Eastern Europe is the region of the European continent between Western Europe and Asia. There is no consistent definition of the precise area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. Russia, located in Eastern Europe, is both the largest and most populous country of Europe, spanning roughly 40% of the continent's total landmass, with over 15% of its total population.
According to the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University, there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related United Nations paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct".
One definition describes Eastern Europe as a cultural entity: the region lying in Europe with the main characteristics consisting of Slavic, Greek, Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox, and some Ottoman cultural influences. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc.