Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

36 EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE AT A GLANCE

1914 Gavrilo Princip

assassinates Austrian Archduke

Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo,

sparking World War I

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Eastern European art was at the forefront of

the Modernist movement in the early 20th

century, before the combined effects of war

and authoritarian rule disrupted its develop-

ment. After the political changes of 1989,

however, Eastern and Central Europe is

gradually re-establishing its position at the

heart of European culture.

THE 20TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT
War and revolution destroyed the multinational empires
of the 19th century, and after 1918, independent nation
states were re-established throughout Eastern Europe.
With the onset of World War II, however, the region was
first conquered by Germany, then by Soviet Russia,
which imposed Communist regimes on the seized
territories. Communist rule collapsed in 1989 but the
transition to democracy was not smooth every where;
Yugoslavia, in particular, was riven by conflict before the
emergence of new, internationally recognized states.

ART NOUVEAU ART DECO AND MODERNISM

AGE OF IMPERIALISM

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

1917 Revolution in

Russia brings Lenin’s

Bolsheviks to power

1918–19 The end of World War I

brings independence for Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,

Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

1924 Soviet leader

Lenin dies; Stalin

emerges as

his successor

1937–8 Stalin unleashes the

Great Purge, killing an esti-

mated 2 million citizens

1938 The Munich Agreement

allows Germany to take hold of

large parts of Czechoslovakia

1939 Germany and the Soviet Union

secretly agree to divide Poland

between them, triggering World War II

1941 Germany mounts a

surprise attack on the

Soviet Union

1945 Collapse of

Germany leaves

the Soviet Union

in control of

Central and

Eastern Europe

1953 The death of

Stalin eases

political terror

1956 An anti-

Communist uprising

breaks out in Hungary

but is crushed by

Soviet tanks

1928 Croat sculptor Ivan Meštrović’s

best-known work, The Victor (see p550),

is erected in Belgrade

1929 Slovene architect Jože Plečnik

redesigns the riverside quarter in

Ljubljana (see pp420–21)

1931 Alfons Mucha designs sumptuous

stained-glass windows for St Vitus’s

Cathedral (see pp236–7) in Prague

1935–8 The Moscow Metro opens,

featuring palatial stations, such as

Arbatskaya and Komsomolskaya,

full of mosaics and frescoes

1952 Work begins on Warsaw’s Palace of

Culture and Science (see p181), Eastern Europe’s

best example of Stalinist Baroque

1903–6 Mikhail

Eisenstein designs

Art Nouveau apart-

ment blocks in

Rīga (see pp74–5)

1900–10 Rihard Jakopič, Ivan Grohar

and Matej Šternen spearhead the Slovene

Impressionist Movement (see p423)

1907–11 Lithuanian painter Mikalojus

Konstantinis Čiurlionis develops the

quasi-mystical, Symbolist style

1911 Completion of Municipal

House (see p256) in Prague, a high

point in Art Nouveau architecture

1915 Kazimir Malevich

paints his most iconic

work, The Black Square

(see p154)