Oslavy štátnych sviatkov a pamätných dní a participácia príslušníkov maďarskej menšiny v Rožňave v medzivojnovom období

Author(s): Lucia Poláková / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2015

The article describes the celebrations of momentous political holidays in Rožňava in the interwar period. It mainly deals with the national holiday of establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, birthday of the President T. G. Masaryk and Labour Day. The attention is focused on the analysis of the program during the celebration and a possible national conflicts in a multi-ethnic city Rožňava. At the end of the article there are mentioned holidays celebrated in Hungary and their impact on the Hungarian minority in the southern part of the Czechoslovakia.

Doświadczenie Zagłady w "Ocalałym z Warszawy" op. 46 Arnolda Schönberga: geneza, dzieło, interpretacja

Author(s): Iwona Sowińska-Fruhtrunk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02 (29)/2016

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which the experience of the Holocaust can be represented, embodied and even relived in or through music. The category of experience thus serves as a main methodological tool in this survey, helping to reconstitute the process of expressing it through music, specifically in Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw Op. 46. A related point to consider is the composer’s engagement in the fight for human rights just before the World War II, a fact that is not yet widely recognized. A brief overview of Schoenberg’s religious, social, and political environment is followed by the history of the Survivor’s… origins, analysis of its literary text, and, finally, interpretation. While discussing the ethical limits of the Holocaust representation, the opinions of Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst van Alphen, Berel Lang, and Giorgio Agamben are consulted.

Muzykalia w zbiorach Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Author(s): Hubert Szczęśniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01 (32)/2017

The article presents the conclusion of the research conducted by the author in the collection of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The sources are fully featured and described for the first time. The article focuses on showing a complicated post-war history of the camp items connected with music (musical instruments, printings, manuscripts, handwritten copies of instrumental books), which are auxiliary sources to reconstruct the repertoire of chapels in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The main aim of the article is to also discuss the preserved repertoire. In the last chapter, the author presents a short characteristics of original works composed by musicians and composers in slavery with a short analysis of all of them. Presented musical printings are a reflection of tastes of the German public in the 1930s as well as an example of ridiculous anthropological establishments of Nazi music scientists and no ability to implement it on listeners practice. In addition, the work contains annexes: musical instruments, original works composed during camp existence, and musical printings – a list of music materials which survived in the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Пътят на ромската литература в Източна Европа

Author(s): Sofia Zahova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The article makes a brief historical review of the development of Roma publicationsin the countries in Eastern Europe by emphasizing the processes in each country andthe interrelations between their policies regarding the Roma culture and the Roma literary production. The aim of the article is to show that the development of Roma literature is related to the political, social and cultural context in the country or region of its creation. The comparative historical approach is the most appropriate for the purpose since the tendencies in the development of the Roma literature are related to the policies of identity (in general or directed to the Roma population) in different historical periods and regions.

Компетентен разказ за историческия път на българите

Author(s): Teodorichka Gotovska-Henze / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5-6/2016

Book Review

Ранната печатна кирилица: графичен опит и културни функции

Author(s): Mariyana Tsibranska-Kostova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2018

The article is dedicated to one aspect of the long-lasting life of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely the use of Cyrillic script as base for the Slavonic book publishing in its initial period from the end of the 15th – the 16th centuries. The main goal is to illustrate some peculiarities in the grapheme inventory, and to point out the cultural-historical functions of the early printed Cyrillic, the major of which was the preservation and the reproduction of the religious and spiritual identity. Supplementary, but not less important functions were the creation of cultural communities, the integration of the Bulgarian written legacy in Europe, its cognitive, moral, entertaining function, and others. The statement is subjected to the pursuit of shaping historically the relation between alphabet and identity, which should be realized as value, especially in the year of the Bulgarian presidency of the European Union, and the Cyrillic as one of its symbols.

Отношенията между държава и религиозни институции: българският случай

Author(s): Maya Grekova,Iva Kyurkchieva,Maya Kosseva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2017

The objective of this article is to outline the basic tensions in contemporary Bulgarian society concerning the intertwining of religion and secularism through the prism of relations between national state and different religious organizations and individuals.The general goal is to combine the presentation of national historical context, existing legislation and the current social debate based on anthropological fieldwork.

Ново изследване за американското разузнаване и България (1941 – 1991)

Author(s): Simona Samuilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

Научни форуми

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2022

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in the second half of 2022

ПАЛОМНИЧЕСТВА ЮЖНЫХ СЛАВЯН НА СВЯТУЮ ЗЕМЛЮ В XVI – XVII ВВ. И СОЗДАНИЕ ОБЩЕГО ПРАВОСЛАВНОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА ОСМАНСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ

Author(s): Dmitry Igorevich Polyvyannyy / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2023

After 1517 the Holy Places of Jerusalem, Palestine and Sinai as well as the three ancient Eastern Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antiochia and Jerusalem were included into the imperial domain of the Sublime Porte thus connecting its Orthodox subjects in Rumelia, Greek islands, Asia Minor and the Danubian Principalities to the most worshipped common Christian shrines. In the following two centuries the number of the pilgrims to the Holy Land from the Ottoman Balkan provinces was permanently increasing. The South Slav pilgrims’ glosses and travel notes reveal the shaping of the common orthodox space, the parts of which were the visitors’ living places, sacral centers, monasteries and travel communications. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the return back lead them across administrative, canonical, ethnic and territorial metes and bounds creating in their minds the image of the Ottoman Empire as mighty world power with multinational and multi-confessional population thus laying foundations for the development of protonational identities.

Политико-дипломатическите отношения между България и НАТО в периода 1992 – 1994 г.

Author(s): Hristian Yotov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2s/2024

The main goal of the present study is to show for the first time the nuances of the political-diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and NATO in the context of the difficult first years of the democratic changes in the country. The text is based on a large amount of newly released archives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central State Archive, thus claiming a high degree of objectivity.

Подцененият казус. България и статутът на Света гора (Атон) в дипломатическия контекст на Балканската война (1912 – 1913)

Author(s): Goran Blagoev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2024

The status of Mount Athos during the First Balkan War and the accompanying peace negotiations was a major issue for Russia, Greece and the Western Great Powers. Paradoxically, Bulgaria, which is one of the countries in the Balkan Union, shows almost no interest in this problem. Bulgarian diplomacy perceives it as a private case that has much more background positions than the big and important problem related to the territorial expansion in the White Sea region and Macedonia. The article answers the question why Bulgarian politics underestimates the importance of the problem related to the status of the monastic territory on the Athos peninsula and its importance for the international prestige of the state, as well as its geostrategic positioning on the Balkans.

A NARRATIVE OF THE JEWISH-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT: ISRAELI-JEWISH ACADEMIC VERSION – WHY? AND HOW?

Author(s): Daniel Bar-Tal / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The article tries to shed light on the following three questions: what were the goals of the Jewish Zionist leaders in the conflict with Palestinians? What was the process of breaking out the conflict between Jews and Palestinians? What was the conflict over the years? The answerers come from Jewish Israelis, which I analyze based on the academic literature. The well-defined idea to settle Jews in their old homeland appeared with the emergence of Zionism. It was a revolutionary ideology since Jews left/were expelled from their country about 2000 years ago. But there was one problem that stood as a barrier. There were Palestinians living in the same place, some for centuries, who also began to develop their nationalism. This fact opened an intractable conflict between Jews and Palestinians that had lasted for over a hundred years until present time. The article points out to the most important events and processes that shaped the conflict from escalation to de-e scalation and again to re-escalation.

THE WAR IN UKRAINE AMONG CONTEMPORARY ARMED CONFLICTS

Author(s): Anton Bebler / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The war in Ukraine is the biggest, bloodiest and longest war in Europe since 1945. Its initial stage holds similarities with several other armed conflicts and wars in the last 50 years on Cyprus and in the territories of the former Soviet Union and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Among the cases in ex-Yugoslavia the greatest similarity is seen with the war in Croatia (1991–1995). These conflicts stemmed from almost simultaneous breakdowns of two multinational „socialist federations” and their communist regimes. The dissimilarity of the second stage of the war in Ukraine and the war in Croatia is primarily due to the processes of NATO and EU enlargement coupled with the USA’s policy of using NATO enlargement and Ukraine as tools to harm and weaken Russia. The conflict about Ukraine developed into an indirect war between Russia and the US-led West, where Ukraine is the West’s proxy and the main victim. The final outcome of the war in Ukraine will be decided on the battlefield and not around a diplomatic table. Still, it will be very different from that in Croatia. Responsibility for the war in Ukraine and its consequences must be shared between the two direct belligerents, the co-responsible USA and other NATO members.

PRESENT AND FUTURE GEOPOLITICAL ROLE OF RUSSIA IN PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA DISCOURSE

Author(s): Nataliya M. Velikaya / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The problems of constructing a new national identity and preserving Russia’s influence in the post-Soviet space have become now particularly relevant in the framework of the global confrontation with the West and special military operation in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to analyze public opinion and political discourse regarding the geopolitical future of Russia in the context of modern conflicts of a regional and international nature.The empirical basis of the article is the results of the sociological monitoring How are you, Russia (1992–2024) and the data of content analysis of mass media during 2014 and 2022. The sociological monitoring survey allowed to study the dynamics of citizens’ perceptions of the geopolitical future of the Russian Federation and to trace the connection of the main trends with the indicators of consolidation of society included in the toolkit. The mass media discourse showed the strengthening of neo-imperial topics and allusions. The preservation of the integrity of the Russian Federation and its sovereignty in the long term does not cause doubts among population, even in the conditions of a crisis and an uncertain future associated with the formation of a multipolar world. Optimistic scenarios are considered, emphasizing the strengthening of Russia’s role in the new world order, and pessimistic ones, reflecting isolation models of development. Russia’s powerful progressive development in the future is associated with arguments and ideologems about Russia’s special path, the uniqueness of Russian civilization, which became one of the main topics in the Russian political discourse.

CHINA VS THE UNITED STATES: STRUGGLE FOR HEGEMONY OR THUCIDYDES’S TRAP

Author(s): Roman Kuźniar / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

This article discusses the prospect of the transition of the Chinese-American rivalry into an open, all out war. The problem arises from the experience of history – two leading powers eventually refer to war in order to assume their, one of them, strategic and political primacy within the relevant international order of their time. The present situation – after a demise of the international liberal order – of confrontation between the US and China is being compared to the so-called Thucidydes’s trap, which is the reference to the Peloponnesian war. The author is challenging both the comparison and the inevitability of the war between the Big Two, without however totally excluding the possibility of some military demonstrations of their resolve to push for or to defend their global status. Reasons for such an assessment are based upon negative (nuclear capabilities) and positive (economy, development) interdependence factors between the only two superpowers and the nature of the contemporary international environment, complex and tight, which will be preventing the Big Two from sliding into the world war, disastrous for all.

THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) AND THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF INTERNAL CONFLICTS

Author(s): Peter Anyang Nyongo / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

From the time it was colonized to the present day, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has neither experienced democracy nor lasting peace and stability. Instead, it has all the qualitative attributes of a fragile state. Empirically, the beginnings of a fragile state are linked to rebellions which led to civil wars and thereafter took on a long-run trend with the capture and exploitation of resources. For example, diamonds in Sierra Leone, oil in Sudan and South Sudan and rare metals in DRC. Fragility stems from being in conflict repeatedly, a sign of a vicious cycle where conflict generates grievance and grievance generates further conflict. However recurring conflicts are also often driven by greed for resources whose control can fund a conflict ad infinitum especially if the resources are in demand globally. Hence the conflict becomes internationalized. The entry of international players is based on predatory opportunities to control commodity exports. Because the conflict also displaces people (and creates a rebellious diaspora), especially those with influence and money, these grievances fuel the discontent of diaspora which mobilizes funds to finance the conflict further.

ARMENIA AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH: THE HISTORY OF AN UNSETTLING RELATIONSHIP

Author(s): Stephan Rindlisbacher / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has been a visible constant on the international stage since 1988. On the Armenian side, the commemoration of the genocide of 1915 and the Soviet decision to attach Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan in 1921 appeared to be the main drivers to produce and reproduce „groupness”. Whereas Armenian nationalist narratives had first been silenced and then mitigated during the Soviet era, they have become decisive since the dissolution of the USSR. Armenian ethnopolitical entrepreneurs exploited them to establish a new political legitimacy. With the wars in 2020 and 2023, the tide turned in favour of Azerbaijan, as it managed to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh and expel its Armenian population. Now, Azerbaijan appears as the main driver of the conflict when it utters claims for a corridor to Nakhchivan through the Armenian territory.

ЗАКРИЛА НА СВЕТИНИ: СВЕТИ ОБЕКТИ, ПРЕДПАЗЕНИ ОТ РАЗРУШАВАНЕ И/ИЛИ ОСКВЕРНЯВАНЕ ЧРЕЗ ЗАТРУПВАНЕ ИЛИ ВКОПАВАНЕ

Author(s): Lyubomir Tsonev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 23/2024

The report presents specific monuments from different periods in Thrace – megalithic, Thracian, Roman, early Christianity and Ottoman period. These monuments are sacral buildings or remains of destroyed sacral buildings, which on some occasion were buried with an earth mound. The most likely reason for this act is the desire to protect the holy places from destruction, further destruction, or desecration. This ritual tradition has survived on our lands for almost three millennia, although not universal and with varying intensity in different epochs.

ВИНА И ПАМЕТ. СЪВРЕМЕННИ МЕМОРИАЛНИ ПРАКТИКИ В ГЕРМАНИЯ. ЧАСТ 4

Author(s): Dessislava Tiholova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 23/2024

The text presents a possible anthropological perspective on the topic of memorial practices in Germany, linked to the problem of guilt and its overcoming through the dynamization of cultural memory. The thesis of guilt, being an element of the contemporary process of creating places of memory, is based on observations on memorial places for deserters. They may not be many in number (compared to monuments of other social or political victims in the history of Germany), but are becoming a catalyst of the dynamic process of building monuments called Denkmalarbeit. Indicative of the problem are the long, sometimes even paradoxical processes surrounding the decision-making for such monuments: their place, the artistic realization of every project, the accompanying public events, speeches and comments, the forms of implant. The mentioned factors, together with the conclusions of the observation, create a new sphere in the cultural memory of German society, related to changes in public attitude towards deserters and a search for new forms of memory in the process of acknowledging and overcoming guilt.