ABSTRACT
The history of Eastern Europe is grounded in geography. It is the funnel through which, over the centuries, successive migrations or invasions have passed from Central Asia, the cradle of so many races, to the European heartland. Huns, Avars, Slavs, Magyars, Tartars, Turks: all have come via the great plains to the north or round the Carpathians into the Danube basin or up the Balkan valleys from Asia Minor and the Hellespont, pushing back earlier peoples into the shelter of the mountains and settling themselves in the fertile plains and valleys until challenged in their turn. Thus has arisen that distinctive feature of Eastern Europe, the multiplicity of small and medium-sized nations lying athwart important strategic routes between two powerful and numerous peoples, the Germans to the west and the Russians to the east.
