Introduction

This chapter outlines the vast scope of population change, growth, and development in Eastern Europe. It presents problems of size, differentiation, complexity, conflicting and contrasting cultural paradigms, and probable variations in evaluation based on individual experiences and prejudices. World War II had a profound effect on Eastern Europe. Ravaged by destructive battle, torn by multiple invasion, savaged by internal revolution and civil wars, its population was decimated by death and enforced or voluntary migrations on a mammoth scale. Governments, too, insist on putting political pressures on people in a variety of ways, ranging from attempts to control growth to the opposite aim of forcing an increase in state population. In some cases, particularly Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey, the internal migrations have been paralleled by large-scale emigration of millions of workers to the Western Europe and other areas of the world.