Central and Eastern Europe

TL;DR. This chapter covers the lands between Germany and Russia: above all Poland, and the territories once ruled from Vienna by the Habsburg family, which became Austria, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak lands. For centuries this region sat squeezed between powerful neighbors, the German states, Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire, and it was repeatedly partitioned, occupied, and fought over. The huge multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed after World War I, in 1918, and new countries were born. World War II began here with the joint German and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, and much of the Holocaust was carried out on occupied Polish soil. After 1945 the whole region fell under Soviet domination behind the Iron Curtain, with uprisings crushed in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Communism ended peacefully in 1989, Czechoslovakia split calmly into two countries in 1993, and these nations later joined the European Union and the NATO alliance.

Key takeaways

• For most of its history this region lay between great powers and was repeatedly divided up and fought over, which shaped almost everything about it.
• Poland was once a large and important kingdom, then was erased from the map by its neighbors for over a century, then reborn in 1918.
• World War II began with the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, who had secretly agreed to split the country; much of the Holocaust took place on occupied Polish land. This is stated plainly and must never be minimized.
• The Habsburgs ruled a vast, multiethnic Catholic empire from Vienna, a world capital of music, until it broke apart after World War I.
• For about forty years after 1945, these nations lived under communist governments backed by the Soviet Union, and attempts to win freedom were crushed by force in 1956 and 1968.
• Communism collapsed peacefully in 1989, and the region rejoined Western Europe through the European Union and NATO.

Main events at a glance

The big picture: a region in the middle

If you look at a map of Europe, Central and Eastern Europe sits in the wide band of land between the German world to the west and Russia to the east, with the Baltic Sea to the north and the Alps and the Balkans to the south. There are few natural barriers across these plains. Armies have marched back and forth over them for centuries, which helps explain a hard truth about the region's history: again and again, its peoples were caught between stronger empires and had their borders redrawn by others.

For a long time the major powers pressing on this region were the German states and later a united Germany, the Austrian (Habsburg) empire centered on Vienna, the Russian empire to the east, and the Ottoman Empire, the large Muslim state ruled from what is now Turkey, which pushed deep into the region from the south. The nations covered here, the Poles, the Hungarians (who call themselves Magyars), the Czechs, the Slovaks, and others, each had proud histories of their own, but they spent long stretches under foreign rule.

The twentieth century was especially harsh. Two world wars were fought across these lands. From the late 1940s until 1989, the region lay behind what people called the Iron Curtain, a phrase for the closed border and tight political control that separated the Soviet-dominated east of Europe from the free west. After communism fell, most of these countries turned firmly toward Western Europe, joining the European Union, the partnership of European nations that share trade and many laws, and NATO, the military alliance led together with the United States.

Don't be confused: "Eastern Europe" is more of a political label from the Cold War than a precise piece of geography. It was used for the countries on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain. Many people in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia actually think of themselves as Central European, and geographically they sit in the middle of the continent, not its far east. Calling them simply "Eastern" can feel, to them, like lumping them in with the Soviet past they worked hard to leave behind.

The Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian Empire

For roughly four centuries, much of Central Europe was ruled by one remarkable family: the Habsburgs, based in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Through clever marriages as much as through war, the Habsburgs built a sprawling realm that, at its height, included Austria, Hungary, the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia), Slovakia, parts of Poland, and many other territories stretching into the Balkans and Italy. There is even an old saying about this: "Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry."

This was a multiethnic empire, home to Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Croats, Romanians, Italians, and more, speaking many languages. It was strongly Roman Catholic, and the Habsburgs saw themselves as champions of the Catholic faith. One famous moment came in 1683, when an Ottoman army besieged Vienna itself. The city held out and the siege was broken by a relief army that included Polish forces under their king, Jan Sobieski. That victory marked the high point of Ottoman expansion into Central Europe, after which the Ottomans slowly retreated.

Vienna became one of the great cultural capitals of the world, above all in music. Composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (who settled there), Schubert, and later the waltz-writing Strauss family made the city the beating heart of European classical music. This golden age of art, coffeehouses, grand architecture, and elegant city life is part of why the empire is remembered with a certain fondness today, even as people also remember its rigid rule.

In 1867, facing pressure especially from the Hungarians, the empire was reorganized into a partnership called Austria-Hungary, in which Austria and Hungary were two halves sharing the same monarch but running many of their own affairs. This is why you see the double name. The long-reigning emperor Franz Joseph sat on the throne for an extraordinary sixty-eight years, becoming a symbol of the old order.

That order ended in catastrophe. In 1914, in the city of Sarajevo (then part of the empire, now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina), a young assassin shot the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The crisis that followed dragged Europe into World War I. After four years of ruinous war, Austria-Hungary was defeated and, in 1918, it fell apart completely. From its pieces emerged new and reshaped countries, including a small Austria, an independent Hungary, and the brand-new state of Czechoslovakia.

Poland: erased and reborn

A great kingdom

Poland traces its beginnings to the year 966, when its first historical ruler adopted Christianity, an event Poles see as the birth of their nation. Over the Middle Ages Poland grew into a major kingdom. In 1569 it joined with the neighboring Grand Duchy of Lithuania to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous states in all of Europe. It was unusual for its time: it had an elected king, a powerful parliament of nobles, and, by the standards of the age, a notable degree of religious tolerance, which made it a refuge for many people, including one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.

Erased from the map

The Commonwealth weakened over time, partly because its political system made strong central government very hard. Its powerful neighbors took advantage. In a series of three partitions between 1772 and 1795, the lands of Poland were carved up and swallowed by Russia, Prussia (the leading German state), and Austria. By 1795, Poland had vanished from the map entirely. For about 123 years there was no Polish state at all, even though the Polish people, their language, and their Catholic faith lived on. Poles rose in revolts more than once during this period, and each was put down.

Reborn, then invaded

Poland was reborn as an independent country in 1918, after World War I, when the empires that had partitioned it all collapsed or were defeated. Its independence lasted only about twenty years. In 1939, it faced the most devastating attack in its history.

Here the alliances matter, and they are grim. Shortly before the war, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact (also called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), a deal that publicly promised peace between them but secretly agreed to divide Poland and other lands between them. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, which is the event that began World War II. Just over two weeks later, on September 17, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Poland was crushed between the two and again wiped off the map, split between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.

What followed was horror. Both occupiers treated Poles brutally, killing and imprisoning huge numbers of people, especially leaders, teachers, and the educated. And it was on occupied Polish soil that the Nazis built and operated their largest death camps, including Auschwitz. Much of the Holocaust, the deliberate, systematic murder of about six million Jews from across Europe, was carried out here. Poland's own large and ancient Jewish community was almost entirely destroyed. Poland as a whole suffered some of the heaviest losses of any country in the war, counting both its Jewish and its non-Jewish citizens. These are documented facts, established by overwhelming evidence, and they must never be denied or downplayed.

Don't be confused: The death camps were built by Nazi Germany on occupied Polish territory, against the will of the Polish people, who were themselves victims of the occupation. They were not Polish camps, and Poland did not run them. Calling them "Polish death camps" is inaccurate and deeply offensive in Poland, because it wrongly shifts responsibility for German crimes onto their victims. The correct phrase is "Nazi German death camps in occupied Poland."

Communism and the road to freedom

After the war, Poland was not free. It fell under a communist government backed by the Soviet Union, part of the Soviet bloc behind the Iron Curtain. Its borders were also shifted westward, with land lost to the Soviet Union in the east and gained from Germany in the west, which forced millions of people to move.

Poland became famous for resisting communist control, often led by its strong Catholic Church. A turning point came in 1980, when workers at the shipyards in the city of Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, founded Solidarity (Solidarnosc), the first independent trade union allowed in the Soviet bloc. It grew into a mass movement of millions. The government tried to crush it with martial law, but it survived underground. By 1989, with Soviet power fading, the communists agreed to partly free elections, which Solidarity won overwhelmingly. This peaceful victory helped set off the chain of events that ended communism across the whole region. Poland is now a democratic member of the European Union and NATO.

Hungary: the Magyars between empires

The Hungarians, who call themselves Magyars, are unusual in Central Europe because their language is not related to those of their neighbors; it came with people who arrived from the east over a thousand years ago. Hungary became a strong Christian kingdom in the Middle Ages.

Its fortunes turned in the 1500s. After a crushing defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1526, much of Hungary fell under Ottoman rule for around 150 years, while other parts came under the Habsburgs. Once the Ottomans were pushed back, the Habsburgs took control of the whole kingdom. Hungarians chafed under Austrian rule and rose in revolt, most famously in 1848. That uprising was defeated, but the pressure eventually led to the 1867 compromise that created Austria-Hungary, giving Hungary a much greater say.

After Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, an independent Hungary emerged, but a postwar treaty left it much smaller, with large Hungarian-speaking populations living just outside its new borders, a sore point felt to this day. In World War II, Hungary fought on the side of the Axis, alongside Nazi Germany, before being occupied by Germany late in the war and then by the advancing Soviets. Its Jewish community, one of the largest still alive by 1944, was devastated in the Holocaust during this final period.

After the war Hungary became a communist state in the Soviet bloc. In 1956, the Hungarian people rose up in a dramatic uprising against their harsh government and Soviet control, briefly winning freedom. The Soviet Union answered with tanks, crushing the revolt by force and killing thousands, while many more fled the country. The 1956 uprising became one of the most powerful symbols of resistance to Soviet rule. Communism in Hungary finally ended peacefully in 1989, and Hungary joined the European Union and NATO.

The Czech lands and Slovakia

Bohemia and the Czechs

The Czech lands, mainly the historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia, have a long and rich history centered on the beautiful city of Prague. In the Middle Ages, Bohemia was an important kingdom, and Prague was for a time an imperial capital. The Czechs also had an early religious reformer, Jan Hus, who criticized the Catholic Church a full century before Martin Luther and was burned at the stake in 1415, becoming a national hero. From 1526 the Czech lands came under Habsburg rule, where they remained for nearly four hundred years.

Czechoslovakia is born

When Austria-Hungary fell apart in 1918, the Czechs joined with the neighboring Slovaks to form a new country, Czechoslovakia. Between the wars it was one of the most successful democracies in the region, industrially advanced and politically free, an achievement worth remembering.

Betrayal, occupation, and the crushed reforms

That success was cut short. In 1938, Nazi Germany demanded a border region of Czechoslovakia with many German speakers. At a conference in Munich, Britain and France, hoping to avoid war, agreed to let Hitler take it, without Czechoslovakia even being allowed in the room. This Munich Agreement is a classic example of "appeasement," the policy of giving an aggressor what it wants in the hope it will stop. It did not stop. Within months, Germany seized the rest of the Czech lands, and Czechoslovakia was occupied and broken up during World War II.

After the war, Czechoslovakia was rebuilt but soon fell under communist rule in the Soviet bloc. In 1968 came a hopeful moment known as the Prague Spring, when reform-minded communist leaders tried to create "socialism with a human face," easing censorship and loosening control. The Soviet Union would not allow it. In August 1968, a Soviet-led invasion by Warsaw Pact forces (the Soviet bloc's military alliance) rolled in with tanks and crushed the reforms. A period of harsh control followed.

Velvet Revolution and Velvet Divorce

The end, when it came, was remarkably gentle. In 1989, as communism collapsed across the region, mass peaceful protests in Czechoslovakia brought down the government with almost no violence. This is called the Velvet Revolution, because it was as smooth as velvet. The playwright and former political prisoner Vaclav Havel, a leader of the protests, became the country's president.

A few years later, Czechs and Slovaks decided, peacefully and by agreement of their politicians, to go their separate ways. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two independent countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Because it was done calmly and without conflict, this is known as the Velvet Divorce. Both countries later joined the European Union and NATO.

Don't be confused: Three names that sound alike mean different things. Czechoslovakia was the country that existed from 1918 to 1992, joining Czechs and Slovaks together. In 1993 it split into two: the Czech Republic (now often called Czechia), home of the Czechs and the city of Prague, and Slovakia, home of the Slovaks and the city of Bratislava. They are separate, friendly countries today. The Czech Republic is not "the new name for Czechoslovakia"; it is one of the two pieces it broke into.

Daily life and culture

Despite their shared history of being caught between empires, these nations have strong and distinct identities, each with its own language and traditions. The Habsburg centuries left a common stamp in places, in grand old town squares, coffeehouse culture, ornate churches, and a certain shared sense of Central European style. The Soviet decades left a different mark: blocky concrete apartment buildings on the edges of cities, a generation's memory of shortages and censorship, and, since 1989, an energetic effort to modernize and rejoin the West.

Religion varies across the region, which is part of what makes it interesting. Poland is strongly and famously Roman Catholic, a faith tied tightly to national identity, especially after the church helped lead resistance to communism. Hungary and Slovakia are mixed, with both Catholic and Protestant communities. The Czech Republic, by contrast, is one of the least religious countries in Europe, with many people identifying with no religion at all, partly a legacy of its history and the communist era. Small Orthodox Christian communities also exist, more common as you move east and south.

Family, food, and seasonal traditions matter a great deal. Christmas and Easter are celebrated warmly, often with church traditions in the Catholic countries and with distinctive local customs and foods. After decades of being cut off, the region today is also a magnet for visitors, who come for the storybook beauty of cities like Prague, Krakow, and Budapest, which survived the wars far better than many others.

Notable people

• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 to 1543). A Polish astronomer who proposed that the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun, a revolutionary idea that reshaped science.
• Frederic Chopin (1810 to 1849). A Polish composer and pianist whose deeply emotional piano music is among the most beloved in the world; he is a national treasure in Poland.
• Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867 to 1934). Born in Poland, a pioneering scientist who won two Nobel Prizes for her work on radioactivity, the first person ever to do so.
• Karol Wojtyla, known as Pope John Paul II (1920 to 2005). A Polish priest who became the first non-Italian pope in centuries. His visits home and his moral support gave great courage to the Solidarity movement and the wider struggle against communism.
• Lech Walesa (born 1943). The shipyard electrician who led the Solidarity movement and later became the first freely elected president of post-communist Poland.
• Vaclav Havel (1936 to 2011). A Czech playwright imprisoned under communism who became the moral voice of the Velvet Revolution and then president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic.
• Antonin Dvorak (1841 to 1904) and Bedrich Smetana (1824 to 1884). Czech composers who wove their nation's folk melodies into world-famous classical music.
• Franz Liszt (1811 to 1886). A celebrated composer and pianist of Hungarian background, one of the towering musical figures of his century.

Religion and minorities

The story of the region's minorities is essential and, in parts, painful. For centuries, Central and Eastern Europe was home to some of the largest and most vibrant Jewish communities in the world, especially in Poland and Hungary. They contributed enormously to the region's culture, learning, and economic life. The Holocaust, carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, destroyed these communities almost completely. Cities and towns that had been centers of Jewish life for hundreds of years were emptied by mass murder. This loss is permanent, and remembering it honestly is a duty the region's nations take seriously today, with memorials and preserved sites such as Auschwitz kept as warnings.

The Roma (sometimes called Gypsies, a term now often considered insulting) are another important minority across the region, with communities in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere. The Roma were also targeted for murder by the Nazis during the Holocaust. To this day, Roma communities face serious discrimination, poverty, and exclusion in many places, a real and ongoing problem that these societies continue to struggle with. An honest account of the region has to name this clearly.

There are also national minorities created by the way borders were drawn, such as large numbers of ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries after Hungary's borders shrank in 1920. These groups are mostly part of peaceful daily life, though they sometimes feature in political tensions between governments.

Food: each nation's own table

The cuisines here are hearty and warming, suited to cold winters, and each country is proud of its own. They share some family resemblances, but it is worth keeping them distinct.

Poland

Polish food is rich and comforting. Its most famous dish is the pierogi, soft dumplings stuffed with fillings such as potato and cheese, meat, sauerkraut and mushroom, or sweet fruit. Another signature is kielbasa, a flavorful smoked sausage. Bigos, a slow-cooked "hunter's stew" of cabbage, sauerkraut, and meat, is a national favorite, along with hearty soups like beetroot barszcz. Polish meals are warm, filling, and tied closely to holidays and family.

Hungary

Hungarian cooking is famous above all for paprika, the bright red ground pepper that flavors and colors many dishes. The best-known is goulash (gulyas), a rich soup or stew of meat, onions, and paprika that is practically a national symbol. Hungarians also love chicken paprikash (chicken in a creamy paprika sauce) and langos (a deep-fried flatbread eaten as street food). The cooking is bold, warming, and unmistakably its own.

The Czech lands and Slovakia

Czech food centers on roast meats, thick gravies, and above all dumplings (knedliky), soft sliced bread or potato dumplings served to soak up sauce, as with the classic roast pork. But the Czech Republic is perhaps most famous for its beer. Czechs are among the greatest beer drinkers in the world, and the city of Plzen gave its name to pilsner, the clear golden lager style now brewed everywhere on Earth. Slovak cooking is similar and hearty, with a beloved national dish of bryndzove halusky, small potato dumplings with a tangy sheep's cheese.

Don't be confused: These cuisines overlap because the countries were neighbors and shared rulers for centuries, but they are genuinely distinct. Polish pierogi, Hungarian goulash with paprika, and Czech dumplings with beer each belong to their own national table and should not be blurred together into one generic "Eastern European" food.

Everyday life: relationships, family, and home

Daily life across Central and Eastern Europe today looks much like life elsewhere in modern Europe, though shaped by local custom and by the recent communist past. In matters of dating and marriage, young adults across the region largely choose their own partners and marry for love, while still keeping close ties to parents and grandparents. There are real differences in tone. Poland tends to be more traditional and more religious, with the Roman Catholic Church influencing many family customs and views on marriage. Czechia is more secular, and people there are on average less guided by religion in personal life. Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria sit between these in their own ways, with Austria a wealthy, generally liberal Western society.

Attitudes to same-sex relationships also vary by country and are still changing. Austria and Czechia have recognized forms of same-sex partnership, and Austria allows same-sex marriage, while Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia have not extended marriage rights in the same way and remain more conservative on the question. It is fair to say opinion differs widely both between and within these countries.

Family is a strong thread everywhere. Grandparents often play a large part in raising children, sometimes living nearby or helping with childcare, and Sunday meals or holiday gatherings with several generations are common and valued. Children typically start formal schooling around age six, after kindergarten years. Pets are popular across the region, with dogs and cats common in both city apartments and country homes.

Home customs carry some shared habits. In many households across all five countries it is normal to remove your shoes when entering a home, and a guest is usually offered slippers or simply asked to take shoes off at the door. The communist decades left a visible legacy in housing: large blocks of concrete apartment buildings, built quickly to house workers, still ring many cities, and a great many families own the flats they once rented from the state. Older habits of thrift, home cooking, and making things last also linger from years of shortages, alongside very modern, connected city life.

School, work, and the economy

Schooling in the region is generally free and public, with strong, long-standing traditions in mathematics, the sciences, and music. Music education in particular has deep roots, especially in Austria and the Czech lands, with their conservatories and orchestras. Pupils usually learn at least one foreign language, often English, and frequently German, which is widely useful given Austria's place at the region's heart. University education is well established and, in many cases, low cost for citizens.

Working life resembles that of the wider European Union: a standard week of around forty hours, paid holiday leave, and public healthcare and pension systems. Habits differ in small ways from place to place, and Austria, as a long-time wealthy member, has higher wages and living costs than its neighbors to the east, though that gap has narrowed.

On the economy, the region's story since 1989 is one of fast change. After communism ended, these countries moved from state-run economies to market economies, joined the European Union in 2004, and drew large investment. Manufacturing, and the car industry in particular, became a backbone of growth in Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary, which host major automobile plants and supply factories. Slovakia in particular became one of the largest car producers per person in the world. Poland has the region's biggest economy by total size and a broad mix of industry, services, and agriculture. Austria stands apart as a wealthy, older EU member with a mature economy built on industry, services, and tourism. Living standards across the eastern countries rose markedly after EU membership, even as wages stayed below the Western European average.

Language, idioms, and words to know

The region is a meeting point of language families, which is part of what makes it fascinating. Polish, Czech, and Slovak are Slavic languages, related to one another and to Russian, though written in the Latin alphabet with their own accents and spellings. Czech and Slovak are close enough that speakers can largely understand each other. Hungarian, by contrast, is not an Indo-European language at all; it belongs to the small Finno-Ugric family (distantly related to Finnish and Estonian) and sounds and works very differently from its neighbors. In Austria, the language is German, spoken in distinctive Austrian dialects.

A few simple greetings go a long way:

• Polish: "dzien dobry" (good day, a polite hello) and "dziekuje" (thank you).
• Czech: "dobry den" (good day) and "dekuji" (thank you).
• Slovak: "dobry den" (good day) and "dakujem" (thank you).
• Hungarian: "jo napot" (good day) and "koszonom" (thank you).
• German (Austria): "guten Tag" (good day), and in Austria you will often hear the friendly greeting "Servus" and "danke" (thank you).

The Czech writer Milan Kundera titled one of his best-known novels The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a phrase that has entered common use. As a rule, it is safest to learn a few real words and a respectful greeting rather than to repeat sayings you are not sure about, since proverbs lose their meaning when mistranslated.

Famous places to know

• Krakow (Poland). A beautifully preserved old royal capital, with a grand market square and castle, beloved by visitors.
• Warsaw (Poland). Poland's capital, largely rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II, with a faithfully restored old town.
• Auschwitz (Poland). The site of the largest Nazi German death camp on occupied Polish soil, now a memorial and museum to the victims of the Holocaust, treated with great solemnity.
• Prague (Czechia). A storybook city of bridges, spires, and a famous castle, one of the best-preserved historic capitals in Europe.
• Budapest (Hungary). Hungary's capital, split by the Danube River into Buda and Pest, known for its grand parliament building and thermal baths.
• Vienna (Austria). The former Habsburg imperial capital and a world center of classical music, with palaces, museums, and coffeehouses.
• The Tatra Mountains. A dramatic mountain range along the Polish-Slovak border, popular for hiking and skiing.

Fitting in: visiting, impressing people, and being a good citizen

Visitors are generally welcomed warmly, and a little courtesy is noticed and appreciated. People across the region tend to value politeness and a degree of formality, especially on first meeting: a handshake, using titles or "Mr." and "Mrs." until invited to do otherwise, and learning a greeting in the local language all make a good impression. In homes, remember the common custom of removing your shoes at the door. If you share a drink, note that toasting customs matter; it is polite to make eye contact when you raise a glass and to wait for the host's toast before drinking.

Above all, treat the difficult twentieth-century history with respect. Holocaust memorial sites such as Auschwitz are places of mourning and should be visited quietly and seriously, without loud behavior or casual photography of yourself. Showing that you understand the region's suffering under both Nazi occupation and Soviet domination, and getting the facts right, earns real goodwill.

For practical travel, all five countries are members of the European Union, and they are part of the Schengen area, which allows border-free travel between many European countries. Entry rules depend on your nationality and can change, so always check the official requirements before you travel. This book is general information, not legal advice.

Suggested reading, news, and links

Books. For literature from the region, the plays and essays of Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright and president, and the novels of Milan Kundera, such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, are widely respected starting points. For history, look for well-reviewed general histories of Central Europe and of Poland from reputable publishers and university presses; if you are unsure of a specific title, ask a librarian for a recommended overview of the region's modern history.

News. For coverage in English, the BBC and major international newspapers report regularly on the region. There are also English-language outlets focused on the area, such as Notes from Poland, along with the English-language services of various national broadcasters and press agencies. Reading more than one source gives a fuller picture.

Links. Useful, stable starting points include:

• The official national tourism websites of each country (search for the official tourism board of Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, or Austria).
• BBC country profiles (bbc.com), which give short, factual overviews of each nation.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (britannica.com) for reliable background articles.

Today, and how to talk about it

Today the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are free, democratic countries and members of the European Union and NATO. The change since 1989 has been enormous: cities have been restored, economies have grown, and a region that spent the twentieth century being invaded and occupied now helps shape the future of a united Europe. Their citizens travel, study, and work freely across the continent in a way their grandparents could scarcely have imagined.

A few points help when talking about the region with care. First, remember that many people here prefer to be called Central European rather than "Eastern," because the latter can sound like being grouped with the Soviet past they fought to escape. Second, handle the wartime history honestly and gently: these were lands where terrible things were done to people, including the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany on occupied soil and the long, hard decades of Soviet domination. Honoring the victims and getting the responsibility right matters a great deal here.

Third, recognize how recent freedom is. People now in middle age grew up under communism, with its shortages, its secret police, and its limits on speech and travel. That memory shapes how the region thinks about liberty, about Russia, and about its place in Europe. These countries are not defined by their suffering, but by how they have rebuilt: with their languages intact, their cultures flourishing, their music still played in the great halls of Vienna and Prague, and their futures, at last, in their own hands.

Next we travel north and west to a region of seafarers, social welfare, and famous design: The Nordics and the Low Countries. 👉