Also out of those 7 countries, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary were not under Russian or Turkish influence.
Where did you get that from?
As a Hungarian, I can easily tell you that that’s not the case. Hungary was under Turkish rule for more than 100 years between 1526-1699. It has left deep marks on both our language and culture (sometimes good ones, like having a lot of Turkish bathhouses, but mostly just set us back quite some years).
As for Russia, Hungary was a Soviet puppet state between 1944-1989. We have a national holiday on October 23 that is a remembrance day for a failed revolution against the Soviet Union, that was shot down in a bloodbath. The current ruling party started as one of the anti-Russian parties, Orbán (our current president) literally held a speech where he was chanting “Ruszkik haza!” (“Russians go home!”)… It’s unfortunate that he has completely flipped since then and is now welcoming Russian influence back.
I can only assume something similar for our neighbours, but I’m happy to look it up for you.
EDIT: Also, before anyone says it, I’m not contesting that the countries in the list were under Austrian (or Austro-Hungarian) rule too. The lines are messy with whose side of the story you’re reading, but as for Hungary the easy way to summarise it from the Turkish invasion is:
- Turkish rule
- Gets liberated by the Habsburgs, leading to
- Austrian rule
- Revolution, leading to getting some representation (sadly, just Hungary, not the other countries in the empire), leading to
- Austria-Hungary, leading to
- WW1
- Loads of failed governments, the great depression hits hard, leading to
- WW2, leading to
- Soviet occupation, leading to
- Failed revolutions
- Soviet Union falls, leading to
- Independent Hungarian republic, heavy anti-Russian sentiment, leading to
- Hungary tries to warm up to western powers, leading to
- Hungary joins the EU
- And now, with corruption and foreign influence going strong worldwide, Russian influence is rising again
That’s true. I think the only political (if we can call it that) heritage of the Turkish occupation is that the Turkish generally think of Hungarians as friends, probably since it’s a celebrated part of their history.
As for the Soviet era, I’m confident it still has its effects. Of course, it didn’t help economically, but also, I think that’s where our rampant corruption stems from (in most Soviet countries corruption was the norm, and I think it became normalised somewhat, as in “oh yeah, they are corrupt, but that’s nothing compared to what we had before!”).
I think our dependance on Russian gas also started back then (but I don’t have the receipts for that).
Also, there are plenty of people who look at the Soviet era through rose-tinted glasses and romanticise the past. I have relatives that have the attitude of “yes, but if you didn’t rebel, you could have a stable job and live an honest life; nowadays you have to worry about so much”, which doesn’t make sense.