Actors without Society. The role of civil actors in the postcommunist transformation

Author(s): Srđan Dvornik / Language(s): English

This study is primarily based on experiences during activist commitments and in my working with international foundations. The encouragement to undertake the study came from Dr. Azra Džajic´-Weber, the director of the Regional Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Sarajevo from 1998 to 2007. The work was originally conceived as a collection and interpretation of the experiences of a broad variety of civic actors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. In the early stage, however, it became obvious that it was necessary first to examine, and even “deconstruct,” the fundamental concepts that have framed the original approach. Rather than assuming that building democracy and rule of law was already underway – as well as the development of civil society – it turned out that many problems lay in those very assumptions. The most important is the problem of overlooking the fact that in the postcommunist transformation, society itself had yet to be established. // Therefore, the work in its final outcome is mostly dedicated to the very meaning of the basic determinants of the postcommunist transformation, in order to fathom the civic actors’ place within the newly defined framework. They are not referred to as a “civil society” but as civil actors, because it is they who, together with other factors, develop a society as a complex of autonomous relations and transactions, as well as a field for civic commitment.

Nemzetek Erdélyben

Author(s): Annamária Biró / Language(s): Hungarian

Сећање на зло

Author(s): Danilo Trbojević / Language(s): Serbian

Problem evropskog identiteta

Author(s): Ivana Gačanović / Language(s): Serbian

Карађорђе и Милош

Author(s): Dragana Antonijević / Language(s): Serbian

Identităţile Chişinăului. Ediția a treia

Author(s): Virgil Pâslariuc,Sergius Ciocanu,Sergiu Tabuncic ,Vlad Vornic,Ion Ciobanu,Sergiu Bacalov,Teodor Candu,Viorel Bolduma,Bo Larsson,Anatolie Gordeev,Mariana Şlapac,Alla Ceastina,Lucia Sava,Natalia Derevenco,Diana Ețco,Ivan Duminica,Olga Garusova,Iurie Colesnic,Lucia Argint,Tamara Nesterov,Ion Ștefăniță,Silvia Scutaru,Dinu Poștarencu,Maria Danilov,Adrian Crăciunescu,Iulian Rusanovschi,Lidia Prisac,Alexandru Corduneanu,Sergiu Musteaţă,Alexandru Chîșlari,Oleg Copceac,Vlada Afteni,Natalia PODLESNAIA,Aurelia Carpov,Angela Munteanu / Language(s): Romanian

The book is a collection of papers on history, culture, architecture, heritage and urban development of Chisinau

Istoria Mănăstirii Hâncu (1677-2010)

Author(s): Alexei Agachi / Language(s): Romanian

The book on history of one monastery from Moldova - Hancu (1677-2010)

Procesele etno-culturale din spaţiul carpato-nistrean în secolele II-XIV. Istoriografia sovietică

Author(s): Sergiu Matveev / Language(s): Romanian

The book on soviet historiography of the ethnocultural processes in the Carpathian-Dniester

A történelem vonatán

Author(s): Mária Ormos / Language(s): Hungarian

“The Train of History” by Mária Ormos invites the reader to two different „journeys”. Reception of both, history and historiography. It is a comprehensive study with author’s vision on Europe, focusing on the Hungarian history and Hungarian identity.

Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits. Post-Communist Historiography Between Democratization and New Politics of History

Author(s): / Language(s): English

The collection of well researched chapters assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the emphasis on the recovery of memory or revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevelant historiographical approaches of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and communism and so providing opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, cast the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany, and acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust while obfuscating its meaning and significance.In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of performing ‘Europeanness.’ Therefore their presentations of Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian post-communist memory politics move beyond the common national myths in order to provide a new insight into transnational interactions and exchanges in Europe in general. The juxtaposition of these politics, the processes in other parts of Europe, the modes of remembering shaped by displacement and the transnational memory practices enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices.

Piastuni dziejów

Author(s): Joanna Nowak / Language(s): Polish

This monograph examines how Polish authors writing in the first half of the nineteenth century described these European nations which in their opinion played a significant role in the history of Europe through the past centuries. The nineteenth century authors were convinced that in each of the consecutive historical epochs, typically it was one nation that due to different circumstances acquired special importance and directed a general development. Such prominent communities, via a number of missions entrusted upon them, became the "keepers of the history," playing different functions that often overlapped: they were defenders of freedom, promoters of art and civilization, leaders of economic changes, or initiators of intellectual growth.

Csak álltunk és sírtunk. Az első bécsi döntés napjai a kortársak szemével

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian

This book describes the daily life in southern Slovakia in the period of the decision made on the First Vienna Award and of its enforcement as reflected in contemporary texts (diaries, memoirs) and photographs. The volume contains 19 texts and is illustrated by about 180 photos reporting on the processes taking place in southern Slovakia in the autumn of 1938. These mainly reveal pre-war tention in the first days of the Munich Agreement, the expectations surrounding the Hungarian–Slovak border talks, and the delight of the Hungarian population living here over return to Hungary.

Руска револуција 1917. у очима Краљевине Србије - Русская революция 1917 г. глазами Королевства Сербии

Author(s): Aleksej J. Timofejev,Milan Piljak / Language(s): Russian,Serbian

Oči pamte

Author(s): Jelena Radošević / Language(s): Serbian

Više je razloga zašto sam pisala ovu knjigu, osnovni je da se čita o Zapadnoj Slavoniji. Ne mogu da podnesem, naprosto sam ljubomorna dok čitam zapise, knjige, feljtone, ispovijesti o Vukovaru, Sarajevu, Benkovcu, Posavini, a Zapadna Slavonija se spominje tek povremeno, silom, ne sa žaljenjem, nego nekako sramežljivo. A Zapadna Slavonija je postojala i još uvijek postoji, kao što postoji i moj Voćin i bol za njim. Za Podravskom Slatinom. Sve dok se ne počne pisati zašto smo pobjegli, i da li smo pobjegli, da li smo se predali ili se i to moralo dogoditi, kao riječ Božja – sve dotad želim da se o Zapadnoj Slavoniji čita onako kako sam ja znala da za-pišem. Kad se o nama prestane šaputati, nego se počne glasno govoriti i pisati, tada više neće biti bitno tko je kriv za odlazak mog naroda. Tada će se emocije stišati, zaboravićemo koliko nam je bilo hladno kad smo u decembru 1991. prelazili Papuk, Psunj i rijeku Rogoljicu dok se u prostorijama gdje je tog istog mjeseca potpisivan Vensov plan živa penjala i preko 25 stupnjeva.

Korak do smrti

Author(s): Petar Drakulić / Language(s): Croatian

Zločina i zločinaca uvijek je bilo, njih ima i danas i bit će ih sutra. To su neosporne činjenice s kojima čovjek današnjice računa kad živi i kad se priprema za budući život. U vrijeme kad smo na pragu postindustrijskog društva, kad strojevima dirigiranim sa zemlje čeprkamo po površinama dalekih nebeskih tijela, kad je čovjek uspješno koraknuo mjesečevim stijenama, kad osvajamo ono što je bilo i za maštu predaleko, na našoj planeti, tu gdje žive civilizirani narodi, prepuni su ambari opasnosti i stovarišta smrti. Čovjek očito, živeći u proturječnostima ideja i sistema, u različitim ekonomskim i društvenim uvjetima, nije siguran i mora stalno misliti otkud mu i kakva opasnost prijeti, tko će ga i kada napasti, kakve mu katastrofe sprema po svemu sličan čovjek‑brat, čovjek‑nebrat.

Zalutali imetak

Author(s): Nikola Bajto / Language(s): English,Croatian

An account of a crime aimed at human lives inevitably suppress¬es a testimony on robbery, even if it was an armed robbery. Prob¬ably, that is the only explanation for an overwhelming absence of serious work on collecting the evidence and critical retrospect of the disappearance of property acquired by Serbs in Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia during the turbulent twentieth century. While there are hundreds of volumes published on genocide, with the tendency of permanent growth, when it comes to prop¬erty, there is – silence. It seems that the understanding of inevitability of this process has been widely accepted. The magnitude of this process is best illustrated by the proportion of ethnic Serbs in the population of Croatia: before the First World War, one in four inhabitants of Croatia was a Serb, while nowadays it is one in twenty-four, roughly estimated.

The Birth and Death of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia – Developing Polypeitharchic History

Author(s): Srđan Mladenov Jovanović / Language(s): English

A third of my adult life I have lived in what used to be known as the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. The second third I have spent in what was known as Czechoslovakia, in the Moravian city of Olomouc. Yet both countries came into existence and ceased to exist within the 20th century. Many would say that similarities were aplenty. Both countries were formed in the immediate aftermath of the Great War (though Yugoslavia was initially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), both suffered immensely during World War II, both endured almost half a century of Communist rule, both expired by the end of the century. However, the differences were far greater than the similarities, especially when it comes to the breakup of the two states, as ‘the process of that breakup was vastly different in the two states: it was virtually painless in Czechoslovakia, while it is excruciatingly painful in Yugoslavia’ (Bookman 1994, 175). Much has been written on the two topics, with the death of Yugoslavia probably receiving the most attention, due to the sheer brutality of the bloody breakup during the 1990s, yet a comparative research – to my knowledge – has seen scant attention, with a few notable exceptions (Bookman 1994, Bunce 1999). [...]

Putinova Rusija

Author(s): Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya / Language(s): Serbian

Internationally admired for her fearless reporting, award-winning journalist Anna Politkovskaya turns her steely gaze on President Putin and his early regime in this book.From Putin’s tyrannical grip on ordinary citizens to rampant corruption in highest ranks of the government, as well as Mafia dealings, scandals in the provinces and the decline of the intelligentsia, Politkovskaya offers a scathing condemnation of the President and his rule, revealing a shocking state of affairs: soldiers dying from malnutrition, parents requiring to bribes to recover their dead sons' bodies and conscripts are being hired out as slaves.More relevant and important than ever in today’s political landscape, Putin's Russia is both a gripping portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of an extraordinary reporter.

Admiral s Korduna. Bitke i sudbine

Author(s): Branko Mamula / Language(s): Croatian

Nakon što sam pročitao zapise admirala Branka Mamule, nametnula su mi se dva ključna dojma. Prvi se dojam ticao činjenice da je u jednoj ratnoj partizanskoj biografiji bilo moguće učešće u epopeji Petrove gore u proljeće 1942. i, ne mnogo vremena zatim, učešće u pomorskoj partiji šaha u zadarskom arhipelagu i na Kvarneru, posljednjih godinu dana Drugog svjetskog rata. Kordunaški momak, koji nikad nije vidio more i koji nije znao plivati, dvadeset ratnih mjeseci bio je učesnik danas prilično zaboravljene savezničke borbe na sjevernom Jadranu, koja se pretvorila u pobjedničku stratešku igru. Drugi dojam ticao se činjenice da je taj kordunaški momak, svjedok dvaju stoljeća – naš suvremenik. [...]

100 of the most pressing Issues in the Republic of Moldova in 2007

Author(s): Ion Marandici,Dumitru Lazur,Ion Guzun,Stela Guzun,Nadejda Caprar,Diana Cheianu-Andrei,Olesea Cruc,Alexandru Lesanu / Language(s): English

The peculiarity of 2007 was the fact that it was the last year of the implementation of the EU Action Plan by the Republic of Moldova facing a severe drought. In 2006, the authorities of the Republic of Moldova had put forth the efforts to convince the European officials and the western partners of the possibilities of the country to implement the stipulations of the Action Plan RM-EU, the efforts have been materialized by the creating and sending reports regarding the implementation of the RM-EU AP. In 2007, the Moldovan authorities are facing the situation when they have to prove to the citizens and to themselves that the implementation of the Action Plan RM-EU did not represent just efforts but also clear results in bringing Moldova closer to EU. Or the implementation of this very document represented a capacity and availability test of the Republic of Moldova to approach the European Union. // This smart product offers comparative and analytical elements for the adoption of some superior techniques of evaluation of some decisions that involve important costs for our society. Meanwhile, the intention of the authors of this study is to encourage critical thinking and comparative approach regarding drafting of efficient and effective public policies as well as qualitative growth of the level of public debates on these issues of interest.