La Bulgarie : parcours historiques d’un état en recherche de puissance

Author(s): Olivier Buirette / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2018

On the basis of observation made in his PhD dissertation on the topic “The defeated countries in the First World War – reparations after the defeat”, tracing out the course of the negotiations on the enforcement of military and financial obligations for Germany and her allies, as well as on the grounds of his studies about Aleksandar Stamboliyski’s activities and the BZNS (Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union) government, following the 1914–1918 war, the author concludes that it was Bulgaria that was unjustly imposed the most restrictions and she was burdened and damaged by the victors much more compared to Germany. In this regard the author offers an exposition, delivered as a report of an academic conference, which was held at the Paris III University, dedicated to the most important events in Bulgarian history – from the foundation of the state in the 7th century to the beginning of the social changes in 1989. In the so presented exposition the author strives for giving a concrete historical basis of conclusions and ascertainments on the question how the Bulgarian state “seeks sovereignty”. The exposition mostly relies on documents in the French diplomatic archive concerning the new and modern Bulgarian history. The first ascertainment of the author is that the Bulgarian state was forced to oppose two powerful empires – Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire. He makes a brief review of the events during the First Bulgarian state, mentions the capital Preslav and declares that Byzantium was “at times ally and at times enemy” of the Bulgarian rulers. In the article the author lays special emphasis on the role of Ivan Asen II, who, according to him, extended the territories of the Second Bulgarian state and her borders reached three seas. It is indicated that having existed for 700 years, the Medieval Bulgarian state ceased to exist as a result of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, which managed to conquer the population of the whole Balkans and even part of Central Europe. Having lost their sovereignty, from the 14th century onwards the Bulgarian lands had the status of a Turkish province, while the Bulgarians were turned into a rayah, deprived of any rights. The author proclaims the Revival a “golden age” of the Bulgarian nation, he reminds of the national culture upsurge and underlines the role of the monasteries, as well as the isolated revolts and uprisings, which had been “barbarously suppressed by the Sublime Porte”. Those unsuccessful rebellions orientate the Bulgarian hopes for liberation towards Russia. The author reasonably associates the awakening of the Bulgarian nation with the Greek Revolution of the 1820s, the “Spring of Nations” of 1848–1849 and the Crimean War. The activities of the two Bulgarian Legions, as well as those of Georgi Rakovski, Lyuben Karavelov and Vasil Levski for the resurrection of free Bulgaria are briefly presented. In the article the 1877–1878 victory of Russia, the Treaty of San Stefano and the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, putting an end to the ambitions for creation of Greater Bulgaria, have been noted. The author underscores the significant role that France played for the development of the Eastern Question following the Crimean War. The unification of the Danubian Principalities in 1859 with the intervention of France serves as basis of the statement that being a protector of the principle of nationalities, the French Emperor Napoleon III could have lent his support to the Bulgarians, too. He writes: “Napoleon III could have supported the independence or autonomy of Bulgaria if the Bulgarian patriots had not oriented towards Russia by virtue of the Slavic fraternity. That choice would be paid off and we would see it a few years later”. The author is aware of the fact that the Eastern Question is complicated enough, making the reservation that Napoleon III’s stand in regard to the Bulgarians is a pitiable “omission”. The defeat of France in the 1870–1871 war against Prussia forced the governments in Paris to adopt a passive policy deprived of international initiatives. Using the evidence of the French diplomats’ reports regarding Bulgaria, the author makes clear how they advised the ministers in Paris about their position towards the Bulgarian problems in the intricate matter of national interests in the Balkans throughout the 19th–20th centuries. Assessing the social conditions that had prompted such an attitude, the author does not blame the Bulgarians for their reliance on Russia during the Revival and their mistrust to France during the two World Wars.

Отзив за: Стефан Шивачев. Ролята на Община Пловдив за развитието на града през периода 1886–1944 г. Годишник на Регионален исторически музей – Пловдив, Книга дванадесета, Пловдив, Тафпринт: 2018, 303 с. ISSN: 1311-9133

Author(s): Vidin Sukarev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

Ново изследване на междувоенните съветско-германски отношения. Рец. на: Самуил Шивачев. Съветско-германските отношения (1918–1939 г.): дипломация, икономика, военно дело. София: Издателство „Парадигма“, 2020, 360 с., ISBN 978-954-326-434-6

Author(s): Valentin Spiridonov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Маки для большевиков: опиум на туркестано-синьцзяньском приграничье в 1914–1929 годах

Author(s): Niccolö Pianciola / Language(s): Russian Issue: 43/2022

The historiography of the world opium trade, as well as writings on the trade and consumption of opium in China, has so far ignored the cross-border production and trade of opium from Tsarist Central Asia and the Russian Far East. 2 These cross-border regional opium economies, which developed in the 1880s and 1890s and flourished especially in the period 1908-1930, were based on the porous state borders. Various groups of migrants from the Qing Empire (Hui, Taranchi, Han, Koreans) moved across the border and grew opium poppy. The opium produced by them was then mostly sold across the border to Xinjiang and Manchuria, even though in the Far East at the beginning of the twentieth century one could observe a growing demand for opium consumption from the Chinese population living in the czarist territory.

Ralph Schattkowsky: Osteuropaforschung in Polen. 1918–1939

Author(s): Johanna Bichlmaier / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2023

Review of: Ralph Schattkowsky: Osteuropaforschung in Polen. 1918–1939. Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden 2019. X, 342 S. ISBN 978-3-447-11337-3. (€ 58,–.)

HEALTH FILMS IN THE SERVICE OF EUGENIC SURVEILLANCE OVER WOMEN IN INTERWAR EASTERN EUROPE

Author(s): Victoria Shmidt,Karl Kaser / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 41/2022

This article explores the historical reconstruction of women and their specific status in nationalist movements, as “stepdaughters of the nation” in the health films produced in interwar Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. We trace the transformation of disciplining practices such as the female Bildungsroman disseminated in the late nineteenth century in the plots and artistic devices of health films aimed at persuading women to accept not only new practices of care but also being institutionalized throughout their lives by public health surveillance. Historically, the films produced in Prague and Zagreb address women in cities and rural areas, respectively. We explore the specifics of visualizing the mission of surveillance as determined by this difference.

A History of Boundaries: An Oral History Archive in South Tyrol

Author(s): Patrick Urru / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2022

The analysis of some video interviews collected by the local historian Giorgio Delle Donne demonstrates how family background and external factors such as politics and the media have influenced the way the Italian-speaking population, which arrived in South Tyrol between the 1920s and 1940s, experienced its settling in a new area. The Oral History Archive stored in the Claudia Augusta Italian Provincial Library portrays the issues between the German and Italian-speaking groups in this borderland.

БІБЛІОГРАФІЧНИЙ ПОКАЖЧИК «ІСТОРІЯ УКРАЇНИ»: ВІДОБРАЖЕННЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНО-ВИЗВОЛЬНОГО РУХУ, ОБ’ЄДНАННЯ ТА ЗВІЛЬНЕННЯ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ЗЕМЕЛЬ У 20–50-Х РОКАХ ХХ СТ.

Author(s): Oleksandr Dudnik / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 1/2023

The purpose of the study is to find out the accordance the titles of the structure parts of the scientific auxiliary bibliographic index (annual edition) «History of Ukraine» for the years 2000–2019, the content of the descriptions of the works presented in it, es well of the historiography, and legislation of Ukraine on the questions of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people, reunification and liberation of Ukrainian lands in the 20s–50s of the XX century. Research methodology: the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematics and comprehensiveness were applied, as well as – general methods of scientific research – analysis, synthesis, comparison. Scientific novelty: for the first time, an attempt was made to show the inconsistency of the titles of separate subsections and rubrics in the content of the bibliographic index «History of Ukraine» for the years 2000–2019 with the titles of the descriptions of the researches which presented in it. Conclusions. The structure of the bibliographic index «History of Ukraine» does not have a subsection or rubric on the history of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 20th century, while in the manual presents many descriptions of researches on this topic. Simultaneously, the bibliographic edition contains structural parts, the titles of which reflect Soviet historiography and propaganda due to the use the words-ideologemes: «liberation» and «reunification» which had already been refuted by modern researchers as the «expulsion» and «unification» or «joining». Therefore, bibliographers should take into account he dominant titles of the submitted descriptions of works, to annotate them and study the historiography of the issues in detail. Such state of the leading bibliographic edition is also the result of the inconsistent policy of national memory on these topics, the lack of appropriate legislation for a long time, and now its imperfection. Not a single law of Ukraine, which deals with the issue of r national liberation struggle in the 20th century, contains a definition of this term.

Memoria e nazione: la poesia dell’esilio repubblicano del 1939 e la Transizione democratica

Author(s): José-Ramón López García / Language(s): Italian Issue: 44/2023

The poetry of the Republican exile of 1939 was judged on the basis of some clichés that led to the neutralization of its most critical components. Usually enclosed in the sphere of a time shift (melancholic and/or utopian), this poetry testifies an alleged detachment from the historical, political and cultural challenges of the Spain of its time. This reading also frequently included the Political Transition. After highlighting the critical possibilities of “reflective nostalgia” as an opening to the social and political dimension of memory, I analyse the cases of three exiled poets who wanted to join the project of the new nation that many wanted to build: Ernestina de Champourcin, Rafael Alberti and José Bergamín.

EMIGRACYJNA DZIAŁALNOŚĆ KS. SZCZEPANA WALKOWSKIEGO – KAPŁANA DIECEZJI CZĘSTOCHOWSKIEJ (1912-1969)

Author(s): Kamil Kęsik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 43/2022

Szczepan Walkowski was born on 12th November 1912 in the village of Wieruszów. Having entered the Częstochowa Theological Seminary in Cracow in 1934, he completed his philosophy and theology studies. He was ordained to the priesthood in June 1939 and he became a vicar in the village of Lututów. Immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War, namely on 2nd of September, he had to flee to Rome. Soon after that, he moved to France to Camp Coetquidain to the first group of the Officer Cadet School. He became the chaplain of the Podhale Brigade and later he took the post of chaplain of the Back-up Officer Centre in Sables-d’Or-les Pains. In June 1940 he moved to England, where he was assigned to the Polish Air Forces under the Royal Air Force. After the war, he was recognised an enemy of the nation in Poland and that made him emigrate to Argentina in 1949. He started extensive pastoral and educational work in Quilmes in the La Plata province. He died in the car accident on 8th of June 1969.

Стварэнне і дзейнасць жаночых дэлегацкіх сходаў у бсс р у 1920-х – сярэдзіне 1950-х гг.

Author(s): Natallja Barabaš / Language(s): Belarusian Issue: 7/2022

The Soviet government attached great importance to work among women. First of all, this was explained by the desire to involve women in active party-soviet, trade union and komsomol work. The most common form of such work was delegate meetings, which arose in the early 1920-s and were an active form of involving women in the socio-political life of Soviet society until the mid-1950s. Delegate meetings, as a form of social organization of women, used such forms of activity as theoretical – the study of the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism and prominent figures of the party and government, and practical – the selection and promotion of women to leading partysoviet, trade union, and economic work.

Morska woda, morska wola

Author(s): Małgorzata Litwinowicz-Droździel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The text is a brief discussion of the process of “taming” the Baltic Sea in the Polish public discourse of the interwar period. The author recalls the absence of the sea in the imaginary of Polish modernity and follows the turn that took place after regaining independence: in the new Polish state, the short Polish coast tasked with fulfilling many expectations and carrying many meanings. The Polish Baltic Sea was expected to be industrialized and recreational, modern and natural, local and imperial. The text also deals with the topic of Polish colonial plans, which the author interprets primarily as an attempt to “export poverty” and solve social problems through their physical expedition overseas.

Hitler’s Priests in Slovakia

Author(s): Miloslav Szabó / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This paper deals with the fascistization of Catholic clergy on the eastern periphery of the Nazi “New Europe”, specifically within the Slovak State (1939–1945), a Nazi satellite in East Central Europe. In reference to recent historiographical debates, “clerico-fascism” serves here as a tool for an analysis of the ideology of the most prominent Slovak “clerico-fascist”, the president and Catholic priest Jozef Tiso (1887–1947). Specifically, it examines the transformation of social Catholicism into an instrument of fascist discipline. In addition, the article examines the fascistization of three other Slovak clerics: Karol Körper (1894–1969), Ladislav Hanus (1907–1994) and Viliam Ries (1906–1989). Focusing on individual agencies of both moderate and radical “clerico-fascists” on the basis of the regime of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (Hlinkova slovenská ľudová strana) during the Second World War, the article seeks an explanation for political and religious radicalization in East Central Europe during the first half of the twentieth century.

THE DEBATE BETWEEN CLASSICAL REALISM AND UTOPIAN IDEALISM ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Author(s): Bogdan Iulian Ranteș / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2019

The present study aims to analyze the main ideas of realism and utopian idealism in the international relations of the interwar period and how they have been applied. In the beginning, the exponential theories of the two currents issued by their most important representatives will be presented, focusing on the realists Edward-Hallet Carr and Hans Morgenthau. In the second part of the paper, the way the League of Nations functions according to the principles of utopian idealism and the causes that led to its failure at the beginning of the Second World War, as well as the most important critics brought by the realists, will be exposed. Finally, an analysis will be made of how realists believe that the League of Nations could have functioned effectively and would not have reached the outbreak of war.

„See inimene oskab näha! Oskab kirjutada!”

Author(s): Tõnu Tannberg / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2023

The Stalin Prize (established in 1939) was awarded in two broad fields: for (1) groundbreaking scientific achievements and inventions, and (2) outstanding literary and artistic achievements. The procedure for selecting and nominating the candidates and making the final decision was overseen by the party apparatus and by Joseph Stalin personally. The prize was an instrument of exerting control over intellectual life as well as an important link in the system of social etiquette (recognition, perks and privilege) of the time. Especially noteworthy was the prize’s role in the introduction of the creative mode (so-called socialist realism) favoured by the regime. The prize bestowed for literary and artistic achievements received particular attention across the society. In the Estonian SSR, the Stalin Prize was awarded 55 times (to 42 people in total) between 1946 and 1952. In the field of literature, August Jakobson (1947, 1948), Hans Leberecht (1949) and Juhan Smuul (1952) received the prize. On 18 January 1949, the leaders of the Baltic Soviet Republics met with Stalin in the Kremlin, where a decision was made to carry out a large-scale deportation. The work notebook of the Estonian SSR party leader Nikolai Karotamm reveals that during the meeting Stalin heaped praise on Hans Leberecht’s recently published novella “Light in Koordi” (Valgus Koordis) (1948): “The man can see! Can write!” For Stalin, what mattered was not the literary value of the work, but its ideological suitability, in this case given the context of the fracture awaiting Estonian villages and the society as a whole – the deportation and mass collectivization. Stalin’s endorsement changed the fate of Leberecht as a Soviet writer – the novella was awarded the Stalin Prize and overnight he became one of the Estonian SSR’s most prestigious regime-friendly authors. The article analyzes the working principles of the Stalin Prize at the Soviet Republic level on the example of Leberecht’s case. It discusses, among other things, the backstory, the institutional framework (the procedure for candidate submission, the role of the creative union and the party apparatus, and the later penitence), the intrigues arising in the literary circle from the nomination of candidates, the discovery of Leberecht’s literary “talent”, as well as the hurried translation and publication of his novella.

THE CONDITION OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND THE CONSCIENCE CRISIS IN THE FIRST ROMANIAN MODERN NOVEL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Author(s): Daniela Ionescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 16/2019

By the writer Liviu Rebreanu Romanian literature gained a novelist who departs from the pages of his work in order to make free way to the characters of his fiction. His novels make up serious processes in which nothing stays unchanged, in which a world is usually broken apart, both the world of the conscience and that of action. In Pădurea Spânzuraţilor, the inner conflict between A. Bologa’s duty as a Romanian citizen and his obligation to obey the laws of the Austrian-Hungarian state generates a progressive and deep crisis in the conscience of the young intellectual who vacillates between the limits of war subjective morality and the inner freedom gained by the substance of a complex inner life synchronized by a psychological mechanism which characterizes responsible personalities. Thus, Liviu Rebreanu achieves an ample analysis of the condition of the restless Romanian intellectual confronted with the terrors and injustices of the war, and contributes to the formation of the psychological novel by a subtle analysis of the characters’ spiritual states facing exceptional situations.

Między Wielkim Głodem a Wielkim Terrorem. Deportacje ludności z przygranicznych rejonów sowieckiej Ukrainy w 1935 roku

Author(s): Henryk Stroński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2021

Artykuł jest poświęcony ukazaniu pierwszej masowej deportacji niepewnej ludności polskiej i niemieckiej z zachodnich przygranicznych rejonów Ukrainy, dokonanej przez władzę sowiecką w 1935 roku. Wśród prawie 9,5 tys. deportowanych gospodarstw mniej więcej połowę stanowiły rodziny polskie. Narastająca podejrzliwość i wrogość wobec ludności polskiej i niemieckiej były spowodowane zaostrzeniem sytuacji międzynarodowej w ówczesnej Europie i zarysowaniem się przyszłych konfliktów wojennych. Sowieci w połowie lat trzydziestych XX wieku umacniali dla bezpieczeństwa granicę zachodnią, m.in. budując wzdłuż niej, w tym na odcinku z II RP, tzw. linię Stalina – inżynieryjno-fortyfikacyjne obiekty. Deportowana ludność polska i niemiecka została rozmieszczona we wschodnich obwodach Ukrainy, dokładniej we wsiach wyludnionych w czasie Wielkiego Głodu w latach 1932–1933. Tym posunięciem spodziewano się osiągnąć podwójny cel – wzmocnić bezpieczeństwo zachodnich rubieży państwa oraz uzupełnić w siłę roboczą zdziesiątkowane głodem wsie i miasta.

Pamięć o obozach internowania na Litwie na podstawie ankiet opracowanych przez Referat Historyczny i Biuro Dokumentów Armii Polskiej na Wschodzie

Author(s): Paweł Lesisz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2021

Artykuł został podzielony na dwie części. W pierwszej przedstawiono przyjętą metodologię i dorobek badań nad historią relacji polsko-litewskich od połowy XIX wieku po włączenie I Republiki w obręb ZSRS w lecie 1940 roku. Dla lepszego zrozumienia sytuacji internowanych ukazano też stosunki między tymi dwoma państwami w okresie międzywojennym. Dopiero na tak zarysowanym tle, w drugiej części omówiono ankiety Referatu Historycznego i Biura Dokumentów Armii Polskiej na Wschodzie, przechowywane w Archiwum Hoovera.

Between the Great Famine and the Great Terror. The Deportations of People from the Border Districts of the Soviet Ukraine in 1935

Author(s): Henryk Stroński / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2021

The article is a discussion of the first mass deportation of the unpredictable Polish and German inhabitants from the western border districts of Ukraine, which the Soviet authorities carried out in 1935. Close to 9,500 households were facing deportation, with Polish families accounting for approximately half of these. Increased suspicion of and hostility toward the Poles and the Germans was caused by the growing international tensions in contemporary Europe and the gradual emergence of the future military conflicts. In the mid-1930s, the Soviets were reinforcing their western border, erecting fortifications as part of the so-called Stalin Line, which also spanned the section of the USSR’s border with the Second Polish Republic. The deported Poles and Germans were moved to eastern districts of Ukraine, particularly in villages depopulated during the Great Famine of 1932–1933. The purpose of this strategy was two-fold: to tighten security in the state’s western extremities and to provide workforce for towns and villages decimated by hunger.

Memory of Internment Camps in Lithuania on the Basis of Questionnaires Prepared by the Historical Section and the Documents Bureau of the Polish Army in the East

Author(s): Paweł Lesisz / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2021

The present article has been divided into two sections. The first presents the methodology and achievements of research relative to the history of Polish-Lithuanian relations from the mid-19th century to the incorporation of the Republic of Lithuania into the USSR in summer 1940. International relations between the two nations in the interwar period are also presented, in order for a better understanding of the realities faced by prisoners. It is against such background that the second part analyzes the questionnaires prepared by the Historical Department and the Documents Bureau of the Polish Army in the East, storied in the archives of the Hoover Institution.