Sofijos Kymantaitės-Čiurlionienės pastangos XX a. pradžioje įtvirtinti moters vertę ir savivertę

Author(s): Nida Gaidauskienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2018

This article examines the ways in which the self-awareness of a feminine identity, the perceived value of women and the self-esteem of a particular author have been evolving from 1904 to the end of the First World War; the author in question is Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė (1886–1958), Lithuanian publicist, writer and educator. During her studies at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków in 1904–1907 (and in Adrian Baraniecki’s High Courses for Women), she decisively chose to study the humanities and became one of the first modern Lithuanian women engaged in literature, literary criticism and the politics of education. This article presents the context of the women’s emancipation movement that at beginning of the 20th century in Kraków, where the increasing possibilities of education for young women had become increasingly available. Right after her return to Lithuania in 1907, Kymantaitė took part in the Lithuanian Women’s Congress in Kaunas and became involved in the preparatory work on the regulations of the Lithuanian Women’s Society. In her collection of articles Lietuvoje: kritikos žvilgsnis į Lietuvos inteligentiją (“In Lithuania: A Critical Look at the Lithuanian Intelligentsia,” 1910), besides a wide scope of issues that were considered, Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė discussed the issue of the relationship between well-educated men and women and questioned the equal value of women in the nascent modern Lithuanian society. In 1910, Čiurlionienė wrote a dramatic dialogue Ateities moteris (“Woman of the Future”, 1910), which highlights the idea that the equality between man and woman rests on shared human values. The dialogue foregrounds the spiritual faithfulness of the woman to the man she had chosen – faithfulness that is upheld despite the distance that greatly separates them, contradictory to the thought that women are incapable of creating ties of friendship with men, as expressed by one of Nietzsche’s literary characters. The main character of Ateities moteris – Johanna – reveals herself as a rebel only when she confronts the antagonist’s patriarchal worldview and his commanding affirmation of women’s lower position and the determinism of biological needs. References to Otto Weininger’s study Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character, 1903), as well as a quote that evokes misogynistic sentiments from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883), appear in the dramatic dialogue, provoking a polemic with these authors' positions. The dialogue indicates the writer’s interest in the theories of gender struggle. The text reflects Čiurlionienė’s involvement in the preparation of the statute of the Lithuanian Women’s Society as well as the influence of liberal feminist ideas that she had encountered while still in Kraków. Following the Romantic authors’ attempts to reveal female heroism, Čiurlionienė strived to create a distinctive interpretation of the end-of-the-19th-century “Lithuanian Jeanne d’Arc” in her psychological sketch (novelette) Joana Vaidilaitė (1914–1918). Johanna’s worldview is undoubtedly more akin to the ideas of early modernism, whereas Joana Vaidilaitė’s sedentary lifestyle is determined by the young woman’s realia of the 19th-century countryside, and later by her treatment in a psychiatric hospital. The sketch suggests the reality of the protagonist’s mystical motherhood, which others treat as a manifestation of madness. The novelette has never been published. Had Joana Vaidilaitė been published during the first years of Lithuania’s independence, there could have been an opportunity to enrich the history of Lithuanian literature with original efforts to give a sense to motherhood, with the Romantic treatment of madness as a form of clairvoyance and the modernist interpretation of the sea as a fluctuating womb. To conclude, starting with the formulation of the statute of the Lithuanian Women’s Society in 1910, Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė’s attempts to express liberal feminist ideas in literary fiction become more noticeable; in these writings, the author refuses to think of motherhood as a manifestation of the impersonal nature's force (which relates to the views of the misogynists), and she cherishes the idea that conscious motherhood is equated to the creation of an individual capable of enriching cultural resources in the future.

How to Do Things with Rights?

Author(s): Emmanuelle de Champs / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Based on Dan Edelstein’s fascinating theses, Emmanuelle de Champs explores the status of eighteenth-century declarations as performative documents and the ways in which ideas of rights circulated between the French and the English-speaking worlds. She agrees that the impulses of the Declaration of 1789 were elaborated during the Revolution and even during the 19th century, but recalls that their normative status in their own age was questioned. Emmanuelle de Champs explores critiques which grew from the Tory heritage of England, where she includes Jeremy Bentham, Edmund Burke or Samuel Johnson. In the critical responses to the French Declaration, Bentham basically treated rights as fictious entities which should not be backed by any legal sanctions. These thinkers questioned what Dan Edelstein calls the ‘preservation regime of human rights’. Emmanuelle de Champs approvingly follows Edelstein’s attempt to show how the idea was disseminated in France before 1789, but asks whether it would not be better to follow not only the Encyclopédie and Diderot but also the periodical press. She suggests that this was also the channel through which British republican ideas were disseminated in France.

On Rights without Natural Law

Author(s): Ivo Cerman / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Whereas Dan Edelstein’s interpretation may hold true for France, its general statements may mislead readers into disregarding the significance of systematic natural law for the formulation of human rights. The contemporary American historians of human rights also tend to attribute the main role to feelings, and not to legal theories. For this reason, the contribution first seeks to prove that systematic thinking of natural law theorists was necessary for the conception of the idea of „equal and universal human rights“. The argument goes on to prove that France was an anomaly, lying outside the core area of natural law (i.e. countries where natural law was institutionalized in university chairs). The preservation regime developed by the physiocrats was a part of their physicist way of thinking about human society, not a logical solution to the legal relationship between the citizen and public power. Even other libertarian thinkers in Germany and Italy were actually speaking about economics rather than about real law. The physiocrats found the solution in proper education, not in law. The article surveys how natural law thinkers were trying to solve the dilemma implicit in the relation between individual citizen and public power, and how they regulated the relations between individual citizens. While the relation to public power required logical legal thinkers to make sovereign power unaccountable to anyone, the reciprocal rights at the level of individuals were usually recognized, but sometimes in the form of general legal permissions and not in the form of a list of rights. The British-American tradition of common law often seems to be more liberal, but its chaotic nature actually helped to conceal the existence of slavery and the disadvantaged status of slaves.

Războiul de pe Nistru în programele școlare și manualele de istorie din Republica Moldova (ciclul gimnazial)

Author(s): Sergiu Suvac / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2021

Working as a history teacher in two gymnasiums in Orhei District and also as a PhD student, in the field of History at the University “Valahia” of Târgoviște (Romania) I had the opportunity to discover the epic of history textbooks. Recently, the scientific concerns are directly related to the study of history textbooks in the Republic of Moldova and Romania, the concepts of war and peace in the historical educational ensemble and cultural, national, European and universal values. Recent personal publications highlight elements of natural, cultural and ethnocultural heritage emanating from all history textbooks. My research and articles are focused on similarities and differences of history curricula on both banks of the Prut and the reform of historical education in these countries with a special focus on the development, production and dissemination of history textbooks.

Războiul transnistrean reflectat în manualele de istorie din România

Author(s): Alexandru Mitru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2021

The creation of history textbooks in the post-December period took into account the increase of quality in pre-university education by developing communication and relationship skills, different historical contents being studied depending on the interests of students. In our analysis, we tried to find out to what extent the authors of the history textbooks were interested in presenting the Transnistrian conflict to the young generation. The curriculum for History has undergone many changes during this period. However, both at the gymnasium and the high school level, compulsory content regarding the foreign policy promoted by Romania after 1990 were provided. In our approach, we analyzed 31 textbooks published during this period, out of which only a few addressed the military conflict in the Republic of Moldova. The most consistent presentation is found in the manual madeby a team of Alexandru Barnea, Vasile Manea, Eugen Palade, Florin Petrescuand Bogdan Teodorescu and (re)published in 2014 by Corint Educațional. The authors of the history textbooks in Romania showed low interest in the presentation of the Transnistrian war, in the context in which the political, economic, and social relations between Bucharest and Chisinau, after 1991, were analyzed to a very small extent. This conflict was presented only in view of the position adopted by Romania regarding this event, without addressing the side regarding the legality of separatist actions undertaken by Tiraspol officials or the emotional impact of a military conflict, in which Moldovan citizens were involved.

Evenimentele din 1992 în manualul de istorie din școlile transnistrene

Author(s): Sergiu Musteață / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2021

After the 1991 separatist region of Transnistria developed its own education system, provided with normative acts, including curriculum and textbooks. History education is part of the official discourse and focuses on Transnistrian interests. In many cases, textbooks are based on Soviet historiography, and western neighbors are treated as enemies. The author of the present article analyzes, in particular, Chapter IX of the textbook for the ninth grade, which deals with the formation of the separatist republic and the Dniester War of1992, which is described by the authors of the textbook as “Moldova’s military aggression against the Transnistrian people.” The facts presented in this textbook are unilateral, trying to demonstrate the “aggression of Moldova” on the districts on the left bank of the Dniester. Although, at the end of the topic, the authors consider that this military conflict was “a bloody war”, they insist more on the “sufferings, losses and victims” of the inhabitants of this region. There is a total lack of critical, comparative, and balanced approach to these sensitive events for the recent history of the Republic of Moldova.

Неизказаното, което ни свързва

Author(s): Constantin Yanakiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

This paper presents ideas from a report held at a conference in honour of the 100th anniversary of Azarya Polikarov. The author shares Polikarov’s view that Thomas Kuhn’s exemplars introduce continuity between disciplinary matrices despite of Kuhn’s own conception of scientific revolutions as radical breaks with the past. Kuhn’s notion of a disciplinary matrix owes much to Carnap’s “linguistic framewoks”, and scientific revolutions are analogous to the solutions of Carnap’s “external questions”. But the unspoken suggestion of exemplars not only acts forwards on future scientific practice. It reaches back to a past tradition, thus connecting an old and a new disciplinary matrix. This tacit connection between disciplinary matrices is the same that binds us in love and faith.

Когнитивната наука и репликативните ѝ кризи в контекста на епистемичния анархизъм

Author(s): Georgi Garkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The present study attempts to examine the replicative crises in cognitive science from the perspective of epistemological anarchism and the problematic assumptions of nomothetism. A closer look at the history of science suggests replicative crises are not a phenomenon characteristic of low-quality theories or dubious scientific practices, but also a stage that describes some of the most significant and well-tested theories in the history of science. In contrast to the logic of naive falsificationism, reality paints a considerably more complex and even contradictory picture of the process of discovery. Forgoing politically correct narratives, science reveals no less fruitful manifestations of what could be characterized as disorder, irrationality, mysticism and pseudo-scientific biases. And even with respect to well-developed theories one could point to discrepancies with the available facts, beyond the acceptable margin of error. At the same time, however, a potential contribution to the replicative crisis stems from the hidden assumptions of the nomothetic approach – a neglect of the individual mechanisms problem and the contextual interactions problem. Two varieties of nomothetism could be distinguished, respectively: classical one and based on aggregate values one. While classical nomothetism tends to ignore the syncretics of ecological contexts, aggregate-based nomothetism ignores the presence of individual mechanisms and combines them into theoretical constructs that describe “everyone and no one”.

Една книга за забравените приятели на България. Александър Гребенаров, Николета Войнова. Чуждестранните почетни членове на Македонския научен институт (1923 – 1947). Македонски научен институт, София, 2021, 380 с. с ил.

Author(s): Slavi Slavov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

НЕМЕЦКИЙ ШПИОНАЖ И БОРЬБА С НИМ В ВЕЛИКОМ КНЯЖЕСТВЕ ФИНЛЯНДСКОМ (по документам военной контрразведки)

Author(s): V. O. Zverev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

The article addresses some aspects of the organization of German espionage in the Grand Duchy of Finland (1915–1916). The author substantiates the hypothesis about the insignificant role of Sweden in Germany’s intelligence plans. The use of unpublished documents from Russian archives enables to further detail and develop the ideas about German-Swedish espionage that already exist in Finnish and Russian historiography. It is concluded that there were a number of factors that hindered the effectiveness of the Northern Front counterintelligence struggle against German agents in Finland. The most serious obstacles included the forced reorganization of the Finnish police (its renewal with radical national cadres), the lack of real intelligence capabilities of the counterintelligence of the 6th Army, the use of most secret officers of the counterintelligence department in the Finnish region for other purposes (to track revolutionary sentiments in the Baltic Fleet). The analysis of these factors led to the conclusion that the military and political special services were unable to foresee and prevent the difficulties that had arisen in the fight against a more experienced and pragmatic enemy, and to inflict an adequate counterstrike.

ОБЩЕСТВЕННОСТЬ РОССИИ О ЦЕРКВИ И ГОСУДАРСТВЕ В ПЕРВЫЕ МЕСЯЦЫ ПОСЛЕ ФЕВРАЛЬСКОЙ РЕВОЛЮЦИИ

Author(s): Irina V. Vorontsova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

The Revolution in February of 1917 gave an opportunity to fulfill the long-standing request of the Russian Orthodox Church for independence from the state. Cultural, church and public figures started a discussion about the new status of the church and models of interaction between the church and the authorities, which revealed the readiness of the enlightened circles of Russian society for the separation of church and state. The objective of the article was to analyze all the models of church-state relations proposed in the first half of 1917 and to track the evolution of the request. The purpose of the article was to answer the question, what models of church-state relations were presented in the first half of the year, and how the emphases and priorities were set. The answer would help to suggest that the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars on the separation of church and state and the separation of school and church (1918) only consolidated the internal readiness of many people to make religion a private matter of citizens, with the Orthodox Church being only one of public organizations. Today, it is important to restore religious consciousness in society as a guarantor of social stability, morality and traditional ethics, so, there is a search for mechanisms of interaction between the church and state structures. This indicates the need to address the question of what contributed to the destruction of the church-state union that existed before 1917. The sources were books and articles of cultural, public and church figures published in the first half of the XX century. The study methodology included the problem-based chronological method, the genetic historical method and narrative analysis. The analysis of the content of the proposed church-state interaction models in republican Russia of 1917 showed that from March to June the theocratic model of the early century disappeared from public view. It also confirmed that during the discussion the request for church independence was replaced with the idea of the complete separation of church and state with the gradual expulsion of church beyond cultural and social boundaries

NĚMEC, Richard. Die Ökonomisierung des Raums. Planen und Bauen in Mittel- und Osteuropa unter den Nationalsozialisten, 1938 bis 1945. Berlin: DOM publishers, 2020, 498 pp. ISBN 978-3-86922-168-7

Author(s): Mikuláš Jančura / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Omogenizarea socială şi sensul progresului social în „epoca de aur”

Author(s): Răzvan Pârâianu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 20/2021

In 1965, at the 9th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, Nicolae Ceauşescu was appointed General Secretary. He was the youngest party leader among brotherly socialist countries. He immediately got the attention of the public opinion, affirming that the role of the nation was not over. He proclaimed the nation the foundation for the future socialist society. It was the beginning of Ceauşescu’s regime, a period dominated by the overrepresentation of the socialist nation within official and public discourse. One particular trait of Ceauşescu’s understanding of the nation was its homogeneity. It was this homogeneity that shaped his perspective about social progress in Romania and, later, caused much harm to the social fabric of the country. The article explores the beginning of this theory of a homogenous society as the ideal endpoint of the social revolution as it had been envisioned by the party officials. The theory affected not only the Romanian society but the Communist Party as well. It was designed to remove differences between villagers and city dwellers, between workers and intellectuals and, eventually, between party members and the rest of the people. It was this homogeneity that gave the unmistakable stifling air of the last decade of the Romanian socialist regime.

The Law on Primary and Normal-primary Education from 1924 and Constantin Angelescu and National Liberal Party views

Author(s): Mihai-Daniel Botezatu / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2021

Through this article we propose to analyze the political steps around the process of unification and reform of the educational system in post-war Romania. Particularly we will realise an analysis for the Law of the State Primary and the Normal-primary Education from 26 July 1924, adopted during Dr. Constantin Angelescu’s mandate at Ministry of Public Instruction. Our endeavours will be materialized by presenting the contexts of the process of the primary education’s unification, the innovations found in the law project, parliamentary and press debates around the political act, but also the impact generated by the new primary law of education.

THE ELEPHANT IN AN EARLY CHRISTIAN TEXT. SEMANTIC AND LINGUISTIC CHANGES

Author(s): Marta Ivaylova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

In the minds of the people of the East, the elephant has always embodied positive qualities – wisdom, longevity, memory and strength. But in other cultures, where the elephant was unknown, stories arise that present him as a strange creature with fictional properties. Thus, it is presented in The Physiologus (ὁ Φυσιολόγος), the early Christian book on animals. Along with the stories of other legendary and fabulous creatures, The Physiologus contains a short narrative about the elephant, which is also described as a beast with fantastic properties. Observations on the text and its language reveal that in the development of its written tradition, as well as in its translation into Latin, a number of semantic and linguistic changes took place, most often related to its adaptation for the needs of early Christian preaching.

Ujemne stopy procentowe a inwestycje w nieruchomości w świetle teorii Silvia Gesella

Author(s): Piotr Mirowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2021

Objective: The article discusses a somewhat forgotten theory of the German economist Silvio Gesell concerning money free from interest, and even charged for its possession, i.e. the Gesell tax. The article presents the escape from money and whether investment in real estate is justified, as well as the limitations of such investment. Research Design & Methods: The author analyses the subject literature. The theoretical issues presented in S. Gesell’s source works were interpreted in the light of contemporary economic processes and theoretical studies on his work. Findings: One of the modern expressions of Gesell’s theory is negative nominal interest rates, which have become a contemporary policy tool. While until recently even the theoretical application of such a tool was rarely considered, it has now become an important consideration in the economic reality of many economies. The natural defence of those with savings is to flee money that is burdened with fees. Real estate investment is an alternative vehicle to cash, though it is not without its limitations. Implications / Recommendations: Negative nominal interest rates have become a monetary policy tool, and there are indeed conditions that justify their use. However, it is natural for those with free cash to run away from “taxed” negative cash flows into investments that will maintain the value of their capital. One such investment is investing in real estate, though it is not without its limitations. Contribution: The author discusses the Gesell tax, a rarely analysed theory that has a contemporary, practical expression. He links it with real estate, a subject that is widely discussed today.

Изграждане на социално-икономическата структура на българското временно управление във Вардарска Македония (1941 – 1944)

Author(s): Sia Nikiforova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The presence of the Bulgarian authorities in Vardar Macedonia during the Second World War impresses with the scale of its financial and social framework. Data on its short existence and form of establishment do not prove to be decisive for imposing restrictions and socioeconomic constraints on the local population. The Bulgarian state did not spare resources and potential for the economic and overall social development of the district, on the contrary, this turned out to be an argument in the possible future talks about the fate of the district within the boundaries of Bulgaria. The huge investments made by the state were aimed at trying to help the local population adapt to the life of Bulgaria – the country which they perceived as their homeland.

Building the socio-economic structure of the Bulgarian interim government in Vardar Macedonia (1941 – 1944)

Author(s): Sia Nikiforova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The presence of the Bulgarian authorities in Vardar Macedonia during the Second World War impresses with the scale of its financial and social framework. Data on its short existence and form of establishment do not prove to be decisive for imposing restrictions and socioeconomic constraints on the local population. The Bulgarian state did not spare resources and potential for the economic and overall social development of the district, on the contrary, this turned out to be an argument in the possible future talks about the fate of the district within the boundaries of Bulgaria. The huge investments made by the state were aimed at trying to help the local population adapt to the life of Bulgaria – the country which they perceived as their homeland.

Book Review: Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830

Author(s): Margarita Garova,Raya Zaimova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Book Review: Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830Translation and Transfer of Knowledge in Encyclopedic Compilations, 1680-1830, ed. by Clorinda Donato and Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink. University of Toronto Press, 2021.

Рассказ о Второй мировой войне как фактор европейской (дез)интеграции

Author(s): Petya B. Dimitrova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2022

The research attempts to trace the process of building a consensus on the issue of formulating a unified view on European political history. The main focus is on two main trends in this process, both of which relate to the evaluation of World War II and its results. The first trend, around which Western Europeans unite, introduces the idea about Europeans’ shared responsibility for the past in the name of the present and the future. The central symbol of this strategy is the Holocaust, which is presented as a genocide, unique in its scope and nature. The second trend is supported by Eastern Europeans, who since 1989 have been making efforts not only to reject the Soviet account of the events of WWII, but also to improve their views about its results on the West. These views boil down to the fact that they are double victims: firstly, of the Third Reich and secondly, of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Ultimately, that means equating the crimes of Nazism and Bolshevism, which in turn leads to a denial of the Holocaust’s uniqueness – a thesis that faces strong opposition in certain circles. Consequently, all this has led to a delay in the process of constructing a unified view on modern European history.