Search

During the early Cold War, it was difficult for American intelligence to penetrate the Iron Curtain but a potential solution soon arose: émigré intelligence groups such as the Magyar Harcosok Bajtársi Közössége (MHBK) or 'Association of Hungarian Veterans'. This group, however, turned out to be an intelligence 'paper mill'. Attempts at trans-Atlantic cooperation with the MHBK and similar groups failed as they lost most of their good sources and were penetrated by communist security services. By the mid-1950s, US intelligence cut these groups off, took over their good sources, and established a source registry to prevent recurrence of the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article. The breakdown of the so-called Eastern Bloc, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the demise of communism fueled transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Central Asia. The great majority of transformation difficulties across different areas demonstrate that when pursuing the process of a structural change, it is important to take into account diverse sets of formal and informal institutions preserved in each country. Each country has a unique set of formal and informal institutions. These differences are easily observed between Poland and Azerbaijan. The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the outcomes of Poland and Azerbaijan's transitions from communism to capitalism and to identify the primary factors driving these two different transformations. Methodology. The paper presents two complementary methods to compare the transitions from communism to capitalism in Poland and Azerbaijan. The first method involves secondary analysis, where existing data from reputable sources such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) database, the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), and country reports are compiled to provide insights into economic, political, and social indicators. Additionally, a comparative case study approach is employed, using Geert Hofstede's six cultural dimensions framework to explore the cultural influences on transition outcomes. By integrating these methods, the study aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of the transformation processes in Poland and Azerbaijan. Results of the research. The results of the analysis presented in the paper support the hypothesis that the historically-shaped differences in mental models and strong ties to international protectors determined the paths of transformations in Poland and Azerbaijan. The primary similarities and contrasts in the mindset are justified by the colonial or imperial history of the nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how other countries were portrayed in the history test paper of the Chinese National College Entrance Exam, or Gaokao, over the past four decades. A qualitative study was conducted on the questions from history exams administered from 1978 to 2021. The contents of these questions were analyzed and synthesized into historical narratives, and six thematic narratives were identified in the test material: Humiliation and Resistance, War Changes History, the World Community, the Celestial Empire, Social Formations and Politics, and Communism. The study found that the history questions not only presented historical knowledge but also included an official understanding of history. The findings suggest that the Chinese government strengthened the ideological work of socialism with Chinese characteristics, shaping the legitimacy of Chinese communist rule and strengthening nationalist education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper envisages how the concept of 'Inequality' has been perceived by the Trade Unionists in late colonial Bengal. Informed by the ideology of Communism, these activists penned down a myriad of insightful analytical tracts, primarily in vernaculars, ranging from propaganda pamphlets to articles in the party organs. Their critique of Imperialism, and how it precipitates economic and socio-political inequalities was grafted in the ethos of class struggle. Through delineating their stark ideological differences with Gandhian mass politics, and by focusing on their intellectual endeavours concerning various structural inequalities of class, religion, caste, and gender it aims at charting out the indigenous response to the global doctrine of Communism. Often overlooked as conventional intellectuals, their literature brings to fore an alternative discourse on anti-colonialism in South Asia, overwhelmed by the theme of Nationalism. This paper is a methodological probe in doing intellectual history from below, adding to the edifice of the existing scholarship on Decolonisation, Communism, and Inequality in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the dissolution of the Comintern, the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was given the responsibility to co-ordinate socialist and anti-colonial activism across the British Commonwealth. This paper argues that the 1947 and 1954 Communist Parties of Empire Conferences are illustrative of the new-found importance of developing networks across Britain's empire in the post-war period. The Empire Conferences served as a body for the exchange of ideas, people and knowledge, and in some cases involved promises of financial resources. The paper will argue that the conferences were conducted on two levels. First, using the networks formed during the Comintern, they were an attempt to co-ordinate and function as a hub for activity across the Commonwealth. Second, in line with the 'transnational turn' in the area, the Conferences highlight the transmission of ideas across the international movement, showing the difficulties faced by individual parties, as well as opportunities for development and collaboration. In 1947, the CPGB was adrift from many of its sister parties over the vibrancy of its anti-imperial activism. Similarly, seven years later, whilst its anti-colonial activism had become more prominent, the CPGB was again criticised for its assumption of a 'fraternal association' between the empire's centre and its former colonies. The paper aims to shed light on the increasingly prominent divisions in cold-war international communism, and the transnational dimension of communist relations within the British Commonwealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miltiadis Porfyrogenis, a Greek lawyer and communist leader (1903-1958), stood out among the select few high-ranking members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) who boasted academic credentials, fluency in several foreign languages, adept communication skills, and a social stature that facilitated dialogue with fellow travellers, bourgeois politicians, and figures from diverse national backgrounds. Delving into Porphyrogenis's extensive travels, spanning from the early days of his involvement in communism in the late 1920s to the 1950s, this paper endeavours to underscore the pivotal role of travel as a formative experience that profoundly shaped the communist cadres during the Stalinist era. Moreover, it contends that, in Porphyrogenis's case, these travels encompassed not only political but also social and personal dimensions, and played a significant role in moulding a distinct lifestyle for the party elite, distinct from that of simple party members. By discussing Porfyrogenis's mobility, this paper seeks to situate his trajectory and the Greek communist movement within contemporary historiographical debate, addressing both the experience of communist activism and its broader transnational dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political and trade dialogues (1994) between China (Sino) and the European Union (EU) to establish a comprehensive Beijing-Brussels partnership (1995) began at the end of the Cold War with their summit-level meetings in 1998. This politico-economic partnership was founded within divergent historical, sociopolitical and ideological contexts. For example, the EU, a member of the Western Block and a strategic ally of the United States, was very different from China which stood alone as a populous country of the Eastern world with industrial and financial muscle. Despite these differences, the EU upholds Sino-EU partnership which is needed to survive with engagement, especially when politically adverse circumstances arise for the two entities at global stage. China, on the other hand, believes ties with the EU can last because it has invested in neoliberal economic principles that emerged after Mao's (1970-80) communism. These factors have played a pivotal role in holding and shaping the Sino-EU partnership for global collaboration, which the two entities believe will take them into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to describe and analyze the changes in public sites of memory in the multi-ethnic border region of Czechoslovak Silesia during the period of restoration of Czechoslovak sovereignty, between the fall of Nazism in May 1945 and the communist putsch in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. This research focuses on transformations and (dis)continuity of cults and symbols during that period, and on specifics and differences within the examined region with regard to ethnic and social structure of local population. Research is based primarily on the recorded agendas of state and district administrations, but preserved memorials and photographs or descriptions of vanished sites of memory also serve as important sources. After the expulsion of German population, the western part of the region was repopulated by settlers from various regions of East-Central Europe. Most of local German sites of memory vanished, with the partial exception of religious symbols and a few "apolitical" memorials. New monuments and memorials were dedicated mainly to personalities of Czech history in an effort to inculcate the "official" identity amongst the new-settlers. In the Ostrava coal basin, the new regime invoked the pre-war tradition of working-class identity and showed tolerance towards the sites of memory of the local Polish minority, except memorials related to the former Czech-Polish border conflicts. In the Hlučín region specifically, a strong pro-German narrative survived despite the "Czechization" efforts of state authorities. In general, the state-supported memory policy aimed to create the narrative of a "Slavic" and "socialist" Silesia, suppress the German past of the region, and weaken frictions between Czechs and Poles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on an early role in the theatrical career of the actor, director, and scenographer Liviu Ciulei (1923-2011), created on the stage of the theatre gifted to him by his father, the civil engineer Liviu Ciulley, in 1946. The role in question is Pyotr from the play The Last Ones by Russian playwright Maxim Gorky, which premiered at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest on the 16th of March 1948. My point is that Liviu Ciulei was drawn to this play by a psychodramatic impulse, finding in it issues related to his father who, like the protagonist in Gorky's play, had embroiled his family in a major scandal when his son was only thirteen years old. The season in which the play premiered was marked by the increasing interference of communist authorities in art, so the intense psychodramatic process through which Liviu Ciulei consciously or unconsciously worked through his early adolescent trauma intertwined with the collective drama represented by the imposition of the Soviet-enforced communist regime in Romania at the end of World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Horia Lovinescu (1917-1983), a member of one of the most important dynasties of modern Romanian culture. Six of Horia Lovinescu's dramas are interpreted in a close reading system, by psychoanalytical tools and by focusing on the family constellations the author imagines. These plays are related to the historical context ("the terror of history"), in order to understand how works of art are the reverberation of biographicalcreative data of the greatest importance and how they echo in a paradoxical way social-political transformations. This double reading, psychological and historical, is justified by the playwright himself, through the construction of his plays and through his many allusions to psychoanalysis in his writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the three journeys undertaken by the Greek writer and intellectual Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) to the Soviet Union during the 1920s. It also investigates his involvement with communism during the interludes between these journeys and his subsequent activities. By scrutinising the conditions under which these journeys were conducted, this paper sheds light on the influence of communism on Nikos Kazantzakis, his receptivity to communist ideology, and its integration into his distinctive worldview. Furthermore, this examination elucidates the communist movement's strategic planning regarding the travels of intellectuals from Western countries, and the incorporation of these journeys into the cultural diplomacy of the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on May Day celebrations in communist Czechoslovakia in the Žďár nad Sázavou district of today's Czech Republic. The communist regime used these celebrations to symbolically communicate several ideological and political messages. By examining one of these messages, the importance of the relationship between the countryside and the city, we see how its presentation changed over time. The variability of this message was caused not only by the changes the communist regime and society underwent during the studied period but also by specific local conditions. This paper concentrates on actors from two villages and argues that celebrations of May Day, an ideological-political holiday, could have been appropriated by local inhabitants as a community event that helped express the unity of the rural community. Holding May Day celebrations that served largely as community events in some villages also interrupted the union of the village and the city in socialist society, one of the messages that was supposed to be communicated by May Day celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studii de Ştiintă şi Cultură is the property of Studii de Stiinta si Cultura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Dictatorships are established and strengthened by imposing themselves on society. One of the tools they use to do this is school, along with textbooks as a means of information and mass spiritual nourishment. This paper aims to analyse the period of communist dictatorship in Albania and its way to influence the individual with an ideology in the function of politics yet to the detriment of the individual as a personality. The research is focused on the primary school reading books of 1946-1986. The passages connected directly with the political content, the parts that had genuine political concepts in the title or in content, were selected to complete this research. A significant number of these short stories, the types, the tendencies of their extension, the object, the nature, and their possibilities of influence were examined as the main materials of the study. During the research, the way textbook readings can influence to paralyze the quest for inner freedom and finding individuality were outlined. Thus, the school as an educational institution can be used to depersonalize the individual in function of the interests of social and political groups. The results showed that any society, including contemporary, could carry ideological influences, so the following article might increase the awareness on the texts used in school and on their interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have explored the history of consumerism in communist Eastern Europe, suggesting that socialist consumption followed its own rhythm and logic. However, when it comes to waste-making and recycling existing literature focuses on post-industrial waste practices of the Soviet bloc, paying little attention to post-consumer waste. However, socialist societies did not follow the West's example and refrained from introducing single-use materials, such as disposable beverage containers. Could this also mean that socialists did a better job to deal with their own post-consumer waste than the West? The current scientific knowledge does not answer that question. To cover that gap in the research, this article situates socialist beverage containers and especially recyclable soft drink bottles made of glass in a wider discourse about the meaning of waste, discards, recycling, and material culture in socialism, particularly in Hungary. It suggests that the socialist waste dilemma was unique to Eastern European economies because of its social, ideological, and cultural layers, of which the scientific community has limited understanding. It proposes that despite different ideological foundations, the socialists battled with similar waste problems than in the West, however systematic differences were large enough to produce less post-consumer waste and recycle that waste more efficiently compared to the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soviet medical science went through a deep and systematic transformation. Initiated in the very early days of the Communist regime, a moment of disrupting and isolating impact uprooted it from its former organizational and epistemic foundations and re-adjusted the expert output and modus operandi to state needs. Professional identities, paradigmatic approaches and everyday practices resulting from these were transformed and forcibly aligned with the expectations of the new powerholders, aligned with the newly formulated party-bound loyalties and secured by the broad array of severe sanctions. This article systematically approaches the dark side of the Soviet interwar transformation in medicine with a special focus on a sample of psychiatric experts. The paper analyses the entanglement between domestic pressures exercised upon scholars by the emerging totalitarianism, forcing them to detach and considerably re-adjust their international ties, while nonetheless trying to remain a part of this cross-border epistemic community. While international contacts did not cease entirely, their expanse, intensity and the very mode of cooperation had to change dramatically so as to fit the new regime´s vision upon medicine. International networks were re-appropriated for the sake of promoting the success of the Communist state, with scholars functioning as involuntary ambassadors of the regime. Though perfectly compatible with the practices and outputs of their fellow experts elsewhere across the globe while exposed to the permanent pressure of political terror at home, Soviet public health and its experts became deeply transformed and detached in manifold ways from their peers and their medical science. Largely overlooked, the early fractures of the interwar period carry on into the Cold War-influenced second half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not well known that in the context of the unofficial artistic and philosophical scene of the ČSSR there was an aesthetically refined and theoretically differentiated reflection on the different degrees and limits of visibility as well as a rethinking of participation – be it aesthetic, epistemic or political. In this paper I first investigate the relation between history and (in)visibility in its broadest sense: questions such as 'whose history is present' and 'what visual memory building strategies are used' were highly controversial and deeply politicised. For many artists and philosophers such as Zorka Ságlová or Jan Patočka the very act of remembering and the active, critical engagement with (visual) culture and history thus became an act of resistance. I then explore how artists subtly intervened in and transformed the monitored public space, and often tried to undermine given regimes of visibility. I demonstrate that these manifold 'dissident' practices engendered new aesthetic experiences and fostered powerful counter-narratives that deconstructed the official propaganda discourse of the communist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an investigation involving Vatican sources that have recently been opened for research, the paper reassesses the story of the actual or alleged Vatican-Soviet attempts at rapprochement initiated during and after World War ii with the aim to explore the considerations that shaped Vatican eastern policy at the end of the war. Ont the basis of a closer examination of the Orlemanski mission in the spring of 1944, the Flynn mission in March 1945, and the negotiations initiated in 1946 through Hungarian Jesuits it argues that despite Moscow's brief apparent display of willingness to cooperate at the end of the war, the failure of actual attempts at rapprochement was primarily due to the Kremlin's lack of interest. By contrast, the Vatican was truly open to dialogue, given the right conditions. Consequently, Pius xii's Eastern policy is to be interpreted through the paradigm not of intransigence but traditional Vatican concordat policy. The term Ostpolitik, however, unless used with some distinguishing qualification, seems inappropriate to Pius xii's stance on Eastern policy. Despite the similarities with the Vatican Ostpolitik of the 1960s, a close comparison shows up several basic differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparativ: Leipziger Beiträge zur Universalgeschichte und Vergleichenden Gesellschaftsforschung is the property of Leipziger Universitaetsverlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the past century, the trajectory of gender equality in Vietnam has been marked by a nuanced interplay of historical contexts, societal norms, and ideological shifts. A burgeoning women’s movement has emerged, favoring the term ‘gender equality’ over ‘feminism’ in private and public spheres. Gender equality has historically challenged traditional norms, notably during times of war, reshaping gender roles. Under communism, gender equality became static, confining feminism within a framework of patriotism and heroism. The persistence of gender equality is revealed in the context of a complex and contested amalgam of Western feminist ideas and historical antecedents. This article delves into the evolution of gender roles in Vietnam, exploring how communism and wartime conditions influenced feminism from the national liberation era to the Vietnam War. The article argues that the patriarchal structure present in a longstanding culture of Confucianism in Vietnam does not inherently obstruct gender equality and women's rights. Instead, it stems from changing women’s roles outside the domestic sphere to heroism during war efforts. Vietnamese women’s movement, before the term ‘gender equality,’ emerged during wartime but did not contest feminism. The notion of gender equality has become static; however, feminism is still contested and has yet to be adopted to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since communism's collapse, Central and Eastern Europe adopted neoliberal reforms for democratization and market integration. However, democratic institutions in many countries have backslid. Scholars debate neoliberalism's impacts and the rise of oligarchs concentrating wealth and distorting democracy. This review analyzes 50 sources from 1990-2020 through meta-analysis. Literature is assessed regarding neoliberalization's mechanisms and effects. Privatization concentrated assets in politically-connected oligarchs, enabling state capture constraining competition. Deregulation empowered economic elites with disproportionate political influence, distorting representation toward oligarchic over public interests. Evidence partially supports the hypothesis that neoliberalism benefiting oligarchs distorted democracy, contributing to backsliding. However, grassroots resistance offers alternatives. Further research could integrate local case studies and frameworks focused on equitable distribution rather than growth alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1980s and 1990s, a stream of Cultural Revolution memoirs written by Chinese dissident writers became bestsellers in the U.S., the U.K., and other countries in the Anglosphere. Travelling through transnational circuits of exchange made possible by a multinational publishing industry, Cultural Revolution memoirs were promoted as authentic cultural productions that documented the hardships of life under Communism. This article situates the Anglophone Cultural Revolution memoir in a global Cold War framework. Drawing on theories of Occidentalism, I discuss how English language acquisition is invoked in Anglophone Cultural Revolution memoirs as a pathway towards achieving individual freedom. Through formalist readings, I demonstrate how two emblematic Cultural Revolution memoirs - Da Chen's Colors of the Mountain and Jung Chang's Wild Swans - establish their narrators as liberal subjects through the process of learning English, thereby elevating the central figure of the dissident who crosses the Bamboo Curtain and seeks a new life in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives of wartime suffering, communist evils, and maltreatment by the 'West' have started featuring prominently in the political discourse across eastern Europe in the past decade and half. Permeating the public sphere, such narratives imply complex victimhood and often gain a hegemonic status. Why have such victimhood narratives become so pervasive? And what has been their purpose across eastern Europe? This interdisciplinary article provides a conceptual and empirical explanation of how hegemonic narratives of victimhood have been used to enhance ontological security and as an instrument of power-seeking political leaders, especially (but not exclusively) right-wing populists. It shows that although the local attachment to memory and history is often portrayed as irrational, victimhood as a narrative has clear benefits regarding national ontological security as the self-understanding of a state and a tool to justify policies. Using concrete examples, the articles identify three main sub-narratives of direct, historical and structural victimhood linked to World War II, communism and the precarious relationship with the 'West', arguing that the combination of historical traumas and the post-1989 transformations explain the pan-regional proliferation of victimhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the beginning, a science-based approach to questions of the future and – more precisely – thinking in alternative futures was in latent conflict with the official ideology of the German Democratic Republic, according to which East German society (and indeed, the whole humankind) was heading towards a communist future. During the 1960s, however, prognostics – the socialist type of futures studies – fitted well into the ambition of political leaders to foster economic development by promoting scientific-technological progress and adopting new management systems of the national economy. Prognostics was to a certain extent institutionalized and obtained in parts a cybernetic underpinning, but ideological constraints on knowledge never vanished. Moreover, prognostics had to distinguish itself clearly from "late-capitalist" futurology. With the reorientation of politics after Walter Ulbricht lost power, prognostics was cut back as was its cybernetic underpinning. As the official belief in the communist future eroded during the 1980s, there was no longer any room for governmental foresight. Futures thinking was taken up by the dissident movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines official negotiation methods behind the renovation and simultaneous use of the Staré Hrady castle between 1949 and 1993, as an example of the rescue of a cultural monument in communist Czechoslovakia. It is concerned with the mechanisms of actor-institutional communication at regional level at work within the broader circumstances prevailing in then Czechoslovakia, arguing that this negotiation was in fact the driving force behind the successful reconstruction of this castle after many years of expert-led volunteer work.

Based on the significance and role of ChatGPT in the power and knowledge production, this research aims to display how ChatGPT responds to questions that are by nature controversial and debatable, as their values depend on the agency or power that answers them. The main question of this work is whether this artificial intellegince model is influenced by any discourse(s). The approaches employed in this work are Michel Foucault's discourse analysis and Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis. It is contended that discourses are ubiquitously everywhere in social practices. To Fairclough and Foucault, language production is strongly connected to power and knowledge production. Therefore, utilising a qualitative method in the examination, the work wishes to identify the discourse(s) that can affect ChatGPT's responses and discuss its implications for knowledge and power production. The research discovered that ChatGPT's answers unveiled a prejudice towards capitalist discourse, established knowledge, and suppressed alternative opinions. Also, the definitions of capitalism and communism by ChatGPT were insufficient because the political and ideological dimensions of capitalism were ignored, which can be considered major findings of this present work regarding the two selected systems. This indicates that ChatGPT's knowledge production, an example or model from the ongoing technological revolution, cannot be relied on for being biased in its responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ethos (0860-8024) is the property of John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists (Naczelna Izba Lekarska) and the regional chambers of physicians and dentists (Okręgowe Izby Lekarskie) are the organisational bodies of the professional self-government of physicians and dentists in Poland. They are responsible for supervising the proper and conscientious exercise of the medical professions, determining the principles of professional ethics and deontology, and representing and protecting the medical professions. The history of Polish medical self-government dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. The development of the chambers was stopped in 1950 by the communist regime when the authorities decided to dissolve them. This article, which is partly based on unpublished sources, presents the efforts of Polish doctors to regain their professional self-government. It shows how these efforts were linked to the democratisation processes of Poland in 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the geopolitical confrontation between the United States and Communist China during the first Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954-55) and the subsequent 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. It argues that the crises in the Taiwan Strait had the potential to escalate into a global confrontation, unlike the proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam. The Taiwan Strait crises went on for almost twenty years (1950s-1970s), affecting neighboring countries' political developments, and while they were mostly confined to direct military actions by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China, they had the potential to bring the world to the brink of a nuclear war. This topic is significant because, unlike the proxy wars between superpowers, the Taiwan Strait crises posed a more credible risk, thereby underscoring the volatility of international relations and strategic dynamics of the Cold War period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between architecture and political power during the interwar period, specifically focusing on dictatorships in Italy and Germany. It discusses how dictators used architecture as a tool to express and consolidate their ideologies, shaping cities and creating a sense of national identity. The article provides case studies from different countries to illustrate the diverse approaches and outcomes of these architectural interventions. It emphasizes the importance of understanding this relationship to gain insights into these historical periods. [Extracted from the article]

Communist rule left a strong imprint on the development of Eastern European countries, but the precise mechanisms and directions of this legacy effect are subject to debate. This article looks at the legacies of giant infrastructural projects, which played an important role in the ideology and policy practice of communist regimes. Using the natural experiment of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), we investigate the influence of this project on post-communist voting behavior. We show that the BAM legacy reduces the share of votes for United Russia, the party of power of Putin's regime, and leads to a larger share of votes for the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). While the BAM legacy could be associated with a multitude of channels, we provide empirical evidence for at least one of them—the persistence of human capital, showing that BAM settlements are characterized by better educational outcomes than the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study the long-run effect of the Soviet shadow economy on attitudes toward the market economy and competition in Georgia—a former Soviet republic known for the high prevalence of the shadow economy. We use the density of Soviet-era organized crime as a proxy for the local prevalence of shadow economy and instrument it with agroclimatic suitability for citrus fruits, exploiting the fact that citrus and other subtropical agricultural products were an object of shortage and illicit trade during the Soviet era. We show that the citrus-suitable parts of Georgia have a higher density of Soviet-era thieves-in-law and that survey respondents living in these areas are more likely to report lower preference toward state ownership of businesses and higher appreciation of competition. Higher social legitimacy of private entrepreneurship is likely to be behind these findings: employed respondents in citrus-producing areas rate fairness of their compensation higher than in the rest of Georgia when they have their own business and rate it lower when they work in the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anyone who traces their Jewish ancestors back to the 18th century and even further back in history encounters the challenge of looking for ancestry without the clue that a fixed family name provides. Before the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, when Jews were forced by law to adopt a fixed family name, Ashkenazim Jewish families used patronymic names as last names. A patronymic name changes every generation. Sometimes, in larger cities, various types of nicknames were used as last names. Such a nickname could change within a generation and often indicated the place a person came from, his occupation, or personal characteristics. In this article, I will show, using three case studies, how I have faced the challenge of determining which patronymic names and nicknames my ancestors used as last names before they were forced to adopt a fixed family name. The three case studies are the ancestors of Josef Stern, who lived in the late 18th and early 19th century in Neu Bistritz in southern Bohemia, today Nova Bystrice in Czechia; Julius Strauss, 1883–1939, who lived in the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th century in Frücht and Giessen in Nassau/Hesse, today in southern Germany; and Simon Reiniger, who lived in Prague in the 18th and early 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, Alexandru Vișinescu was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his actions as a prison commander five decades earlier. This article explores the epistemic function of this "landmark case" by contrasting the judicial narrative with the narratives of the participants in the trial, i.e., the civil parties, and spectators, i.e., the university students representing the younger generation. The accounts of the survivors' families, while showing great similarities with the judicial account, considerably broaden the setting and locus of responsibility and place Vișinescu's story in the larger context of communist repression. University students, by contrast, have very limited knowledge of the adjudicated events, reflecting their de-contextualised understanding of the past. This understanding is an expression of what I call the available narrative world, including publicly accessible narratives and discourses, but also subjective stories from the private sphere. In the Romanian context, characterised by perpetuated silences about the communist past, the narrative world available to university students is restricted and offers little resonance for the judicial narrative, making its integration into existing knowledge structures difficult. Consequently, I argue that the reception and acceptance of judicial narratives varies according to their resonance with societally available narrative worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracist antisemitism was an integral part of national-socialist propaganda in Norway between 1940 and 1945. An imaginary entity called ‘International Jewry’ was represented as the sinister force behind phenomena such as Communism, liberalism, capitalism and cultural decadence. This article analyses the argumentation and functions of conspiracist antisemitism as it was disseminated by three journals in Nazi-occupied Norway: the Norwegian edition of the German antisemitic journal Welt-Dienst (Verdens-Tjenesten), the weekly Hirdmannen and the antisemitic periodical Nationalt Tidsskrift. While these publications represented history and politics as an apocalyptic battle between the so-called Nordic-Germanic peoples and an alleged ‘Jewish conspiracy’, their argumentation differed in several aspects. Whereas Verdens-tjenesten was first and foremost an anti-Jewish news agency, Nationalt Tidsskrift and Hirdmannen were more focused on attacking the Norwegian Jews directly. However, according to all three journals, the national-socialist revolution was an act of redemption, from Jews as well as from ‘Jewish ideas’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss articles within the issue on topics including journeys taken by Greek writer and intellectual Nikos Kazantzakis, the life of Greek lawyer and communist leader Miltiadis Porfyogenis, as well as the Communist Party of Great Britain.

This article aims to elucidate Langston Hughes’s political concerns as reflected in his most important political play, Scottsboro Limited (1931). Langston Hughes is a distinguished African American writer who tried his hand in almost all literary genres. He epitomized the views and ideals of the African American literary movement known as ‘The Harlem Renaissance’. In this play, he attempts to justify his race’s need to pursue their political rights and fight for the achievement of equality and liberty. This is achieved by illustrating the contaminated political atmosphere and circumstances under which African Americans were leading their life. Furthermore, the reasons that led to Hughes’s political resentment and indignation are all brought to light. In this play, he presents an outrageous example that shows the prevalence of political corruption inside the law system itself. What is noticeable about Langston Hughes is that he does not confine himself to discussing the conditions of African Americans, but he attempts to deal with the absorbed rights of other groups of people worldwide. Consequently, he saw that there was a need for an international revolution against whites’ oppression. These harsh forces were represented by the white imperialists and wealthy persons both in Europe and the USA. In Scottsboro Limited, he encourages these helpless people to get united to be able to strive against their oppressors and attain their full rights. The last point that this article handles is Hughes’s relationship with the communist part. His illustration of how the political rights of poor people internationally are down-trodden was the reason which lurked behind the racially-prejudiced attempts to relate him to the activities of Communism in American society. They accused him of being a communist, though he never was. All these aspects are crystalized in the analysis of the play [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the role of dissent in the making and remaking of contemporary international relations. The immediate aftermath of World War II was a period of interregnum. Prior security paradigms were exhausted while the three major political ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, and left radicalism competed around the world. The creation of the United Nations in 1945 was meant to facilitate the creation of a new global governance model for the sake of peace. However, when in 1947 U.S. President Harry S. Truman made a speech to Congress in which he inaugurated a unilateral foreign policy doctrine premised on Soviet containment, he escalated ideological differences into security concerns. The Soviet Union responded by intensifying their investment in the U.N. and by developing a rhetorical playbook meant to aid smaller nations and oppressed peoples in challenging Western racism and colonialism. I examine the Soviets' dissent at the United Nations to highlight (1) how dissent figures differently across political ideological paradigms; (2) the connection between dissent and institutional forums in the development of global security models; and (3) the role of dissent as a form of material rhetoric that makes possible the creation of novel political alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout Central and Eastern Europe, various governments supported the creation of memorial museums of political violence during state socialism. While much scholarly attention has been given to Hungary's House of Terror and the Baltic museums of occupations, this article examines the contrasting situation in Southeastern Europe, where state actors were generally absent and which witnessed relatively belated and overwhelmingly bottom-up processes. The article analyses the particularity of political prisons as 'difficult heritage'. It scrutinizes the commonalities and entanglements between the memorialization of political prisons in three Southeastern European countries marked by distinctive trajectories both during and after communism: Albania (Spaç), Romania (Sighet and Piteşti), and Croatia (Goli Otok). The article shows how in the absence of state-level policies to address transitional justice, activism surrounding difficult heritage memorialization has aimed to fill the gap. It also argues that the relationship between site memorialization in Southeastern Europe and the wider European models is doubly constitutive: first, the memorialization of Sighet in 1990s Romania borrowed approaches from Western European Holocaust memorialization, then shaped a European wide set of best practices; second, a wave of new memorial initiatives after 2010 in Southeastern Europe was connected to the Europeanization of memory and transnational engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no greater honor for an author than to respond to such generous and thoughtful engagement with one's work such as the two commentaries by Mila Dragojević and Tamara Trošt. These commentaries are that much more appreciated as both Dragojević and Trošt have contributed tremendous scholarship on memory politics and historical narratives in the Western Balkans and in many ways Yellow Star, Red Star builds on their own work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]