THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE SINCE 1919
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loginDividing history into periods is notoriously artificial, but by any historical standard,1919 marked a new beginning in central and eastern Europe. Politically, it had beenlargely divided for at least two centuries, and in many areas for much longer, betweenthe competing empires of Austria, Germany, Russia and Turkey. (See map.) In 1917,however, the Russian Empire had been defeated by Germany. That German victorywas overtaken the following year by the defeat of Austria–Hungary, Germany andTurkey, which marked the end of the First World War in November 1918. This defeatof all the imperial powers created a vacuum unparallelled before or since in whichthe political system could be completely reordered in accordance with the nationalityprinciple. Poland and Lithuania returned to the map of Europe as sovereign states.Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia appeared for the first time, Estonia and Latvia forthe first time as independent entities. Further east, Georgia and the Ukraine brieflyenjoyed autonomy. (See map.)If the timescale of this book is easy to justify, its geographical limits are verymuch harder. This is to no small degree because the terms ‘Central’ and particularly‘Eastern’ Europe have been used to describe subjective perceptions rather thanobjective geographical realities. Before 1919, Central Europe was broadly understoodas the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled from Vienna, and EasternEurope as the territory of the Russian Empire ruled from Saint Petersburg. TheBalkans, comprising the independent states of Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania andSerbia, together with substantial tracts of the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires,formed a third grouping. The new and enlarged states established in 1919 sought togive themselves a more western orientation, but their ambitions enjoyed a mixedresponse. For their German-speaking neighbours, most of them remained essentiallysubordinate, colonial peoples, and under Hitler, they could be swept aside in thecreation of a new GermanLebensraumin the east stretching far into what had becomethe Ukrainian and Caucasian Republics of the Soviet Union. For the British and theFrench, Eastern Europe comprised the states between Germany and the Soviet Union,whose prime interest, particularly for the French, was their presumed role as allies inthe event of another German attack in the west. Embarassing as it may be to recall now,they were identified primarily with romantic revolutionaries, Ruritanian monarchswith colourful mistresses, and ‘being troublesome’. Chamberlain was merely beingtruthful when he declared that ‘Czechoslovakia is a far away country of which weknow nothing’.
