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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 article informs about 11th International Conference After communism. East and West under Scrutiny to be held in in Craiova, Romania, March 19-20, 2021. Topics include peculiar professional involvement creating and exploiting the inter-disciplinary developments of the East-West relations; study of recent history of the former communist space; and international and Canadian conferences taking place pertaining to international relations, politics, trade, energy and sustainable development.

Parallels have been drawn between the 1930s and today, notably the existence of unstable economic conditions as well as deepening, antagonistic ideological divisions. In the 1940s, two books appeared that presented opposing diagnoses of, and remedies for, the problems that faced Western societies at that time. In Man and Society, Karl Mannheim argued that forms of political organization had not adapted to changing social, economic, and technological conditions, and that this explained the rise of communism and fascism. He insisted that, in order to avoid disorder and political extremism, liberal democracies needed to engage in greater planning of their economic and social affairs, with sociology providing the synthesis of scientific knowledge required for this. Just a few years later, Friedrich Hayek published The Road to Serfdom, in which Mannheim's work was a central target. He insisted that only the preservation of liberal freedoms and competitive markets could prevent the spread of totalitarianism. This paper outlines the arguments of each of these authors and provides an account of some of the historical background against which their disagreement arose. It also explores the relevance of their very different positions today, at a time when the neoliberal ideology that Hayek championed continues to have great influence but is under increasing attack from across the political spectrum., (© 2021 London School of Economics and Political Science.)

The present paper discusses art as an environment for communicating meanings, as shared by the members of a community or culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; for this purpose, the paper focuses on the changes taking place in cultural production as well as the consumption practices of the digital age: more specifically, on the shift from a goods-centred economy to a service-centred economy, on the experience as a commodity, on interactive art and relational aesthetics, as well as on the emergence of a new way of production and consumption. The paper also discusses a possible modernity and the cultural differences that appear in the works of Eastern European artists (and Romanian artists in particular), works which reflect the transition from communism to post-communism and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We study the influence of height on labour market outcomes using micro-data from a recent survey that cover 27 post-communist countries. Specifically, we focus on the influence of height on three dimensions of labour market outcome: (1) likelihood of employment, (2) occupational sorting, and (3) earnings., Methods: We use micro-data from 2016 Life-In-Transition survey (LITS) which was jointly conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. We run several types of regression to show how height influences (1) likelihood of employment, (2) occupational sorting, and (3) earnings., Results: When controlling for a comprehensive set of covariates, for each 10 cm increase in height, the probability of getting a job increases by 1% points for males and by 3 for females. Equally, for each 10 cm increase in height, the probability of getting a job increases by 2% points in urban areas and rural areas. Our findings demonstrate that taller women and men are more likely: (a) being an employer rather than an employee; (b) to be employed in higher-paid and more prestigious sectors of finance, insurance, and real estate; (c) to be employed in private enterprises. Finally, when occupational sorting and socio-demographics are controlled for, a 10 cm increase in height results in a 5% increase in earning for men, and a 12% increase in earnings for women., Conclusions: Using a diverse sample of 27 post-communist countries, we found that taller individuals have better labour market outcomes in terms of employment, occupational sorting, and earnings., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

On 1 January 1930 the Communist Party of Great Britain's (CPGB) new daily newspaper, theDaily Worker, was published for the first time. It was heralded by the CPGB as a maturing of the British Communist movement, and an opportunity for the Party to spread its message to a much wider audience than previous weekly newspapers would allow. With leading Party members in control of the paper, theDaily Workerwas very much a Party newspaper; however, the CPGB wanted it to be much more than an internal bulletin. This paper examines the attempts by the CPGB to create a newspaper that spoke both for and with the voice of the working-classes, whilst also spreading the Party's message. It will ultimately conclude that the CPGB's depiction of it as a paper ‘by the working-classes, for the working-classes’ reflected the Party's efforts at locating its own place within the working-class movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

In this introduction to the second part of the special issue on alternative economies published in Organization in 2017, I first briefly chart key fora where the debate has continued in the last two years, and then present the three additional contributions included here. Moving the conversation forward, I argue that, in order to evaluate the prefigurative potential of alternative organizations, we need to address more thoroughly the relation between alternatives and their outside. A productive place to ground this reflection is in the debate between post-capitalism and anti-capitalism. The main lines of this debate are reconstructed based on the keynote speeches delivered by Jodi Dean and Stephen Healy at the last Rethinking Marxism conference held in Amherst, Massachusetts, in September 2013. I conclude by claiming that post-capitalist immanence should be articulated with an anti-capitalist communist horizon, and advance the Open Marxist notion of de-mediation of social relations as key to do this. Although capitalist institutions (e.g. the market, the state) mediate all social relations, mediation is never definitive, as it always contains the possibility for its own negation, de-mediation. So conceived, de-mediation redefines our understanding of class struggle beyond the capital-labor relation in the workplace, into society as a whole, broadening the ethical and political scope of the organizational research agenda on alternatives to capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life story of writer Karel Pecka (1928-1997) offers a unique glimpse into the history of unofficial literary and book culture in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989 as well as into the life of a writer in a totalitarian regime. Pecka's samizdat "Odyssey" started by printing the illegal leaflet magazine Za pravdu in 1949. Back then, he could hardly anticipate how much publishing in unofficial, "parallel" book circulation will define his work in the decades to follow. As a prisoner in the Jáchymov and Příbram labour camps in the 1950s, he continued secretly writing collections of poems, followed by short stories. He was a member of prison samizdat, the most beautiful items of which were reportedly written on cigarette paper. From the early 1960s on, some of his handwritten works were first distributed among selected readers in mimeographed copies due to delays in publication. His brief official writer career was cut short by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies to Czechoslovakia in August 1968. This opened the second twenty-year period of Pecka's life marked by the impossibility to publish and attempts at overcoming the barrier. His novel, Štěpení, delivered to Škvorecký in Toronto in handwritten form and subsequently issued by their '68 Publishers publishing house, made Pecka a bona fide samizdat pioneer. The normalisation of 1970s and 1980s spent in the alternative culture environment brought several more publications in exile and samizdat editions (including Motáky nezvěstnému) and a series of texts in the Obsah periodical. Pecka's samizdat life ended with the post-samizdat publication of his prison poems, Rekonstrukce, self-released in 1995, two years before his death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctors in Star Trek are vital and central characters, often crucial in helping their captains to reach command decisions. They are also interdisciplinarians, performing not only medical tasks but also any form of work related to all fields of biology. Furthermore, these doctors also carry out any required research that pertains to the biological sciences. It is perhaps this unique blend of skills, combined with a fundamental orientation towards humanism and compassion, that leads to their default position, de facto, if not de jure, as the crew's ethics officers, a role that they embrace with as much dedication and zeal as the former Soviet communist political officers/commissars (the Zampolit) did theirs. This paper will show that from the very inception of Star Trek, doctors strictly adhered to deontological tenets which lead them to actively influence command decisions that pertain not only to health, but also to any ethical decisions that may have to be taken by Starfleet officers. This portrayal of future doctors signals the wishes of contemporary audiences: that future doctors remain humane, compassionate and ethical guardian angels, and not only superb medics. [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]

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified interest in alternatives to neoliberalism. One proposal that has been increasingly discussed by both academics and activists is the implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI). This would typically see all citizens awarded a regular cash payment, without conditionality attached. While UBI thus deserves considerable attention from sociologists, as yet critical theorists have not offered an extended engagement with the proposal. In this paper, I provide exactly such a critical theoretical perspective on UBI, subjecting the approach to an extended critique. When viewed through the perspective of critical theory, UBI emerges as a more problematic approach to social change, failing to offer what its most enthusiastic progressive proponents promise: 'a capitalist road to communism'. Rather, in this article, I argue that, when viewed through the lens of critical theory, UBI appears likely to further entrench, rather than disturb, the neoliberal social formation. [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]

The aim of this paper is to explore the forms of official and unofficial negotiation, using the rescue of the Staré Hrady castle, renovated between 1949 and 1993, as a case in point. The paper first outlines the earlier history and current situation of this monument, then the cultural and legal context, the actors and, lastly, the history of the rescue itself. It then proceeds to examine the final phase of the rescue to provide an illustrative example of a castle renovation project that was financially and ideologically supported by the regime and where the rescue went hand in hand with its cultural use, which served as an argument for the renovation in the first place. The paper discusses the forms of communication formally required for the official negotiation related to this project, as well as the informal level of the negotiation, which existed outside the written sources. It concludes that both of these negotiation levels were equally important for the preservation of the Staré Hrady castle: they were used as dictated by the situation and ultimately aimed at achieving the same goal: to preserve a cultural monument whose restoration had been considered impossible and pointless a little more than two decades earlier. [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]

“Sociologists in Communism. The beginnings of a profession without status” is a collective volume coordinated by Sorin Mitulescu and contains the stories of some sociology graduates in 1975 and of some of their teachers at that time. The book is both an essay in sociology and a collection of oral history papers. We understand from reading the book that sociology was at that time the victim of the oscillations in Romanian politics between the desire for modernization (especially technological) and the fearful and dogmatic conservatism that had penetrated all social levels. Sociologists in communism want to be a starting point in a broader debate on the role of sociology and the sociologist, both in the past and in the present. He discusses several topics such as the relationship between sociology and power, the professional mobility of sociologists, the relationship between personal life and the career of a practicing sociologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Theological Review / Bogoslovska Smotra is the property of University of Zagreb, Catholic Faculty of Theology 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.)

This paper investigates the use of social media to underline the tourism cultural heritage of Bucharest. The authors examine the history of the city, dating back from its settlement during the Ottoman Empire and passing through a series of radical changes: the period of Phanariot rulers, the golden age as the "Little Paris" of the Balkans, the Communist period, and the current democratic regime. The paper is based on the reviews' study from the Tripadvisor.com platform and investigates tourists' emotions during their travel experiences. Sentiment analysis of Bucharest as a tourist attraction was developed based on the emotion criteria (anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, trust). The findings revealed that visitors have favourable emotional responses towards the tourist attractions. [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]

The objective of this paper is to better understand the evolution and institutional roots of Hong Kong's growing economic inequality and political cleavages. By combining multiple sources of data (household surveys, fiscal data, wealth rankings, national accounts) and methodological innovations, two main findings are obtained. First, he evidence suggests a very large rise in income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong over the last four decades. Second, based on the latest opinion poll data, business elites, who carry disproportionate weight in Hong Kong's Legislative Council, are found to be more likely to vote for the pro-establishment camp (presumably to ensure that policies are passed that protect their political and economic interests). This paper argues that the unique alliance of government and business elites in a partially democratic political system is the plausible institutional root of Hong Kong's rising inequality and political cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite having lived rather different lives, Karl Marx and Charles Dickens have worked on similar issues like class diversification, poor conditions of the working class, and consequences of the Industrial Revolution etc. They both advocated for better lives of the Proletariat. Where Dickens expressed his view through fictions, Marx came up with concepts like Marxism through works like the famous Communist Manifesto. In fact, Robert J Shiller, in his research on Narrative Economics, talks about the importance of fiction in propagating an idea, a philosophy and an ideology. Similarly, Charles Dickens was able to propagate Marxism with a vigour that Marx's Communist Manifesto could not. Even so, Marx himself spoke of how authors like Dickens helped him in spreading his new ideas. Though numerous reviews and analysis have been done on the works of both these exceedingly exceptional figures, this particular research paper explores the similarities between two of their major works, the Communist Manifesto and Great Expectations. Great Expectations, through its protagonist Pip, explores ideas found in the Communist Manifesto, whether it be the image of the working class as the social scum, the jealousy of the Proletariat, the standoffish attitude of the Bourgeoisie, or even the materialistic family relations of the Bourgeoisie. In conclusion, while the Communist Manifesto strongly communicated its ideas across nations, books like the Great Expectations conveyed those ideas in the form of a story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legacy of legal-political ideologists is seldom used as an element of argumentation in court. The situation is different in proceedings focussing on political crimes, in particular, the trials taking place in disruptive moments of history. One of such moments was the period after Poland regained independence, when the Soviet Union posed not only a military threat, but also one of doctrinal influence. The objective of the paper was to verify the hypothesis that the trial of communists which took place in Lwów in late 1922 / early 1923 (known as the St. Jura trial) was significant not only in terms of its legal-criminal aspects, but was also important from a historical and doctrinal perspective. The verification of the hypothesis was based on the analysis of court speeches, especially their elements including references to the legacy of legal-political ideas. Additionally, the paper presents legal-political ideas as highly argumentative material that may be, and perhaps should be, used in legal practice today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia is the property of Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografia e Historia 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 primary aim of this article is to present the rule of law universalism as a relevant theoretical and socio-political issue that critical legal thought needs to contend with. In order to do so, this issue is described through a Marxist theoretical framework, which aids in identifying the consequences of this universalism. Furthermore, the Marxist theoretical framework is suggested as a countermeasure that allows for going beyond it. The rule of law universalism is analysed as a process connected to establishing hegemony and status quo that affects both the way the law is thought of and practiced. The post-communist context serves in fleshing out some of these consequences. Although the transition is not the main subject of inquiry, it is a starting point to a set of philosophical questions directed towards the rule of law universalism, mainly regarding historical embeddedness and socio-political dependency of the rule of law. The transitional context illustrates the tension between the rule of law treated as a generalized blueprint and the reality it is introduced to. The method of approach to this tension argued for in this paper is Marxian theorization of concept as an interplay between concrete and abstract that underlies historical materialism. This movement within concept is juxtaposed to the universalism. The philosophical investigations are followed by findings from Marxist legal theory that pinpoint the importance of concrete interventions into the legal theory that abate its ever-growing abstractness. In particular, the import of knowledges and practices divorced from the capitalist system is brought into focus. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of the possibility of overturning the rule of law universalism and a discussion on the emancipatory potential of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces a special section about history of science in Central and Eastern Europe before and after the fall of Communism, and sketches a conceptual framework within which the three papers in the section can be understood together. This introduction provides information about the workshop from which the papers were recruited, and continues with more general considerations on the nationalization of scientific knowledge in the territories of the Habsburg empire and its successor states. In the second half of the introduction, themes addressed by all three papers in the special section are named and discussed briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of a religious organization under an oppressive regime, such as in communist countries, differs from that in a free society. There is extensive literature on the effects of regulation on competition in religious markets and on the religiosity of a population. Less attention has been given to the effects of oppressive regulation that aims to control and possibly eliminate religion rather than to promote a particular religious group. This paper focuses on the specific question of how churches deal with oppressive regulation, particularly how they choose between legal and illegal operation. It proposes that both the official and the black‐market way of supplying religious services have some advantages and disadvantages, and that dual operation is advantageous where the regulation is severe. The paper examines the operation of the Catholic Church in Central European countries under communist rule, particularly Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine, and the different strategies adopted by the Church concerning official and underground operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eva Dawes Spinks (1912-2009) was an outstanding Canadian high jumper in the 1930s. The present paper traces her early life, successful athletic career, and her decision in 1935 to join a group of athletes on a goodwill tour of the Soviet Union organized by the Workers' Sports Association of Canada. Upon her return, Dawes was suspended by the Women's Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. She retired from competition and became involved in the Canadian campaign to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Much later, Dawes adamantly denied any political involvement. The purpose of this paper is to examine and possibly explain the incongruity between the historical evidence and Dawes's later denials. More broadly, it is a discussion about the relationship between history and individual memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petre Țuțea (October 6, 1902 - December 3, 1991) was a Romanian Christian thinker and an orator, who was preoccupied with philosophical and religious matters. He was the author of numerous studies and articles that focused on economic, social and political issues in the inter-war era. This paper intends to point out the main guiding lines of Petre Țuțea's system of thought as an economist and his personal comprehension of the relation between the economic and the political elements. [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 paper reflects an effort to consider the history of Albanian education within the context of the country's history. In it, the origin and evolution of Albanian education are described in connection with the country's social and political standing. It is divided into sections, each corresponding to a major historical period in the formation of the Albanian state and intertwined with major reforms in education: education during the Albanian National Renaissance (1830s–1912); education after the Declaration of Independence (1912–1928); education under King Zog (1930s); the 1946 education reform; the 1960s reform, which involved reorganising the system of education for long-term success; and education after the decline of communism in the 1990s and beyond. The paper chronicles how the dawn of the educational system, its organisation and its curriculum were designed to prepare "period-specific" citizens. It is concluded that the roots of the Albanian national education system took hold during the Albanian Renaissance as a necessity of national survival and that the system's development through time is intertwined with the country's constitutional standing, echoing the secret workings of national life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at studying the specificity and transformations of the Old Believer funeral ceremony in Soviet Latvia under the impact of forced secularization and is based on testimonies from representatives of the older generation living in the southeastern region of the country--Latgale. The qualitative research reveals that the policy implemented by Soviet power contributed to the diversification of former practices. The practiced funeral ceremonies--religious, secular, and hybrid--testify to both Old Believer attempts to safeguard the traditions based on their deep religiosity and to adapt to a new situation by introducing the imposed features of external ritualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years, has given rise to a variety of interpretations and strategies to face this crisis. Some researchers have suggested that the state is the single most effective agent capable of mobilizing the amount of resources and the policies required to overcome a crisis of such a broad scope and devastating impact. This paper analyzes the causes of the multifaceted and deepening socio-ecological crisis to show that the root cause behind this crisis is the capitalist mode of production itself. Subsequently, I interrogate those approaches proposing the state as a strategic mechanism to combat and overcome the crisis. It is outlined that the class-based (non-neutral) character of the state will tend to reproduce the prevailing capitalist relations of production, namely the basic conditions for the generation and exacerbation of this crisis. As is finally suggested, it is only with a revolutionary transformation of society that the working social majority will be able to radically undo the fundamental causes of the crisis and create the conditions for a peaceful and sustainable development on a planetary level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the ideological mutations that occur by turning the written text into an adaptation, using the protagonists that play the role of the marginal, both in the novel and in the movie, facilitating the breakthrough in the peripheral universe. Transmedia reveals the construction of the same fictional word, but the shift lies in the swinging between ideological isms: progressivism and conservatism, capitalism and anti-capitalism. This study is focused on recent literature and its adaptations. Characters have got the same name, they live in similar universes, but the main aim of this paper is to identify the shifts that result from turning the written message into a visual one. The same “story” can take a different ideological turn, therefore, both creations must be taken into consideration, in order to comprehend the global message. The ”double-creations” chosen to illustrate this point are: Love Sick by Cecilia Ștefănescu, motivating this choice by the progressivism of the adaptation in contrast to the conservatism of the novel, concentrating on the queer component; I am an old communist hag! by Dan Lungu where the focus falls on the anti-capitalist view, whereas the novel concentrates on an anti-communism ideology; Soldiers by Adrian Schiop, a case where the movie diminishes the focus on the progressivism, shifting the prespective on the universal love story between Adi and Alberto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]