Eastern Europe is the eastern region of Europe. Originally, it meant the countries that were under the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople during the Middle Ages and Western Europe meant those countries following Catholicism or Protestantism. Later, during the Cold War, it meant the European countries that were allied to the Soviet Union. It is now used to talk about the European post-Soviet states and the former Warsaw Pact. Others say that Eastern Europe is a region of mainly Slavic cultures, though other ethnic groups live there as well. Eastern Europe has a large Roma gypsy population.
According to the widest contemporary definitions - including those used by the UN Statistics Division, several other UN organizations and EuroVoc (the multilingual thesaurus of the EU) - the following states are in Eastern Europe:
Partly recognized: