, Pope Innocent XI proclaimed Poland antemurale christianitatis (Rampart of Christendom) but in the early 19th century the great Austrian statesman Prince Metternich famously declared “Asien beginnt an der Landstraβe” (Asia begins at Province Street)—referring to the road beginning at Vienna’s eastern gate leading eastward into Hungary.

A common thread throughout all these changes has been that Eastern Europe—and who is Eastern European—has always been defined by others. Today’s Eastern Europe, for example, derives from the Cold War of 1945–89 and Stalin’s Iron Curtain. This is a book about peoples who only fairly recently came to think of themselves as “Eastern Europeans,” but who nonetheless have always been fully engaged in European history and have even, on occasion, played important roles.

For the purposes of this book I have defined “Eastern Europe” as that region of Europe that has spent its entire history surrounded by competing civilizations, between Western Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, sometimes benefiting immensely through social, economic, or technological gains—but with the trade-off of occasionally serving as somebody else’s battlefield. While some states in Eastern Europe managed to become strong enough to challenge outside powers on occasion, none were ever completely able to overcome the region’s role as a crossroads, and Eastern Europeans have always had to balance as best as possible—whether between Byzantines and Franks, Habsburgs and Turks, or Soviets and the West.

So, to sum things up in answer to the question of “What is Eastern Europe,” the answer is: it depends.

Q: Does Eastern Europe still exist? Didn’t it go away in 1989?

Poles, Hungarians, and others will tell you that if there is an Eastern Europe, they are not it; but the truth is that governments and businesses still use this term. Eastern Europe is still defined from the outside.

Q: Why haven’t I seen much about Eastern European history in books with titles like, A History of Europe? Eastern or otherwise, it’s still Europe, isn’t it?

A: Good question. Western libraries are filled with books claiming to tell the history of “Europe,” but by “Europe” they really mean Western Europe. British historian Norman Davies puts it this way:

The title of “Europe,” like the earlier label of “Christendom,” therefore, can hardly be arrogated by one of its several regions. Eastern Europe is no less European for being poor, or underdeveloped, or ruled by tyrants. In many ways, thanks to its deprivations, it has become more European, more attached to the values which affluent Westerners can take for granted. Nor can Eastern Europe be rejected because it is “different.” All European countries are different. All West European countries are different. And there are important similarities which span the divide. A country like Poland might be very different from Germany or from Britain; but the Polish experience is much closer to that of Ireland or of Spain than many West European countries are to each other. A country like Greece, which some people have thought to be Western by virtue of Homer and Aristotle, was admitted to the European Community; but its formative experiences in modern times were in the Orthodox world under Ottoman rule. They were considerably more distant from those of Western Europe than several countries who found themselves on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.

Q: OK, so my company has posted me to Eastern Europe. Why should I waste time reading about Eastern European history? Why not just get one of those little phrase books?

A: Well, if you want to be successful dealing with Eastern Europeans, you will need to speak their language—and I don’t mean Bulgarian. Actually, learning at least some Bulgarian might be helpful, but the point is that Eastern Europeans have a different relationship with their past than Westerners do, particularly Americans. The past for Eastern Europeans is not restricted to dry, dusty books on shelves; the past is a living part of life for Eastern Europeans, and their discussions about the present are often clothed in the language of the past. For the average American, the American Revolution of 1775–83 was thousands of years ago, but for the average Eastern European, the 1389 battle of Kosovo Polje or the 1410 battle of Grunwald haven’t quite ended yet. True, the historical accuracy of their memories may be suspect, but it is important for you to know and understand the references they use. To quote historian Lonnie R. Johnson:

Developing a sense for what could be called the subjective dimensions of Central Europe—the (usually pretty good) stories that Central Europeans tell about themselves and the (usually pretty bad) ones they tell about their neighbors—is important to understanding the region. Some of the problems Central Europeans have with themselves and with one another are related to the fact their history haunts them.[2]

Q: Good God—does this mean I’m going to have to inject some reference to medieval battles into all my conversations with Eastern Europeans? I’m in business, for Pete’s sake!

A: No, relax. It is just important to understand that history permeates everyday life and thinking for Eastern Europeans, and not having at least a basic understanding can lead to missed references or a social faux pas like clinking beer glasses in a Hungarian pub. Bad move.

Q: Does this mean I’m going to be reading about . . . Slavs?

A: Well, yes, we will be exploring some Slavic peoples and their histories but many, many other peoples as well. Eastern Europe and its heritage is not just about Slavs, but also includes Hungarians, Germans, Roma (Gypsies), Cumanians, Arabs, Romans, Jews, and so many others.

It was common in the West at the turn of the 20th century to say that Western Europe was primarily a Germanic and Latin realm, while Eastern Europe was Slavic. The real difference between Western and Eastern Europe (as far as ethnic groups are concerned) is that Eastern Europe has far greater ethnic diversity than Western Europe. And, even worse, weaker state and institutional development in Eastern Europe—a product of historic political instability in the region—blurred the lines between some ethnic groups. For instance, nobody doubts the differences between French, Dutch, and Germans (though in truth all three derive from pretty much the same groups of peoples) but Eastern Europeans still argue whether Lemkos are Ukrainians or if Macedonians or Bosnjaks[3] really exist or not.

Through its relative political stability, Western Europe has achieved sharper (if ultimately superficial) distinctions between its various ethnic cultures than Eastern Europe. The West learned this lesson painfully in 1919 when it tried to reorganize Eastern Europe for its own purposes. It was kind of like herding cats.

Q: Will there be any sex or violence in this book?

A: Admittedly, it will be a little weak in the sex department, but we do promise lots of senseless, gratuitous violence. As a Hungarian professor once told me, “Those Eastern Europeans who wanted boring, calm, predictable lives emigrated, but those of us who wanted exciting and interesting lives, we stayed!”

Q: OK, so I’m going to read your history. Exactly how much history will this book cover? After all, Eastern Europe’s history pretty much begins in 1918, right?

A: Nope. The early Bulgarian, Czech, and the parent civilization to the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian states all existed by the time Alfred the Great first united Anglo-Saxon England in 890 CE. The Hungarian, Croatian, and Polish states followed shortly after. This book covers some 1,516 years—beginning with the death of the Greco-Roman “Classical” world—and blathers on until about the beginning of the 21st century.

Q: Will there be many names or terms in funny, unpronounceable languages? I can’t even say “Schenectady.”

A: Well, yes, there are going to be a lot of new names and terms, most in languages you’re not familiar with. But don’t panic. This book contains pronunciation guides right in the text.

Footnotes

[1] Norman Davies, Europe, A History (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996), 28.

[2] Lonnie R. Johnson, Central Europe; Enemies, Neighbors, Friends (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 3. By “Central Europe,” Johnson means primarily “East Central Europe”—e.g., Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary.

[3] Sometimes written “Bosniaks” or “Bosnyaks.”

[4] Walter J. Boyne, “Carbon Copy Bomber,” Air Force Magazine, June 2009, Vol. 92, No. 6

 The above is an excerpt from Eastern Europe! by Tomek Jankowski. To read more, purchase the book.