The Europe you don’t hear about...

Jacob Mikanowski’s introduction to the book ‘Goodbye, Eastern Europe’ talks about the inferiority complex that affects a lot of residents of this kaleidoscopic set of countries sandwiched between Asia and Europe. The region is one of the richest tapestries of diverse cultures, languages and customs that has been home to many of the world’s most powerful historical civilisations, but is seldom studied as closely as other parts of the world.

As part of his research, Mikanowski dives into many historical records, including some of his ancestors’ recollections. His grandfather was a secret case officer in the Polish secret police, another ancestor who was a medieval soldier, and an aunt and uncle who had to get married thrice to fulfil documentary requirements of the various regimes in the region.

Instead of dividing the chapters by country, eras or regions, it turns to the history of Eastern Europe through a tour of its various religions and faiths, the rulers, empires and the political regimes ranging from the Mongols until the fall of the Soviet Union. The book is particularly timely given the Ukraine War and the ongoing dialogue about Eastern European identity.

From the early eleventh and twelfth centuries, the push of Western European empires to propagate Christianity clashed with the diverse pagan cultures that dwelled in harmony across these countries. Driven by forces like the Teutonic knights and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Christianity made a major push into these regions and sought to steamroll most of Eastern Europe, much like the Western part of the continent. However, this push was much harder given the diverse languages, tribes and customs in the region. Another complicating factor was the equally vigorous push of other empires like the Mongols, Ottomans, and later the Russian Empire. This clash of empires left the region rich with signs, symbols and cultures that display an amazing, if tenuous, syncretism.

One of the book’s most delightful aspects is the generous sprinkling of tales of societies believing in magic, spirits, witches, miracles, messiahs and legendary warriors, something that is missing from most narratives that seriously discuss history. However, the beauty of Eastern Europe probably lies in its ability to absorb the magic and abstract beliefs across civilisations, and the book also serves to dispel myths of the clean-cut boundaries between science and more esoteric beliefs like astrology, mysticism and other such practices.

One such incident that the book captures is an ‘accurate’ horoscope by Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler’s mentor, and the discoverer of supernovae. Brahe is a legendary scientist, but had apparently also made the horoscope of the then-Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and predicted that he would die soon after his favourite, Mohammed the Lion, died. Rudolf indeed died three days after Mohammed the Lion.

Mikanowski’s attention to the supernatural fits well with the last part of the book. The post-Second World War politics of the region, dominated by Stalinism and communism, were similarly irrational to having an allegiance to a mystic or religious cult. Communism and Stalinism replaced religion with an ideological mysticism and demanded absolute faithfulness. Needless to say, the end was the spectacular disillusionment among the Soviet countries that ultimately tore down the Iron Curtain after decades of its rule. The last chapters of the book about the War, the Holocaust, and the post-War Stalinist and Soviet regimes are a painful read, where for a lucky few, the only brief interludes to the inhuman shortages, political repression and casual cruelty were things like a smuggled handful of fresh ground coffee beans to make fresh, hot coffee, or freshly baked bread, privileges that now seem commonplace.

The book has some poignant descriptions of the outsize impact of luck and chance on millions of lives. People’s fate was decided based on seemingly inconsequential decisions. The speed of shifting political landscapes meant that sometimes, someone gone for a week-long trip would never return, a part of the family would survive while the others became unfortunate pawns in the endless violence.

Reading this as an Indian, one line in the book hits home particularly hard; Mikanowski notes that many countries in Eastern Europe are lands with a surplus of history but a deficit of narrative, and countries are now striving to pick up the pieces of a divided, fractured past and organise it in a coherent historical narrative.