Eastern Europe!: everything you need to know about the history (and more!) of a region that shaped our world and still does

A few words about a word ; A note on pronunciation

A word (or two) about time ; Languages ; Geography ; Religion

A prehistory ; History ; Classical Eastern Europe

Setting the stage, 500-800 CE. Western Rome ; The Avars ; The Slavs ; The first Slavic states ; The Bulgars ; The Dacians and Vlachs ; The Khazars ; (A bunch of) Finns and Balts

Special insert : The steppe

The origins of states, 800-1242 CE. The Franks ; Moravia Magna and Bohemia ; The Bulgarians ; The Rus ; The Magyars/Hungarians ; The Slovenes and Croatians ; Duklja, Raška, and the Serbs ; The Poles ; The Pechenegs ; The Cumanians ; The Lithuanians ; The Finale : 1239-42

Special insert : Peoples of Eastern Europe : the Jews

The medieval years, 1242-1600 CE. The Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde, and Tartars ; Bulgaria ; Serbia ; Montenegro ; Bosnia & Herzegovina ; Croatia ; The Republic of Ragusa/Dubrovnik ; Albania ; The Byzantine Empire ; The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire ; Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania ; Hungary ; Bohemia ; The Teutonic knights and schizoid Prussia ; Lithuania and the eastern Slavs ; Livonia and the Balts ; Poland as catalyst ; Novgorod, Muscovy, and the Russians ; Halych-Volhynia : a kingdom in Galicia

Special insert : Peoples of Eastern Europe : the Germans

The dawn of a new age, 1600-1800. The Principality of Transylvania ; Wallachia and Moldavia ; Montenegro ; The Swedish Empire ; The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ; The Ukrainians and Belarussians ; Ottoman Empire ; Russia ; Of Austrians and Habsburgs ; Prussia

Special insert : Peoples of Eastern Europe : the gypsies

The very, very long 19th century, 1800-1914. The Ottoman Empire as doorstop ; Serbia's front row seat ; Montenegro hits the 19th century ; Romania is born ; Bulgaria's raw deal ; Albania as accident; The Italian Risorgimento and irridentism ; Pan-Germanism and how Fritz (and Helga) got their mojo ; Pan-Slavism and pie in the sky ; The Austrian dilemma and Hungary ; Russia, the hope and prison of nations ; Dawn of the dead : the Poland that just won't go away

Special insert : Peoples of Eastern Europe : the Muslims

The Great War, and a magic year, 1914-1939. The war ; Paris, 1919 ; The Ottoman Empire goes out in style ; Austria-Hungary as a bug on the windshield ; Serbia and history ; Montenegro is pushed off the cliff ; The failed superstates I : Yugoslavia ; Bulgaria tries 1913 over again ; The failed superstates II : Romania ; Albania : let's try that again ; Hungary loses the war...again ; The failed superstates III : Czechoslovakia ; Ukraine : with friends like these ; Belarus gets its 15 minutes...literally ; Libre Baltica : Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia ; Russia and how Russians do change ; The failed superstates IV : Poland

War! : 1939-1945. The war as you probably don't know it ; About the numbers used in this chapter ; An overview of the war ; Poland and the art of not being ; The Baltics and a bad neighborhood ; The Czech lands revert to the 17th century ; Slovakia is born, sort of ; Hungary embraces its inner tar baby ; Romania guesses wrong ; Yugoslavia, Serbia, and 1914 all over again ; Croatia's dark side ; Albania tries to keep its head above water ; Bulgaria : third time a charm? ; The Soviet Union wins by knockout in the 9th round ; The holocaust

Special insert : Home is where the border is!

The frying pan, the fire, etc., 1945-92. The cold war, or this town isn't big enough ; The Warsaw Pact : the farm animals unite ; Yugoslavia : exit, stage left ; Albania as an island ; Bulgaria finally gets something in return ; Romania goes off the deep end ; Hungary and its food-based ideologies ; Czechoslovakia, just east of Eden ; East Germany as the runt of the litter ; Poland, the perennial pain in the butt ; The Soviet Union, keeping up with the Joneses

Easy come, easy go : 1989-92. Ashes to ashes, we all fall down ; Poland and the ghosts of 1980 : the first steps ; The Hungarian "refolution" ; East Germany goosesteps into oblivion ; Elvis is dead, but Czechoslovakia goes velvet anyway ; Bulgaria knows peer pressure when it sees it ; Asking for a light in the Romanian powderkeg ; Albania and frost in hell ; Playing fiddle on the deck of the Titanic : the Soviet Union ; Libre Baltica, part II

Reference. Musical chairs, or, Place names in Eastern Europe ; Eastern Europe in numbers ; Mrs. Jankowska's homemade pierogis.