Eastern Europe and Russia
A Piece of Empires
While some people have become great empires, others have to be ones that fall to the greats. Eastern Europe has been on of those places. They were part of the Roman Empire, the ByzantineEmpire, and the Ottoman Empire, but none of those powers originated here. Poland had a prettydecent empire from 1500 to 1700when they were overrun by the Russians, the Prussians, and the Austrians.
Eastern Europe is home to many historic ethnic groups. There were the Huns, the Visogoths, andthe Ostrogoths. One group that settled and spread were the Slavs. Groups like the Magyars wouldpush the Slavs out of Hungary, but there were still plenty of room for the Slavic people. Their influenceand culture are found in such countries as Slovakia, Slovenia, and the former Yugoslavia. Another important group is the Roma, who are sometimes referred to as Gypsies. Originally from India, they have lived in Eastern Europe since the 1300s.
The Roma Magyars
A Troubled Region
Serbs have also had a influence on Eastern European culture. It was Serbs in Bosnia that killedArchduke Franz Ferdinand and sent Europe spiraling into World War I. In 1990s, Serbs were the instigators in two wars that have seen one country splinter into 7. 1st the Serbs under Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic attacked Bosnians and Croats in Bosnia and Croatia, two lands that had recentlybecome independent from Yugoslavia. After that, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (same guy)started ethnic cleansing of Albanians in his country's region of Kosovo.
Religion Slobodan Milosevic
The main religion in Eastern Europe is Eastern Orthodox Christian. It is not a subgroup, but a majordivision like the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Important subgroups include the Russian Orthodoxand Greek Orthodox. Christianity came to the region with the Byzantine Empire in the year 1000.
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The Communist Years
The biggest influence over Eastern Europe came from the Soviet Union, which was headed by the country of Russia. At the end of World War II in 1945, all Eastern European countries were under thecontrol of the Soviet Union. During the war Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin made a pact not toattack one another. Stalin was shocked when Hitler went back on his word and attacked Russia. Burned by this betrayal, he took control of these lands, installing puppet leaders to report to him, and used the region as a buffer zone between his country and the powers of Europe, so he would not have to worryabout another surprise attack.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchhill described the takeover as an "Iron Curtain (that) descended across the continent." They closed off trade with countries in the West. This land included East Germany, the section controlled by the Soviet Union after the war. Germany was Germany, but as West Germany became a democracy and started to prosper economically, East Germany suffered, like the rest of Eastern Europe suffered under communist control. With a command economy of government run industries and collective farming, their economies were not as productive. Overall, Eastern Europe was not, and is still not nearly as wealthy and prosperous as Western Europe.
The Iron Curtain
The first country to be free from Soviet control was Yugoslavia. Their leader,Josip Broz Tito, was so ruthless, the Soviets realized that he didn't need their help. The next to be free was Poland. Solidarity startedas a worker's union that was outlawed. Union leader Lech Walesa was imprisoned. He was later freedand Solidarity became a political party. He was elected as the first President of Poland.
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People and Problems
Some other important Eastern Europeans include Elie Wiesel, a writer and survivor of Nazi concentration camps, and Marie Curie, a Polish scientist was whose work with cancer treatment led to x-ray machines. She discovered two substances: radium and polonium. She also won two Nobel Prizes for science. She was the first woman to win the award and the first person to win two.
Elie Wiesel Marie Curie
Coal was a very important product for places like Poland. Under the Soviet Union, there were no laws about the burning of coal in factories, leading to serious pollution problems and acid rain.
The Effect of Acid Rain
Mother Russia
If Eastern Europeans were the puppets of the late 20th century, Russia was the one pulling the strings. Not only did they run Eastern Europe under the Iron Curtain, they were the head of a 15-nation Soviet Union. Even with 14 of the 15 pieces of the Soviet puzzle, Russia by itself is still thelargest country in the world. It covers 6.5 million square miles. It accounts for 10% of the world's
land. It also boasts the highest peak in Europe, (Mt Elbrus in the Caucasus mountains at 18,500 feet) as well as the longest river in Europe, the Volga, at 2300 miles long. Moscow is Russia's capital city. It is home to 10 million people and accounts for 70% of Russia's income.
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Russian Royalty
Early fights over the land now known as Russia, involved such notable names as the Vikings,the Slavs and the Mongols. But it wasn't until the 1400s that the first true leader of Russia emerged,Ivan the Great. Soon,Russia would be ruled by czars, the Russian word for Caesar. Czars were like kings whose power was handed down through a family of royals. Peter the Great was another
important czar. He helped modernize Russia in the 1600s. Another important leader was Catherine the Great, the widow of Peter III, after his assassination. She thought education was important. She built schools in every Russian town. She also got Russian's health care, including a smallpoxvaccine.
The last czar was Nicholas II. During his reign, thousands of angry Russians gathered to ask to improve their living conditions, and they were fired upon. Some concessions were made, but they weren't enough. During World War I Russia had to withdraw due to the Bolshevik Revolution.The Bolsheviks led a communist revolution that killed Czar Nicholas and his entire family.
Czar Nicholas II Vladimir Lenin-first Communist leader
His body is still on display in Red Square
Communist Rule
Vladimir Lenin and the communist party took control in 1917. The Soviet Union officially became a country in 1922. It ruled 15 republics, headquartered in
Russia. Soviet Union became a totalitarian government under Joseph Stalin. Millions died underhis rule. He eliminated anyone he thought was a threat to his regime.
After World War II, Stalin withdrew into his empire. Suspicion between the Soviet Union and the United States grew into the Cold War. The two countries were regarded as the two superpowersof the late 20th century. The Cold War was a war of words, ideas, government, and technology. There was no actual fighting. That's why it was a Cold War; no weapons were fired. Still, fear and uncertainty led each country built large arsenals of weapons to deter an attack.
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The Soviet government was so controlling and so secretive, that the government denied an impending disaster at a nuclear plant, in Chernobyl, in 1986. They not only did not admit to the accident, they failed to warn their own people as a radioactive cloud drifted across the country and into Europe. The explosion and resulting cloud killed 15,000 people.
The Remains of Chernobyl Mikhail Gorbachev
Communism Collapses
By the 1970s, the Soviet Union was on the verge of economic collapse. In the mid 1980s MikhailGorbachev became the nation’s leader. He introduced two democratic principles into aCommunist system; glasnost, meaning openness, referred to people being able to speak out without fear. Perestroika eased strict business practices, allowing farmers to grow the crops they wanted and manufacturers to make products that people wanted.
Poland was the first Iron Curtain country to go free in 1989. Lithuania was the first Soviet state to break free in 1990. One by one, their holdings broke free. By December of 1991 the Soviet Unionhad fallen apart. The country of Georgia had to fight for their freedom. The Muslim region of Chechnya also fought, but were defeated and denied. They remain a part of Russia today.
Modern Russia still struggles with economic success and the openness that the Russian people wanted. Although officially a democracy, a former Soviet agent, Vladimir Putin has held the office of President or Prime Minster in Russia since the year 2000.
The Mysterious Vladimir Putin
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1. Which ethnic group settled and spread?______
2. Which ethnic group started World War I and two genocides in the 1990s?
______
3. What is the main religion of Eastern Europe?______
4. When the Soviet Union took control of Eastern Europe after World War II, what was it compared to?______
5. What was Solidarity?______
6. What awards did Marie Curie win?______
7. How big is Russia?______
8. Which Russian river and mountain range rank as the longest and tallest in
Europe?______
9. What is a czar?______
10. Who made the Soviet Union totalitarian?______
11. What was the Cold War?______
______
12. Where did a nuclear disaster occur?______
13. What is perestroika?______
14. When did communism end?______