About the term Eastern Europe (EE)

Eastern Europe was originally a block of eight countries:  
GDR (East Germany), Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania. 

After the fall of communism GDR and FRG (West Germany) merged into a single state, while republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia separated from Yugoslavia , so that Yugoslavia consists today of Serbia and Monte Negro only. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two independent states the Czech Republic and Slovakia..

Although traditionally referred to as East European, most of the countries of our interest and especially Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia are in the very center of Europe. Today they are usually called Central European or Central-East European countries (CEEC). Of course, the European part of the former Soviet Union  and specifically the part of Russia (up to Ural Mountains), three Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova are geographically the true Eastern Europe .