Thus all the peoples of Eastern Europe disappear from European history shortly after the time of Constantine and do not reappear until the foundation of St. Petersburg and the development of the Eastern Question in the late eighteenth century. Even the national struggles in Vienna during the reign of Francis Joseph II are not evaluated, and far too many would-be-students of Eastern Europe are still under the impression that movements for national independence during World War I and the Russian Revolution arose out of thin air. The complicated events of the last decades pre-empt the concentration of students and give them little time to grasp the background which underlay the past and gave rise to the complexities of the present. It would be presumptuous to expect adequate and detailed knowledge of Eastern history to be added to the intellectual burden of all students, even though it would be desirable. The most that can be hoped is that students and scholars interested in this field will be able eventually to focus more attention, in the general curricula, on a few of the major trends that worked openly and secretly in Eastern history for over a thousand years, culminating in the present situation. The last years have seen a few attempts, like those of the late Dr. Bilmanis, Minister of Latvia in Washington, to prepare a history of Latvia. We now have histories of Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia and two or three of Ukraine. But there is still lacking a general survey presenting in readable, popular and general form the outstanding developments in the Slavic area. The development of such a synthesis of the East European culture, in a form that could be included with the more detailed studies of the Western countries, would go far in overcoming the vague and unrealistic ideas which are fostered either by ignorance or by the propagandistic works of the formerly dominating nations. When we remember that it was nearly the end of the seventeenth century before Eastern Europe acquired the form that it had on the eve of World War I and that this order was seriously challenged throughout the nineteenth century, we can see the necessity of a complete revision of many of the established and traditional concepts. Such a need must be recognized by the educational leaders as a whole, for Eastern Europe has greatly and consistently influenced the West. No greater step forward can be taken than to emphasize this historical fact and to show the important role of Eastern Europe, both positively and negatively, in shaping the world as we knew it at the beginning of the twentieth century. _II. The Divisions of the Area_