We present and discuss estimates of shear-wave splitting in the upper mantle of eastern Europe, based on SKS techniques. Estimates of the direction of polarization of the fast split wave &agr; and the delay of the slow wave Δt are obtained at seven stations: UZH, KOV and LVV, within and near the Carpathians, SIM, SEV and YAL in the Crimean peninsula, and KIEV in the Russian plate. Fast directions at all stations are around 130¿, close to the values previously found in central Europe. In the Carpathians, similar values of Δt are observed within the Pannonian depression, where the subcrustal lithosphere, if present, is very thin, and in the foredeep with a thick subcrustal lithosphere. This similarity suggests that the observed anisotropy is not inherited from earlier orogenies and preserved in the lithosphere. In the Crimea, the fast direction of anisotropy in the mantle is perpendicular to the strike of the Crimean mountains of late Jurassic-Cretaceous age, contrary to the expected alignment of the fast direction with the strike of a collisional belt. In general, the data are consistent with a present-day or recent large-scale mantle flow in central and eastern Europe, parallel to the Alpine belt. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union