Concept of Central Europe in the post-war Soviet academic discourse

Abstract

The article explores the scope of use and the level of terminological and conceptual maturity of “Central Europe” in the post-war Soviet academic discourse. While there is a current in the international debate examining the notion in substance, an investigation of its usage in distinct academic languages can help to render the discussion more practice-oriented. The present work is based on a review of authoritative sources of the period, such as encyclopediae and academic dictionaries as well as publications of prominent Soviet scholars in the disciplines where the notion found its application (geography, history, etc.). The influence of foreign publications and the tendency to employ “Central Europe” as a schematic mental placement for distinct phenomena are found pivotal for the term development. The article contributes to the attempts of delimiting the region, through evincing shared understandings of and around it, and looking into the continuity between the Soviet and the post-Soviet perspectives.