2.4 Eastern Europe

 

 

Unemployment has at times presented very significant problems for the Polish economy and society. Unemployment skyrocketed to nearly 20 percent in the early 1990s. The situation improved, but unemployment was still at about 14 percent in 2006. By 2010 the situation improved further, and the unemployment rate was around 7 percent. When Poland joined the EU, many people left Poland in search of work. Some of those workers who left have recently returned, as the employment rate and wages are both increasing substantially.

Moldova

A variety of cultural and social forces provided different levels of civility in the transitions of Eastern Europe. The poor, agrarian economy of the small, landlocked country of Moldova provides few opportunities or advantages to grow its economy and provide a stronger future for its people. As a result, young people earning an education or technical skills immigrate to other countries for opportunities or employment.

Belarus

In 1991, independence came to the former Soviet Republic of Belarus, but Belarus took a different path from most of the other Eastern bloc countries in that Belarus did not distance itself from its Russian connection. Belarus has consequently experienced authoritarian governments well into the twenty-first century. In this case, Russia and Belarus created a stronger relationship by signing agreements to increase economic integration. Difficulties have hindered implementation of many of these policies. For one thing, the government of Belarus has been slow to move toward democratic reforms. In fact, the president has taken on greater authoritarian powers. Some of the personal freedoms that have been granted in other European countries—freedom of the press, free speech, and the right to peacefully assemble—are still restricted in Belarus. As of 2010, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova have not been admitted into the EU. Belarus has indicated that it might join with the Russian Republic and has not even applied for entry into the EU. Belarus is a member of The EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) a joint initiative involving the EU, its Member States and six Eastern European Partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Belarus-EU relationships began to worsen after the election of Alexander Lukashenko in 1994.

Ukraine

With the largest physical area in Europe, Ukraine is slightly larger than France. Its population in 2010 was approximately forty-six million, and 77 percent of the population is ethnically Ukrainian and 17 percent is Russian. Most of the population live in the industrial regions of the southeast or eastern parts of the country. Though the official language is Ukrainian, many Ukrainians still speak Russian. As is the case with neighboring states, the Eastern Orthodox Church dominates the religious and cultural reflections of the arts, literature, and architecture. Christian themes are often reflected in the paintings, books and performances.

The demographic trend in Ukraine follows a pattern of industrialization with smaller family sizes but continues to have a higher death rate than most European countries. The country is now losing about 150,000 people per year. The low birth rates are similar to those of Russia and southern Europe. Poor health and childhood poverty in Ukraine are two of the main issues confirmed by the United Nations (UN). In 2010, Ukraine had a negative population growth rate of −0.62 percent. Fertility rates have been in decline throughout Europe over the past few decades. The average fertility rate in Ukraine is 1.1, one of the world’s lowest; in Europe as a whole, the average is about 1.3. The causes for some of these trends can be attributed to alcoholism, poor diets, smoking, and the lack of medical care. The average life expectancy for an adult male in Ukraine is about sixty-two years. In comparison, the average life expectancy for men in France is about seventy-eight years.

Of the former Soviet Union republics, excluding Russia, Ukraine was far and away the most important economically, producing about four times the output of the next-ranking Soviet republic. Its fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of the overall Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables for other republics. Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied steel pipes and raw materials to Russia’s oil and mining industry. Ukraine’s political relationship with Russia has been complicated since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but Russia still supplies enormous amounts of natural gas and oil to fuel the economy, and Russia’s markets are still highly integrated with those of Ukraine.

Though Ukraine has transitioned from a Soviet republic to a fully independent country, divisive centrifugal forces have made Ukraine’s path to free elections and democratically elected leaders difficult. Today, the country has a democratically elected government and is working toward improving its economy and creating stability for its people. Russia has long viewed Ukraine as part of itself, and in 2014 invaded and annexed the region of Crimea on the Black Sea.  It then staged a massive assault on the entirety of Ukraine in early 2022, which failed to take the capital city of Kiev, and has been largely rebuffed but is ongoing.

Romania

A number of countries of Eastern Europe have fully transitioned from Communist dictatorships to modern, integrated economies. Romania is one of those countries. Romania encompasses an area equivalent to the US state of Minnesota. Its population of 21.5 million people includes two million who live in Bucharest, the capital and largest city of the country. The Carpathian Mountains circle Romania, with the Transylvanian Alps to the south. The Danube River runs across the region and creates a natural border with Bulgaria and Serbia before flowing into the Black Sea. The Romanian forests are some of the largest in Europe, with about half (13 percent of the country) set aside from logging and placed in watershed conservation programs. The integrity of the ecosystems in the Romanian forests provide diverse habitats for plants and animals. Romania claims to have the most European brown bears and about 40 percent of all European wolves living within its borders.

Tourism is growing in Romania. Almost 5 percent of Romania is placed in protected areas, including thirteen national parks and three biosphere reserves, all of which are attractive to tourists. Tourist attractions also include medieval castles as well as historic Transylvanian cities. Rural tourism focuses on folklore and traditions including such sites as Bran Castle, referred to locally as the castle of Dracula, a mythical person patterned after the stories and legends of Vlad III the Impaler.

Romania’s Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu, ruled from 1965 to 1989. The end of his domination came when the government was overthrown by a revolution. Ceauşescu and his wife were arrested and shot to death. Even after his death, the Communist Party maintained strong ties to the government until the mid-1990s.

The transition to integrate Romania’s economy with that of the greater European economy was delayed because of Romania’s obsolete industrial infrastructure, established during the Communist era. Since joining the EU in 2007, Romania has developed a stronger export market with Western European countries. Investments and consumer confidence have fueled the growth of the domestic economy. Romania has worked through a number of difficult issues in its attempts to provide a stable government and a growing market economy.

Albania

The southern Adriatic is home to the small country of Albania. The rugged mountainous country of Albania has a Muslim majority. Poverty, unemployment, and a lack of opportunities to gain wealth have plagued the country.

Albania has even received Communist support from China. As a result of the war in Kosovo (see below), Albania suffered a major setback in its progress toward an improved standard of living and integration with the rest of Europe. When stability is established, Albania can progress toward becoming more integrated with the European economy and raise its standard of living for its people. A parliamentary democracy has been installed since the Communist era, and foreign investments have aided in developing updated transportation and power grids.

Bulgaria

Located in the crossroads of the continents, Bulgaria has a major trans-European corridor running through its territory that connects all the way to Asia. The country is home to diverse landscapes, which include the sunny Black Sea coast and the higher elevations of the Balkan Mountains, which reach an elevation of 9,596 feet. The Danube River flows across the border with Bulgaria on its way to the Black Sea. About one-third of the country consists of plains, which provide for extensive agricultural activity. Ore and minerals can also be found in Albania, which has allowed the country to gain wealth.

Upon declaring independence from Russia, Bulgaria held multiparty elections. Its economy is emerging, but the transition to a capitalist system has not been without the difficulties of unemployment, inflation, and corruption. Bulgaria became a member of NATO in 2004 and was accepted for EU membership in 2007. The transition to a free market economy is still in progress, with mining, industry, and agriculture as the main economic activities. Tourism is an emerging segment of the economy that has been gaining international attention in recent years. The country has a milder climate than the northern states of Eastern Europe and has been marketing itself as a major tourist destination. Main points of interest include historical monasteries, coastal resorts on the Black Sea, and the capital city of Sofia.

Former Yugoslavia

The name Yugoslavia, applied to the region along the Adriatic in 1929, means Land of the South Slavs. Non-Slavic populations surround Yugoslavia. The region’s core is mountainous. The Dinaric Alps, with the highest peak at just below nine thousand feet in elevation, run through the center of the Balkan Peninsula. The rugged mountains separate and isolate groups of Slavic people who, over time, have formed separate identities and consider themselves different from those on the other sides of the mountain ridges. Distinct subethnic divisions developed into the Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Croats, and Serbs, with various additional groups. These differences led to conflict, division, and war when the breakup of former Yugoslavia began.

World War I started in the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia, when a Serb advocate assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. In the next conflict, World War II, there was also divisiveness within Yugoslavia: Croatia sided with Nazi Germany, but Serbia allied with the Communist Soviet Union. The region of Bosnia, with a Muslim majority, faced religious opposition from its mainly Christian neighbors. A group headed by Marshal Tito (a.k.a. Josip Broz) led Yugoslavia after World War II ended in 1945. Tito created a Communist state that attempted to retain its own brand of neutrality between the Warsaw Pact nations led by the Soviet Union and the NATO nations of the West.

Tito was a centripetal force for the region of Yugoslavia. For over forty years, he held the many ethnic Slavic groups together under what he called Brotherhood and Unity, which was actually the threat of brute military force. It appears to have been effective. The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo as witness to the progress and unity of Tito’s Yugoslavia. At the same time, Yugoslavia started manufacturing a model of automobiles called the Yugo. While the Yugo was not in the same league as high-end European luxury cars, the ability to make and purchase automobiles was a testimony to the rising industrial level of the Yugoslav economy. This progressive trend, unfortunately, was not to last.

 

The Breakup of Former Yugoslavia

Tito died in 1980. The unity that had helped hold the country together began to break down in the early 1990s with the Soviet Union’s collapse. With the dual loss of the Soviet Union and Tito’s strong policies as centripetal forces, the power struggle for dominance among the various ethnic groups began.

In 1991, Slobodan Miloševic began pushing for the nationalistic goal of uniting all the ethnic Serbs that lived in the various parts of Yugoslavia into a Greater Serbia. The situation deteriorated to the point of ethnic cleansing (genocide). A long conflict with extensive bloodshed and intervention by Western peace-keeping forces ensued, and made focal areas of the  conflict such as Bosnia and Kosovo everyday words in America. This situation has evolved, and today a number of independent nation states have descended from the former Yugoslavia. Bosnia today is the most diverse of these, with a majority Muslim population. Miloševic was arrested for war crimes and died awaiting trial. Today the region has calmed and its image has softened; for instance, it today is attracting increasing numbers of tourists to its beautiful Adriatic shoreline and mountains.

Former Yugoslavia represents an example of how divisive centrifugal and devolutionary forces can lead to nationalism and eventually to war. The drive toward a nation-state has fueled nationalism and conflict in the Balkans. The civil wars within former Yugoslavia have cost thousands of lives and destroyed an infrastructure that had taken decades to build. Geographers have called Eastern Europe a shatterbelt because of the conflicts and divisions that have occurred there.

In spite of the problems with the transition in Eastern Europe, the region has nonetheless seen enormous economic gains. Even Slovenia, once part of former Yugoslavia, has rebounded with strong economic growth. Many of the progressive Eastern European countries have been accepted into the EU. The map of the EU includes many of the developing Eastern bloc countries. Eastern Europe has experienced many transitions throughout its history. The transition from communism to capitalism is only one part of the geography and history of Eastern Europe.