I think I'm too American to get this.
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Old soviet blocks countries are persistent on calling themselves central europeans whereas everyone eastern neighbor is automatically categorized eastern europeans.
Why are they doing this? Because when people think about Eastern Europe, the first thing to come in mind are poor people with intense alcohol issues and the Soviet Union, so this is a huge prestige / perception hit to these countries.
I had a Romanian friend in college who vehemently denied that her home country's name and/or language had anything to do with Italy. It's fucking wild the gymnastics people are willing to do in preservation of ego.
Nationalism is one hell of a drug
What the fuck are implying here man ? Re-read what you wrote because yeah : romania and romanian have nothing to do with Italy
What the fuck? Please explain how and why romania has anything to do with italy! And also give context of the country you’re from (if you can )
=)))))))))) Really ?????? What the fuck people . Stop regurgitating shit
Romanian is a LATIN based language.
So yes, it will be similar with italian, but this has nothing to do with “italy”.
Because it also has a lot of similarities with Spanish, greek, French languages . You know ? LATIN Based languages! ( or any other latin influenced language)
When the modern version language was redone (as many other languages went through these kind if changes) it was made to sound more like italian or French due to those times politics .
Jesus fucking christ
——————-
Just to clear things up : I completely agree that nationalism is a hell of drug, but i think you’re misunderstanding the “nothing to do with italy” part
The original romanian person from this thread meant : Romanian/Romania has nothing to do with the Roman empire (italy). This is a bit complicated. Because it somewhat does …as Romanian territories were under the Roman empire conquered territories (from 106 -274 years ,our era) but so were the rest of the europe :)). History of europe is complicated..
The original thread picture is correct. It shows how communist propaganda wanted to change or distort the reality in a way that was more “beneficial” to their narative.
And by the looks of it, i’ll also have to explain this :
Each country had their own version of “communism”. These versions had similarities but also their own particularities. The version that happened in Romania was heavily based on somewhat ‘brainwashing’ the people to believe their nationality (and roots) is somewhat different than the rest of the surrounding countries. This was done to counter the pesky Russian influence. This is what you see in the original picture. It was teaching the kids in school that the country is associated with Central Europe (closer to german based area) rather than pesky Russians. :P
"Eastern Europe" is literally a euphemism for "former Soviet". Finland is not Eastern European, Greece is not eastern European, but Poland is Eastern European.
The term is meaningless, just say Baltics, Balkans, and Black Sea.
I think you mean "former Warsaw pact"
Central Europe exists as a concept between the Balkans, but mostly Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Germany, Czechia and Austria are usually placed in Central Europe, however some countries that are more to the East also sometimes try to snuck in, as Central Europe has a much better ring to it than Eastern Europe and comes with less prejudice. These countries mostly include Hungary (hey that's where I'm from), Romania and some neighboring countries. It would be a pretty bald move to draw Central Europe as such in a textbook since the actual non-debated border ends three countries left to Moldova where this does.
Germany, Czechia and Austria are usually placed in Central Europe
Come on, we used to be Czechoslovakia, remember us. We Slovakians also want to be called Central Europe.
Shouldn't have elected Putin-light then
Yeah that was meant to be more of a list of examples.
To be fair to the "Southern/Mediterranean" section, Balkans do love to tell the Spanish, Italians, and Portuguese that they're honorary Balkans. But it's laughable for Serbia and Bulgaria to get lumped in there.
But for Eastern Europe to not start at one end of Slovenia or the other is silly.
Austria are usually placed in Central Europe
Of course, a country which is named Eastcountry, is part of Central Europe. The propaganda starts much earlier. /s
Didn't even think about this lol
It makes sense when you consider that the Osterreich was a border princedom against the Magyars originally before growing into something far more notable. Same thing happened with Brandenburg and Pomerania with the Old Prussians.
Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrasia
So eastern Europe won't be eastern for long.
Given the fact that was the eastern borderlands of the Franks and covers roughly Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands I'm gonna assume the only connection to Austria these territory has is the Aust portion. Also Austria evolved out of Otto the Greats Holy Roman Empire not the Carolingian Empire though admittedly it does have its roots in Charlamagnes campaign against the Avars.
Point is East is relative, the East Coast of Asia is to my West.
i think the biggest ??? happens to Poland when we're talking "central vs eastern europe". because geographically - pretty central, historically - pretty eastern, and right now? who knows
Right now, definitely politically Central European. Culturally, they've played an important role in de-stigmatising Eastern Europe by not being monumental assholes for most of their time in the EU, while retaining their Eastern European culture.
Full disclaimer: I have yet to meet a Pole I think is anything less than a decent, nice person.
i've met a few! but... i'm polish, so you know :D i'm glad most of the bad eggs are contained here though
So Baltics can into Nordics now?
I feel they should be a gradient, and while we're at it; we can do Romania a favour with their own gradient to. And Russia and Belarus should get their own colour with a label saying technically part of Europe and then Hungary and Slovenia can get a gradient to that, I expect those countries have something to do with Romania not wanting to be an Eastern European state
Scotland too please
Don't be like Europe suicidal down there.
I'd grant maybe Transylvania as Central Europe given it was part of Austria-Hungary for a good while. Good number of the German and Hungarian minorities in Romania are from there.
Moldova? Definitely not central Europe.
Romania is an odd Venn diagram really. Is it Balkan? Sort of. Eastern European? Yeah kind of. Maybe find where the stuffed vine leaf/stuffed cabbage leaf divide is and split it that way. Analogous to the olive oil/butter divide in Italy.
I love how blatantly it juts out
Oh shit Nordic is just North
Are we talking about politics or geography?
If you make a cardboard cutout of the European continent and balance it on a pin, the center point is in Lithuania.
If you go by geographical definition, 80% of the Russian population lives in Europe.
ok but why is the circle cut-off, Helsinki is clearly also in the circle
How do you cut out de islands?
very carefully
But how do you make them float in the air while you balance the continent on a pin?
This is left as an exercise for the reader.
Romania really said ‘we’re the main character of Europe’ 😂 Honestly, that’s the confidence we all need.
The fact the piece of Russia in the European peninsula is also Central Europe makes this look more like an Axis map than anything.
Which makes Romania booting Hungary into the east and claiming parts of Bulgaria all the more relevant.
And also Moldova.
There is a border drawn between Moldeva and Romania - it aligns partially with the Danube looking more like a river unless you zoom in. Still, you're not wrong - claiming Moldova for Central Europe is sort of indirectly laying claim to it.
It's like they haven't updated their maps since the late dark ages/early middle ages.
They would be the westroman empire.
Everybody is stressing their own country's distinctive Westernness or at least Centralness because deep down they know, with all their papal coronations, crusades and column rich buildings, that Romania is the cradle of the remaining west roman values and the true center of the west.