Travel with Rick Steves · Saturday, August 29, 2026
Historian Jacob Miknowski explains how the perception and reality of Eastern Europe have changed dramatically since the fall of communism. Many countries are rebranding themselves as Central European or even Nordic to shed negative connotations and embrace new identities.
“That sense of Eastern Europe being this other separate place, that's kind of evaporated.”
“So anyone who can. So the countries that love countries, they're rebranding as Central Europe. You're doing? In the Baltics, they'll even be like, we're actually Scandinavian. Nordic. Estonia wants to be Nordic. Estonia is not Nordic, but I say, okay, you're Nordic. Let's come on in.”
“That's the immediate one of like, that idea of their being a separate, but this other Europe. There used to be books called Literature from the Other Europe. Felipe Roth stated very, very cool books. But that there's an Other Europe. That's really faded.”