Culture | European history

The eastern half of Europe is united by its diversity

So says Jacob Mikanowski in his insightful chronicle, “Goodbye, Eastern Europe”

Market day in a Jewish shtetl in Poland, 1930. — The way they used to liveImage: Getty Images

Jun 15th 2023

For most of the past three decades, the received view of eastern Europe, defined roughly as the territory between Germany and Russia, has been breezily optimistic. A region that exemplified the cultural and intellectual vim of the old continent had escaped a cruel communist yoke. It was now free to make an uneven but inexorable recovery, joining the West’s institutions and following its political and economic models.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “East is east”