Eastern Europe!, 2nd Edition: Everything You Need to Know About the History (and More) of a Region that Shaped Our World and Still Does

by Tomek Jankowski

Overview

When the legendary Romulus killed his brother Remus and founded the city of Rome in 753 BCE, Plovdiv—today the second-largest city in Bulgaria—was thousands of years old. Indeed, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Brussels, Amsterdam are all are mere infants compared to Plovdiv. This is just one of the paradoxes that haunts and defines the New Europe, that part of Europe that was freed from Soviet bondage in 1989, and which is at once both much older than the modern Atlantic-facing power centers of Western Europe while also being much younger than them. Eastern Europe! is a brief and concise (but informative) introduction to Eastern Europe and its myriad customs and history. Even those knowledgeable about Western Europe often see Eastern Europe as terra incognito, with a sign on the border declaring “Here be monsters.” Tomek Jankowski's book is a gateway to understanding both what unites and separates Eastern Europeans from their Western brethren, and how this vital region has been shaped by but has also left its mark on Western Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. It is a reader-friendly guide to a region that is all too often mischaracterized as remote, insular, and superstitious. The book comprises three parts, The first sums up modern linguistic, geographic, and religious contours of Eastern Europe, while the second, main part delves into the region's history, from the earliest origins of Europe up to the end of the Cold War, as well as--new to the 2nd edition--a section on the post-Cold War period. Closing the book is a section that makes sense of geographical name references -- many cities, rivers, or regions have different names -- and also includes an "Eastern Europe by Numbers" feature that provides charts describing the populations, politics, and economies of the region today. Throughout are boxed-off anecdotes ("Useless Trivia") describing fascinating aspects of Eastern European history or culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997316933
Publisher:	New Europe Books
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	688
Sales rank:	551,810
File size:	27 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tomek Jankowski⎯who was raised in a Polish family in Buffalo, New York⎯worked, studied, and traveled in Poland, Hungary, and other regions of Eastern Europe from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, gaining a functional literacy of several languages in the process. He holds a degree in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Currently he is a senior analyst at a research firm that specializes in producing market analysis for the management consulting world, where he has authored numerous reports focusing on Eastern Europe and other emerging markets regions, as well as the financial services industry. Married to a native Pole, he lives in Londonderry, New Hampshire and still spends time in Eastern Europe.

Read an Excerpt

Introductory FAQ Q: Why am I 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 nineteen 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 wacka- 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.

Table of Contents

Table o’ Contents Foreword xiii Introductory FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Acknowlegments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx Table o’ Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxii Section I 1 A Few Words About a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A Note on Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A Word (or Two) about Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Section II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Introduction: A Prehistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Introduction: History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Introduction: Classical Eastern Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Chapter 1: Setting the Stage, 500–800 CE . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 A. Western Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 B. The Avars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 C. The Slavs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 D. The First Slavic States 75 E. The Bulgars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 F. The Dacians and Vlachs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 G. The Khazars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 H. (A Bunch of) Finns and Balts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Special Insert: The Steppe 85 viii Table o’ Contents Chapter 2: The Origins of States, 800–1242 CE . . . . . . . . . 88 A. The Franks 88 B. Moravia Magna and Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 C. The Bulgarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 D. The Rus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 E. The Magyars/Hungarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 F. The Slovenes and Croatians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 G. Duklja, Raška, and the Serbs 104 H. The Poles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 I. The Pechenegs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 J. The Cumanians 110 K. The Lithuanians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 L. The Finale: 1239–42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Special Insert: Peoples of Eastern Europe—The Jews . . . . 117 Chapter 3: The Medieval Years, 1242–1600 CE . . . . . . . . 120 A. The Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde, and Tartars 123 B. Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 C. Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 D. Montenegro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 E. Bosnia&Herzegovina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 F. Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 G. The Republic of Ragusa/Dubrovnik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 H. Albania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 I. The Byzantine Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 J. The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire 135 K. Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 L. Hungary 140 M. Bohemia 143 N. The Teutonic Knights and Schizoid Prussia . . . . . . . . . . . 145 O. Lithuania and the Eastern Slavs 148 P. Livonia and the Balts 149 Q. Poland as Catalyst 151 R. Novgorod, Muscovy, and the Russians 154 S. Halych-Volhynia: A Kingdom in Galicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Special Insert: Peoples of Eastern Europe—The Germans . . 159–161 Chapter 4: The Dawn of a New Age, 1600–1800 . . . . . . . 162 A. Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 B. The Principality of Transylvania 166 C. Wallachia and Moldavia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 D. Montenegro 169 E. The Swedish Empire 170 F. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 173 G. The Ukrainians and Belarussians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 H. Ottoman Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 I. Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 J. Of Austrians and Habsburgs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 K. Prussia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Special Insert: Peoples of Eastern Europe—The Gypsies . . . 199–201 Chapter 5: The Very, Very Long 19th Century,1800–1914 . . 202 A. Introduction 203 B. The Ottoman Empire as Doorstop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 C. Serbia’s Front Row Seat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 D. Montenegro Hits the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 E. Romania is Born 218 F. Bulgaria’s Raw Deal 222 G. Albania as Accident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 H. The Italian Risorgimento and Irridentism . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 I. Pan-Germanism and How Fritz (and Helga) Got their Mojo . . . 228 J. Pan-Slavism and Pie in the Sky 231 K. The Austrian Dilemma and Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 L. Russia, the Hope and Prison of Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 M. Dawn of the Dead: The Poland That Just Won’t Go Away 247 Special Insert: Peoples of Eastern Europe—The Muslims . . 253–255 Chapter 6: The Great War, and a Magic Year, 1914–1939 257 A. The War 258 B. Paris, 1919 263 C. The Ottoman Empire Goes Out in Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 D. Austria-Hungary as a Bug on the Windshield 268 E. Serbia and History 272 F. Montenegro is Pushed Off the Cliff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 G. The Failed Superstates I: Yugoslavia 274 H. Bulgaria Tries 1913 Over Again 277 I. The Failed Superstates II: Romania 280 J. Albania: Let’s Try That Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 K. Hungary Loses the War . . . Again 285 L. The Failed Superstates III: Czechoslovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 M. Ukraine: With Friends Like These 294 N. Belarus Gets Its 15 Minutes . . . Literally . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 O. Libre Baltica: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia . . . . . . . . . . 299 P. Russia and How Russians Do Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Q. The Failed Superstates IV: Poland 310 Chapter 7: War! 1939–45 317 A. The War as You Probably Don’t Know It . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 B. About the Numbers Used in this Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 C. An Overview of the War 328 D. Poland and The Art of Not Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 E. The Baltics and a Bad Neighborhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 F. The Czech Lands Revert to the 17th Century 339 G. Slovakia Is Born, Sort of 342 H. Hungary Embraces Its Inner Tar Baby 343 I. Romania Guesses Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 J. Yugoslavia, Serbia, and 1914 All Over Again 349 K. Croatia’s Dark Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 L. Albania Tries to Keep Its Head Above Water . . . . . . . . . . . 353 M. Bulgaria: Third Time a Charm? 355 N. The Soviet Union Wins by Knockout in the 9th Round . . . . . 357 O. The Holocaust 362 Special Insert: Home is Where the Border is! . . . . . . . 368–371 Chapter 8: The Frying Pan, the Fire, etc., 1945–92 . . . . . . 374 A. Introduction: The Cold War, or This Town Isn’t Big Enough 379 B. The Warsaw Pact: The Farm Animals Unite 388 C. Yugoslavia: Exit, Stage Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 D. Albania as an Island 395 E. Bulgaria Finally Gets Something in Return . . . . . . . . . . . 398 F. Romania Goes Off the Deep End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 G. Hungary and Its Food-Based Ideologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 H. Czechoslovakia, Just East of Eden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 I. East Germany as the Runt of the Litter 413 J. Poland, the Perennial Pain in the Butt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 K. The Soviet Union, Keeping Up with the Joneses . . . . . . . . . 425 Chapter 9: Easy Come, Easy Go: 1989–92 . . . . . . . . . . . 433 A. Introduction: Ashes to Ashes, We All Fall Down . . . . . . . . 436 B. Poland and the Ghosts of 1980: The First Steps . . . . . . . . . 438 C. The Hungarian “Refolution” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 D. East Germany Goosesteps into Oblivion 441 E. Elvis is Dead, but Czechoslovakia Goes Velvet Anyway . . . . . 443 F. Bulgaria Knows Peer Pressure When It Sees It 445 G. Asking for a Light in the Romanian Powderkeg . . . . . . . . . 446 H. Albania and Frost in Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 I. Playing Fiddle on the Deck of the Titanic: the Soviet Union 450 J. Libre Baltica, Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452 K. Agonia: The Many Deaths of Yugoslavia 452 Epilogue 461 Reference 469 Musical Chairs, or Place Names in Eastern Europe . . . . . 469 Eastern Europe in Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 Mrs. Jankowska’s Homemade Pierogis . . . . . . . . . . . . 498 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

Editorial Reviews

"Astonishing, entertaining, and informative ... How can you write a book that covers thousands of years over half a continent and keep your readers with you? ... Tomek Jankowski tells it in a way you have to listen. And sometimes you get so excited that you want to repeat his stories to your friends."— Nick Thorpe, BBC News Central Europe Correspondent

PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITION

“This broad overview describes the nearly indefinable region that, until the Berlin Wall’s sudden fall, was shrouded behind the Iron Curtain—nations and peoples living amid constantly shifting boundaries in a centuries-old battleground between East and West. . . . [Jankowski] displays an ease and familiarity with cultural minutiae while briskly covering intense topics of genocide, religion, and Communist implosion. . . . Jankowski’s history of the region serves as a welcome introduction or refresher course.” —Publishers Weekly

“A brief, concise, and informative introduction to the less-known part of the old continent. No country is left out: from Albania to Moldova, from Romania to Poland, from Bulgaria to Lithuania. No historic period is overlooked: from the dark ages of prehistory to the Middle Ages, from the Renaissance to the two world wars, from the Soviet period to the collapse of communism. This 600-page book can serve as both an introduction to Eastern Europe and a refresher to its intricate history. It is accessible and stimulating reading that includes humor, pictures, maps, tables, charts, and even poems and recipes. A good resource for teachers, students, and all those with roots in this part of the world.” — CHOICE

“[The] colloquial style succeeds in making this an accessible, if thorough, history of pretty much everywhere from East Berlin to the Black Sea back to 500CE. . . . This should be recommended reading for anyone heading to the former Eastern Bloc.”

—Traveller, easyJet’s inflight magazine

“Jankowski . . . offers a sweeping history of Eastern Europe and does an admirable job of getting information in on nearly every language and religious and cultural group that has existed in the area, a commendable feat. . . . [He] writes in an intelligent, accessible style, and it is easy to read the book from start to finish, or just to pick out sections on certain countries or events. . . . A meaty but not overly challenging read for history buffs and students, Eastern European scholars, and tourists with more than a passing interest in the history of the region.”—Library Journal

”Jankowski takes the reader on a comprehensive journey through the development of Eastern Europe. This is a huge book, wondrously large; detailed and fascinating . . . A must read for any history buff, student or anyone wanting to begin a dive into the wonders of Eastern Europe—I couldn’t recommend it enough.”—ofbooks.org

From the Publisher