„Książki dla młodzieży […] powinny przedstawiać […] czuły mechanizm walki klasowej”. Szczecińskie Plenum Zarządu Głównego Związku Literatów Polskich, sierpień 1951 r.

Author(s): Marta Nadolna-Tłuczykont / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article is an attempt at showing the situation of literature for children and youth during the first years after the conclusion of World War II. Based on the materials from the Szczecin Plenum of the Principal Board of Polish Writers, which was held in August 1951, the views of the political leadership on the literature for youth were outlined. These tendencies, with certain changes and varying intensity, continued throughout the Polish People’s Republic period.

„Kult ličnosti“ kralja Aleksandra I. Karađorđevića u splitskim međuratnim (nacionalističkim) novinama

Author(s): Ivan Bulić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2015

The first Yugoslav state was marked by Alexander I. Karadjordjevic, by whose proclamation it was also created in 1918. Through the strict laws, including the newspaper articles, his personality was sacrosanct. On the theoretical background of Max Weber, E. A. Rees and A. R. Willner, the paper shows how the Split interwar nationalist newspapers, as well as some non-nationalist such as The Official Gazette, tried during the interwar period to create Alexander’s „personality cult“ by attributing his exceptional qualities, calling him, among other things, a legendary knight, a hero, the Liberator Knight, Symbol of the Nation and the Father of the Nation. In the parliamentary period the lead was taken by the radical State and the Orjuna Victory, and a short visit by the king and his family to Split in the second half of 1925, only intensified those efforts. The king’s introduction of the personal dictatorship in 1929, a common form of government in the European interwar history, which had resulted from the assassination of Stjepan Radic in the National Assembly in mid-1928, brought to joining of the newly established nationalist newspapers in the creation of the „personality cult“, some of which were especially prominent like Folk’s Paper, The Flag and The Call from the Adriatic. Alexander’s death in the assassination in Marseille in 1934 was the culmination of the „personality cult“. Along with the title of the creator and the saviour of the state by introducing the dictatorship and using the religious motives, Alexander was also added the title of the martyr, thus he was called the Anointed from God, the Yugoslav Christ and the Mesiah of all Yugoslavs. Each year his death was solemnly marked, and until the Second World War the nationalist newspapers had been highlighting that the king’s spirit and his most important work – the state would continue to live in his successor Peter II. Karadjordjevic.

„Kwestia turecka” w polityce USA po I wojnie światowej

Author(s): Paweł Olszewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2018

The article presents the policy towards Turkey pursued by the United States in the period from the end of the Great War to the late 1920s. The policy was shaped to a large extent by anti-Turkish and pro-Armenian attitude of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Despite the fact that the United States were not at war with Turkey, the American delegation actively participated in talks of the Peace Conference in Paris about the future of Turkey. The American president had also great impact on the decision about mandate divisions of the Near East.

„La Țigănci”, nuvela-parabolă a profetismului eliadesc

Author(s): Liliana Danciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2018

The unprecedented experience of Gavrilescu, the main character in the La Țigănci short story, continues to arise various interpretations, proving the viability of this eliadesc writing. For some literary critics, he is the anti-hero by definition, which lives what Eliade understands by "level break", but without understanding anything of it. The ordinary man, with a banal existence, routinely in the profane becomes the Chosen One uselessly claimed by sacred, for ignorance prevents him from seeing beyond the Illusion. In the hut of the gypsies, he crosses a rite of passage, from life to death, proof being the shrouded curtain that will wrap his naked body, the terrible thirst for unpopularity, and the surprising encounter with the always young Hildegard, the beloved of his youth.In this article, I try to reveal another dimension of this eliadesc short story, linked to the name of the main character, which, in my opinion, refers to the name of the archangel Gabriel, the "pair" of the other, Michael. As it is known, the name of the archangel Michael is directly related to the Romanian legionary movement in the inter-warperiod, a nationalistic, violent and criminal political-ideological movement that has successfully manipulated local religious and cultural elements to gain followers and become strong. Up to a point, the Romanian legionary movement stood under the sign of both archangels, synthesizing both the intellectual and the political dimensions.In time, the two directions have broken apart, and the legion has remained exclusively under the warlike sign of the warrior archangel. The Romanian intellectuals, who originally sympathized with the nationalist ideals of the legionary movement, distanced themselves from it and remained under the soteriological mark of Archangel Gabriel. This is, in my opinion, the message hidden by Eliade in this unusual short story. Also, using allegory and symbol, the Romanian author turns out to be a man of vision and prophesies the future of Romania, which has been culturally and historically marked, in time, by Germany. The present does not contradict Eliade, because Germany is the engine of the European Union, of which Romania wants to be part.

„Lietuvos garlaivių bendrovė“ 1919–1936 m.

Author(s): Gediminas Kasparavičius / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 17/2019

This article describes the first shipping company in Lithuania – the Lithuanian steamship company, which was found on February 1, 1919 In Kaunas. The company was established in order to organize river and sea transport in Lithuania. The article describes the work of the Lithuanian steamship company in organizing water transport in 1920–1936. Also describes the problems that this company encountered. The company’s fleet was used in rivers and sea transport. The most important persons are described as the most important – main contributors to the establishment and operation of the company. Establishment of the Lithuanian Steamship Company in 1919 February 1 was heavily tied to the US contribution of the US, as the statutory capital was 500 thousand. Marks were not only local but also accumulated by US Lithuanians. The company started its activities in river transport in 1920. March 23, when the first steamship “Rambynas” was acquired. Later, the steamships “Eglė” and “Rūta” flown by the rivers, carrying passengers and several cargo canoes for cargo transportation. The river activities were interrupted until 1936. Maritime transport has been operating since 1921 until 1926. In 1921 “Jūratė” and “Kastytis” were acquired, the last sank in 1925, and due to the debts in 1926 company had to sell the other ship “Juratė”. Saliamonas Banaitis, Martynas Yčas, Jonas Šliūpas were the most prominent in the operation of the Lithuanian steamship company, which created Lithuanian shipping traditions.

„Monsieur János, valójában mit akar? Különben is, a glóbuszát meghagytam Önnek!”

Területveszteségek és gyarapodások élclapok karikatúráin (1919–1921)

Author(s): Ágnes Tamás / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2016

The paper discusses how the Paris peace conference and its consequences were seen in the cartoons published in Hungarian (Magyar Herkó Páter, Borsszem Jankó, Mátyás Diák, Dongó), Austrian (Figaro, Kikeriki, Die Bombe, Die Muskete, Wiener Caricaturen, Der Götz von Berlichingen) and Czechoslovakian (Humoristické listy) satirical papers. It analyzes how they portrayed the northern expedition during which the Hungarian Red Army tried to achieve the modification of the established borders of Hungary by military force, then the contemporary view of the peace conference, and finally the way the territorial losses and expansion following the treaty were depicted. Besides, it takes a close look at the opinions about the new neighboring countries, the new and old conflicts of the former ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary, which were by then evolving within a nation state framework. The visual elements of the cartoons are grouped and compared by motifs. The results show that several symbols are recurring elements in the cartoons (for example, map, eating, animals etc.), but this short period is characterized by the similarity of symbols, besides the unique ideas of the cartoonists. The peculiarity of the cartoons is that humor has disappeared to be replaced by a mutually hostile tone. Besides the territorial losses, the Austrian satirical papers often dealt with the block of Anschluss, while Hungarian papers tried to mirror the inexpressible grief felt over the new borders of Hungary.

„Na kriedlach slovanského citu zaletel roku 1915 do Srbska na pomoc Srbom“

Symbolická inštrumentalizácia M. R. Štefánika a slovanská vzájomnosť na pozadí dobových medzištátnych vzťahov

Author(s): Peter Macho / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2015

MACHO , Peter. “He flew on wings of Slavonic feeling to Serbia to help the Serbsin 1915”. The symbolic instrumentalization of M.R. Štefánik and Slavonic community against the background of the inter-state relations of the time. Historický časopis, 2015, 63, 1, pp. 47-80, Bratislava. The study analyses the symbolic instrumentalization of the national hero M.R.Štefánik in the context of the modified form of Slavonic community in the 20th century. In the inter-war period, the symbol of Štefánik was used to strengthen the Czechoslovak – Yugoslav alliance on the basis of Slavonic brotherhood. The political representatives of independent Slovakia and Croatia during the Second World War refused to build their inter-state relations on the basis of Slavonic community. From the point of view of Zagreb, Štefánik appeared pro-Serb and pro-Yugoslav, so he was an undesirable symbol for the Croats. Emphasis on the strong Slavonic and Serbophil identity of Štefánik became an instrument for Slovak opposition oriented circles to articulate their resistance to the Ľudák regime and the Slovak state.

„New classicism” and the music of „new humanity” – Hungarian music historiography and Bence Szabolcsi

Author(s): Zsuzsa Rákai / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Hungarian music historiography traditionally regards the dispute about „new Hungarian music” as a contest between conservative and progressive aesthetic views. However, the artistic problem of the Hungarian intelligentsia in the interwar period were more complex. They had tasks such as synchronizing modernism and nationalism, harmonising 19th century ideals and 20th century compositional ideas and redefining the criteria of the national musical-cultural canon. The musicologist Bence Szabolcsi created an influential theory on peasant music inspired symphonic style already in the 1920s. He supported Kodály in his articles and he had a conscious intention to establish a new school of Hungarian music. As a young man Szabolcsi created a future oriented golden age theory based on his belief that the classical era was the absolute peak of European music. He made a diff erence between artistic creation (as a reflection of divine creation) and consciuos composition, classicism and romanticism, culture and civilization, and he regarded the latter categories as the signs of perilous European decadence from which there is no other choice but a „new classicism”, that is a „new testament”. Young Szabolcsi thought „new Hungarian music” could be the new and only path leading back to God, to culture, to music.

„Niepokój, groza wieczności”

Taine czytany przez Schulza (próba lektury równoległej)

Author(s): Jakub Orzeszek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2015

There is only one published piece of evidence that Bruno Schulz read Taine: a note thathe made in reference to Taine’s Philosophy of Art (pages 51-71 of volume II of the Polish1911 Lviv edition). The note has been discovered almost miraculously and briefly commentedon by Jerzy Jarzębski in 1995. In the present essay, the author approaches thenote once more, reading it together with Taine’s book and treating Schulz’s text as anintellectual map to reconstruct the actual moment of the writer’s reading. It seems thatthere is some mental kinship between the French philosopher and the Polish writer: common fascination with ancient Greece and skepticism about the prospects of modern European civilization. Both compared the ancient and modern ideas of art and ways ofeveryday life, as well as pagan and post-Christian beliefs about death and afterlife.

„Omas koguduses truuiks jääda“: Tartu Saalemi koguduse ajaloost, 1919–1949

Author(s): Toivo Pilli / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 2 (75)/2019

This article, covering the years 1919–1949, focuses on the early development of Tartu Saalem church, a community which officially began in 1919 as a group of revivalist believers who found it hard to fit into the existing ecclesial landscape. In the 1930s, the church joined the Union of Estonian free revivalist believers, and in 1946, under Soviet pressures, merged with a local Pentecostal church, and joined the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.The movement was from being a closed community towards careful cooperation with other churches, from authoritative leadership towards ways of collective decision making. However, strong leaders, such as Johannes Joonas and Paul Himma, played an important role all through the years under investigation. After 1946 the Saalem church entered a phase of relatively balanced spirituality, with a less emotional style of public prayer and a desire to be rooted in Biblical teaching. Using archive materials the author also gives an account of this free church’s relations with the state.

„Pod egidą” prawa i patriotyzmu. Rzecz o zakonie faszystowskim w międzywojennej Polsce 1922–1924

Author(s): Anna Kargol / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2014

In the beginning of twenties in interwar Poland the parliamentary majority is formed by the right wing parties. In the same time the right extremist’s organizations are trying to find their place in the public space. Those are Pogotowie Patriotów Polskich (Polish Patriot’s Emergency) or Zakon Rycerzy Prawa (The Knight’s of Right Order). This last one is organized on freemasonry patterns including structure and ritual and builds the net of cells on the territory of the whole country. The influences of the Order reach all groups of society especially polish secret service in polish army. The leaders of the Order tend to play the first role on political and public scene. But polish authorities are going to dissolve their organization. The article presents the history of the Order, its ritual, ideology, system of gaining the members, plan of fascist revolt in Poland, finally personal and political ties.

„Poleszuk” nieoswojony. Wokół funkcji chłopskości w konstruowaniu polskości

Author(s): Anna Engelking / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2017

Engelking examines the representations of the Poleshuks (the people of Polesia) in mainstream Polish culture. Based on selected examples of popular writing from the interwar period, Engelkind portrays Russian peasants – the ancestors of today’s Ukrainians and Belorussians – as an emblematic figure of Polish discourses of the Borderlands. The stereotypical notion of the Poleshuk is based on concepts drawn from race theory, nationalist and colonial discourses as well as modernizing ambitions, and it is an internalized and at the same time excluded Other. Like the Jew, the Poleshuk functions as a constitutive foreign ethno-nationalist model of Polishness. The Poleshuk is excluded from Polishness in two ways: as a peasant (a savage with no culture) and as a Russian (Orthodox, Bolshevik). It is the narcissistic self-image of the Pole as the higher ranking ‘lord’ (pan) that requires this image of an untamed and untameable ‘Poleshuk’ as its obverse constructed on national and class-based difference.

„Polskie dziecko w polskiej szkole”. Polityka wojewody Michała Grażyńskiego wobec niemieckich szkół mniejszościowych na polskim Górnym Śląsku w latach 1926–1939

Author(s): Mateusz Hübner / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The article presents the policy pursued by Voivode Michał Grażyński towards German minority schools in Polish Upper Silesia in 1926–1939. His policy was directed on the limitation of influence of German education in the autonomous province and strengthening of broadly understood Polish culture. To the very outbreak of the Second World War Voivode Grażyński – despite resistance of the German minority – tried to pursue his own educational and cultural policy.

„Pomagajcie polskim dzieciom”. Humanitarna mobilizacja amerykańskiej opinii publicznej po I wojnie światowej

Author(s): Sylwia Kuźma-Markowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2018

Starting from the early 1919, American humanitarian organizations began arriving in Poland, like in other states of Central Eastern Europe, with material and food assistance to societies devastated by the military conflict and epidemics of infectious diseases. American associations, with the largest and most important American Relief Administration in the lead, focused mainly on nourishing children, mobilizing American public opinion to raise money for this purpose, and presenting the situation of malnourished young children from this part of Europe as a grave social problem.

„Postat ćemo Jugoslaveni ili ćemo ostati ono što jesmo”: češka manjina i pitanje državljanstva u međuratnoj Jugoslaviji

Author(s): Vlatka Dugački / Language(s): English,Croatian Issue: 9/2015

Based on archival material stored in the State Archives in Bjelovar, the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb and Czech-minority publications the author wishes to reconstruct the question of obtaining citizenship for the members of the Czech minority in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, taking the Bjelovar-Bilogora County as the representative one, since it had the largest number of members of the Czech minority living in it. The intention is to show how (un)resolving the question of citizenship affected minority attitudes towards key political events and governing structures of that time period and how it reflected on that minority’s wishes and needs, which largely determined further guidelines for their activities, as well as their role in the political life of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

„Pozostały tylko … cygarry”. Opinie polskich weteranów o wojnie w Hiszpanii w świetle ich korespondencji

Author(s): Andrzej Nieuważny / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2014

We wstępie do Lettres de Guerres 1792–1815, Pierre Charrié zauważył, że „dla wielu klasycznych historyków” listy żołnierzy Republiki i Cesarstwa są tematem cokolwiek drugorzędnym, dla jednych zabawnym i malowniczym, dla innych niepoważnym lub nudnym. I z pewnością tak to wygląda z perspektywy takiej historii, którą interesują tylko wielkie masy, długie trwania i dane statystyczne pozwalające zbliżyć ją do nauki ścisłej. Jednak dla badaczy zainteresowanych mentalnością i ludowym postrzeganiem zjawisk objętych historią „przez duże H”, listy te są nieocenionym źródłem informacji.

„Pre rodné mesto žil, pre národ pracoval.“ Pomník Jánosa Tubu ako možné miesto pamäti maďarskej komunity

Author(s): József Demmel,Miroslav Michela / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Predložená kapitola je naším pokusom vytvoriť spoločné dielo a zároveň vstúpiť do diskusie o potrebe a možnostiach intenzívnejšieho dialógu historikov zo Slovenska a z Maďarska. Rozhodli sme sa napísať dielo, ktoré nebude sledovať ešte stále aktuálnu prax vytvárania paralelných príbehov „slovenských“ a „maďarských“ dejín, ktoré sú zároveň odrazom nedostatočnej komunikácie medzi odborníkmi a presadzovania nacionalistických interpretácií dejín v oboch krajinách. Prostredníctvom príbehu inštalácie náhrobného kameňa chceme analyzovať refl exiu zániku monarchie v práve sa formujúcom maďarskom menšinovom diskurze. Snažíme sa zachytiť úlohu tzv. spoločenských aktérov, resp. kultúrnych inštitúcií a rituálov, v procese konštruovania a distribúcie kultúrnych reprezentácií.

„Pribićevićevi ljudi“ – Samostalna demokratska stranka u Slavoniji i Srijemu 1924.-1929.

Author(s): Ivica Miškulin / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 15/2015

In this paper the author analyses the activities of the Independent Democratic Party (SDS) in Slavonia and Syrmia from 1924 to 1929. The reader will be familiarised with the circumstances of the development of the party, the organization of the party’s infrastructure, the ethnic and social structure, the press and the results of parliamentary, regional and local elections. Although the Independent Democratic Party advocated the unitary dogma of a single Yugoslav nation, it was drew on the support of Serbian voters and constantly competed with the Radicals for the position of the most powerful Serbian party in the Slavonian-Syrmian territory. The Independent Democratic Party in Slavonia and Syrmia managed during the last four and a half years of the parliamentary regime of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to make itself into a significant political factor. In the territories of the Virovitica and Požega County it was in a constant struggle with the Radicals for the position of the second most important political power, while in the territory of the Syrmian County it lagged behind the Radicals. However, it did not succeed in approaching Radić’s Party which during that period succeeded in keeping the position of dominant political party. With respect to the Democratic Party that it had emerged from, the conclusion can be drawn that it attracted the majority of the members and adherents of the former united Democrats. The Independent Democratic Party in Slavonia and Syrmia drew heavily on the support of the Serbian electorate. On the one hand, this implies that the party had not entirely succeeded in affirming its unitary Yugoslav political platform, since it was evident that it was rejected by the Croats, the majority population. The struggle for the sympathy of the Serbian voters naturally led to fierce political confrontations with the Radicals, which were only temporarily calmed by the coalitions of the two parties at the level of the state as a whole. At the same time the Independent Democratic Party above all proved to be the political representative of the Serbian peasantry of the Slavonian-Syrmian area which implied confrontations with the Radicals and also with the ever-greatger influence of farmers. Various forms of para-political organization on which the unique Democratic Party had been successfully working before the party split (Peasant Councils, Voluntary Association and the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists) considerably supplemented and thereby strengthened the power of the Independent Democratic Party after spring 1924. While monarchism and the Serbian electoral base considerably facilitated a short-term coalition with the Radicals in 1925 (National Block), the Independent Democratic Party and the Croatian Peasant Party (Peasant Democratic Coalition) shared lesser connecting features. The party leadership and certain sincere supporters of a coalition with Radić’s Party (the leader of the Party in Osijek, Milan Stijić or the Pakrac Orthodox priest Danilo Podunavac) endeavoured to ease the ideological and programme differences by emphasizing the mutual menace to both the Croats and Serbs of the transriparian Serb areas. However, other Slavonian-Syrmian party leaders (Svetislav Popović and Milenko Marković) considered an alliance with the Croatian Peasant Party to be a great violation of the dogma of the national unity of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes or a threat to the centralistic state. Hence, it would be no exaggeration to state that Alexander’s undemocratic act (probably) pre-empted a schism within the Independent Democratic Party.

„Prosím Ťa drahý priateľu, keby si sa potom v ministerskej rade zasadil za to, aby sa spojenému ústavu dostalo toho, čo potrebuje.“ Korupcia a klientelizmus v politike Milana Hodžu

Author(s): Ľudovít Hallon / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2011

Czech and Slovak banks had a great opportunity for development in the interwar Czechoslovakia. However, following the economic expansion in the beginning of the 20´s banking industry in Czechoslovakia faced a serious crisis. Influential political circles and their representatives used the hard position of individual banks and through promises of state support gained from them various benefits, especially political bank credits. The most active in this sense was the all-powerful Agrarian party (Agrárna strana) and its leader Milan Hodža, a minister multiple times and later the prime minister. The Agrarian party and namely Milan Hodža tried during the whole interwar period to expand their political influence at the expense of Slovak commercial bank industry. To achieve this goal they used every opportunity that came along in the economic development. Apart from legal forms of pressure they engaged in many controversial, even obviously illegal means that in the beginning had a form of clientelism. Later, representatives of the Agrarian party switched form clientelism to real corruption in the form of enforced financial gifts for their political activities as we know it from the highest political circles nowadays.

„Proszę Pana Ministra o energiczną interwencję”. Aleksander Ładoś (1891–1963) i ratowanie Żydów przez Poselstwo RP w Bernie

Author(s): Agnieszka Haska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2015

During World War II the Polish legation in Bern provided considerable help to Polish Jews in Switzerland and occupied Poland, not only through 􀏐inancial and material support, but also its engagement, for instance, in the campaign to aid Jews in Shanghai by offering its diplomatic channels to various organisations and mediation in obtainment of South American documents. Those activities would have been impossible without the support, engagement, and efforts of legate Aleksander Ładoś and his subordinates. The article discusses Ładoś and the role of the Polish legation in Bern in rescuing Jews.