Eastern Europe & Eurasian Steppe

A vast corridor between the Baltic, the Black Sea and Central Asia where nomads, princes and tsars built successive worlds.

22 countries·2 civilizations·3 major empires

Overview

From the Scythians and Sarmatians to Kyivan Rus', the Mongols, Muscovy and the Russian Empire, this region has always been a highway of peoples and ideas.

Historical timeline

c. 700 BCE – 400 CEScythian and Sarmatian steppe cultures
882 – 1240Kyivan Rus'
1240 – 1480Mongol domination
1547 – 1917Tsardom and Russian Empire

Civilizations

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Byzantine Empire

330 – 1453 CE

The Roman Empire that endured for another millennium in the Greek East.

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Russian Empire

1721 – 1917

The Romanov empire from Peter the Great to Nicholas II.

Countries in this region

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Russia

Moscow · 144 million

From Kyivan Rus' to the tsars, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.

Piast kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, partitions, WWII devastation and post-communist democracy.

Heir to Kyivan Rus', Cossack Hetmanate, and a 20th-century of catastrophe and independence.

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Hungary

Budapest · 9.6 million

Magyar kingdom that anchored central Europe for a millennium.

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Czech Republic

Prague · 10.5 million

Bohemian kingdom, Habsburg province, Czechoslovak republic and post-communist democracy.

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Romania

Bucharest · 19 million

Descendants of Roman Dacia; Wallachia and Moldavia unified into a Latin island in the Slavic Balkans.

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