Eastern Europe—: Retrospect and Prospect

EASTERN EUROPE— RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT* By HUEY LOUIS KOSTANICK University of California, Los Angeles Geographers work in a world of constant change. Some of these changes proceed at such a slow pace there is little difference to be noted from generation to generaiton but, in other cases, change can be so rapid and so forceful that significant alterations of basic import can be produced in an exceedingly short time. In the recent volume on American Geography: Inventory and Prospect, Preston James wrote that: "Geographical generalizations, like those of all science, must be constantly subject to critical study and review. The regional divisions carefully established by an earlier generation of geographers for the specific purposes of that generation may need to be revised through the application of new criteria in order to define regions more directly relevant to current problems. Concepts regarding causal relations, even if widely accepted at one time, must be scrutinized anew by each succeeding generation of geographers." Although the need for periodic review of regional characteristics has long been recognized, few such studies have been made. It is often said that such generalizations are easily found in the general textbooks currently in use, but the same texts are also criticized for being "out-of-date" and for containing "misinformation that no longer applies." It is even more difficult to find such information in the literature of geography if one is concerned with major political developments and with the systematic field of political geography, especially if one is concerned with areas of rapid political change as in the Far East, Southeastern Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. One of the major difficulties involved in such a review has been severe restriction , if not outright prohibition, of travel and field study in certain areas. But in the past two years the easing of restrictions did make it possible for geographers to travel behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union and in most of the satellite countries of Eastern Europe. Travel in the area plus the dramatic events of the past year now make it both possible and necessary to undertake a reassessment and a re-evaluation of the situation in Eastern Europe. The past year not only marked the end of a major period in Eastern European history but it also gave marked indications of what may well be the new phase of the "Cold War" between East and West. Changing Historical Periods In the past fifty years Eastern Europe has experienced three major periods of radical change. The very position and structure of Eastern Europe have undergone transformation since pre-World War I days when the term "Mitteleuropa" conveyed the idea that Central Europe constituted a center of political and cultural gravity and that Eastern Europe, or what was more generally termed "the Balkans," began at the eastern gate of Vienna and was by direct implication a semi-barbaric area in a low state of civilization. Indeed such a cultural and power relationship was not at all untrue. Germany and Austria were dominant figures in continental Europe, and Germany, at least, had aspirations not only to dominate Europe but also to challenge the maritime supremacy of Britain. "Presidential address of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Stanford, August, 1957. Eastern Europe, as we envision it today, was at that time essentially a land of monarchical empire control under Turkish, Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian rule. But the Balkan wars of .19.12-19.13 saw the rise of small independent states which culminated at the end of the First World War in the creation of a zone of free states stretching from Finland to Greece. In the inter-war period the term "Eastern Europe" displaced the older concept of "Mitteleuropa" and Eastern Europe appeared on the political face of Europe as a "buffer zone" of national states between Germany and Russia. Although the buffer zone had been created seemingly to block German expansion eastward, it was Germany that gradually gained economic predominance and that in 1039 attempted to take over political and military control as well. The period of military occupation lasted until 1945 when Germany's defeat set the stage for the postwar period of...