The Department of East European Studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts is dedicated to the study of East Europe, especially Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltics, which are studied both individually and in a broader international context, using a philological and historical-cultural approach. The Department is administratively and thematically divided into the Russian Studies Section, Baltic Studies Section, and Ukrainian and Slavic Studies Section.

The Department of East European Studies scientifically and pedagogically administers the bachelor’s programme and master’s programme in East European Studies (a double curriculum and single curriculum degree with ​​Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, Ukrainian as profile languages) and the bachelor’s study and master’s study in Russian Language and Literature (bachelor’s study – double curriculum study and single curriculum study, master’s study – single curriculum study). It further participates in the doctoral programme in Slavic Philology and Slavic Literatures.

The Department of East European Studies has a wide network of international contacts (e.g. agreements between universities and faculties, and ERASMUS agreements) with agreements on pedagogical-scientific cooperation currently covering all of the studied areas (Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltics).

In 2005, the annual Conference of Young Slavists and an associated publication series of peer-reviewed conference proceedings became the Department’s long-term project. Since 2014, the members of the Department have been decisively involved in the publication of Oriens Aliter, a scientific periodical aiming to provide a publishing platform for the results of cultural and historical research on Central and East Europe.

An important part of the Department’s activities is popularising the cultural heritage of East Europe and the results of its own scholarly activities in the form of open lectures, translations of fiction, organising public discussions and exhibitions, and cooperation with the media.