Anterooms and Salons of East-Central Europe in the Contemporary Post-Soviet Geopolitical Conceptions

At the very beginning I would permit myself to present the basic thesis: The fact, that on the brake of XIV and XV century in four countries of Eastern Europe the universities were founded, tells us about the common development of this part of Europe – that part of a continent where the traditions of the Eastern European and Western European countries meet. The same elements that divided Rome and Constantinople for centuries were at the same time the pushing power of the central European countries’ development. The influences of those two parts of Europe met and still meet here, creating a specific atmosphere of tolerance and understanding for the different point of view and for different cultures. Being the inhabitant of this part of Europe from my first day, living in different countries of this region, and later being a specialist in the field of ethnic, religious and political geography, in each country, I had met a thesis that „our country is a bridge between East and West – in our country East meets West”. Sometimes these words are just a phrase, but sometimes it happens to be a scientific thesis. It would be good to make an attempt to create a list of the countries pretending to be „a bridge between East and West” (such position Anterooms and salons of East-Central Europe in the contemporary post-Soviet geopolitical conceptions CONFRONTATION AND COOPERATION