ABSTRACT
First of all, I would like to make a significant distinction between geographical and political terms -- Eastern Europe. If we look at the map of Europe, it is easy to notice that a little more than half of European territory belongs to the Soviet Union. This is of cause the Eastern part of Europe. From that point of view such countries as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary or East Germany cannot be also located in Eastern Europe. From a geographical point of view these countries belong to Central Europe (Middle Europe). However in everyday life in the West these countries are still listed as East European countries. This is due to political conditions created after WWII according to the Yalta agreement, which condemned these countries to the USSR dominance zone. Fortunately for these countries, the recent revolutions have made them independent from the Soviet Union and in such circumstances there is no reason to call them East European countries. They also do not want to be called that way anymore.
