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How effective was Soviet secularization and what is its long-term legacy? This paper investigates the lasting effects of Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign (1950s) on the current level of Orthodox religiosity in eastern Russia using an original district (raion)-level dataset that combines historical and contemporary evidence. By employing various matching techniques and an instrumental variable approach, I identify significant effects of the Virgin Lands cultivation on diminishing the role of religion even 60 years later. Moreover, I demonstrate that the resettlement of Communist Youth League (Komsomol) members and the destruction of traditional social relations may have worked as key mechanisms that contributed to the legacy effects. This study offers one of the first micro-level empirical investigations into the impact of Communism-driven secularization, and contributes to the emerging inquiry into the historical legacy of communism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Critique of Gotha Programme, Karl Marx famously argues that a communist society will be characterised by the principle, 'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!' I take up a question about this principle that was originally posed by G.A. Cohen, namely: what makes communism (so conceived) possible for Marx? In reply to this question, Cohen interprets Marx as saying that communism is possible because of limitless abundance, a view that Cohen takes to be implausible for ecological reasons. I develop a new interpretation of Marx's position. On this interpretation, people in communist society achieve self-realisation through providing others with the goods and services required for their self-realisation. Coupled with a reasonably high (but not immense) development of productive power, self-realisation generates conditions in which people can produce according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. I defend this view as an interpretation of Marx and I argue that it represents a more plausible account of what makes communism possible than Cohen's interpretation in which technological advance and limitless abundance play the predominant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1974, Iraqi-born Ghāʾib Ṭuʿmah Farmān (1927–1990) published his novel al-Makhāḍ (Labor Pains. Baghdad: Maktabat al-Taḥrīr, 1974). Farmān had subscribed to Communist ideas since his youth, a leaning for which he was also arrested, yet in this novel, he bluntly expresses his disappointment with the 1958 Iraqi revolution's consequences and his doubts about the concept of revolution itself. In this study, Farmān's novel will be placed within the broader historical and cultural context in which Leftist Arab intellectuals became critical of the Iraqi revolutions of 1958, 1963 and 1968 alike. A close reading of the novel, published six years after the Baʿth revolution of 1968 and the rise of Saddam Hussein to power, reveals admonitions on possible future turns of events. To wit, the concentration of power in the hands of the state and the regime, persecution of political rivals, favoring regime allies, economic disparities, as well as the discord between the noble goals of the revolution and its contradictions in the preservation of the post-revolutionary order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies a specific historiographical gap obfuscating communist women, namely, a 'double blind spot' rooted in the combined effect of the scant consideration of women in histories of communism and of communist activists in accounts of the women's movement. It traces this pattern of invisibilisation back to the paradigm of communist women's 'instrumentalisation' and to the resulting paradox of an 'activism without agency'. The article then provides a critique of this received image; first, through an analysis of emerging scholarship on the female communist experience; second, through recourse to actors' own perspective on the rapport between communism and feminism and the possibilities of 'double militancy', drawn from sources of the post‐1968 Italian context. It closes with an argument for relocating communist women as an unexpectedly transgressive subject of twentieth‐century history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with decommunization in Ukraine from 2014 to 2020, examining the motives and actions of the main actors of this policy and societal responses and recounting its most significant developments and outcomes. The decommunization in Ukraine in 2014–2020 was a successful, though belated, effort initiated at a time when Communist symbols had lost their original ideological sense as well as social, cultural, and political significance. The promoters of decommunization reanimated it and managed to contextualize it under actual threat from Russia to justify their policy, which they used to promote a nationalist narrative of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining the thought of three intellectual groups--"Old Liberals," non-Marxist social democrats, and Rōnō-ha Marxists--this article shows there existed an anticommunist discourse in Allied-occupied Japan. These thinkers agreed that Japan should become more democratic, but no one saw the communists and direct action groups as a true democratic force or identified in Soviet society an ideal path forward to Japanese democracy. This finding ultimately calls into question the cold war-informed binary view of postwar Japan and suggests that Japan's orientation into the U.S.-led democratic camp was grounded on this anticommunist culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which autocratic elites are more likely to be punished after being removed from office? Purges are an important tool of autocratic survival, helping dictators to eliminate potential rivals. However, expulsion is not always the end for victims, as some also suffer detention or execution. Although we have compelling theories on why certain elites are purged, we still lack strong understanding of why punishments may differ. Using individual-level data on autocratic elites from communist Eastern Europe between 1917-1991, I find evidence that military and internal security elites are more likely to be detained than civilians, owing to the higher coup risk they pose. Internal security elites are also more likely to be executed than other elites, due to long-term threats of their professional knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars have used local Chinese county gazetteers for historical and socioeconomic analyses, yet little research has examined the completeness of coverage or the biases in reporting that characterize the compilation of these gazetteers. In this paper, we provide a novel source for studying Chinese political movements and local history under the communist regime after 1949: the internal-discussion drafts of county gazetteers (xianzhi pingyigao). Our findings constitute the first study to use internal review drafts to examine the authenticity and credibility of county gazetteers. Prior to their publication, gazetteer drafts are compiled by a team of editors and typically receive at least three rounds of rigorous internal review. These internal-discussion drafts are subject to a prolonged and strict process of self and external censorship. Our analysis engages in a close comparison of text samples extracted from two versions of local gazetteers collected from four counties in Guangxi province. Compared to the draft versions, we find evidence of serious data manipulation and a tendency to underreport historical events in the published editions. Our research evidently demonstrates the process of historiography editing and reveals how local history is presented through the lens of government public documents in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution considers a monthly seminar, Literature and Psychoanalysis, that has been taking place at Sofia University (Sofia, Bulgaria) since 2017. Three of the seminar's founders reflect on the transferences between literature and psychoanalysis, and on the ways in which literature and psychoanalysis can meaningfully converse. The exchange also touches on the fate of Freud's textual legacy in communist and post-communist Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the postwar cultural sphere of the Dutch communist movement. Drawing on a series of interviews with 27 Dutch cradle communists born between 1935 and 1955, communist archives, and a wide range of other sources, it explores respondents' cultural upbringing and family leisure time in the period 1945–1965. It challenges the notion that Dutch communists all lived in a closed sectarian milieu or ideological bubble and instead argues that Dutch communists had a close yet complex relationship with the 'bourgeois' (non-communist) world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1989, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was going through a period of transition. The fall of the Berlin Wall posed an enormous challenge to Marxist beliefs and the communist political project. In this situation, party secretary Achille Occhetto and his close collaborators planned to embark on a new social-democratic path, as a significant part of the elderly leaders and rank-and-file members feared the abandonment of communist ideals. 'We are a different party ... and I continue to believe it,' a Milanese communist militant shouted while Nanni Moretti was shooting La Cosa (1990), a documentary about the last days of the PCI, crystallising the perceived sense of uniqueness and diversity that pervaded Italian communism despite the complete loss of meaning for the communist movement worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the previously neglected cases of the Yugoslav republics to revisit the question of how electoral systems were formed for the first elections during the transition from communism in 1989–1990. By exploring archival and other sources created contemporaneously by the relevant decision-makers, we build on Rokkanian interpretations of electoral system design. Unlike Rokkan, however, we do not see parties as unitary or united actors. Our analysis instead focuses on the leadership and the dominant wings of the ruling parties and shows that their preferences regarding electoral rules served their intra-party ambitions and reflected their intra-party power capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why were homosexuality and Communism so closely knit together in the discursive logic of the Cold War? This article explores the convergence of sexuality and ideology in scholarly and popular conversations about the Cuban Revolution. These included a transnational panic over the purported links between homosexuality and Communism, psychiatric efforts in Cuba and the Cuban exile community to link homosexuality to suspicious ideological affiliations (Communist or anti-Communist), and a shared concern with rooting out covert political threats on both sides of the Florida Straits. Situating Cuba in hemispheric perspective, I propose that secrecy itself was at issue in the widespread and conjoined preoccupation with ideology and sexuality. This turned the closet, on the one hand, and coming out, on the other, into all-purpose, politically charged signifiers in Cuban culture writ large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the processes through which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) developed its propaganda outlets in Hong Kong during the mid-twentieth century. I argue that the CCP's operations in 1940s Hong Kong laid the foundation for its propaganda machinery in the 1950s through transborder staffing and a repertoire of flexible strategies. During the 1940s, the party trained a group of propagandists who were well acquainted with Hong Kong and frequently crossed the Hong Kong–Guangdong border to preserve the party's power base. These propagandists developed a series of strategies, including infiltration, camouflage, and diversification. In the 1950s, the party employed these seasoned operatives in Hong Kong and Guangdong to coordinate propaganda campaigns and utilized the preestablished strategies to navigate the new Cold War geopolitics. This study also highlights the Guangdong–Hong Kong nexus, the CCP's flexibility, and the continuities surrounding the foundation of the People's Republic of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During 45 years of dictatorship in Albania, many people were accused, convicted, imprisoned, exiled, or persecuted for “offences” of a political nature (under the communist law), thereby violating basic human rights. A series of legal measures have been enacted during the 30 years of democratic developments to deal with the bitter past and, especially, the crimes of the communist period. Methods: This study contributes to making a normative evaluation of the status of the right to the truth in international law. The paper focuses on the most important state obligations for giving effect to this right, such as the prosecution of serious violations of fundamental rights and the issue of missing persons. The study uses a qualitative interpretation of the Albanian legislation model built to unveil the truth regarding the violations that occurred during the communist regime, including criminal prosecution and trials and the issue of missing persons. The study is conducted based on a methodology that analyses four variables in each of these policies, specifically: the policies contributing to revelation, the legal and empirical challenges encountered, the constitutional and legal basis of these measures, and the results achieved in practice. Results: The measures set up along the democratic developments in Albania to investigate serious violations of fundamental rights committed by ex-communist officials did not contribute to achieving transitional justice goals. Conclusions: The crimes committed by ex-communist officials during the communist regime in Albania were never punished, and the truth about past atrocities while using the criminal law in Albania was never revealed. In Albania’s recent years, regardless of the change of trajectory in dealing with the issue of 6000 missing persons’ remains from the communist period, no tangible results are found, leaving the truth about their fate buried, turning it into a serious concern in the framework of guaranteeing human rights. Failure to account for the whereabouts and fate of the missing persons in Albania gives rise to a continuing situation in breach of the right to life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found a high degree of assortative mating for educational attainment (r =.56). However, this can be confounded by cohort effects or country effects, where certain nations may have more pronounced assortative mating than others. In addition, method variance regarding how educational attainment is measured may also result in heterogeneity of effect sizes. Effect sizes were gathered from various datasets and from academic literature, resulting in a large collection of effect sizes (k = 1498, n = 9,159,098), spanning 84 different countries. Assortative mating for educational attainment was stronger than what previous literature suggested (r =.66, [.64,.68]), largely due to the fact that assortative mating for educational attainment is stronger when latent methods are used. The strongest predictors of assortative mating for education between countries were individualism (r = −.61, p <.001) and HDI (r = −.56, p <.001). Assortative mating over time was found to vary by region. Capitalist Europe experienced an increase in assortative mating for education, while Communist Europe experienced a decrease. The United States had a non-linear trend in assortative mating for educational attainment, as it decreased from 1875 to 1926, increased from 1926 to 1945, decreased from 1945 to 1958, increased from 1958 to 1977, and decreased from 1977 onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threat perception may be interpreted, understood, and applied differently depending on many factors. How Russia perceives the Western world primarily focused on the United States, NATO, and Europe, is a topic that seems to be under-communicated after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This article does not provide a complete picture or claim to have definite answers, but explores one avenue of approach investigating Russian threat perception and if anything has changed after 1917. Looking back on the Bolshevik Revolution and how Communist thinking framed how the Soviet Union identified, neutralized, and combatted various enemies of the state, a simple model is suggested. The latter separates false from imaginary enemies within and outside the state. The same model, with the same outlook, is also applied to contemporary Russia—with an analysis based on Western thinking and political rationale. The article's core is to explore the role and function of the Soviet/Russian intelligence and security apparatus with a possible deeper understanding of Russia in general and President Vladimir Putin in particular. His origin and background from the KGB and FSB are perhaps not fully appreciated, at least not fully comprehended in the West. This article seeks to shed light on historical roots to better understand how history may have shaped Putin and his thinking and definition of enemies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author analyses the operation by Swedish diplomats in the Soviet Union during the peak of the Stalinist Terror. Although Swedish communists living in the USSR have been in the spotlight of some journalists and historians, the extent of the different Swedish groups and the complicated diplomatic actions to help them are nearly unknown. Who could be saved? Who disappeared in the Gulag? The context is the Soviet actions against all foreigners in the Great Terror from 1937, forcing them to either become Soviet citizens or immediately leave the country. Comparisons are made with Finnish people in the Soviet Union, a group much harder hit by the terror than the small groups of Swedes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is a reflection on the new challenges in former European communist countries in three areas of gender equality. The analysis employs the gender disparity index (GDI), which encompasses life expectancy, education, and income indices, each equally weighted by gender. The former communist states are categorized into two clusters: the first comprising European Union (EU) member states, and the second consisting of non-EU member states or those in the integration process. The findings indicate pervasive gender-based inequalities across the former European communist bloc. This study offers critical insights for countries seeking EU accession, highlighting the need for targeted policies to address gender disparities in multiple domains. Contrary to the hypothesis positing a connection between feminine cultural values and gender egalitarian practices, the data do not support this assertion. The implications of this research are particularly pertinent for aspiring EU member states, who must navigate issues of monopolism while striving to establish effective principles of business efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract analyzes the content of the Soviet Screen magazine from 1969 to 1985, focusing on its portrayal of Western cinema during the Soviet Union's "stagnation" period. The study finds that articles on Western cinema were heavily ideologized, emphasizing criticism of bourgeois cinema and its negative influence on audiences. This trend was less prominent than in the late 1960s due to significant political shifts, particularly after the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia. A crucial decree issued on January 7, 1969, by the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party mandated a more stringent opposition to bourgeois ideology and a vigorous promotion of communist ideals. This decree criticized media personnel for deviating from class criteria and sometimes promoting views contrary to socialist ideology. Additional resolutions in 1972 reinforced these directives, stressing the harmfulness of bourgeois ideology and the necessity for a rigorous ideological struggle against non-Marxist views and revisionist trends in literature and art. Consequently, Soviet Screen's management aligned closely with these resolutions, resulting in a marked decrease in content about Western cinema and an increase in critical coverage. Unlike during the 1960s Thaw, featuring Western movie stars on the magazine's cover became unthinkable. This period reflects the Soviet Union's broader efforts to control cultural narratives and suppress influences contrary to socialist values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide a detailed exploration of the Arrow Cross movement in southern Slovakia. In particular, it examines the history of the Arrow Cross movement in and around Komárom (Komárno) between 1938 and 1945, i.e. its actions in the so-called “Hungarian times” following the First Vienna Award of 2 November 1938. It is clear from archival documents and opposition press articles that the Arrow Cross movement had already begun to organise in the Upper Lands immediately after the annexation. After the ‘return’ of Hungary, Arrow Cross ideas also spread among the inhabitants of Komárom and its environs, and the economic difficulties of the town played a part in this. By the end of 1940, along with the central party organisation in Komárom, Arrow Cross party offices were established in the municipalities of the district. Arrow Cross ideas were also popular in the city among former communists, who saw the Arrow Cross party as representing workers’ interests. Many of them, however, soon became disillusioned with the party and joined the next far-right Hungarian Renewal Party (Magyar Megújulás Párt), of which Andor Jaross was one of the leaders, which was founded in October 1940. It was only after 16 October 1944 that the Arrow Cross could become a dominant factor in the town. Shortly after the Szálasi coup, there were also exchanges of officials and acts of terror against ‘enemies’ of the regime in and around Komárom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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WHEN HE was a young social worker in St. Louis, Roger Baldwin was briefly engaged to Anna Louise Strong, who later published more books in defense of the Russian Bolsheviks [...]

Sreten Žujović (1899‒1976) was one of the leading collaborators of Josip Broz from the territory of Serbia in the period before and during the Second World War. The facts from his biography show that the Yugoslav communists prepared for the revolution and civil war well before 1941, and that the Comintern played a crucial role in their training and ideological formation. Through the life of Sreten Žujović, we can also see how factional struggles within the KPJ weakened the influence of the party in Serbia, and that the conflict between Broz and Gorkić was particularly fatal for their organization. It was shown, however, that Broz was ready to accept cadres who previously belonged to another current, so Žujović was included in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the KPJ, and in June 1941. he became the commander of the Main Staff of the NOP detachment in Serbia. One of the most important demonstrations of loyalty, on the other hand, was the constant reckoning with the ‘Greater Serbian bourgeoisie’, the political elite and the bourgeoisie class from among its own people. Furthermore, from 1942, Žujović held various leadership positions in the Partisan movement, showing how political institutions take precedence over military ones. He continued his political career even after the war in 1945, as Tito’s minister, deputy and close associate. But when there was a big turn in the relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia in 1948, this communist official showed that proletarian internationalism can be applied in relations with his compatriots, but not with the “first country of socialism” in which he was educated and formed. Not accepting the course of the conflict with the IB, Sreten Žujović was dismissed and sentenced to prison. With that, he became another symbol: the way in which KPJ treats dissenters from its ranks, but also how rehabilitation is possible after “revision of positions”.

The conflict with the Communist Information Bureau and the severing of allied relations with the Soviet Union marked a turning point in the development of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. From being a loyal follower of the USSR, Communist Yugoslavia became the first country to develop its own path to socialism, and Josip Broz was the first Communist leader to say a historic no to Josef Vissarionovich Stalin. The consequences of this decision for the country were manifold, on a political, economic, military and social level. One of them was that repression was launched against anyone who expressed sympathy for the USSR or criticized the new Yugoslav policy. The result was the arrest and interrogation of thousands of people "for their real or alleged support for the Cominform" and their punishment and incarceration in prisons and camps throughout Yugoslavia. One of the most famous and notorious was the camp complex on the Adriatic Island of Goli Otok, which was set up for the very purpose of punishing "cominformers" from all over the country. In this paper, we have attempted to statistically analyze the structure of the Goli Otok prisoners from the Autonomous Region of Kosovo-Metohija (AKMO) based on the relevant literature and historical sources.

It is often asserted that the values and attitudes of Homo Sovieticus, marked in the rising "popularity" of Stalin, live on in contemporary Russia, acting as a negative factor in social and political development. This article critiques the argument that attitudes to Stalin reflect unreformed Soviet values and explain Russia's authoritarian regression and failed modernization. Our critique of this legacy argument has three parts. First, after examining the problematic elements of the Levada Center approach, we offer alternative explanations for understanding quantitative data on Stalin and the repressions. Second, we examine interview data showing that, for those with a pro-Stalin position, "defending Stalin" is only a small part of a broader worldview that is not obviously part of a "Soviet legacy." Third, we consider survey data from the trudnaia-pamiat' project and find common reluctance to discuss much of the Stalinist past, which we argue represents an agonistic stance. Thus, we interpret attitudes to Stalin within a broader context of complex social and cultural transformation where the anomie of the 1990s has been replaced with dynamics toward a more positive identity construct. On the one hand, the antagonistic mode of memory is visible in statist and patriotic discourses, which do not seriously revolve around Stalin but do resist strong criticism of him. On the other hand, we find many more in Russia avoid the Stalin question and adopt an agonistic mode, avoiding conflict through a "de-politicized" version of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue devoted to historical continuities in Eurasia and different conceptualizations of the communist legacies. It highlights the main research challenges the special issue deals with and how they fit into a more general discussion about the application of the concept of "post-communism" as an analytical category. It further reviews the composition of the special issue and sums up the main scholarly insights it produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The article offers information on the urban communist politics of everyday life among local politicians in Graz, Austria, suggesting it as a potential model for the broader left. Topics include the success of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) in Graz under Mayor Elke Kahr, contrasting with the decline of the left in many other European cities.

The article offers information on the rise and fall of Eurocommunism, a short-lived phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s that aimed to renew the communist camp in Western Europe. Topics include its emergence in Italy, Spain, and France as a response to questions about socialism and its means of achievement, its promotion of democratic revolution and social transformation, and the criticism and decline it faced due to failed policies.

The article offers information on Gaspar Llamazares, a former national coordinator of Izquierda Unida, discussing the legacy of Eurocommunism and his political career. Topics include Llamazares' role in founding Izquierda Abierta to build a larger progressive coalition, his departure from Izquierda Unida in 2019, and his views on the political situation and ideological debate within the Communist Party during the 1980s.

The article offers information on the resurgence of Eurocommunism through parties like Podemos and Sumar, exploring the challenges of creating a majoritarian left without resorting to reformism. Topics include the political beliefs of former Spanish Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo, who identified as Eurocommunist and advocated for a new left-wing party in Spain.

The normalization of relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1955 was viewed with suspicion in Tirana. Dependent on Soviet economic aid, Albania publicly endorsed the new Soviet foreign policy, maintaining the line of ideological conformity. The secret report delivered by Nikita S. Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union worried decision-makers in Tirana. But again, Enver Hoxha did not protest, publicly supporting the decisions adopted during this congress. The emergence of Sino-Soviet differences during the June 1960 Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties led to a change in Albania's stance within the international communist movement. Thus, unlike the other communist and workers' parties, the Party of Labor of Albania adopted a stance of neutrality towards the Sino-Soviet polemic. Starting with August 1960, Albanian communists openly supported the stance of the Communist Party of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to critically discuss the foreign policy of communist Romania, especially towards Western Europe and the socialist bloc. It does this firstly by reviewing Elena Dragomir's recent ample analyses of communist Romania's foreign policy. Its second section consists in a critical problematization of the allegedly "pragmatic" and "adaptative" nature of communist Romania's dealings with its Western and Eastern partners, as established both by Dragomir's recent contributions, as well as the traditional scholarship. The paper ends with some more general methodological and conceptual reflections on the role, weight, and meaning of "pragmatism," "realism," "context" and "ideology" in historiographical reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s, the British government sought through various means to curtain the activities of a journalist and a self-described private intelligence officer named Kenneth de Courcy. The objective of this consorted campaign was to discover de Courcy's sources and to limit his influence on current affairs. The methods employed in this pursuit were unethical, conspiratorial, and at times illegal. They represent a form of governmental malfeasance that hitherto has rarely been noted in the existing historiography covering the period. This overlooked episode calls into question the long-standing narrative that British authorities of the time considered communist spies as the primary threat to continued governmental secrecy, especially because few suspected Soviet agents were investigated and harassed to the same degree as this dedicated anticommunist and self-described committed patriot. [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]