Romania (population in 2024: 19,043,151) is a country in Southeast Europe with an area of 238,397 km². The capital of the country is Bucharest. The state is situated directly on the Black Sea, the Carpathian Mountains and borders Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. Romania was established in 1859 from the merger of Moldova and Wallachia. Romania is home to Transylvania, the central region for the German minority there.
The Soviet Union (SU or USSR) was a state in Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It emerged from the so-called Soviet Russia, the successor state of the Russian Empire. The Russian Soviet Republic formed the core of the union and at the same time its largest part, with further constituent republics added. Their number varied over time and was related to the occupation of other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Soviet republics that existed only for a short time (Karelo-Finlandia) or the division or merger of Soviet republics. In addition, there were numerous autonomous republics or other territorial units with an autonomy status that was essentially limited to linguistic autonomy for minorities.
Before its formal dissolution, the USSR consisted of 15 Soviet republics with a population of approximately 290 million people. At around 22.4 million km², it was the largest territorial state in the world at the time. The Soviet Union was a socialist soviet republic with a one-party system and an absence of separation of powers.
The originally independent village of Novo Selo is today, as Vinkovačko Novo Selo, a district of Vinkovci (German: Winkowitz), a town of about 35,000 inhabitants in the far east of Croatia. It is located in the historic Syrmia region, which was one of several settlement areas of the Danube Swabians since the end of the early modern period and is also the name-giver for today's Croatian Vukovar-Syrmia County.
Yugoslavia was a southeastern European state that existed, with interruptions and in slightly changing borders, from 1918 to 1992 and 2003, respectively. The capital and largest city of the country was Belgrade. Historically, a distinction is made in particular between the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1941 (also called 'First Yugoslavia') and communist Yugoslavia from 1945 (the so-called 'Second Yugoslavia') under the dictatorial ruling head of state Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). The disintegration of Yugoslavia from 1991 and the independence aspirations of several parts of the country eventually led to the Yugoslav Wars (also called the Balkan Wars or post-Yugoslav Wars). Today, the successor states of Yugoslavia are Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Hungary (population in 2025: 9,488,428) is a state in Central Europe with Budapest as its capital. For several centuries, the country was part of the so-called Habsburg Empire, which was known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 until its dissolution in connection with World War I in 1918. Hungary has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004. The country’s largest river is the Danube. Hungary is one of the few landlocked countries in Europe.
Vienna (population in 2025: 2,040,914) is the federal capital and the political, cultural, and economic center of Austria. More than one-fifth of the country’s population is concentrated within the city limits, and as much as one-third in the Greater Vienna area. Vienna is of particular historical significance as the capital and, by far, the most important royal seat of the former Habsburg Monarchy. Today, Vienna is home to the headquarters of several important international organizations.
Austria is a country in Central Europe populated by about 8.9 million people. The capital of the country is Vienna.
