Sbohem, východní Evropo Intimní dějiny rozdělené země

With the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europe began to disappear. But its past should not be forgotten.

Eastern Europe may never have existed. It is more of a label for a region that the West does not really understand, or perhaps an abbreviation for a past that is too complicated and complex. Everyone is therefore escaping from Eastern Europe in their own way: nations are emancipating themselves, ethnic groups and cultures are writing their own histories, states are joining entities such as the European Union, forming new regional identities such as Central Europe or the Western Balkans — and globalization is erasing all remaining differences. A walk through Prague, Tallinn, Moscow, or Bucharest today is not much different from a visit to any other world metropolis. And yet — everyone knows what Eastern Europe is. Or rather, what it was. The book Goodbye, Eastern Europe captures this idea, this image, and this space, mapping the intertwining of myths and different religions, the mixing of pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, recounting its turbulent and cruel political history, and describing how the idea of Eastern Europe has influenced history and our present.

Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a carefully researched and beautifully written personal story of a place you won't find on a map. It pays tribute to the sources of experience, cultures, and ideas that continue to shape the political and ideological battles of the modern world.

— Serhii Plokhy, historian and writer