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97-648: The final report "denied the authenticity of the pogroms" but it noted "isolated excesses" of antisemitic nature, in which approximately 300 Polish Jews died, which it attributed to the chaos of the post war situation. It also cleared the Polish government of any role or support for the incidents, although it did chastise it for insensitivity with regard to Jewish issues, and suggested "culpable negligence". Morgenthau also criticized both Zionism and Polish nationalism as well as "widespread antisemitic prejudice" created by contemporary social and political conflicts. The report stated that

194-605: A "fine service," while others considered its findings to be a "whitewash" of Polish atrocities. The possibility of bias in the Morgenthau report has been discussed by numerous scholars. Professor Andrzej Kapiszewski wrote that the report was influenced by U.S. foreign policy objectives at the time. Professor Neal Pease wrote, "To protect Poland's international reputation against widespread, if exaggerated, accusations of mistreatment of her large Jewish minority, Washington dispatched an investigatory commission led by Henry Morgenthau, one of

291-429: A "fuzzy" term, as the idea itself of Eastern Europe is in constant redefinition. The solidification of the idea of an "Eastern Europe" dates back chiefly to the (French) Enlightenment . There are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related United Nations paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct ". While

388-580: A complete boycott of Polish Jews, while the leading weekly Mysl Niepodlegla accused Wilson of siding against the Polish people in favor of Jews who "live upon usury, fraud, receiving of stolen goods, white slavery, counterfeiting and willful bankruptcy." While Paderewski had welcomed the investigation, Morgenthau found hostility in other Polish political circles, especially from the camps of National Democratic Party ("Endecja") leader Roman Dmowski and his rival, Chief of State Jozef Pilsudski . Compared to Paderewski, who had substantial U.S. support, Pilsudski at

485-821: A consultation with any well known non-Jewish inhabitant. In Lviv (then Lwów or Lemberg) in 1918, after the Polish Army captured the city, 72 Jews were killed by a Polish mob that included Polish soldiers. The report states that in Lviv "disreputable elements [from the Polish Army] plundered to the extent of many millions of crowns the dwellings and stores in the Jewish quarter, and did not hesitate to murder when they met with resistance." Some other events in Poland were later found to have been exaggerated, especially by contemporary newspapers such as

582-899: A geopolitical concept that became known as the Eastern Bloc . This consisted of: With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the political landscape of the Eastern Bloc , and indeed the world, changed. In the German reunification , the Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic in 1990. In 1991, COMECON , the Warsaw Pact , and the Soviet Union were dissolved. Many European nations that had been part of

679-506: A gradualist manner, backed by the Soviets in many, but not all, cases. For a while, cooperative non-Communist parties were tolerated. The Communist governments nationalized private businesses, placing them under state ownership, and monitored the media and churches. When dividing up government offices with coalition partners, the Communists took control of the interior ministries, which controlled

776-434: A monopoly on managing and implementing a state's or federation's monetary policy. Besides monetary policy, some of them even perform the supervision of the financial intermediary system. In the case of a price stability function, the inflation rate, in the examined area, relatively quickly dropped to below 5% by 2000. In monetary policy the differences are based on the euro-zone: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia use

873-455: A relatively high standard of living . This period is also called the east-central European golden age of around 1600. At the beginning of the 17th century, numeracy levels in eastern Europe were relatively low, although regional differences existed. During the 18th century, the regions began to catch up with western Europe, but did not develop as rapidly. Areas with stronger female autonomy developed more quickly in terms of numeracy. Serfdom

970-482: A separate chapter deals with public finances. Generally, they soon encountered the following problems: high inflation, high unemployment, low economic growth, and high government debt. By 2000 these economies were stabilized, and between 2004 and 2013 all of them joined the European Union. Most of the constitutions define directly or indirectly the economic system of the countries parallel to the democratic transition of

1067-501: A small, non-representative group of local peasants and young Jewish communists who kept on shooting at the Poles from concealment. An interim civilian administration was set up in Pińsk, but the hostilities continued. There were instances of Polish soldiers being singled out at night and murdered. On April 5, 1919, seventy-five Jewish residents of the city met at a local Zionist center to discuss

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1164-404: A wide range of "excesses," (Morgenthau's preferred term) and had no specific definition. Tadeusz Piotrowski , noted that Morgenthau reasons for avoiding the word pogrom was based on the chaotic conditions existing within a war zone. Morgenthau noted that it would be unfair to condemn the entire Polish nation for the acts of renegade troops or mobs, and believed the attacks were not premeditated or

1261-559: Is a subregion of the European continent . As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains , whilst its western boundary is defined in various ways. Most definitions include the countries of Belarus , Russia , Ukraine , Moldova , and Romania while less restrictive definitions may also include some or all of

1358-527: Is nearly 44%, but the deviation is great because the lowest figure is close to 10% but the highest is 97%. The trend shows that the sovereign debt ratio to GDP in most countries has been rising. Only three countries are affected by high government debt: Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia (over 70% of the GDP), while Slovakia and Poland fulfill the Maastricht requirement but only 10% below the threshold. The contribution to cover

1455-563: Is not a strict determinant for Eastern Europe, where from Croatia to Poland and everywhere in between, the Latin alphabet is used. Greece's status as the cradle of Western civilization and an integral part of the Western world in the political, cultural and economic spheres has led to it being nearly always classified as belonging not to Eastern, but Southern or Western Europe. During the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, Eastern Europe enjoyed

1552-558: Is overwhelmingly Orthodox, but is very rarely included in "Eastern Europe", for a variety of reasons, the most prominent being that Greece's history, for the most part, was more influenced by Mediterranean cultures and dynamics. The fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the Cold War east–west division in Europe, but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by

1649-586: Is predominantly Armenian Apostolic . The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe . To a lesser degree, forms of Eastern Protestantism and Eastern Catholicism have also been influential in Eastern Europe. Countries where Eastern Protestantism or Eastern Catholicism hold historical significance include Belarus, Croatia , Greece, Hungary , Lithuania , Poland , Romania, Russia, Slovakia , Slovenia and Ukraine. The schism refers to

1746-411: Is sometimes used for a more neutral grouping. Several definitions of Eastern Europe exist in the early 21st century, but they often lack precision and may be anachronistic. These definitions are debated across cultures and among experts, even political scientists , as the term has a wide range of geopolitical , geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. It has also been described as

1843-572: Is the scene of serious warfare against the Bolshevists, it becomes necessary to act with considerable energy and prompt decision. It is a case of destroying the Bolshevistic disease or being destroyed by it." Despite attempts of the Polish authorities to suppress the story, accounts of the incident in the international press caused a scandal which would have strong repercussions abroad. The Polish Group Commander General Antoni Listowski claimed that

1940-700: The New York Times , although serious abuses against the Jews, including pogroms, continued elsewhere, especially in Ukraine . The result of the concern over the fate of Poland's Jews was a series of explicit clauses in the Versailles Treaty protecting the rights of minorities in Poland . In 1921, Poland's March Constitution gave the Jews the same legal rights as other citizens and guaranteed them religious tolerance. While critical of some local Polish authorities on scene,

2037-757: The Achaemenid Persian , Parthian , and Sassanid Persian Empires. Parts of the Balkans and some more northern areas were ruled by the Achaemenid Persians as well, including Thrace , Paeonia , Macedon , and most of the Black Sea coastal regions of Romania , Ukraine , and Russia . Owing to the rivalry between the Parthian Empire and Rome , and later between Byzantium and the Sassanid Persians ,

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2134-757: The Balkans , the Baltic states , the Caucasus , and the Visegrád group . The region represents a significant part of European culture ; the main socio-cultural characteristics of Eastern Europe have historically been defined by the traditions of the East Slavs and Greeks , as well as by the influence of Eastern Christianity as it developed through the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire . Another definition

2231-592: The Central and Eastern European member states, including the Baltic states , that accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia. The economic changes were in harmony with the constitutional reforms: constitutional provisions on public finances can be identified and, in some countries,

2328-662: The East–West Schism of 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic Western and Central Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church , Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet . The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) was formed by Alcuin of York during the Carolingian Renaissance of

2425-703: The European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. Georgia and Armenia are seeking EU membership, with Georgia also seeking NATO membership alongside. There are two de facto republics with limited recognition in the South Caucasus region that exist under the presence of Russian military. Both states participate in the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations : Former republics with limited recognition: Some European republics of

2522-704: The Nordic-Baltic Eight regional cooperation forum whereas Central European countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrád Group . The Northern Future Forum , the Nordic Investment Bank , the Nordic Battlegroup , the Nordic-Baltic Eight and the New Hanseatic League are other examples of Northern European cooperation that includes the three countries collectively referred to as

2619-535: The Polish Army . The Polish commander "sought to terrorize the Jewish population" after claiming to being warned by two Jewish soldiers about a possible Bolshevik uprising. The event occurred during the opening stages of the Polish–Soviet War , after the Polish Army had captured Pinsk. The Jews who were executed had been arrested while meeting in a Zionist center to discuss the distribution of American relief aid;

2716-627: The Polish Pogrom at Pinsk , and was noticed by wider public opinion. Upon a request of Polish authorities to president Woodrow Wilson , an American mission was sent to Poland to investigate nature of the alleged atrocities. The mission, led by Jewish-American diplomat Henry Morgenthau, Sr. , published the Morgenthau Report on October 3, 1919. According to the findings of this commission, a total of about 300 Jews lost their lives in this and related incidents . The commission also severely criticized

2813-595: The Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars which erupted in the aftermath of the World War I . In June 1919, Herbert Hoover , then head of the American Relief Administration (ARA), after discussions with Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski , wrote to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson warning that the reports of atrocities were damaging the reputation of Poland, a nascent ally being cultivated by

2910-582: The State Department . Back home, he was a leader of the National Polish Department of America , a major organization of Polish-American expats . Upon his arrival, he identified himself to local authorities as the ARC mission 's Lieutenant Colonel sent to investigate local health conditions in hospitals. Although not an eyewitness, Fronczak accepted Luczynski's claims that the aid distribution meeting

3007-406: The 1920s, but all of them (except Czechoslovakia and Finland) gave up democracy during the depression years of the 1930s, in favor of autocratic, strong-man or single-party states. The new states were unable to form stable military alliances, and one by one were too weak to stand up against Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, which took them over between 1938 and 1945. Russia ended its participation in

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3104-408: The 1990s: free-market economy (sometimes complemented with the socially [and ecologically] oriented sector), economic development, or only economic rights are included as a ground for the economy. In the case of fiscal policy, the legislative, the executive and other state organs (Budget Council, Economic and Social Council) define and manage the budgeting. The average government debt in the countries

3201-713: The 5th century, marking the start of the Early Middle Ages . By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire—the Byzantine Empire —had a survival strategy that kept it alive for another 1,000 years. The rise of the Frankish Empire in the west, and in particular the Great Schism that formally divided Eastern and Western Christianity in 1054, heightened the cultural and religious distinctiveness between Eastern and Western Europe. Much of Eastern Europe

3298-532: The 9th century, limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time. "European" as a cultural term did not include many of the territories under the influence of Eastern Christianity until the early nineteenth century. A large section of Eastern Europe is formed by countries with dominant Orthodox churches, like Belarus , Bulgaria , Cyprus , Georgia , Greece , Moldova , Montenegro , North Macedonia , Romania , Russia , Serbia , and Ukraine , for instance, as well as Armenia , which

3395-713: The Baltic states. The South Caucasus nations of Armenia , Azerbaijan , and Georgia are included in definitions or histories of Eastern Europe. They are located in the transition zone of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. They participate in the European Union 's Eastern Partnership program, the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly , and are members of the Council of Europe , which specifies that all three have political and cultural connections to Europe. In January 2002,

3492-555: The Cold War Era. The following countries are labelled Southeast European by some commentators, though others still consider them to be Eastern European. Partially recognized states : Despite being frequently classified as a Central Asian country, about 4% of Kazakhstan 's territory, situated west of the Ural River , geographically lies in Eastern Europe, thus technically making it a transcontinental country . Ancient kingdoms of

3589-723: The First World War in March 1918 and lost territory, as the Baltic countries and Poland became independent. The region was the main battlefield in the Second World War (1939–45), with German and Soviet armies sweeping back and forth, with millions of Jews and others killed by the Nazis in the Generalplan Ost , and millions of others killed by disease, starvation, and military action, or executed after being deemed as politically dangerous. During

3686-561: The First World War was the breakup of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires, as well as partial losses to the German Empire. A surge of ethnic nationalism created a series of new states in Eastern Europe, validated by the Versailles Treaty of 1919 . Poland was reconstituted after the partitions of the 1790s had divided it between Germany, Austria, and Russia. New countries included Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine (which

3783-639: The Parthians would invade the region several times, although it was never able to hold the area, unlike the Sassanids who controlled most of the Caucasus during their entire rule. The earliest known distinctions between east and west in Europe originate in the history of the Roman Republic . As the Roman domain expanded, a cultural and linguistic division appeared. The mainly Greek-speaking eastern provinces had formed

3880-476: The Pinsk massacre, the Morgenthau report notes that, with respect to the claims of the Polish authorities that the meeting was a gathering of a Bolshevik nature, We are convinced that no arguments of a Bolshevist nature were mentioned in the meeting in question. While it is recognized that certain information of Bolshevist activities in Pinsk had been reported by two Jewish soldiers, we are convinced that Major Luczynski,

3977-597: The Soviet Union declared or regained their independence ( Belarus , Moldova , Ukraine , as well as the Baltic States of Latvia , Lithuania , and Estonia ). Czechoslovakia peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Many countries of this region joined the European Union , namely Bulgaria , the Czech Republic , Croatia , Estonia, Hungary , Latvia, Lithuania, Poland , Romania , Slovakia and Slovenia . The term "EU11 countries" refer to

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4074-567: The Soviet army. It included the German Democratic Republic (also known as East Germany), formed by the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. All the countries in Eastern Europe adopted communist modes of control by 1948. These countries were officially independent of the Soviet Union, but the practical extent of this independence was quite limited. Yugoslavia and Albania had Communist control that

4171-405: The Town Commander, showed reprehensible and frivolous readiness to place credence in such untested assertions, and on this insufficient basis took inexcusably drastic action against reputable citizens whose loyal character could have been immediately established by a consultation with any well known non-Jewish inhabitant. The report also found that the official statements by General Antoni Listowski,

4268-467: The U.S. dollar shows that drastic interventions were not necessary. National wealth or assets are the property of the state or local governments and, as an exclusive property, the management and protection of them aim at serving the public interest. 50°N 30°E  /  50°N 30°E  / 50; 30 Pinsk massacre The Pinsk massacre was the mass execution of thirty-five Jewish residents of Pinsk on April 5, 1919, by

4365-423: The U.S. to counter Soviet Russia . Hoover, whose ARA oversaw relief efforts in Europe, secured the support of Paderewski through blunt warnings that the reports of atrocities against Jews "could develop into a most serious embarrassment to all of us in connection with the relief of Poland." Such pressure for government action reached the point where President Woodrow Wilson sent an official commission to investigate

4462-442: The abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. Emancipation meant that the ex-serfs paid for their freedom with annual cash payments to their former masters for decades. The system varied widely country by country, and was not as standardized as in Western Europe. Historians, until the 20th century, focused on master-serf economic and labor relations, portraying the serfs as slave-like, passive, and isolated. 20th century scholars downplayed

4559-479: The actions of Major Łuczyński and his superiors with regards to handling of the events in Pinsk. At the same time the allied commission determined that the cause of the events couldn't be attributed to antisemitism and the United States representative lieutenant Foster stated that Major's Łuczyński i's actions were justified in the circumstances. Morgenthau later recounted the massacre in autobiography, where he wrote: Who were these thirty-five victims? They were

4656-417: The actions of deserters and undisciplined individual soldiers; none were blamed on official government policy. Among the incidents investigated by the Morgenthau mission was the Pinsk massacre . In Pinsk, a Polish officer accused a group of Jewish civilians who had gathered at a town meeting to discuss the distribution of American relief aid of being Bolsheviks and of plotting against the Poles. Thirty-five of

4753-446: The candidate countries Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia as Central and Eastern European . UNESCO , EuroVoc , National Geographic Society , Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography , and the STW Thesaurus for Economics place the Baltic states in Northern Europe , whereas the CIA World Factbook places the region in Eastern Europe with a strong assimilation to Northern Europe . They are members of

4850-408: The commission also stated that in general the Polish military and civil authorities did do their best to prevent the incidents and their recurrence in the future. It concluded that some forms of discrimination against Jews was of political rather than anti-Semitic nature, rooted in political competition. The report specifically avoided use of the term " pogrom ," noting that the term was used to apply to

4947-432: The committee, negotiating the appropriate way to distribute it. Instead of personally investigating the matter, he went from Brest to Warsaw as soon as he learned of what had happened, where he publicized his version of the events as - "A Massacre of Innocent Civilians" . In an attempt to assure Herbert Hoover that everything was alright, Ignacy Jan Paderewski said that: "In this district [the region around Pinsk], which

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5044-487: The common currency. The economies of this decade – similar to the previous one – show a moderate inflation. As a new phenomenon, a slight negative inflation (deflation) appeared in this decade in several countries (Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), which demonstrates sensitivity regarding international developments. The majority of the constitutions determine the national currency, legal tender or monetary unit. The local currency exchange rate to

5141-413: The condition of Jews in Poland was not satisfactory and could be improved but also noted that the situation had been widely exaggerated. Morgenthau called for improvement in Polish-Jewish relations which required good willed people to stand up against "extremists on both sides". Popularly regarded as the definitive statement of the commission, in effect, it was a minority opinion released one month ahead of

5238-431: The dispute. He attended a packed service for the 35 Jewish victims of the Pinsk massacre of April 1919, noting afterward that "This was the first time I ever completely realized what the collective grief of a persecuted people was like." The Morgenthau report ultimately identified eight major incidents in the years 1918–1919, and estimated the number of victims at between 200 and 300 Jews. Four of these were attributed to

5335-447: The distribution of American relief aid according to eyewitness accounts. Public meetings were banned at the time because random shots were still being heard and the town had recently been under Bolshevik control. According to some accounts the meeting had received approval from Polish military authorities. When major Aleksander Narbutt-Łuczyński heard that the meeting was a Bolshevik gathering, he initially ordered his troops to arrest

5432-400: The eastern geographical boundaries of Europe are well defined, the boundary between Eastern and Western Europe is not geographical but historical, religious and cultural, and is harder to designate. The Ural Mountains , Ural River , and the Caucasus Mountains are the geographical land border of the eastern edge of Europe. E.g. Kazakhstan , which is mainly located in Central Asia with

5529-558: The establishment of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1596. However, the concept of Eastern Catholicism itself predates this. Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Catholic (and later additionally Protestant ) churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian (often incorrectly labelled "Greek Orthodox") churches in the east. Due to this religious cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A cleavage of this sort is, however, often problematic; for example, Greece

5626-433: The evils and emphasize the complexities. Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia , for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept the peasants in serfdom. A major result of

5723-408: The fact that they were Jews, while Jadwin and Johnson concluded that the violence against Jews in Poland was largely rooted in Jewish separatism and commercial competition. Assessments of the mission's works varied, with supporters and critics alternately concluding that it had either debunked allegations of Polish anti-semitism or provided support for them. Hoover considered the mission as having done

5820-450: The fall of the Berlin Wall, continued to feel a moral duty to support states that have not been "liberated from the tyranny of capitalism". This shared duty collapsed when most of the former Soviet satellites abandoned socialism and adopted capitalism. EuroVoc , a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union , classifies Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, plus

5917-479: The final stages of World War II the future of Eastern Europe was decided by the overwhelming power of the Soviet Red Army, as it swept the Germans aside. It did not reach Yugoslavia and Albania, however. Finland was free but forced to be neutral in the upcoming Cold War. Throughout Eastern Europe, German-speaking populations were expelled to the reduced borders of Germany in one of the largest ethnic cleansing operations in history. Regions where Germans had formed

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6014-473: The finances for common needs is declared, the principle of just tax burden-sharing is supplemented sometimes with special aspects. Tax revenues expose typically 15–19 % of the GDP, and rates above 20% only rarely can be found. The state audit of the government budget and expenditures is an essential control element in public finances and an important part of the concept of checks and balances. The central banks are independent state institutions, which possess

6111-834: The former Soviet Union are considered a part of Eastern Europe: Unrecognized states : The term "Central Europe" is often used by historians to designate states formerly belonging to the Holy Roman Empire , the Habsburg Empire , and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In some media, "Central Europe" can thus partially overlap with "Eastern Europe" of the Cold War Era. The following countries are labelled Central European by some commentators, though others still consider them to be Eastern European. Some countries in Southeast Europe can be considered part of Eastern Europe. Some of them can sometimes, albeit rarely, be characterized as belonging to Southern Europe , and some may also be included in Central Europe . In some media, "Southeast Europe" can thus partially overlap with "Eastern Europe" of

6208-470: The gathering was a Bolshevik meeting and that the Jewish population attacked the Polish troops. The overall tension of the military campaign was brought up as a justification for the crime. In his order to the population of Pinsk of 7 April 1919, two days after the massacre, Listowski justified the massacre as the "town's Jews as a whole were guilty of the crime of blatant ingratitude". The Polish military refused to give investigators access to documents, and

6305-464: The geopolitical impact of the "iron curtain": From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe: Warsaw , Berlin , Prague , Vienna , Budapest , Belgrade , Bucharest , and Sofia . Eastern Europe after 1945 usually meant all the European countries liberated from Nazi Germany and then occupied by

6402-413: The highly urbanized Hellenistic civilization . In contrast, the western territories largely adopted the Latin language . This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east–west division of the Roman Empire . The division between these two spheres deepened during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages due to a number of events. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in

6499-426: The historical break of communion and theology between the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches. Later developments meant that the divide was no longer solely between Catholic and Orthodox churches. From the 16th century, both Western and Eastern forms of Protestantism began to emerge in Europe. Additionally, Eastern Catholic Churches began to spread in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, following

6596-443: The increased role played by the rulers of Bohemia and Poland . The conquest of the Byzantine Empire , center of the Eastern Orthodox Church , by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, and the gradual fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire (which had replaced the Frankish empire) led to a change of the importance of Catholic / Protestant vs. Eastern Orthodox concept in Europe. Armour points out that Cyrillic -alphabet use

6693-528: The joint Jadwin-Johnson deposition. The Jadwin-Johnson deposition agreed with the Morgenthau report that no pogroms had occurred, but it downplayed the criticisms of Polish government found in the previous report. It also blamed "German propagandists" for spreading the image of Poles as "barbarous anti-semites". American public opinion was informed primarily by newspaper articles about the Jewish first-party accounts of mistreatment and atrocities committed against them in Eastern Europe during local conflicts such as

6790-422: The leaders of the local Jewish community, the spiritual and moral leader of the 5,000 Jews in a city, eighty-five percent of the population of which was Jewish, the organizers of the charities, the directors of the hospitals, the friends of the poor. And yet, to that incredibly brutal, and even more incredibly stupid, officer who ordered their execution, they were only so many Jews. In 1926, kibbutz Gevat (Gvat)

6887-418: The local authorities of any wrongdoing and denounced the Jewish victims, was based largely on Fronczak's testimony. The version of the events cited by the Polish parliament were based on the account of Barnet Zuckerman, a representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee who had interviewed survivors on the day of the massacre. At the time, he was in charge of delivering the relief aid from

6984-407: The local majority, creating upheaval regarding demands of self-determination. Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania likewise were independent. Many of the countries were still largely rural, with little industry and only a few urban centres. Nationalism was the dominant force but most of the countries had ethnic or religious minorities who felt threatened by majority elements. Nearly all became democratic in

7081-570: The local police. They also took control of the mass media, especially radio, as well as the education system. They confiscated and redistributed farmland, and seized control of or replaced the organizations of civil society, such as church groups, sports, youth groups, trade unions, farmers' organizations, and civic organizations. In some countries, they engaged in large-scale ethnic cleansing, moving ethnic groups such as Germans, Poles, Ukrainians and Hungarians far away from where they previously lived, often with high loss of life, to relocate them within

7178-640: The local population majority were re-settled with Polish- or Czech-speakers. The region fell to Soviet control and Communist governments were imposed. Yugoslavia, Albania (and later Romania) had their own Communist regimes independent of Moscow. The Eastern Bloc at the onset of the Cold War in 1947 was far behind the Western European countries in economic rebuilding and economic progress. Winston Churchill, in his well-known "Sinews of Peace" address of 5 March 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri , stressed

7275-617: The massacre, echoing the claims that the victims were Bolshevik conspirators, were based on an account given by an American investigator, Dr. Franciszek (Francis) Fronczak, who was a former health commissioner of Buffalo, New York . Fronczak became member of the Paris-based Polish National Committee ( Komitet Narodowy Polski , KNP), where he directed the organization's Department of Public Welfare helping thousands of refugees. He arrived in Europe in May 1918, with permission of

7372-717: The matter. The Morgenthau commission was dispatched by the United States to verify those reports. Morgenthau's delegation was met by thousands of Polish Jews in Warsaw and other Polish cities it visited, although Morgenthau – an assimilationist, critical of Jewish nationalism – was shunned by Polish Zionist leaders. While the Polish Jewish press gave the delegation a warm welcome, the non-Jewish Polish press response ranged from cool to overtly hostile with instances of open expressions of anti-Jewish hostility. The daily Robotnicza called for

7469-489: The media. Another definition was used during the 40 years of Cold War between 1947 and 1989, and was more or less synonymous with the terms Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact . A similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or relegated. Many former Communist states in this region, although their formal alliances were severed by

7566-411: The meeting organizers. The night before the event, two Jewish soldiers, Daniel Kozak and Motel Kolkier, reported, they had been offered a bribe to join a Bolshevik conspiracy in the local synagogue. The town commander, fearing a Bolshevik uprising, which he did not investigate, ordered the execution of the hostages. Within an hour, thirty-five detainees , including women and children, were put against

7663-423: The meeting was described by the Poles as an "illegal gathering". The Polish officer-in-charge ordered the summary execution of the meeting participants without trial , and based on the information about the gathering's purpose that was founded on hearsay . The officer's decision was defended by high-ranking Polish military officers, but was widely criticized by international public opinion . The battle for Pinsk

7760-602: The men were summarily executed. The Morgenthau mission issued a strong condemnation of the commander responsible: While it is recognized that certain information of Bolshevist activities in Pinsk had been reported by two Jewish soldiers, we are convinced that Major Luczynski, the Town Commander, showed reprehensible and frivolous readiness to place credence in such untested assertions, and on this insufficient basis took inexcusably drastic action against reputable citizens whose loyal character could have been immediately established by

7857-487: The most prominent American Jewish political figures. Morgenthau was selected for the job precisely because he was known to be sympathetic to Poland, and his report largely exculpated the Polish government, exactly as expected." Some contemporary responses in the Jewish press accused Morgenthau and Samuel, the Jewish members of the commission, of having presented a "whitewash" of the massacres, and charged them with being guilty of treason. Eastern Europe Eastern Europe

7954-435: The most western parts of it located west of the Ural River , also shares a part of Eastern Europe. In the west, however, the historical and cultural boundaries of "Eastern Europe" are subject to some overlap and, most importantly, have undergone historical fluctuations, which makes a precise definition of the western geographic boundaries of Eastern Europe and the geographical midpoint of Europe somewhat difficult. After

8051-569: The new post-war borders of their respective countries. Under Stalin's direct instructions, these nations rejected grants from the American Marshall Plan . Instead, they joined the Molotov Plan , which later evolved into the Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) . When NATO was created in 1949, most countries of Eastern Europe became members of the opposing Warsaw Pact , forming

8148-456: The officers and soldiers were never punished. Major Łuczyński was not charged for any wrongdoing and was eventually transferred and promoted reaching the rank of colonel (1919) and general (1924) in the Polish army. The events were criticized in the Sejm (Polish parliament), but representatives of the Polish army denied any wrongdoing. In the Western press of the time, the massacre was referred to as

8245-558: The region included Orontid Armenia , Caucasian Albania , Colchis and Iberia (not to be confused with the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe ), of which the former two were the predecessor states of Armenia and Azerbaijan respectively, while the latter two were the predecessor states of modern-day Georgia . These peripheral kingdoms were, either from the start or later on, incorporated into various Iranian empires, including

8342-532: The result of a preconceived plan. He noted, however, that "It is believed that these excesses were the result of a widespread anti-Semitic prejudice aggravated by the belief that the Jewish inhabitants were politically hostile to the Polish State." Jadwin and Johnson submitted their report separately from Morgenthau. As described by Sonja Wentling in an article for American Jewish History , Morgenthau emphasized that Jews had been deliberately murdered based solely on

8439-498: The time was regarded as a less reliable military adventurer, and was described by Morgenthau as a "high-class pirate." Pilsudski resented the interference of Morgenthau's mission in Polish affairs, although he was acknowledged as an opponent of the open anti-semitism of Dmowski and a leader committed to a liberal policy towards Jews and other minorities that respected their rights. Morgenthau immersed himself in meetings with representatives of all segments of Polish society from all sides of

8536-523: The wall of the town's cathedral, and machine-gunned by a firing squad composed of the Polish soldiers. It was claimed that some men and women were stripped and beaten. According to historian Norman Davies , the executions were intended as a deterrent to those planning any further unrest. Davies notes that the exact nature of the meeting was never clarified, and that it was variously described as Committee of American Relief distribution, Bolshevik cell or assembly of local co-operative. Initial reports of

8633-638: Was soon absorbed by the Soviet Union), Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Austria and Hungary had much-reduced boundaries. The new states included sizeable ethnic minorities, which were to be protected according to the League of Nations minority protection regime. Throughout Eastern Europe, ethnic Germans constituted by far the largest single ethnic minority. In some areas, as in the Sudetenland , regions of Poland , and in parts of Slovenia , German speakers constituted

8730-537: Was a prevalent status of agricultural workers until the 19th century. It resembled slavery in terms of lack of freedom, with the distinction that the landowners could not buy and sell serfs separately from the specific plots of land that they were permanently attached to. The system emerged in the 14th and 15th century, the same time it was declining in Western Europe. The climax came in the 17th and 18th century. The early 19th century saw its decline, marked especially by

8827-435: Was actually a Bolshevik gathering to obtain arms and destroy the small Polish garrison in Pinsk. He himself claimed to have heard shots being fired from the Jewish meeting hall when Polish troops approached. He also claimed he had heard a confession from a mortally wounded Jew when he arrived at the town square where the executions had taken place. The initial wire reports of the massacre and a Polish military report which cleared

8924-531: Was created by the Cold War , as Europe was ideologically divided by the Iron Curtain , with "Eastern Europe" being synonymous with communist states constituting the Eastern Bloc under the influence of the Soviet Union . The term is sometimes considered to be pejorative, through stereotypes about Eastern Europe being inferior (poorer, less developed) to Western Europe ; the term Central and Eastern Europe

9021-523: Was established by emigrants from Pinsk to the British Mandate of Palestine in commemoration of the Pinsk massacre victims. English historian Norman Davies has questioned whether the meeting was explicitly authorized and notes that "the nature of the illegal meeting, variously described as a Bolshevik cell, an assembly of the local co-operative society, and a meeting of the Committee for American Relief,

9118-672: Was independent of the Kremlin. The communists had a natural reservoir of popularity in that they had destroyed the Nazi invaders. Their goal was to guarantee long-term working-class solidarity. The Soviet secret police, the NKVD , working in collaboration with local communists, created secret police forces using leadership trained in Moscow. This new secret police arrived to arrest political enemies according to prepared lists. The national Communists then took power in

9215-538: Was invaded and occupied by the Mongols . During the Ostsiedlung , towns founded under Magdeburg rights became centers of economic development and scattered German settlements were founded in parts of Eastern Europe. Introduction of German town law is often seen as a second great step after introduction of Christianity at the turn of the first and second millennia. The ensuing modernization of society and economy allowed

9312-475: Was never clarified". American historian Richard Lukas described the Pinsk massacre as "an execution of a thirty-five Bolshevik infiltrators...justified in the eyes of an American investigator", while David Engel has noted that the Morgenthau report, the summary of an American investigation into the Pinsk and other massacres led by Jewish-American Henry Morgenthau, Sr. , contradicts the accounts presented by Davies and Lukas. In its summary of its investigation of

9409-587: Was won in March 1919 by General Antoni Listowski of the Polish Army regional commander of the Polish forces in Podlasie. The city was taken over in a late-winter blizzard with considerable human losses sustained by the 34th Infantry Regiment under Major Narbutt-Łuczyński who forced the Bolsheviks to retreat to the other side of the river. Before their withdrawal however, the Russians had raised an armed militia composed of

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