GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIA
AND EASTERN EUROPE
Geography 308
Professor Zoltán Grossman
Office: Phillips 258
Hours: 10:00-10:50 MWF
Phone: 836-4471
E-mail: grossmzc@uwec.edu
Web: www.uwec.edu/grossmzc
Geography is
about “place”
Physical (natural)
Human
Economic
Cultural/ethnic
Population
Political
Urban/rural
Nature-human interaction
Environmental
Regional
Changes in Europe, 1990-93
Geographical implications
•End of Cold War stand-off
•Transition from State
Socialism to Capitalism
•Some states break up along
ethnic lines
•Decolonization of Russian
Empire after four centuries
Northeastern Europe
•Poland
•Ex-GDR (East Germany)
•Czech Republic
•Slovakia
•Hungary
Baltic States:
•Estonia
•Latvia
•Lithuania
Southeastern Europe (“Balkans”)
•Romania
•Bulgaria
•Albania
Former Yugoslavia:
•Slovenia
•Croatia
•Bosnia & Hercegovina
•Macedonia
•Serbia & Montenegro
(Yugoslavia until 2003;
includes Kosovo)
MONGOLIA
Russian/Soviet “Heartland”
European Russia
•Southern Russia
Including Chechnya
•Eastern Russia (Siberia)
•Ukraine
•Belarus
•Moldova
•Mongolia
Caucasus and Central Asia
Transcaucasia:
•Georgia
•Armenia
•Azerbaijan
Central Asia:
•Kazakstan
•Kyrgyzstan
•Uzbekistan
•Turkmenistan
•Tajikistan
My Homies:
The Magyars (Hungarians)
Zoltán
“Zoltan Hound
of Dracula”
Zoltar
in “Big”
Zoltan, Imperial
Commander of
the Space Nerds
Hungarian for “Sultan”
(from the Ottoman Turkish
occupation of Hungary, 1526-1686)
(Hungarians have lost every war since then.)
Poltar, Slovakia
Kondorfa, Hungary
Mom’s Hungarian Relies