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Throughout the Second World War and the post-war period, the city of Chernivtsi was transformed from a multiethnic and borderland urban microcosm into a culturally uniform Soviet socialist city. As the Soviets finally took power in this onetime capital of a Hapsburg province in 1944, they not only sponsored further large-scale population transfers but also "repopulated" its history, creating a new urban myth of cultural uniformity. This article examines the connection between war commemoration in Chernivtsi in the era of post-war, state-sponsored anti-Semitism and the formation of collective memory and identities of the city's post-war population. The images of homogeneously Ukrainian Chernivtsi and Bukovina were created through the art of monumental propaganda, promoting public remembrance of certain events and personalities while making sure that others were doomed to oblivion. Selective commemoration of the wartime events was an important tool of drawing the borders of Ukrainian national identity, making it exclusivist and ethnic-based. Through an investigation of the origins of the post-war collective memory in the region, this article addresses the problem of perceived discontinuity between all things Soviet and post-Soviet in Ukraine. It demonstrates that it is, on the contrary, the continuity between Soviet and post-Soviet eras that defines today's dominant culture and state ideology in Ukraine and particularly in its borderlands.

American society is undergoing unprecedented cultural changes in the 21st century. This social transformation began with the civil rights movement in the 1960s. As the United States becomes more diverse, both racially and ethnically, equal access to a variety of social institutions and organizations becomes more challenging. With respect to marriage, popular media continually report the blurring of boundaries between racial and ethnic groups. As a result, there has been a tremendous increase in interracial dating and marriage over the past several decades. There are considerable differences between the occurrence of interracial dating and interracial marriage. Data suggest that there is a much higher level of interracial dating in comparison to interracial marriage. This research effort focuses on trends in interracial marriages in the United States between 1980 and 2006. Information from the U.S. Census Bureau was used to analyze changes in the number and frequency of interracial marriages in American society over a 22-year time frame. Differential assimilation is employed for understanding interracial marriage trends and distinguishing important statistical differences between marriages with a Black spouse and those interracial marriages not involving a Black spouse. This exploration provides important empirical findings for assessing the progress of assimilation in America.

The Chinese minority plays a dominant role in the economies of Indonesia and Malaysia, a fact that evokes indigenous resentment. However, Indonesia and Malaysia dealt differently with the issue. Malaysia legislated the Malays into the economy and protected Chinese citizenship, making them an integral part of a multicultural state. By contrast, New Order Indonesia adopted policies of economic manipulation, forced assimilation, and unequal citizenship. Only when the New Order regime fell did Chinese integration begin. The policy trajectories of Indonesia and Malaysia offer important lessons for plural states.

The Belgians during the First World War represented the largest refugee movement in British history. Despite the size of this influx - at its peak some 250,000 were present in Britain - there has been an almost total absence of reference to them. This article suggests that this neglect is unfortunate both with regard to our understanding of the First World War and the history of refugees during the twentieth century. In particular, this article stresses the importance of local responses and reactions to the refugees and the significance of place in the process of rebuilding lives and identities in Britain.