Češi proti církvi

Author(s): Marek Šmíd / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1-2/2017

BALÍK, Stanislav – FASORA, Lukáš – HANUŠ, Jiří – VLHA, Marek: Český antiklerikalismus: Zdroje, témata a podoba českého antiklerikalismu v letech 1848–1938.(Historické myšlení, sv. 69.) Praha, Argo 2015, 500 stran, ISBN 978-80-257-1373-0. The authors view anti-clericalism as an important part of European modernization processes aimed at the church and its instituions. They monitor its character and transformations since the mid-1800s until the end of the first third of the 20th century in the Hapsburg Empire and the first Czechoslovak Republic, taking in to account differences and specific features in various social and ideological environments, in towns and in the country, and also in Czech compatriot communities in the United States. According to the reviewer, their monograph Czech Anti-Clericalism: Sources, Topics and Forms of Czech Anti-Clericalism from 1848 to 1938 permits perceiving the Czech anti-Catholic anti-clericalism in the European context as a multi-layer edphenomenon which had a significant impact on the society and politics of that period. Because of its comprehensive grasp of the topic, inspiring questions it asks, its broad selection of sources and publications it draws from, as well the compact explanations it provides, the book is definitely recommended to all who are interestedin the history of the Czech thinking and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Středoevropský historik Bedřich Loewenstein

Author(s): Tomáš Hermann / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1+2/2018

The author summarizes the life and in particular scientific career of historian Bedřich Loewenstein, describes areas of his professional interest and his intellectual orientation, reminds of his most important works published in Czech and German, and assesses his contribution. Loewenstein was born in 1929 in Prague, in a Czech-German-Jewish family, lived through the German occupation in difficult conditions, and started studying history and philosophy at what was then the Faculty of Arts and History of the Charles University, but was expelled two years later for political reasons. He was allowed to complete his studies later, and in 1957 started working at the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, where he remained until his dismissal in 1970. He started intensive contacts with West German historians and other intellectuals during the 1960s, and organized an important international symposium, “Europe and Fascism”, in Prague in 1969. Since the early 1970s, he was not allowed to publish and was employed as an interpreter/translator of the trade mission (since 1973 embassy) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Although watched by the State Security, he managed to make use of his position to establish an important connection between domestic dissenters and their supporters abroad, which was used to exchange publications and other documents. In 1979, he accepted an offer of professorship of recent history at the Free University in West Berlin, where he remained until 1994 and where he could develop and expand his research interests and devote himself to intensive publication activities For a long time, Bedřich Loewenstein was focusing on the German history of the 19th and 20th centuries; since the 1960s, he was also studying ideological, psychological, and social prerequisites of Nazism and later also more general issues of crises of the 20th century, modernism and modernity, civic society, European nationalism, and civilization. In this respect, he was able to integrate approaches and knowledge of other social sciences – sociology, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, and economy – in a prolific manner. He was a long-time and intensive intermediary of views and ideas between the Czech (or Czechoslovak) and German historiographies. His works, written in a concise, scientific-essayist style, earned him respect among colleagues both at home and abroad. His principal works include Plädoyer für die Zivilisation (Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe 1973), Entwurf der Moderne: Vom Geist der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft und Zivilisation (Essen, Reimar Hobbing 1987; in Czech in 1995), Problemfelder der Moderne: Elemente der politischen Kultur (Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1990), My a ti druzí: Dějiny, psychologie, antropologie (Brno, Doplněk 1997; in German in 2003). A synthesis of Loewenstein’s thinking about a broad spectrum of issues is presented in his book Der Fortschrittsglaube: Geschichte einer europäischen Idee (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2008; in Czech: Víra v pokrok: Dějiny jedné evropské ideje. Prague, OIKOYMENH 2009).

Evropský Středoevropan Bedřich Loewenstein

Author(s): Miloš Havelka / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1+2/2018

In his article, the author presents, in a concise and condensed fashion, the foundation, contours, principal features, and themes of the thinking of Bedřich Loewenstein (1929–2017), a modern and contemporary history historian spanning a multitude of disciplines. He finds the deepest layer of Loewenstein’s thinking in historical anthropology, in his interest in specific human beings and their actions, motivations, and orientations, explaining the historian’s “frame of mind” by his personal, lived experience of a Central European intellectual confronted with dramatic turns of history in the twentieth century. This also the reason behind Loewenstein’s understanding for the diversity of identities (in Central Europe mainly ethnic and national) and their coexistence, as well as his sensitivity to historical location and conditionality of individuals. According to Havelka, Loewenstein was representing a viewpoint (fairly rare in the Czech environment) which regarded “spiritual sciences” as sciences on creations of the collective and individual human spirit, focusing also on historical forms and influences of these creations, no matter whether his research topic was Fascism, “Bonapartism”, civic society, development and progress, or, more generally, history of ideas. The author points at Loewenstein’s skepticism toward constructions of great theories and his pronounced terminological nominalism refusing to grant essential validity to collective entities such as nations and cultures. This is related to Loewenstein’s conviction about the openness of history, both to the past and to the future, toward potential alternative interpretations. The historical pessimism is counter balanced by Loewenstein’s complementary perception of historical processes of disciplination and emancipation, or the formation of order and human freedom, although he was also a historian of nationalism, violence, and mass manipulation. The author pays special attention to Loewenstein’s concepts of modernity, civilization, and mainly belief in progress, which is viewed in his works in diverse manifestations of its ambiguity. In the end, Havelka emphasizes Loewenstein’s Europeism as a perspective of his historical view and as an integrating civilization principle which is associated with trust in intellect as a means of understanding, tolerance, and consensus.

Ku-klux-klan a jeho čtvrtá reinkarnace

Author(s): Karel Černý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2+3/2019

Surmiak-Domańska, Katarzyna: Ku-klux-klan: Tady bydlí láska. Translated from the Polish original by Jarmila Horáková. Žilina: Absynt, 2017, 294 pp., ISBN 978-80-89876-49-5. In the reviewer’s opinion, the educative book "Ku-Klux-Klan: This is where love lives" by the Polish reporter (initially published under the title "Ku Klux Klan: Tu mieszka miłość". Czarne, Wołowiec 2015), is a catching story about the immortality of a legend centered around the idea of chosenness and certain superiority of the white Christian American nation. The authoress provides a fitting and plastic description of Ku-Klux-Klan’s history since its birth after the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery, detailing the movement’s changes and constants, rises and falls,and permitting an interesting insight into today’s American society and politics through the movement’s optics. The reviewer appreciates that the authoress gives the floor not only to critics, but also to current members and leaders of KKK. Even a rather weaker setting of the book in the context of wider research of extremist movements cannot, in the reviewer’s opinion, diminish its value, particularly fora broader community of readers.

Един български глас от Болград. Програми за политически суверенитет на нацията на страниците на вестник „Български глас“ (1876–1877)

Author(s): Vera Boneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2000

The article presents the programmes for national sovereignty of the Bulgarians launched on the pages of one of the most outstanding political newspapers published in Bulgaria in the period April 17, 1876 – August 27, 1877, the newspaper “Bulgarski Glas”, edited by the public figure Kiro Touleshkov. One of the great experts in the press of the Bulgarian National Revival, B. Andreev, characterizes the publication in question as “a purely political paper with a strong revolutionary orientation”. This qualification is true and well-grounded. The idea of an abrupt and categorical break with the structures of the Ottoman State sounds in the text or context of most publicistic material included in the pages of the “Bulgarski Glas” newspaper. Nevertheless, Kiro Touleshkov’s publication presents also the three possible alternatives for Bulgaria’s future state organization in the correlation dependence/ independence from the Turkish Sultan’s Government – administrative autonomy, political autonomy, full independence. The article interprets this phenomenon within the context of a more abstract notion of the Balkan ethnopolitical realities in the 19th century. The editor demonstrates in a convincing way that no Balkan nation has received its state sovereignty all at once and to a full degree. In a direct text or with the help of historical examples he persistently insists that the strength of the “Little” factor in “big politics” is expressed in their skill to discover the optimal prospects for solving their problems to link their plans (initiatives) and commitments with the shortest and most painless road to the mentioned optimum. Assuming also the possibility for Bulgaria not to obtain at once and in full her State independence, the publication expresses a well-measured political flexibility. And that without letting out of sight the nation’s ultimate goal: attaining full State sovereignty in the natural ethnic boundaries. By their attitude the circles standing behind the publication gave clear signals of their skill to work in a mature and responsible fashion in the field of the National Revival press.

През призмата на национализма. Gheorghe Zbuchea. Romània şi ràzboaiele balcanice 1912–1913, Pagini de istorie sud-est europeană. Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, 1999. 458 p.

Author(s): Blagovest Njagulov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2000

Book Revie

Свободните българи в изгнание и движението за обединена Европа

Author(s): Vassilka Tankova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5-6/2000

The participation of the free Bulgarians in the Movement for United Europe (Mouvement europeen) is a theme in the still not researched, history of the Bulgarian political emigration after the Second World War. At the same time it constitutes also the contents of the inofficial pre-history of today’s efforts of official Bulgaria for Euro-integration. In both its aspects the problem for reasons easy to explain for the academic community has not been discussed in Bulgarian historiography. In so far as there is something said, it is exhausted in a few brief notes and separate biographical reference. Slightly more different is the question of the literature devoted to the idea of Europe and its practical implementation that began in the post-war years and that has not lost its actuality at present. After 1989 appeared scores of publications describing and analysing the European structures, the contradictory process of integration and. the initiatives in its favour. In Bulgarian were printed, also Stefan Popov’s brilliant lectures-reflections, dedicated to the idea of Europe through the centuries and broadcast in the 70s by radio “Free Europe”. In some of the publications the Bulgarian presence in the movement for a united Europe is noted most generally as existing within the framework of the whole East European anticommunist emigration. In the thus existing or rather absent, scientific preconditions I am compelled to balance between the academism necessary for the historical study and the inevitable repetition of well-known facts.

Размисли за българската икономическа мисъл (1878–1915)

Author(s): Stoycho Grancharov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/1998

The Bulgarian State lived through an all rounded upsurge during the period 1878–1912. Particularly impressive were the achievements in the economic field. From an Ottoman province with established but archaic market relations, Bulgaria was transformed into an agricultural-industrial country, modern from the Balkan conditions. The contribution of economic thought to that was indisputable. Its exponents were not only professors and holders of university diplomas. There were also persons who successfully combined in themselves the scholars with the economic, financial and state figure, as was, for instance, Ivan Evstatiev Geshov. Economic thought in Bulgaria, for reason easy to explain, was chiefly one of applied science. The works covered the all-round state of the Bulgarian economy and all its branches. The Bulgarian Society of Economics with its journal played an important role. The crown of Bulgarian economic thought was Prof. Kiril Popov’s book “Economic Bulgaria” published during the years of the First World War. This was a statistical epic of an economic fear, of Bulgaria’s development and in point of fact of almost everything in life at that time which could be expressed in figures.

Берлинский мир перед русским общественным мнением

Author(s): Boris Nikolaevich Chicherin,Sergey Leonidovich Chernov / Language(s): Bulgarian,Russian Issue: 3-4/1998

The text of B.N. Chicherin’s memorandum “The Peace of Berlin before Russian Public Opinion” is accompanied by an explanatory text of Associate Professor Sergey Leonidovich Chernov of “M.L. Lomonosov” Moscow State University, a researcher of Russia’s foreign policy problems during the second half of the 19th c. The article acquaints the readers with the principal view that existed in Russian society in 1878 on the decisions of San Stefano and Berlin, and with the specific opinion of B.N. Chicherin of the role of the state and particularly of Russia in the dynamically changing process in the European Southeast. B.N. Chicherin developed in detail this position in the document published where also he sought a behaviour of the Russian Empire adequate to the established situation and advantageous for the interest of the state.

Руската православна църква през 20-те години на XX век

Author(s): Pavel, Archimandrite Stefanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5-6/1998

The movement for reforms in the Russian Church began much earlier than the cataclysms in the state and gathered speed with the council which was convened in 1917–1918 and restored the patriarchy. The strategic aim of the Bolshevik regime was to liquidate the church as an institution by separating it from the state and depriving it of legal status. With state support, a powerful atheist movement was organized. In the 20s the Church faced severe problems such as the expropriation of its valuables when hunger arose, the persecution of the clergy and the faithful, the renovationist and emigrant schisms. In spite of some hesitation and contradiction, it took the historically correct step of officially recognizing the legitimacy of Bolshevik power in 1927. The internal church opposition to this act was expressed in the appearance of a catacomb wing which still exist today.

Авторитаризъм – фашизъм (към модела на политическото развитие на България 1918–1944 г.)

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/1997

In this article for the first time is raised the question of the nature of the right-wing political alternatives revealing the concrete contents of the authoritarian and fascist movements. The parameters of the authoritarian tendencies are determined. The basic tendencies, evolution and specific features of authoritarianism and fascism are outlined. The fascist manifestations are typologized, taking into consideration their close connection with authoritarianism. Authoritarianism was a basic alternative of bourgeois democracy between the two world wars. It proved to be a barrier against the threat of communism and did not allow fascism to enter into the government. The authoritarian movement had more diffuse contours unlike the clearly expressed tendencies of fascism. The authoritarian current, however, was predominant. After May 1934 authoritarianism in fact took over the administration of the country whereas fascism until the end of its existence remained disunited and failed to make its way into the government of the country. Complex, direct and indirect links and relationships existed between authoritarianism and fascism. The fascism movement was generated by the general authoritarian climate and was strongly influenced by external factors, but possessed also clearly outlined specific national features. The fundamental facts of the history of fascism are given a new interpretation, and typologization and periodization are introduced.

Мемоарът на Александър Екзарх до Великите сили от 23.I.1843 г.

Author(s): Vera Boneva / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/1997

Although the memoir of Alexander Exarch is known to Bulgarian historians, it has not been printed in full. The authoress interprets the Memoir which in point of fact was a political declaration of the Bulgarian political centre in Paris in the early 1840s. It clearly defined the ways in which the all-Bulgarian movement for spiritual and political development should be realized. The memoir gives also a clear idea of its author, Alexander Exarch, one of the most active champions of the cause of Bulgaria’s liberation in the middle of the past century.

The papers of a celebration: The Romanian Communist Party’s Semicentenary of 1971

Author(s): Andrei Cosmin Popa / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2021

Communist anniversaries had always had an important impact on historiography. Numerous works were published and dedicated to celebrated historical events. This was the case for the Romanian Communist Party’s Semicentenary. As well, it was the occasion of publishing its „work of identity” – an official Party history, the Romanian version of “The Short Course”.

Osteuropa im Umbruch. Alte und neue Mythen. Cl. Friedrich, B. Menzel (Hrsg.). Frankfurt am Main, etc. Peter Land, 1994. 200 S. Източна Европа в трансформация. Стари и нови митове. Съставители Кл. Фридрих, Б. Менцел. Франкфурт на Майн и др. Петер Ланг

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/1996

Book Review

Н. Данова. Константин Г. Фотинов в културното и идейно-политическото развитие на Балканите през XIX век. София, Академично издателство „М. Дринов“, 1994. 466 с.

Author(s): Rumyana Radkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/1995

Book Review

Учебната книжнина и национализмът (подходът на Димитрис Глинос)

Author(s): Philippos Iliou / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/1993

The study is dedicated to an important and almost unknown instance from the development of the Greek public thinking in the 20th century. The contemporary Greek historian Philipos lliou reports and subjects to comprehensive analysis the inquiry devised by the Greek intellectual Dimitris Glinos on Greek school literature with reference to the notion reflected in it of Greece's neighbouring peoples. The inquiry is connected with the efforts of the "Carnegie Endowment" international organization to reveal the roots of World War I and the Balkan Wars and the elimination of hostility between the nations. The data in the article shed light on the complex contradictory road covered by the Greek intelligentsia in the 20th century in an atmosphere of domination of nationalism in the life of the Balkans. The pieces of information about the image of the Bulgarian in Greek school literature are interesting; they reflected the evolution of Bulgarian-Greek relations in the first decades of the 20th century. Ph. lliou pays particular attention to the sober attitude of Glinos to the problems of nationalism.

Желю Желев. Фашизмът. София, Изд. на БЗНС, 1990

Author(s): Plamen S. Tsvetkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/1991

Драгомир Драганов. В сянката на сталинизма. С., „Хр. Ботев“, 1990

Author(s): Vladimir Migev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 8/1991

A presentation of Dr.Draganov's "Under the Shade of Stalinism"

Ortodocși și greco-catolici în Banat (a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea și începutul secolului XX). Perspectiva lui Ioan Boroș

Author(s): Ion Cârja / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

Bringing back into actuality a personality as important as Ioan Boroș (1850-1937), a reference figure of the Banat Greek Catholicism during the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the next, represents a significant acquisition, an important result of the research efforts that were conducted after 1989 in the area of church history. In this respect, two major historiographical restitutions must be mentioned; after they saw the light of the printing press, they contributed in a the decisive manner in placing in the spotlight the proposed archiereus Ioan Boroș to the Romanian historiography and to the contemporary Greek-Catholic ecclesial and community consciousness; it is the publication of his memorial notes, along with his will, correspondence and documents proving his elevation to the rank of honorary archiereus, in the period immediately following the Great Union. A first book containing his historical writings is of great importance in understanding his intellectual profile and the great diversity of the concerns that animated him. Considering the intellectual formation, the life experience and the exceptional church administrative skill that Ioan Boroș showed, we consider that it is not without interest to see how his memorial notes and, on a broader level, his scientific and publishing activity, reflect the multi-confessional character of Banat and especially the relations between the two Romanian confessions, Orthodoxy and Greek Catholicism. This is the aim of the present research paper.

ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЕ ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ ТРУДЯЩИХСЯ МУРМАНА В ГОДЫ ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЫ НА ПРИМЕРЕ СТАНЦИИ ИМАНДРА

Author(s): Eugene O. Sushko / Language(s): Russian Issue: 6/2022

The article investigates the financial situation of the workers and employees of the Imandra railway station during the Russian Civil War and the intervention on Murman. The key research questions are: what legal acts established the workers’ wages, and how these wages correlated with the general socio-economic situation of the inhabitants of the Northern Oblast. The main sources of research are archival materials containing information on the salaries of employees who held various positions, reports on the average wages of women and men, and the minutes of meetings of officials discussing the economic problems on the Murman. Archival data on the life of workers at the Imandra depot are used for the first time. It is concluded that at the Imandra station there was a significant gender inequality in terms of wages, with the average wage of men being almost twice the average wage of women. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, the station workers had access to the free purchase of consumer goods, although the prices for these goods were relatively high. It is concluded that one of the main problems of the Northern Oblast population was the rapid inflation of the ruble that resulted in higher prices, while wages could not match them.