Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land by Jacob Mikanowski

Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land Reviews

• 
  Left Coast Justin

  I really like Europe. I believe they have hit on the right mix of individual liberty vs. obligations to the state; they have been fairly successful at defending cultural and family life against the relentless demands of the market, and much of it is very nice to look at. But why, oh why, do so many Europeans hate Jewish people* so much? Admittedly, that question may be a few decades out of date, but I think I'd need to see a couple hundred more years of respectful neighborliness before I would be convinced this problem is well and truly over.
  
  The author of this 'intimate history' doesn't really ask this question, though he does present plenty of evidence through the last couple thousand years to illustrate the apparent intractability of the problem. He himself has one Jewish and one Catholic parent, and tries to focus his book on what life was like for the 'little people' in Eastern Europe for the past 2000 years or so. This is quite an ambitious project, covering the territory from southern Romania to Estonia, and from eastern Ukraine to the western Czech Republic -- not to mention the frequent incursions of people (okay, Germans) from the West and many peoples from the East. At 400 pages, skipping around from place to place, the book felt long. Mikanowski's own family history is pinned to many different spots in this area and is quite fascinating -- I might have enjoyed the book more if he had simply focused on that.
  
  As usual in books of this type, we rush through the first thousand years and gets slower and slower as we approach the present. (This was published this year (2023) and touches on the current unprovoked attack on Ukraine in the epilogue.) Perhaps inevitably, his 'intimate history' starts turning into a standard history, more concerned with politicians and battles than daily life. The portion covering the 20th century dragged, for me.
  
  But the first two thirds were done right. We tend to think of Eastern Europe in terms of 'Poles' and 'Czechs' and 'Hungarians' etc. But he does a good job of illustrating the fundamental porousness of the region to human migrations:

  In 2000 archeologists working alongside a highway expansion running north from Warsaw stumbled onto a cemetery. They dated it to the late tenth or early eleventh century, the very years when Poland became Christian...The women were buried with fine jewelry, beads of glass mixed with gold evidently crafted in the royal workshops of Baghdad and Byzantium. The men were armed with splendid foreign weapons, like Frankish broadswords and Khazar hatchets.

  Some things never change: In a manual preserved from those days, we learn that "an uncastrated slave would always stay coarse and simple-minded, but a castrated one was capable of every refinement."
  
  And speaking of Jewish people and Poland, I learned that the very country was named by Jewish immigrants; the word 'Poland' stems from the Hebrew words for 'lodge here.' And about 80% of Jewish people today can trace their ancestry back to this area, when in the 1700's they made up about a third of the population.
  
  We also learn a lot about the substantial number of Muslims who were once more common in the area, including the fact that their ongoing incursions into what is now Eastern Europe were fueled by 105 gigantic bakeries in Istanbul alone, cranking out loaves of bread like no tomorrow. One of Europe's primary appeals, to me at least, is the quality of the breads there, which I have always attributed to French and German influences; perhaps these skills actually originated with the Ottoman Turks? In which case I owe them a debt of gratitude.
  
  I have highlighted about forty additional parts of the book, but won't subject you reading them all. I like a section near the end where he points out that, for all its failings, Communism really did wipe out an even worse social order based on serfdom that was still alive and well into the 20th century. Your interest in this book depends on your overall interest in the region, and how normal everyday people cope with the challenges of a society not necessarily set up to serve their interests.
  
  *I still don't feel comfortable with the word 'Jews' to refer to people. Blame my upbringing and forgive the stylistic tic.
• 
  Jolanta (knygupė)

  3,4*
  Net nežinau kam ši glausta Rytų Europos biografija įdomesnė - jos jau buvusiems piliečiams ar visiems likusiems. Man sunku ją vertinti, nes tikrai nesu gerai susipažinusi su atskiromis šio didžiulio regiono šalimis. O šiaip, autorius - žydų kilmės lenkas su lietuviškomis šaknimis, tad, Lenkija, Lietuva minimos labai dažnai. O ir Rytų Europos žydų bendruomenei, holokaustui skiriama labai daug dėmesio.
  Autorius pristato kai kurių šalių folklorą, tradicijas, tikėjimus, kalbų skirtumus ir panašumus, papasakoja keletą anekdotų...bet mano skoniui - paviršutiniškokai.
  Beje, man labai patiko, jog autorius nepamiršo Rytų Europos romų bendruomenės.
  Kas man pasirodė keista - tai jaučiama autoriaus kažkokia mistinė nostalgija to regiono (Rytų Europos), kaip visumos, kokio tai vieneto, praeičiai. O gal man tik pasirodė ;)
  Šiaip jau, visai pusė velnio, skaitykit. Būtų įdomu sužinot, kaip jums ji (ne)patiko .
• 
  Lilisa

  This was an enlightening nonfiction account about the history of eastern Europe and its peoples. Steeped in folklore and facts, this interesting and informative book captures well the challenges “countries” in eastern Europe have encountered, endured, and overcome for centuries. We call them countries, but the current lines drawn are artificial ones, many of which cleave areas that were part of one into two or more pieces. For centuries many were part of a larger whole, but over time, these countries have been part of, broken away, consolidated again, all at the whim of rulers, kings, and the powers that be. I enjoyed the folklore, stories, culture, and history presented in a smooth and delightful way. The book is packed with information and I recommend reading it over a period of time. Don’t expect to digest it all within a few days. There are a lot of fun and interesting anecdotes and facts weaned from seemingly intense research. This book is a great way to learn more about the rich history and culture of the countries of eastern Europe and to better understand their tenacity and resiliency despite and because of their challenging histories over the years. The author has done a tremendous job. This was a solid 4-star read and I definitely recommend this book. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
• 
  Michaela

  *4.5. This book is at the same time a great historical primer and also so incredibly detailed and dense. I would read a paragraph, or even one or two lines, and think "you could probably write a whole novel about that alone." I really loved the moments when the author dove into narrating his own family's biography, and I almost wished there were more of those moments because they were woven so well with the greater historical narrative. Definitley a must-read for anyone interested in this region or history in general.
• 
  Oleksandr Zholud

  This is a fresh (2023) history non-fic that attempts to present history of Eastern European countries as something united, partially linked to the author’s family history. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for April 2024 at
  Non Fiction Book Club group.
  
  The author starts with the fact that “There is no such thing as Eastern Europe anymore” that some states now represent themselves as Central European, others – like Nordic. Moreover, the cultures of people who live on these lands are quite diverse, but the author thinks that this actually unites them into a single entity. I completely support the idea of viewing history from different points of view / narratives, so this book fits me perfectly, even if I often disagree with it in details highlighted or omitted.
  
  The first four chapters looks at people and their histories, both the ‘state-forming ethnicity’ and three (religious) groups that had a major effect – Jews, Muslims and ‘Heretics’ (Bogomils, Hussites, and even less formal groups like alchemists). This part shows how for centuries people of different faiths lived together often tolerantly (even if there were massacres of representatives of all groups). There was a lot of new for me info about “Magic Prague” and its legacy as well as a wealth of info about Muslims on Balkans.
  
  The following four chapters united under the header “Empires and Peoples” and discuss Byzantine, Ottomans, an “almost empire” of Poland-Lithuania, Russian and Austria-Hungary empires. I guess it is wrong to omit the Lithuanian empire (see
  An Unproclaimed Empire: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania: From the Viewpoint of Comparative Historical Sociology of Empires) as well as the Commonwealth… also sometimes it gives empires as too tolerant, e.g. “One of the biggest was that it allowed for an unprecedented degree of religious toleration. In the Russian Empire, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and pagan animists all coexisted in a single state. They were free to follow their native faiths and, for the most part, didn’t have to worry about missionaries. In this respect, Russia was more like the Ottoman Empire than any Western European state.” However, one can look at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, forcefully dismantled by Catherine II or Baptists in the early 20th century, to see that any Christian opponent of Orthodoxy wasn’t tolerated.
  
  In the last part the author describes nation-states that were (re-)created after the fall of empires after WW1 and their development under Soviet rule. Here, he actively adds his family history, from his very different lines.
  
  Overall, a very interesting book, even if it goes wide, not deep, following established narratives of local histories.
  
• 
  Keenan

  I'm a sucker for these at-a-glance patchwork history books, especially when the focus is from the people's perspective rather than royalty or nobility. There's so many fun and interesting and sad and thought-provoking nuggets of people's history in this part of the world, eager to be shared and told, and a capable author can weave a captivating narrative while enticing the reader along the way with such cookie crumbles. The author himself comes from a complex mix of Eastern European people of varying cultural and religious backgrounds, and in many parts of the book he's able to weave in details about his ancestors and their hometowns and their histories. My favourite chapters were about paganism, nomads, and the beginning of nation states.
• 
  Kinzie

  I am very disappointed by this book.
  
  It feels like it is a discombobulated combination of the author's personal history and multiple historical sources. The lines of which are difficult to decipher unless you are seemingly intimate with the author's family history.
  
  This was such a terrible read, which is unfortunate as, based on the subject matter, I was very excited to read and learn more.
  
  DNF.
• 
  Jennifer Martin

  The author has clearly done a lot of research and wants you to know about every stray bit of it, cohesive narrative be damned.
  
  This book is a whirly gig tour of Eastern and Central Europe through time and place without an organizing principle beyond broad, chapter level themes. This makes it very hard to process everything he’s throwing at you.
  
  Each chapter is crammed with so many anecdotal sketches that the author had to condense to the point of opacity in order to fit them all in. I found myself running to Wikipedia way too many times in the early chapters just to get a clear understanding of what the heck he was talking about. I finally gave up and just tried to think of the rest of the book as laying the foundation for the next one I try to read about this region.
  
  Maybe someone who has more background knowledge in this area would get more out of this book than I did, but I don’t recommend this as an introduction to the subject. That said, the writing itself is engaging and the subject matter is compelling. If the author had focused more on depth instead of breadth, I would be rating this much higher.
• 
  Mal

  The book spike my interest because the Slavic themes are close to my heart. I'm from Poland and I love to learn about the history of my country in a way that is different from school form. I like when the facts presented are interesting and to the point. I like when there is multicultural approach and comparison with modern day state of things. Mikanowski's work has all that and more. I enjoy going into details and his personal remarks about the origin of differences and movements of boarders between so-called Easter Europe. I'm glad that Poland had its own rightful place in there but also that other, smaller, Slavic countries were mentioned.
  The only thing I had a problem with was editing, because I do enjoy having actual chapters between which I can maneuver and go back if I want to for reference. Other than that, it is solid work and I recommend it to anybody who is interested in Easter European history.
• 
  Noah

  An okay introduction to the history of the region, but it fell short in creating a complete picture of the Eastern Europe of today. I felt that the thesis rested on the idea of the difference between the "old" Eastern Europe and the "present" Eastern Europe, so it was disappointing that the "present" Eastern Europe only made a fleeting appearance in the epilogue. That being said, it gave enough interesting info to make me want to continue to seek out other histories of Eastern Europe.
• 
  Breann Hunt

  it’s essentially “quirky” anecdotes strung together in occasionally tangential and unrelated ways to make a picture of Eastern Europe. the author would probably argue that’s exactly the point but i didn’t feel it made for satisfactory reading
  
  still pretty interesting and learned a lot of “fun facts” as opposed to real history
• 
  Robin

  this book provides a really broad overview of Eastern European history and politics; branching from the medieval days all the way to post-soviet modern-day. in this, themes like faith, empire, nation and people are tackled, which is at once the strength and weakness of the book. you get hit with a huge amount of information, but ultimately it swims the surface and to learn more on topics you are particularly interested in, you’d have to dive deeper with further reading
• 
  Sharon

  Excellent! An insightful journey through the history of Eastern Europe, a bit tragic and bloody, but incredibly interesting.
• 
  Karl

  This was a great 'connective tissue' view of the history of modern Eastern Europe. I've read a lot of the 'battle' and 'political’ history of this region and was always a bit confused about why its histories did not seem to conform to the pattern of Western European histories over the same periods. This book went behind the scenes illuminating the incredible diversity, movement of religions, patterns of migration, ethnic disputes, and displacement that has fueled the dynamism of the more traditional markers of history.
• 
  Elizabete

  Between 3,5 to 4. Post 4 because I did overall find it to be a pleasant reading experience. In addition, I found the author writing with care and compassion towards the region and its historical pains.
  
  Slightly repetitive and as a whole the chapters did not present a coherent argument (were there any at all?). The presentation and accentuation of Eastern Europe as a “messy” and “mystical” place, (something that the author repeated often) does not make an argument.
  
  Notably either because of author’s personal interest, knowledge or lack of sources in English, the book heavily focuses on the part of Eastern Europe that itself prefers now to be seen as Central Europe. In the book there was a notable absence of examples and stories from, say, the Baltics or Ukraine while Belarus was almost entirely absent.
  
  For me, the first part was the most interesting, while the last chapters especially the second hand anecdotes of the Soviet - or their satellites - times (like the chapter “Socialism”) were not particularly interesting to someone from the region. This can also be noted in the use of sources almost exclusively in English. Whether it is because the author wanted to allow layman audience - which this book is really for - the chance to consult the sources or because he himself is not able to speak any of the languages spoken in Eastern Europe I do not know.
  
  Overall, if you are not very familiar with the region and its history I would say, this is a 4* book. If you are familiar this I rather a pleasant 3* book.
• 
  Linda Tomase

  Highly recommended!!!
• 
  Elaine

  I dont know what the genre is called but I love this style of book - loads of interesting facts and stories loosely tied together by a common theme and the authors personal reflections, reminded me a lot of Olivia Laing's 'The Lonely City' or Cal Flyn's 'Islands of Abandonment'.
  
  This book was fascinating and not really what I was expecting at all. It starts out dealing with the early mythology of the region and then moves on to how the demographics shifted so dramatically over time along with control of different areas. There's a nice mix of funny stories and serious ones, and the writing is really good and shifts well between these tones.
  
  It gets a tiny bit slow in the middle and I would have loved some of the earlier space given to very old mythology etc to be given more to the experiences in the 20th/21st century, as these were really short compared to the earlier sections. These were the most interesting to me because there was a lot more pulled from first hand accounts (some of the one liners here from people living through it were just really great sarcastic humor which I really enjoyed). Highly recommend, such an interesting read and I only wish there had been more to it.
• 
  Pamela

  Evocative and sensitive look at the region known as Eastern Europe through the centuries, highlighting the diversity of ethnicity, religion and culture coexisting in the area. The book travels from early Empires - Ottoman, Russian, Hapsburg - through the rise of the nation state, the volatile inter war years, and the imposition of Communism, up to the present day uncertainties.
  
  The author is of Polish and Jewish heritage and has travelled widely in the region as well as researching the history. He uses anecdotes from his family history to illuminate his points, and writes with sensitivity and authority. I really enjoyed how he wove his different strands together, deepening my knowledge of the history and culture of the different states in an engaging and accessible way. He has an eye for a charismatic character and a delightfully gruesome detail which makes for an enjoyable read.
  
  This enlightening and readable history would definitely be a recommendation for anyone interested in this fascinating and diverse part of Europe.
• 
  Yoana Misirkova

  I was super excited to read this book because I have not seen any (non-textbook) book on the market taking a broad look at Eastern Europe and not focusing on a particular country.
  I mostly enjoyed it, the writing style was very not too dry and I appreciated the author's sense of humor. The first and second parts were very interesting and engaging. The only thing I did not like about them was that the first part seemed to be emphasised occultism too much almost to the point where to me, having grown up in Eastern Europe, it seemed a bit ridiculous and almost as if written for a Western gaze.
  The third part was less great overall, in my opinion the general tone was much less intimate, a lot of facts and numbers and historical figures were thrown in, giving it a textbookish character.
  So if I could choose I'd probably give this book 3.5, but because I really appreciate how much research it must taken and I liked the how the author tied his own family history into the context of the broader history of the region.
• 
  Cynda

  This mediation on family, place, time gave me a reference point for the magazine articles and new broadcasts pre 2000. Good mediation for writer. Good reminder for me.
  
  Ultimately my generation hopped that the sacrifices and hard work older generations had put into WWII and recovery was then in the 1980s and 90s was finally paying off.
  
  Our hope could be seen in the popularity of such books as
  The Greatest Generation by
  Tom Brokaw
• 
  Dexter

  An interesting book that taught me a lot about Eastern Europe—its history and its people. I wished there was a little less of world war 2 (of which I knew most of) and a lot more of earlier and later history.
• 
  Carol

  Eastern Europe, if it actually still exists, is a handful of countries still looking for a narrative after centuries of rule by various empures, says Mikanowski. Perhaps the answer lies in the patterns of conquest, family histories, and pagan beliefs and rites that Mikanowski describes.
• 
  Ula Tardigrade

  An original and beautiful book. Jacob Mikanowski carefully weaves delicate and shimmering threads of surprising facts, mythology, and personal reminiscences into a stunning tapestry. As the author notes in a first sentence, Eastern Europe is a place that doesn't exist - but this strange frontier has long shaped the destinies of many people, communities, and future nations. Mikanowski has the ability to grasp what is elusive to many: “amid all our differences, Eastern Europeans share one other legacy in common, and that is a gift for seeing comedy amidst tragedy. Prolonged acquaintance with history at its most extreme has given us an extraordinary fluency in the absurd”.
  
  The Economist recently published
  a list of books to read to understand modern Poland. I think that “Goodbye Eastern Europe” will be a worthy addition to such classic works as
  God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795.
  
  Thanks to the publisher, Pantheon Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
• 
  Sansa snark

  “And yet that too makes sense, as Eastern Europe is one of the world’s great homelands of forgetting” yeag
• 
  Isabella

  3.5 stars
• 
  Sam

  Nah. I've been done over here.
  
  I got sent to Estonia (in Eastern Europe) for work and so read this book literally on the plane ride so I could arrive all cultured and knowledgeable.
  
  I really really went hard at it. I was cross referencing chapters, memorising key figures, dates - it felt like GCSE double science all over again. I'm going off and googling "Rudolph the Second's pet human meets Keplar founder of space" to understand exactly the importance of the chapter entitled "Heretics" whilst I'm waiting for my baggage.
  
  300+ pages I get to the end searching for meaning, for a final chapter to tie it altogether and you know what the author says?
  
  History is just something that happens to Eastern Europe. There's no rhyme nor reason and people should remember that.
  
  How the hell was I supposed to endear myself to the people of Tallinn by saying "I understand your culture is based entirely off what other people have done to you, how does that make you feel?" Waste of my bloody time.
• 
  Desi A

  Disclaimer: this book was by no means perfect, and at times it felt almost frenetic in the way that it moved from one anecdote and topic to another, but it was *fascinating* beyond all measure and impressive in its temporal and geographical scope. There are parts where I think he glosses more than he should, but I’ll forgive him that.
  
  Eastern Europe (broadly speaking) and Poland (specifically) were my first loves, long before Russia, and the author takes the reader on a truly sweeping journey.
  
• 
  Tony

  This one is going to be short and sweet. I admit that I normally don't get into history books that often because they feel like I'm reading an instruction manual or something of the like.
  Having said that, Jacob Mikanowski has managed to do the impossible and give us a history book that has a soul. "Goodbye, Eastern Europe" does tell the history of so many small countries scattered about between some very large ones. Mind blowing to me how so many places are gone, changed, reduced etc just in our lifetimes. So yes, we get a history lesson, but more so about the people, personal and well known, it feels like there is real heart in these told stories. It also feels like a very timely and urgent read given the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• 
  Daniel

  An enlightening albeit sad history of eastern Europe. It suffers from what most books on this type of scale do, and that's how thinly the subject is covered. This is to be expected. It does however give you subjects you can study more if you are interested.
  
  At the end of the book I was hoping for a glimmer of hope but the author refuses to give it. A deeply troubled place with a unique and colorful history a lot of it being the hatred and slaughter of others and myth making to cover it up .
  
  Recommended 3.8 stars.