T.S. Eliot, Post‐War Geopolitics and ‘Eastern Europe’

Digressing from decidedly prosaic themes in a letter to his mother in December 1919 – a lingering cold, Christmas plans and a vague New Year's resolution of writing ‘a long poem I have had on my mind for a long time’ – to include a rousing, two-pronged critique against American apathy towards global peacemaking, and the complicated reconstruction of new nation-states, T.S. Eliot pulls no punches at the state of post-war Europe: The peace treaty seems to be held up indefinitely in America. I hope it will not prevent America from helping in Central Europe; the destitution, especially the starvation in Vienna, appears to be unspeakable. I suppose Americans realise now what a fiasco the reorganisation of nationalities has been: the ‘Balkanisation’ of Europe.1 Eliot was commenting on American isolationism and neutrality following the First World War, with Woodrow Wilson's failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, and limited American support for the League of Nations. He was also referring to the slow burn and enduringly complex effort to establish the boundaries of the newly appearing nation states of Europe, especially in its east.2 This is a passage, we might argue, which reveals Eliot's interest in the east of Europe – an interest particularly manifesting as a recurrent anxiety about affairs in Vienna, which he pedestals as a site of inarticulable human suffering, reflecting the widespread popularity of support for the city at the time in British cultural and political circles.3 However, the letter also suggests a certain tension within Eliot's perspective. For whilst he specifies Viennese sympathy, this is counterpointed against a stigmatisation of the wider political difficulties in the region post-war, which were contributing to civic breakdown. Central Europe and Vienna are to be supported, but the wider politics is a ‘fiasco’; a word which imagines not only disaster but also sheer ludicrousness, as if it is unreasonable to even think of the possibility of a ‘reorganisation of nationalities’ in that area in the first place. For Eliot, concepts of national structure, curation and control have limited scope within what was a multi-ethnic and transforming space. Eliot's interest in the region remained; for, three years later, a note he provided within the first edition of The Waste Land – that ‘long poem’ he mentions in his letter – claimed the masterpiece (or, at least, one of its sections) was similarly inspired by what he described as ‘the present decay of Eastern Europe’.4 Similarly, but not quite: for this time Eliot does not redeem the region with tales of victims of Vienna but simply inflates the appalling conditions in the region to a broad-sweep devastation. His description, as many critics have noted, reflects common stereotypes about the region following the First World War: the collapse of the Russian, Habsburg and German Empires, cultural heterogeneity, rising nationalism and lack of legal-political authority in the area meant it was often seen as unstable and volatile within western-inspired and universally applied models of nationality and statehood.5 In 1919, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Lloyd George, suggested the region's ‘nations were going straight to perdition’; speaking to a political gentleman's club the same year, the former Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, also voiced concerns about the effectiveness of the Peace Treaty on a region fraught with socio-political change and causing the ‘deepest anxiety for the future’; Liberal and author Harold Spender similarly dubbed it ‘that cauldron’ from which ‘came the Great War [and] from [which] may yet come another conflict’.6 But what – if anything real at all – did Eliot mean by ‘Eastern Europe’? What does ‘Eastern Europe’ represent: what area falls under Eliot's claim to it as category, and what are its limits or borders? Why is Eliot's conceptualisation of this region different from his conceptualisation of the Central Europe of Vienna – and how might this reveal the reasons why Eliot particularly denigrated the former, and not the latter? And furthermore, how might understanding this contribute to a re-reading of the poem, and the poet? My article argues Eliot's references to the region suggest more than generically resonant conditions of decline and hope, for they are also revealing of his anxieties about ‘Eastern European’ nationhood. This unease may, at first glance, appear to contradict Eliot's embrace of pan-European connections during the 1920s, but I want to explore the tensions which emerge within his work about the region, as his support of cultural tradition and control chafed against a perceived heterogeneity, political contestation and excessive nationalism on the geopolitically tense ‘Eastern European’ plains.7 Drawing on Eliot's letters and cultural criticism, I argue this dichotomy reflects a long-standing western geopolitical imaginary shared by Eliot, through which ‘Eastern Europe’ was perceived as an insecure space of multi-nationality and ongoing political transformation – and as a threat to the cultural ideals he epitomised.8 For Eliot's return to the region as a frequent yet fraught topic of interest suggests his attitude towards it might have been complex; or, at least, that his sense of international political responsibility and pan-European allegiance conflicted with anxieties about cultural diversity. I contend Eliot's work shows his attempts to manage these two competing ideas, firstly by reinforcing and prioritising what he perceived to be more traditional cultural centres – which helps to explain why he had more sympathy for Vienna, a city with which he was familiar via friends and publishing work.9 And, secondly, I argue Eliot played down the significance of ‘Eastern Europe’ through detached and brief portrayals, suggesting he did not take the various political claims to sovereignty in the region seriously. Simultaneously revealing and assuaging geopolitical developments in the region, Eliot's approach was one of half-baked western concern. What might have seemed heterogeneous, insecure and excessive to Eliot was not viewed the same way in the east, where diverse ethnic groups were developing their own national claims, attempting to solidify nascent states after years of repression, and struggling for independence and survival.12 Tracing how Eliot's references to the region in The Waste Land contradict his aesthetic and political ideas, I expand on the commonplace critical idealisation of a European Eliot rooted in cultural collaboration, which often elide his racist or stereotyping viewpoints. I suggest the poem can thus reveal wider debates about the region we might call ‘Eastern Europe’ at the time Eliot was writing, and in ways which have new resonance today. Two names, Eastern Europe and Central Europe, have already appeared as descriptions of the region I will be focusing on in this article, and so it is important to add a brief explanation on historical and present-day descriptions of the area. A nomenclatural splay of terms – each denoting different identities, boundaries, characteristics, ideas and geopolitical significance – has developed over time to define the area broadly between Germany and Russia. The phrase ‘Eastern Europe’, long critiqued by scholars, intellectuals and policymakers for its broad-sweep allusion to countries formerly under Soviet control, and perpetuation of tired Cold War-era stereotypes is, however, slowly becoming déclassé, particularly since increasing efforts to decolonise Slavonic Studies after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.13 Of many terms suggested to replace it, ‘East-Central Europe’, referring to the area between Finland and Greece, or ‘Central and Eastern Europe’, states within the former Eastern the former and the three are the are also efforts to the to at with to the diverse and which not a dichotomy of west or is also a to ‘Eastern Europe’ as a Eastern Europe’, the region not only as of Europe, but as a and of and for and human the for the area after the of the author suggests the region between geopolitical names, and and I was an Eastern then I was promoted to the of Central European a I a New But I had the to to this I have now a of the terms and of the region are to in the and Eliot a different in The Waste noted, he the phrase ‘Central Europe’ in the letter to his in the ‘Central Europe’ was often as a to an area which was a in western cultural in the that the of from the of the British meant was Central Europe that to a and whilst ‘Central Europe’ did at the to an it was becoming with efforts to ‘a new for the of the of nations as a political efforts by the of and British and by and developed the of a Central or an which but not the nations in the region, and which on the of the Habsburg it also to Eliot's cultural for Europe, in which national within a wider which ‘Central Europe’ a popularity as the by particularly intellectuals during the Cold War, the the region as a To to an area as or is an of its significance and And a Central or is in The Waste Land, in references to historical and a of we in the And went on in the And and for an And we were at the My he on a And I was He on And down we In the Eliot of various nations within the the a to the and to a of the and a from a about the the in a way which of Central European are also to the of a now with of the for German political over the region – and a of the region which to – which was at the time with cultural and from the region's and of a in the of the German and of as well as references in the of by the In Eliot a letter to in which he suggested he was to the and of the and European as a to The an allegiance to the through his tradition of and in this of the ‘Eastern Europe’, is a which is as an – in and by Eliot – for it no to be an Eastern its first conceptualisation during the ‘Eastern Europe’ an area which is to which is and in to the a perceived in the through a of the western as with and – and of on greater significance during the Cold – – efforts to replace the in different of ‘Eastern Europe’ is also for understanding historical and with the region, and its within a wider to the of Eliot's ‘Eastern in it is to what he His of the does not appear or certain – for within the poem it is where ‘Eastern Europe’ is, what are and how they may are also of how ‘Eastern Europe’ is to a wider European to to the poem and to Eliot as a In were it not for his note to the the region at why this as a in the I want to suggest Eliot's so reveals his critical attitude towards the region, as as it also his interest in This is on the for the decay of Eastern Europe’, is and counterpointed two more and themes for the ‘the to and ‘the approach to the – with the of a geopolitical the of this In the we Eliot with time – with a of post-war – but whilst suggests and of the lack of a more detached and of in the in its allusion to and the is that the region's decay might be of a and as in this as to of decay in the and or even that the region is to a of within a To of the decay of Eastern Europe’, is not only to suggest an region which to be in decay at the time of writing but also to to more about the of the region ‘Eastern Europe’ – an region – is by the it is in The similarly to and in references to in the poem, for the possibility of and down the significance and of ‘Eastern Europe’, this thus the possibility of an for the Eliot's phrase also to his note to a of the in which he of of Europe, already at of Eastern Europe, is on the way to chaos, in the of the as This is a which also for whilst the the where does this The sense of decline is on – – and the of by suggests he its via to But this is also an and description, which only than names, the and the on which it thus is no as critics have of western concerns about but a more towards a vague ‘Eastern Europe’ as a for perceived a and of the the from – from of Europe’ to at of Eastern Europe’ – as a of in to a of in ‘Eastern Europe’ which is different from of ‘Eastern Europe’, and from of Europe; by he from and is of a to the of ‘Eastern this suggests a in different of the region a wider which might be as ‘Eastern Europe’, or and so the region not as but as more read Eliot's decay of Eastern Europe’ as a more approach to the region, which to take and a broad-sweep In I argue the Eliot's of a ‘Eastern Europe’ is of this and different nations developed sovereignty at different and thus the region to The complicated is on an and had for Eliot, was German at In one letter of in which he publishing to his Eliot and two European in a that a of his first was to about the of the – only to be for of or or of ongoing socio-political the of states and the of to meant the of post-war nation states were and years to with in the nascent states even at the of the World In another letter to in Eliot similarly that he was for the of for all over the The of writing in is and it seems to be a of time to to the if has a nationality – and a nationality the of a and have a nationality speaking of have a national – if has a it, the be as the as the German as as he can but be or or German in a way that his national will not the This is a of the independence of new nation The of an imagines an lack of control, as well as suggesting a of which the possibility of long-standing And it is in the that these nations are and only which as well as and Eliot's own The Eliot's of cultural tradition and – is his of this tradition to western European nations This of the east thus reflects a long-standing of the region as and and it the traditional and national Eliot which were with the and to which were through – as in his and the and The on the post-war of Europe at the of of and even at their as of historical but the of as well as their nascent ‘Eastern Europe’ was thus not to but to claim the nations of the region in decay through their and Eliot's of ‘Eastern Europe’ may appear to against his for pan-European – but this an of his critique of the His of The a he ‘a of European his interest in European cultural and the same time as he was writing The Waste Land, in Eliot that he was the nations of western Europe for cultural for the come is all about I not to many for the first two more to the is so that it a Eliot's the west of Europe is clear, but so is his of cultural and aesthetic His stigmatisation of the east, be seen not so as historical and Eliot of the ‘Balkanisation’ of Europe, he is thus referring not only to the of the new European but he is to suggest even more that Europe now the that it has Eliot's of thus suggests between and western Europe are and an to the His references to the east as and the of in with of the of a and ‘Eastern European’ the ‘Eastern European’ from in the to down a in a way which suggests to the Similarly, Eliot's of a in is in its suggesting a of the east and but it is also of his political The between these are of geopolitical and insecurity, a manifesting in the of cultural and Eliot also have that it was on – in the newly – that an of was it the This of to western of a as a but and to the of western and political in three – but did The that and did have a claim to independence within the global did not Eliot's conceptualisation of the region, and thus a of his in The first of this of The Waste Land what critics have seen as a to these in the of which Eliot to the decidedly more The of Polish which to of wider global through its and a that in has Eliot's to this of to suggests towards the and wider the first of the was following the Polish in and the in terms was the of it shows Eliot about as a with a wider which to of are his of references is thus an of and cultural control, within a wider context of of Polish ‘Eastern Europe’ is often as a of cultural and decline – through the and of as of a Cold which Eastern European to or victims of a the of to the east is as well as and a for a – that was an it in the that he his but in we as be to we even if they that their was of it simply up in in the of its own be no But the from by Eliot also suggests an of ‘Eastern Europe’, and its which might wider for the region, for Europe, and for the the region as a site which a with cultural and political for and Eliot, the ‘Eastern Europe’ is no at all but and of and then this also suggests a it also how far the region is with or to global and how far global politics is with or to whilst different is also of a of and of between centres and in the to ‘the of the – and to the of and this is an of the region, through which of Eastern Europe – and of Europe – to the tense of their own and their as of European argue, the boundaries of Europe can be as for the of the tensions between and political where one is and with as as of its to the – where and the between and and and and and are and of which we or and New Europe similarly another of Eliot's for the was The of the Peace which on suffering, and political and in Europe, than only a threat of But whilst suggests the of a European decline of is more of post-war of the British conditions with which they are are to their and more is their to or where the which can – cold, and – are an present if they are to the of the against the of which it be to the if is is another conceptualisation of present but for the of the up the is he seems to be even if the west is not by it, as they their about more conditions at Eliot, a lack of western interest and to European than between the two this in my be to the British are different from in a between the of and that and Americans their in an to and are Eliot's of thus to his complicated attitude towards the at its cultural but and reflecting his to its And western Europe also in for in The Waste Land, as in the Eliot its to and with the in the of western and – – and I at my in The suggests through a in which ongoing in of the from the of an it western European about its to European post-war, and its that the east is even European to a wider its of in peace efforts following the and at the western ideals of and Eliot's poem up the and even by western European and suggests European with the these of suggest a as to the west as of In the one of the of the European will be in Eliot's note on the decay of Eastern Europe’ similarly suggests its western and played – and – a in and to and debates about the of new nations post-war, Eliot long-standing and ideas of west and east and suggests European ideas of and are to His of an and conflicted Europe what is seen as familiar and to reveal the area as and and its limits and whilst I have that The Waste Land was by debates about ‘Eastern European’ nationalist and connections to the wider European it is also to this the way as a poem which ‘Eastern the of Eliot's in from European his themes of cultural and in a European an that no prevent global also suggests Eliot's work also the of a and Polish to embrace new This of War last Waste Land to consider the of the of on and in to Russia's invasion of transformations in Eliot's attitude towards the region are in his letters and which a sympathy – particularly towards – after the of states in the post-war In and the of one of Poland's which it as an from ‘a of a and important in the of Eliot it an and its lack of reflecting his own of as a of tradition and as well as a between his views and the of western towards the particularly in the face of its perceived the of the World War, Eliot also two to of which also suggest his more The first was for the of an of the of in which he the is the the and was to ‘the of the of Europe’, with an of the that were at work to the and cultural of European to the Eliot was to the on the of which his to suffering, reflecting a lack of British of the of as well as Eliot's about the as a and of his and towards the Eliot's was for the and of The of the an of the of the Soviet of which the of Polish as a of European which had been in the British within and more ideas of the east, Eliot also suggests hope for the for the possibility of new and the present of an In The Waste Land, it through the of the is in of not a it is the which which is even sense of This might appear the of an ‘Eastern European’ but it is also to and with than Eliot in his of nascent nationhood. is to what are not as as what to from stereotypes and to own a is thus a political which and the of the the perceived the is a particularly resonance with and in today's efforts to decolonise Slavonic from the of in the In a a was by the in a to for Ukraine following the full-scale the of the – long seen as an – to now and And, as did so with and in the face of we this a present-day of of a ‘Eastern an diverse and – than – of and on the European geopolitical and cultural not as but as and to is a in at the of of Polish and European in and Polish

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