Northeast Europe: Introduction

Northeast Europe is a vast geographical region that encompasses the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Belarus and Moldova, most of European Russia and Ukraine, extends into Poland and Romania, and touches the southeast edge of Finland. 

The European Russia section of the East European Plain is called the Russian Plain and is drained by several of Europe’s longest rivers, including the Volga (central-southwest), the Dnieper (Belarus-Ukraine), the Don (southwest), and the Pechora (northeast).  

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), roughly 20,000-25,000 years ago, the northern region of the EEP was covered by thick advancing glaciers while the central and southern regions were covered by cold, arid and largely treeless tundra-steppe landscapes.