Old soviet blocks countries are persistent on calling themselves central europeans whereas everyone eastern neighbor is automatically categorized eastern europeans.
Why are they doing this? Because when people think about Eastern Europe, the first thing to come in mind are poor people with intense alcohol issues and the Soviet Union, so this is a huge prestige / perception hit to these countries.
I had a Romanian friend in college who vehemently denied that her home country’s name and/or language had anything to do with Italy. It’s fucking wild the gymnastics people are willing to do in preservation of ego.
Old soviet blocks countries are persistent on calling themselves central europeans whereas everyone eastern neighbor is automatically categorized eastern europeans.
Why are they doing this? Because when people think about Eastern Europe, the first thing to come in mind are poor people with intense alcohol issues and the Soviet Union, so this is a huge prestige / perception hit to these countries.
I had a Romanian friend in college who vehemently denied that her home country’s name and/or language had anything to do with Italy. It’s fucking wild the gymnastics people are willing to do in preservation of ego.
Nationalism is one hell of a drug