“… Wenn unvorsichtige Hände unsere Heiligtümer anfassen” – Vom Umgang mit historischen Mythen in Bulgarien

Author(s): Klaus Roth / Language(s): German Issue: 06/2009

Historical myths play an important and often destructive role in Southeast Europe. The paper analyses the media scandal that broke out in Bulgaria in April 2007 about a dissertation project of a Bulgarian art historian at the Free University of Berlin in which she wanted to disclose the mechanisms of the construction of the “massacre of Batak” (of May 1876) as the most powerful political myth in Bulgaria. As a consequence of the media scandal which was triggered by a TV broadcast of a popular historian and was raised to the highest political levels, a conference and an exhibition in Sofia in May 2007 had to be called off and the initiators were threatened. The paper describes the development of the scandal and the subsequent response and attempts to elucidate the overt and the hidden causes for the public uproar a few months after Bulgaria’s accession to the EU. Historical myths, the analysis shows, can indeed become destructive when they are used by members of the political or academic elites.

“Yes…, and…”. On Violence and/as Hospitality

Author(s): Ana M. LUSZCZYNSKA / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

Beginnings are violent and deceitful. Pretending that they spontaneously emerge from nowhere, these words and thoughts cannot help but feign erasure of all that preceded them. There is thus something bold and presumptuous about claiming the ability to inaugurate and virtually burst onto the scene. In an attempt to mitigate the violence and deception of this particular beginning, I want to clearly contextualize what will follow.

“За една роза милиони дадоха, а истинското лого е циганин бере рози”

Author(s): Dian Bozhidarov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 84-85/2016

“Кой сега помни ромите?”

Author(s): Valeriu Nikolae / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 39-40/2005

“ПАРЛАМЕНТАРНОТО ПРАВО” НА ЕВРОПСКАТА УНИЈА

Author(s): Renata Treneska-Deskoska / Language(s): Macedonian Issue: 3/2002

This article deals with the position of the European Parliament. It treats the questions of the composition of the Parliament, position of its members expressed through the manner of their election, free representative mandate and their immunity. The position of the bodies and officials of the Parliament is also analyzed. Special attention is paid to the competencies of the Parliament: legislative, supervisory, budgetary and other. In regard of the legislative competence, the strengthening of the role of this institution could be noticed, because it has started only with having consultative role in legislative matters, than it acquired role in the cooperative procedure and now it plays role in co-decisional procedure. The supervisory competence is analyzed through the competencies of the Parliament toward the Council and Commission, and the budgetary competence is treated as one of the most important competencies through the real strength of the Parliament is expressed.

“Праваслаўныя”: рэлігійная ідэнтычнасьць у рэгіянальных дасьледаваньнях

Author(s): Natalia Vasilevich / Language(s): Belarussian Issue: 05/2005

The article covers the methodological problem in studying religious identity and political culture. The author criticizes Weberian approach to strict influence of religion on social behaviour, trying to trace the roots of Belarusian tradition of seeing the availability of western and eastern Christianity as key-division in national and civilization identity, which has transformed over the last decades to regionalist difference seen as a cause of different religious identities.

“Ромите и етнокултурното право: към модела на интеграция”

Author(s): Dragoljub B. Đorđević,Marijana Filipović / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 39-40/2005

“Частка сьвету”, якой больш не існуе. Размова зь нямецкім дасьледнікам Ежы Мачкувам

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Belarussian Issue: 04/2005

Размова зь нямецкім дасьледчыкам Ежы Мачкувам. Размова прысьвечана пытаньню рэвалюцыйных зьменаў існуючых грамадзкіх сыстэмаў на прасторы былой Рэчы Паспалітай. Разглядаецца сувязь паміж разьвіцьцём нацыянальнай гісторыі і культуры і працэсамі рэвалюцыйных зьменаў. У кантэксьце станаўленьня ўкраінскай нацыі разглядаецца “памаранчавая рэвалюцыя”. У размове падымаецца праблема сумяшчальнасьці “нацыянальных” і “дэмакратычных” праектаў, разглядаецца роля грамадзянскай супольнасьці ў ажыцьцяўленьні рэвалюцыяў. Адзначаецца магчымасьць паўставаньня новай хвалі дэмакратызацыі. Разглядаюцца пэрспэктывы разьвіцьця існуючай беларускай мадэлі і магчымасьць рэалізацыі рэвалюцыйнага праекту ў Беларусі. The talk covers the question of revolutionary changes of current social systems on the territory of a former Polish-Lithuanian state. The relation between the national history and culture development and processes of revolutionary changes is the issue of his talk. In the context of the formation of Ukrainian nation the interviewer touches upon the concept of “orange revolution”. Further issues of his talk are the problem of compatibility of “national” and “democratic” projects and the role of civil community in realization of revolutions. He sees an opportunity for a new wave of democratization rise to rise. He also views the prospects of development of the current Belarusian model and possibility to actualize revolutionary project in Belarus.

”Responsibility to Protect” from Aggression

Author(s): Đorđe S. Stojanović,Danijela Barjaktarović / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In this article the author discusses about the relationship between a ”Responsibility to protect” doctrine and crime of aggression, advocating further doctrinal development. The R2P doctrine is a new norm based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege, but a responsibility of states to protect civilians from horrors of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Debatable in R2P doctrine is the fact that even if the crime of aggression is a part of the contemporary international criminal law, it is not part of the R2P. Pondering over the reasons for the exclusion of aggression, the author examines types of the aggression’s responsibilities, juxtaposes them to doctrinal goals and objectives, and perceives the crime of aggression as an additional control mechanism for the implementation of a R2P doctrine.

”Strategy of Reconciliation”—A Vatican Proposal for North-South Relations in the 21st Century

Author(s): Anna M. Solarz / Language(s): English Issue: 4 (9)/2003

”Subcontracting” Nation-Building: The Foreign Prince in the Romanian Parliament, 1866-1867

Author(s): Silvia Marton / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2009

The paper starts from the assumption that 1866 – the year a foreign prince is invited to the Romanian throne and a constitutional government is introduced – elevates to the rank of state ideology the discourse of the ”unitary nation” that immediately becomes the hegemonic narrative. As early as 1866, at the dawn of mass politics in Romania, the parliamentarians compensate for the late and weak statehood (with internal challenges and separatist movements, and difficult international acknowledgment) with the patriotic rhetoric of national brotherhood and the exclusivist appraisal of ”Romanianness”. The first part examines the foundations of the new regime, by drawing comparisons with Greece. In May-June 1866 Romania condenses Greece’s experience from March 1844 to March 1864. In both cases, the foreign prince from a European royal family (respectively Karl Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Otto von Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria) is considered the price to pay in order to gain the foreign powers’ protection and their support for obtaining political autonomy, if not yet independence from the Porte. Some of the main questions asked are: to what extent the new prince is ready to accept de facto and de jure the contractual nature of the Constitution? What is the meaning of the ”Constitution” for both the parliamentarians and Charles I (the name taken by the von Hohenzollern as ruling Prince of Romania)? Who is the holder of the pouvoir constituant in 1866? Why is the reference to the autochthonous constitutional tradition absent in 1866? How to explain the xenophobic arguments of the parliamentarians who oppose the foreign prince? The second part of the paper examines three of the first major pieces of legislation adopted during the first parliamentary session of 1866-1867 – on the new national currency, national day and coat of arms – in order to integrate the foreign Prince and his dynasty into the national narrative and imaginary, and to make visible the signs of state autonomy.

”The Harvest of Anger”. Politics of Salvation and Ethnic-cleansing in 1940s Romania: Fascist Thinkers and Authoritarian Doers

Author(s): Mihai Chioveanu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2007

During the Second World War, between 270 000 and 320 000 Jews, 12 500 Roma and Sinti, and thousands of Ukrainian and Russian civilians died at the hands of the Romanian authorities. The huge number of victims is the direct result of an intentional, state sponsored and state organized policy of ethnic-cleansing implemented from 1940 up to 1944 by an authoritarian regime with certain fascist features. The present study attempts to indicate that politics of salvation and ethnic-cleansing, which played a central role in Antonescu’s regime, represents the legacy of Romanian fascism and, consequently, to indicate that the Romanians were not puppets and/or ”Hitler’s willing executioners”. Though Romanian fierce anti-Semitic and unpleasantly xenophobic hyper-nationalism will be briefly discussed, my main focus will be on Anger as a key motivation in the politics of the revolutionary Iron Guard and the frustrated and unrestrained dictatorship of Ion Antonescu that turned to the armed forces, police, and the gendarmerie as professional practitioners of violence, as to enforce his ideal vision of the nation and society and implement his Politics of Salvation. Accordingly, I will point out that ethnic-cleansing was triggered not only by xenophobia but also by the determination and possibility of the Romanian military government to vent with the advent of war against USSR of ”righteous anger” on the weak, thus adding the ”cleansing of the ground” to the magnitude of an (uncertain) victory against the external enemy.

”Warte Mal!”. Construction and Consumption of Female

Author(s): AMY CHARLESWORTH / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2011

This paper revisits the politics of representation debates’ post-1989 in relation to Ann-Sofi Sidén’s Warte Mal! Prostitution after the Velvet Revolution (1999). It seeks to address the manner in which the political is thought through the aesthetic, focusing specifically on the mediums of the video camera and the diary as research tools in producing a reconfigured essayistic narrative. This device, I propose seeks to understand an altered subjectivity, its production and consumption in the transition from one socio-economic and political system to another. The work shows a demand for a new type of critical cultural production in the face of the ubiquity of the image in the 21st century and its power, when harnessed by governmental or institutional restrictions, to render lived complexities as static moments confined to narratives of victimization which divert attention away from large-scale historical processes (the cultural, economic, political and social components) that drive women to work in enslaved positions in the sex industry. Boris Groys’ focus on the role of documentation as art and its biopolitical contingencies in his work for Documenta 11 (2002) and his book Art Power (2008) provides the theoretical underpinnings of the paper.

”WHO WRITES FOR WHOM?” BLOG WRITING – AS MIRROR OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Author(s): Rebeka Török-Ágoston / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The study attempts to create a picture about the advantages and disadvantages of blog writing and the importance of the education about online journalism, including blogs – personal sites mainly in high-schools and colleagues. During the last few years online journalism has developed, the digital era flourished so the educational system begins to introduce in the school curriculum the Mass-Media subject and its history. What more, begins to introduce in teaching methods social media issues. The paper states how social media, focusing on blog writing, influences youth life’s.

„...I nie będą się już uczyć sztuki wojennej”. Wzmocnienie czy osłabienie

Author(s): Jerzy M. Nowak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2012

„A beékelést kiküszöbölték” - Lengyel munkások Beremenden (1979–1981)

Author(s): Éva Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2008

„A nép és a szülőföld igaz szeretete” – A szocialista hazafi ság fogalma a Kádár-rendszerben

Author(s): Milán Pap / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2013

In the last decade, several historical works on modern Eastern European history attempted to revaluate the relationship between Communism and Nationalism. In the post-Stalinist era, the political-ideological experiments of the integration of the idea of nation into official Marxism-Leninism resulted in a great variety of Socialist Patriotisms in Eastern Europe. In Hungary, this process commenced right after the fall of the revolution of 1956. This essay makes an attempt to follow and analyse the concept of Socialist Patriotism in the last three decades of the Kádár regime. Harnessing the methodological achievements of conceptual his tory, different layers of the meaning of Socialist Patriotism can be revealed in a diachronic analysis. In this text, I will refer to three main groups of this semantic fi eld: Socialist Patriotism as a borderline concept of distinguishing between political enemies and friends; as a reference of the identity of a Socialist political community; and ultimately, as a historical stage in the line of Communist civilisational progression.

„A reális élet által szuggerált anyag”: Mészöly Miklós hagyatéka a Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeumban

Author(s): Diána Márjánovics / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

The paper discusses the legacy of the renowned Hungarian writer, Miklós Mészöly, in the literary and political context of the ’50s and ’60s of the last century. The research is based on genetic criticism − on the exploration of autograph diary notes, written drafts, various original manuscripts − and focuses on previous versions of Mészöly’s final texts. The study deals with a specific part of Mészöly’s wide-ranging oeuvre. The paper focuses on the early prose works Az atleta halala (Death of an Athlete, 1966), Saulus (Saul, 1968), and Pontos tortenetek, utkozben (Exact Stories on the Road, 1970) that have had a poetically and theoretically stimulating effect on the Hungarian contemporary authors and scholars. The paper includes several important and formerly unknown documents from the Mészöly heritage collection, kept in the Petőfi Literary Museum, which revise the interpretations of Mészöly’s above-mentioned works.

„Achiziţii” ale crizei mondiale: noi problematizări în filosofia politică

Author(s): Gabriel Radu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 134/2009

The present frame of world crisis could also include some possible applications of political philosophy. Being in the state of controversial issue to be solved, currently applications could strengthen the effectiveness of political philosophy during a discontinuous period of historical times. Distributive theories of justice could also be tested in an actual crisis of regulation and lawfulness.

„Adam Tarnowski – nasz poseł w Sofii”. Przyczynek do dziejów współpracy polsko-bułgarskiej w latach 1939–1941

Author(s): Łukasz Chimiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2014

The article describes diplomatic operations carried out by Poland’s MP and executiveminister in Sofia Adam Tarnowski, one of the leading representatives of Polish diplomacyin the Second Republic of Poland. He was the longest serving Polish diplomat in the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1930–1941). Later he emigrated to London to hold prominent functions: a general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an MP in the Czechoslovakiangovernment in exile, Minister of Foreign Affairs during and after the war in the governments of Tomasz Arciszewski and Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. Chronological dividinglines of the study are: the fall of Poland in September 1939 and Bulgaria breaking off itsdiplomatic relations with Poland in March 1941. At that time, the Polish diplomatic post in Sofia was one of the very few legations which dealt with diplomatic issues despite the German seizure of Poland. When the war had broken out, Tarnowski began conductinga serious diplomatic campaign towards establishing contacts with his occupied motherland,helping people threatened by Nazi repressions, and informing foreign governments of crimes and destruction taking place in Poland. Tarnowski was supported by a group of Bulgarian diplomats sympathising with Poland. They stayed in Berlin and occupied Warsaw and provided priceless services to our country by carrying money, letters, and information about the Nazi crimes in the occupied Poland in their diplomatic bags. Our MP in Sofia would give shelter to Polish refugees, protect valuable objects belonging to the national heritage, and organize redeployment of Polish troops from Bulgaria into Turkey. The most spectacular operation managed by Tarnowski was the evacuation of a group of several dozen Polish airmen (in September 1940) by sea from the Black Sea coast to Turkey. A very important element of Tarnowski’s operations was the intervention with the Bulgarian government to help Polish scientists from the Jagiellonian University and the AGH University of Science and Technology arrested by Germans in November 1939. Tarnowski talked to Professor Bogdan Fiłow, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, a world famous archaeologist, who was about to become Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The sources of the article include: unknown historical documents from AAN, published diplomatic and intelligence documents, journals and recollections. Bulgarian sources and analyses, including video footage, were also used.