Eastern Europe is defined both geographically and politically. Politically, Eastern Europe referred to the communist states allied with the Soviet Union from Poland south to Yugoslavia and Albania. With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the definition of Eastern Europe changed and now also includes Greece. Ethnicity, which was suppressed under communist rule, reemerged and led to conflicts like the war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The region was long dominated by Russia due to its control over Eastern Europe, but countries have asserted independence since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, Russia still seeks to exert influence over former Soviet states and in Central Asia.

1. Eastern Europe is more than just a geographic concept. We tend
to look at it from the cartographer’s point of view in terms of
geography. But it is more than just that because what goes along
with that is a distinct culture and also a distinct socio-economic
pattern. For the most part, when we've looked at Eastern
Europe, we've thought of it in terms not of geography, but
rather in terms of politics. And so, the concept of Eastern
Europe was typically seen as the Communist party states
associated with the Warsaw Pact as allies of the Soviet Union.
And in that sense, Eastern Europe stretched all the way from
Poland, south, going as far as Albania and even Yugoslavia.
With the changes in Eastern Europe that were brought about
because of relationships with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia
cease to be seen as part of the Soviet Bloc. But it was still part
of Eastern Europe in political terms because it was a socialist
economic entity. Justice Albania repudiated its ties with the
Soviet Union. In the early 1960s, continued to be more than
anything else, a rigid Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist state. All of
this then underscored the history of the region, its relationships
with the Byzantine Empire, with the Orthodox Church. Also,
there was the influence of the Ottoman Turks. Probably the
best-known country in Eastern Europe to the, in the mind of the
average American is Romania. Romania is probably more
significant than any other of these nations because of its hostile
relationship with the Ottomans. And the most famous remaining
evolve time, of course, lad SEPIC better Normally it's Dracula
is somebody whose reputation hinges zone. His resistance to the
Turkish invaders and his use of psychological operations to
undermine their forces. The use of developed terrorist tactics
against the Turks that really were successful in stopping the
Turkish advance through Eastern Europe. And of course, where
it was initially focus known as its ultimate objective was
Western Europe. And so Eastern Europe was seen largely as a
political entity. With the collapse of the communist party states

2. in Eastern Europe. Though we're once again forced to make a
redefinition of what we mean by Eastern Europe. And we
recognize that Greece is just as much a part of eastern Europe
as Slovakia is a part of Eastern Europe. Something else, it also
has changed with the collapse of the Communist Party States
has been attitudes toward ethnicity. Ethnicity in the communist
party era was suppressed, at least in part because this was
nationalism. In nationalism is seen as the antithesis of class
consciousness. And so, in an effort to promote an environment
in which people define themselves by their relationship to the
means of production rather than by their language or their
cultural heritage. There was an effort to suppress ethnicity. The
best and most violent example of this is Yugoslavia, where the
majority Serbs and Croatians effectively govern without
emphasizing their Serbian Croatian identity. In fact, the one
room in Yugoslav politics and later Serbian politics. I don't talk
about ethnicity. With the collapse of Tito or with the death of
Tito. In the 1990's, this situation changed. And finally,
Milosevic emerges is the Serbian later. And Milosevic is the
first prominent Yugoslavian politician to talk about ethnicity.
And his emphasis on ethnicity hastened the war in Yugoslavia,
which began in full measure in 990 one and spread to Kosovo
and involved eventually American and British involvement in
that war. One thing that has been important in our examination
of Eastern Europe, one theory is the Heartland theory. And it
does a lot to explain the important relationship between Eastern
Europe and Russia. The Heartland theory was based on the
notion that whoever controls the heart land of Europe, which
was Eastern Europe, would be in an advance, advantageous
position to dominate all of Europe. For decades. That was the
Soviet Union. For decades, people that tried to assess the
geopolitical future of the region focused on Russian control
over Eastern Europe. With the collapse of the East European
economies, with the deterioration of the Soviet economy. And
in 990 one, the collapse of the Soviet Union, East, East Europe
was finally able to assert itself completely from Russian

3. domination. In fact, most of that was accomplished during the
revolutions of 1989. This has had a tremendous impact on
Russia's geopolitical position as the Soviet Union. This was
truly a multi-national state. And you could look at the different
regions of the Soviet Union. And you saw in all of this that the
Slavic regions really accounting for no more than 50 percent of
the population of the Soviet Union. And so what this indicated
very early on was the deterioration of the dominant Russian
position. With the collapse of the Soviet Union. This brought a
humiliation of Russia in particular. And that ushered in the
Yeltsin administration. And Yeltsin was not regarded as a
serious figure. If you look at Russian diplomats today, people
who will talk about Russian politics with, without siders. The
one thing upon which they agree is that Yeltsin did not do
justice to Russia. The enthusiasm that exists for, for Putin is
based enlarge measure on the belief that Putin has been
responsible for the restoration of Russian dignity, if not the
Russian Empire. Those other regions it used to be part of the
Soviet Union. In varying degrees have fallen under a certain
amount of Russian influence. Central Asia, for example,
independent, ethnically distinct, broke away from Russia in the
years after the collapse of Soviet Union, Uzbekistan played a
very important role in US policy. In 2001, when the United
States responded to the Al-Qaeda attacks, the United States use
the same basis in his back withstand that the Russians had used
to invade Afghanistan a decade or so before that. That close
relationship between the United States in Uzbekistan did a lot to
help keep the Russians out. And the Uzbeks, for their part,
wanted to do this. In the interest of human rights concerns.
Early in the Bush administration, relations between Uzbekistan
in the United States deteriorated. And with that, Russia has
been able to reassert itself and its Pakistan, along with the
Chinese. This has had an important geopolitical impact in that it
weakens American leverage, but it's also had a negative impact
on the human rights situation. With all of this, what we see is
Russia's geopolitical situation is under pressure today because

4. of ethnic considerations. In particular, the fact that this country
is becoming increasingly Islamic. And you can look at this in
many ways. If you see the number of mosques which exist in the
Soviet Union collapsed. There were about 300. Today, there's
about 10 thousand, and the number is increasing at the popular
level today, there's a great deal of prejudice against Muslims.
And there's a general perception that you can express that
hostility without any repercussions. But it is a reminder of the
fact that Russia is still sensitive about its security situation and
recognizes that they face that challenge from radical Islam. Just
are the European nations and the United States face a similar
challenge.