Eastern Europe

In the eastern part of Europe, the phrase "Eastern Europe" refers to the continent's easternmost regions. Because the phrase has a broad variety of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic overtones, there is no uniform definition of the particular territory it encompasses. Over 15 percent of the population of Europe lives in Russia, a transcontinental nation with 23 percent of its landmass located in Eastern Europe. Russia is the biggest European country by area, covering nearly 40 percent of Europe's total landmass.

"Almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region," according to the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling University in the United States; a related paper published by the United Nations says that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct."

Slavic and Greek traditions and the impact of Eastern Christianity, which emerged historically via the post-split Eastern Roman Empire, are some common socio-cultural traits of the area of Europe known as Eastern Europe, which also includes Ottoman-era Turkish influences. An alternative meaning, coined during the Cold War and used similarly to the geopolitical term Eastern Bloc, was formed. An alternate term of the same period refers to the then-communist European republics outside of the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, these definitions have become increasingly out of date, although they are still employed in statistics and informal talks.