A History of Eastern Europe

Overview

Discover the complex tapestry of Eastern Europe—a region of shifting borders, diverse cultures, and pivotal world events—in this 24-lecture course.

Course No. 8364

From medieval migrations to Cold War struggles and the Ukraine crisis, explore how this “Other Europe” shaped—and was shaped by—a millennium of invasions, empires, and revolutions.

Course Content

Foundations & Early Conflicts

1. The Other Europe: Roots of Diversity (30 min)
   • Geographic and cultural introduction to the region

2. Formative Migrations (31 min)
   • Germanic tribes, Slavs, Vikings, and Mongols

3. Clashing Empires (1389–1772) (30 min)
   • Battle of Kosovo to the rise of Prussia

Age of Empires & Nationalism

4. Partition of Poland (31 min)
   • How Europe erased a sovereign state

5. 19th Century Nationalism (31 min)
   • Romantic poets vs. imperial rulers

6. Jewish Life in the Shtetl (30 min)
   • Lost world of Eastern European Jewry

World Wars & Totalitarianism

7. WWI: Destruction & Rebirth (29 min)
   • Collapse of empires, birth of new nations

8. Between Hitler & Stalin (29 min)
   • Nazi-Soviet Pact and its consequences

9. Holocaust in Eastern Europe (30 min)
   • Nazi racial empire and local collaborations

Cold War & Collapse

10. Behind the Iron Curtain (31 min)
    • Stalinist control and Yugoslav resistance

11. Solidarity Movement (28 min)
    • Lech Wałęsa and Poland’s worker uprising

12. Fall of Communism (31 min)
    • 1989 revolutions that changed the world

Modern Challenges

13. Yugoslav Wars (31 min)
    • Ethnic cleansing and Milosevic’s crimes

14. Ukraine-Russia Crisis (32 min)
    • Historical roots of current conflicts

15. Eastern Europe Today (32 min)
    • EU expansion and lingering divisions