Hi there! I am Conor, the Language Tsar, and in this video I wanna
discuss what we mean by Eastern
Europe today because I'm often in
Eastern Europe but I think there's a lot of
confusion for ... for many viewers
about what exactly should be Eastern Europe.
So if you're thinking that countries
like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,
Poland lie in Eastern Europe then I got
some news for you because you're a kind of
living in circa 1999 both politically
and well geographically they're just
not in Eastern Europe. Those countries are
in Central Europe and today those
countries are politically tied definitely
with the West. There's even an argue that
makes that that's really just Western
Europe in general. See where Prague is, I
mean it's further west than Vienna
geographically, so there's just no way. That is
Central Europe, pure and pure Central Europe.
'Mitteleuropa' as they would say in
German. Another region is South-East
Europe so we talked about the Balkans,
Bulgaria, Romania. Now I think their history
and the geography there is a bit
different. So the countries in South
Eastern Europe have a history apart from
those further to the east of them, like
say Russia or Ukraine. And they don't
have much contact there, with the
exception perhaps of Serbia, Montenegro and
Bulgaria where I was able to speak a
little bit in Russian. They do though
have contact with countries further to
the north of them in Central Europe and
also in Western Europe and in fact those
countries in Southeast Europe have
either already joined the EU and NATO or
they're pushing for further integration
for the last few years. In the former
Soviet Union we have the Baltic countries
right?
Now today I see the Baltic countries
being more in Northern Europe than in
Eastern Europe that's just because
politically they're part of NATO, the
part of the European Union and also
culturally they look more to the north
and to the west. I mean they do have a
sizable russian-speaking minorities
especially in Latvia, also in the capital
of Estonia, Tallinn, the other parts of Estonia
there are sizeable ... a little lot less, so in
Lithuania than in Latvia and Estonia. So
in spite of their recent history in the
Soviet Union these countries to me feel
more like Northern Europe or the Baltics
than they do Eastern European. The South
Caucasus that's Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Georgia but those three
countries are really kind of in between
Europe and Asia. They are kind of in both to be
frank. That's kind of Eurasian.
So I wouldn't really say it's Eastern Europe
per se. So where does all this confusion
come from in fact about Central and
Eastern Europe and what constitutes both?
Well, it really comes from recent history
and at the Cold War because Europe was
divided in two, right down the middle
more or less, and that's why we have west
and east. So there is that line from
basically East Germany
all the way down, when around Austria,
kept Austria in the western side but
then kept the Czech Republic on the eastern
side and that's why still today some
people associate the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Slovakia, Poland as being in East
Europe as opposed to Central Europe. So
that's why there's still a lot of
confusion about where Central Europe
really lies. Czech Republic, Hungary,
Slovakia and Poland are definitely in
Central Europe but for a lot of people
because of this division during the Cold
War, they see them as being in Eastern
Europe. Now that those countries are not
just in European Union but also in other
organizations like NATO, they're clearly
not in that economic and political bloc
that they were during the Cold War which
was obviously the Soviet Union which was
centered around Russia, the Soviet Union itself
was constituted of such social republics
like Belarus, the three Baltic countries -
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - here Ukraine,
Moldova. And also the Warsaw Pact which
was the countries that were aligned or
allied to the Soviet Union which lay
further to the west. So all that was
called Eastern Europe but today that's
definitely central and we need a new
definition of what constitutes Eastern
Europe.
So today Eastern Europe lies further to the
east than it did in the 20th century. Former
Soviet Union in Europe so that's gonna
be Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, here I'm in
the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and Belarus.
So basically this debate about what
constitutes Western, Central or Eastern
Europe comes down more to politics than
to geography because geographically
speaking of course Europe is quite ... is a
lot bigger and extends all the way to
the Ural Mountains, so then basically
everything would be Western Europe right
up until Russia. So what we're talking about is
political. So what makes these countries -
Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Moldova - not
in Western Europe or not in Central
Europe? And that's because they're, number
one, not in NATO and number two, not in the EU.
They share a lot of common history
and culture. They were in the Soviet
Union together. Russian is widely spoken
in the region. I know that's a bit
controversial here in Ukraine especially,
in Western Ukraine where it's not but we'll say
at least up until here in Kyiv,
it's definitely widely spoken.
It's obviously the official language of
Russia and it's widely spoken in Moldova,
here in Ukraine and also in Belarus it's
also an official language. And actually
here in Ukraine it's an official
language in certain regions which
happen to be more east of Ukraine or in
the south. So are they of one kind of polity?
No, definitely not.
Ukraine has decided that it is currently
on a path more westward since the Euro
Maidan protests and the changing
government from ... from more pro-Russian
Viktor Yanukovych
to the current president who is more
pro-European and that's Petro Poroshenko.
So definitely it's starting to change. As as
I'm making this video in April 2017
Moldova and Belarus have forged paths
that are kind of between both Russia and
the European Union.
Moldova even has an association
agreement with the EU, while Belarus has
an economic union with Russia. So maybe
one day we'll actually talk about here
in Kyiv not being in Eastern Europe,
actually being, saying, Central or even
Western Europe, so that is possible. So
perhaps in the near future the
dividing line between Eastern and Western
Europe will in fact be over here or
maybe it will go back to like it was in
1999 and be back here.
So that, I think Eastern Europe is
due to political and of course never
changing geographical
context. Tell me what you think. Do you
like my definition of Eastern Europe or you think
it should be broader, you think it should
even narrower? Write that all stuff in
the comments section below the video.
Give this video a big thumbs up if you
like this. See you in the next one!