The East European Shepherd was bred in the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century. In the 1920s a number of German Shepherds were imported from Germany into the Ukrainian SSR, where a breeding programme was established with the aim of adapting the breed to the harsher Soviet climatic conditions. Over several decades of selective breeding, a distinctly different form of shepherd had been created from that known in the West;^[2][3] from 1950 this was named the Vostochno Evropeiskaya or East European.^[4] While initially the breed was centred in Ukraine, it soon spread throughout the Soviet Union, although its fortunes suffered during the Great Patriotic War.^[2][3] At the end of the War there were substantial imports of German Shepherd dogs from Germany; importation had not been possible before the War.^[4]

The East European Shepherd was used heavily by the military and police within the Soviet Union as a guard and sniffer dog. It was a favourite of the KGB, who only ever kept solid black examples; if a single non-black pup was born in a litter bred by the KGB the entire litter was destroyed and that breeding was not repeated.^[2][3] A breed standard was approved in 1955 by the Central Committee of the USSR DOSAAF, and in 1964 by the Presidium of the Service Dog Breeding Federation.^[4] The East European Shepherd is now among the most numerous dog breeds in Russia and several former Soviet countries.^[3]