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After the Second World War, the region of Western Pomerania changed its religious face from Protestant to Catholic as a result of political decisions. As the Polish territory was moved to the west, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church also shifted. Not only secular settlers but also priests had to adjust to those exceptional circumstances. Usually treated as part of the institution they created, they have not yet been fully described as one of the groups of migrants. However, their role was crucial for the settlement and land development by believers, the Church and the Polish state. The aim of the article is to answer the questions who those clergymen were and how they dealt with this unusual challenge. In the literature on the subject, such issues as settlement processes in the Western and Northern Territories, the creation of the church administration, and relations between the state and the church have been widely described. Relations between priests and believers or relations among clergymen themselves are still less known. The documents available in the archives of state and church provenance allow to examine the priestly environment, which also underwent the stage of adaptation and integration with the foreign material and social environment. The historical and comparative method of research led to the establishment of several conclusions, including the most important one that the priests who came to Western Pomerania in the first decade after the war were not homogeneous. Their diversity concerned origin, education, customs or age, but also their attitude towards the so-called Regained Territories, their duties, church discipline or the new authority in Poland. This disintegration, often accompanied by prejudices and stereotypes, constituted the specificity of the religious life of the region and from this point of view is worth examining.
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Mrs. E.D. arrived in Warsaw just two weeks before the outbreak of World War 2, on September 1, 1939, with a scholarship for historical-literary research. A month after the end of the German-Polish military hostilities, she managed to return to Romania and to publish in “Universul” newspaper, under the initials E.D., her harrowing experiences in a Poland ravaged by war.
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A prominent figure in the Romanian army, General Gheorghe Avramescu entwined his name with the liberation of Northern Bukovina, in early July 1941, and of north-western Transylvania, on October 25, 1944, later leading the Romanian 4th Army in the battles for the liberation of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On March 2, 1945, while he was on the front in Czechoslovakia leading the Romanian 4th Army in the Operation “Zvolen – Banska Bystrica”, he was summoned to the headquarters of the 40th Army (which included the Romanian 4th Army) led by General Zhmachenko, where he was arrested by the Soviets. The reasons for his arrest are not clear to this day, the most common supposition referring to his involvement in an anti-Soviet military action, which aimed – in collusion with the Romanian legionaries that sought shelter in Germany, under the command of Horia Sima – to turn the weapons against Soviet troops with German help and thus to avoid Romania’s fall under Soviet occupation. According to the information provided by the Soviets 18 years later, in 1963, the General lost his life on March 3, 1945, in an air-raid by the German aviation. In the first half of the 1960s, the Romanian authorities opened an inquiry meant to finally shed some light of the “Avramescu case”. This article presents a report prepared by the head of the Department of Military Counterintelligence, in which the minister of the Romanian Armed Forces was informed on the conclusions of the inquiry: General Avramescu did not intend to turn weapons against Soviet troops, despite some pressure to do so, and the “information provided by the Red Cross of the USSR that Avramescu Gheorghe died on March 3, 1945, in an German air raid, is unsubstantiated”, the general being seen alive on March 14, 1945.
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How could a state and its leadership abandon without resistance millions of its citizens and almost a third of its territory, like Romania did in 1940? It’s a disturbing question and simply blaming the external factors is not sufficient, nor fair to the Romanian society. The events from the summer of 1940 are all the more shocking considering that the regime the King himself and his regime were pushing the pedal of nationalism, promising the citizens of Greater Romania that every swath of land will be defended under any circumstances, at any cost.
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The Yugoslav Army in Homeland (Jugoslovenska vojska u Otadžbini - JVuO), also known as Ravnogorski resistance movement, developed its intelligence branch since the early days of its existence in mid-1941. The premature uprising of 1941 and harsh German reprisals caused that the whole resistance in Serbia collapse until the late summer of 1942. In following period, the JVuO intelligence was established under the subordination of the its Komanda Srbije – The Serbian HQs and its Main Intelligence Centre. But the JVuO intelligence branch was not unified. It was not operated from a single center in later years. Soon, there were other commands which developed their own intelligence networks, such as Belgrade HQ, different operational units and HQs. Even, there were individual networks established mostly in Belgrade, directly connected with its supreme commander General Dragoljub Mihailović. Such kind of organization produced the overlapping or duplication of efforts. No matter such shortcomings, Belgrade was certainly the place where this branch operated most successfully in nearly while duration of the War. The intelligence branch itself was created under the difficult daily conditions of the German occupation which reached its peak in turn of 1942/1943. Its development was never straightforward and depended on the level of pressure from the German occupier, the particular situation in the different parts of Serbia and on the quality, ability and self-sacrifice of the people that were members or supporters. Most of the information were transmitted to higher instances or the Supreme Command over the radio network. It enabled the German signal intelligence to monitor and analyze the level of gathered facts and figures. Nevertheless, the gathered information on the order of battle, strength, activities and movements of the German troops reached the Yugoslav Government in exile and Allied HQs. With numerous of intelligence officers and residents falling into the hands of the German occupier, that is certainly the largest contribution of the JVuO intelligence to the Allied cause. After the Partisan and Soviet troops entered the Serbia in September - October 1944, General Mihailović and main body of its forces, abandoned Serbia and retreated into Bosnia, where they were defeated and destroyed in May 1945. Withdrawal from Serbia in autumn 1944, marked a cease of the organized Ravnogorski intelligence. Having some pre-Second World War intelligence experience, being military attaché and working partly in Intelligence Department, General Mihailović never devoted this business to any of his subordinated officers in JVuO Supreme Command. He gathered almost all of the information from the terrain, no matter that Intelligence Department was created in September 1943 and existed until the end of the war. The article is written upon the preserved documents of the JVuO Supreme Command and its numerous dispatches that were communicated between General Mihailović and its subordinated intelligence network.
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The article analyzes the armed incidents on the Adriatic Sea that were a consequence of the entry of Italian fishing boats into Yugoslav territorial waters. The author points out the political and security implications of not resolving the issue of fishing between Yugoslavia and Italy. The article was written on the basis of unpublished archival sources from the Military Archives in Belgrade, the Archives of Yugoslavia, the Diplomatic Archives in Belgrade, published normative documents and literature in Serbian, English, Slovenian and French. In a situation where many bilateral issues have not been resolved, the issue of fisheries, which is a matter of economic cooperation, has had significant political and security implications. The issue of granting the right to Italian fishermen to fish in Yugoslav territorial waters was a significant argument for the Yugoslav government during the negotiations in resolving other open issues in relations with Italy. The problem of seizing Italian fishing boats was not resolved even after the signing of the Fisheries Agreement in 1949. Yugoslav and Italian representatives continued to consider this issue in an atmosphere of seeking mutual concessions of political and financial concessions.
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The paper presents an archived item on the organization of cultural and entertainment life of Yugoslav officers captured during World War II at the Oflag VI C camp in Osnabrück. As anintroduction to the document, an overview was given of the Osnabrück camp and lives of its detained Yugoslav officers, predominantly Serbs and several hundred Jews, as well as of ideological-political divisions that subdued them. A Yugoslav officers’ camp was located in Osnabrück from April 1941 to the end of the war. The number of prisoners varied, but most often amounted from 4,000 to 6,000. The conditions of accommodation and supply were generally averageor poor. Besides, 117 officers and a few soldiers were killed during the British bombing on December 6, 1944. As there was a large number of educated people in the camp, and since captured officers did not have to work, a rich, cultural, artistic and educational life was developed during their captivity. Yugoslav officers were ideologically divided, so they usually had twoor more organizations and associations for the same type of activity (communist, civil-royalist, sometimesneutral, etc.), which showed great mutual intolerance. The paper finally shows a note with the attached letter to the Camp authorities for approval of the Statute proposal of the „Rodna Gruda Camp Theater” (composed by a drama section, an orchestraand a choir), established in August 1943, writtenby a civic-minded Community for cultural and physical training.
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Presenting the facts concerning those military force units which played the key role in events that took place in territories where reprisals against Serb civilians were committed during the fall of 1941, provides the clearer insight into structure of the battalions that participated in them. Data refer to 717th Infantry Division, battalions I-III/749. and I-III/797, i.e. their troops which participated in battles fought during September, October and November of the same year. Human losses as well as the basic positions and movements of German battalions in those months, war period especially difficult for the population of the wider Central and Western Serbia – Krupanj, Loznica, Draginac, Sabac, Kraljevo, Kragujevac and nearby villages where massive war crimes were committed by different profiles and purposes military units, are to be shown here. Brutality is reinforced by General Franz Beme's directives with the 100:1 quota implemented, unlike General Maximilian Reichsfriaier von Weiss' command of April 1941, which was operationally impracticable in terms of arresting hostages before the incident. These battalions' fallen soldiers are used for carrying out retaliation according to set quotas. This work is one part of the sequel in investigating details about perpetrators of the crime - German battalions participating battles around Kragujevac and Kraljevo and other territories and areas where they were stationed or moved to, during the fall of 1941.
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Daug kas, ypač iš vyresnės kartos žmonių, ir šiandien mena, neretai per pobūvius, įvairius susiėjimus užtraukia dainą, prasidedančią šiais žodžiais. Joje mergelė atsisveikina savo mylimąjį su viltimi, kad jis dar sugrįš, bus nuoširdžiai sutiktas. Pritampa ji ir prie senųjų, ir prie atmenamais laikais atsiradusių dainų. Ir turbūt ne vienas dainininkas nustebs sužinojęs, kad žmogus, taip nuostabiai, švelniai išreiškęs artimų žmonių skyrimosi sukeltą nuotaiką, yra mūsų amžininkas, nors ir gyvenantis toli nuo mūsų.
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Its area of evangelization of South Cameroon, missionaries of the MPA had introduced the ideas of freedom and autonomy among his flock to fight against French colonization and allow the political and social empowerment of black people. However, after the Second World War, while political leaders molded in schools of the MPA were fighting for the independence of Cameroon, African employees the Mission and trained to the awakening of consciousness began to assert their masters, the improvement of working conditions and the handling of the management of the heritage of the Mission. The pressure of the black clergy had pushed the MPA to grant independence to the missionary field giving birth, December 11th, 1957, in the Cameroonian Presbyterian Church (EPC). With the withdrawal of the American missionaries, the problem of the management of an important heritage designed since the end of the 19e century arose, because pastors African, few in number, but avid authority, had not received the training required to ensure the relay of these Apostles of good new and well trained to the task to ensure the technical work in different medical institutions, schools, agricultural. So far, the problem remains real in this church, the opposite of self-propagating who brought the early Church to create more than 500 parishes in fifty years of independence.
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During Antonescu's rule, the Federation of Jewish Communities (F.U.C.E.) and later the Jewish Center (C.E.R.) organized the struggle for the survival of the Jews through numerous community institutions, many with a social role. This social activity was organized under the auspices of the Autonomous Aid Commission (C.A.A.), established in January 1941, an important role being played by Wilhelm Filderman. The commission organized and supervised all social action throughout this period, fulfilling one of the moral commandments of Shevot: „Every Jew is responsible for another Jew" (Șevout 39, 71). All the spaces where philanthropic aid activities took place were also centers of resistance, including spiritual, a place for socializing and exchanging ideas, information and encouragement in troubled times. For the leadership of the Jewish community in Romania, the fate of the deportees in Transnistria was a constant concern. Actions to help and rescue them have been a component of survival efforts. This material is a short presentation of the social and health effort of the Jewish communities in Romania during the Antonescu regime to help its members, including those deported to Transnistria, to survive the scourge of war.
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Blood transfusion is often cited as a major advancement in medicine during the First and Second World Wars. Blood transfusion as a practice for therapeutic purposes is a relatively new approach in medicine. Although developed after World War II, the term "blood transfusion" has a long history. The purpose of this article is to highlight the basic facts of the development of blood transfusion during the First and Second World Wars. Many documents, both medical and historical and scientific, have been studied to achieve the goal. The main problems that occur during this period are not only related to the storage and use of blood, but also to its transfer. The first blood storage devices appear, substances that prolong the shelf life. The first blood banks appear. The process of blood donation and donor selection is improved. Further training of medical personnel for blood work is carried out.
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The article is devoted to the labor feat of women during the Great Patriotic War. Based on extensive factual material and archival sources, it is shown that women employed in the textile and clothing industry of Ivanovo region, in difficult wartime conditions, played a major role in the clothing of the active army. They showed true heroism, donated blood, took care of wounded soldiers in hospitals, and nurtured children. The authors emphasize that this historical example of women’s resilience once again crosses out the myth of the weak sex, actualizes their role as a subject of social progress.
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Рец. на кн.: Шмеман А., прот., Флоровский Г., прот. Письма 1947—1955 годов / сост., пред. П. Гаврилюка. М.: Изд-во Православ. Свято-Тихон. гуманит. ун-та, 2019. 446 с. / Review to: Schmemann A., archpriest, Florovsky G., archpriest. Letters of 1947—1955 years, comp. by P. Gavrilyuk, Moscow: St.-Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities Publishing House, 2019. 446 p.
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Father Daniil Sandu Tudor remains one of the most solar personalities in the perimeter of Romanian spirituality, a figure that indelibly imprinted the Romanian intellectuality, both the secular and the ecclesiastical one, through the conviviality of the Rugul Aprins (The Burning Bush). But in the following, as the title of the present study also states, the author intends to deal only with the issue of Sandu Tudor's reception during the Second World War, when, as it is known, he was mobilized. File no. 013495, vol. 1 and 2, Criminal fund, located at the Archive of the National Council for the Study of Security Archives (A.C.N.S.A.S.), represents a collection of disturbing documents that offers many clear (the author considers them as so) details related to this subject. From the first sheet of the aforementioned file, vol. 1, represented by the Cover of the File no. 1811/1950, of the Bucharest Court, the Third Criminal Section, „Posteucă Dumitru and Teodorescu Alexandru”, the mention „War crime” shocks. Of course, this raises multiple questions. In the following, the author will use an evolutionary, chronological x-ray of the data, meant to offer the potential reader a systematic form of exposing the conduct of the investigation and of the trial of the Monk Agaton.
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During 1941–1944 the German occupation and intelligence services created an extensive network of training centers (schools and courses) in the occupied territories of the USSR. Mostly Soviet prisoners of war were involved in reconnaissance and sabotage work, although a significant number of agents were recruited from the civilian (non-military) population. First, people who were in active or passive opposition to the Soviet regime were attracted: former emigrants, those repressed or dispossessed, ideological opponents, criminals, and others. At the same time, a significant number of agents were recruited from the civilian population who remained in the occupied territories, especially from its most vulnerable categories (women and children). The recruited agents were used to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions, both in the rear of the USSR and in parts of the Red Army, and against the resistance movement. On the territory of the BSSR occupied by the Germans, sixteen training centers were opened where saboteur children were trained, and more than twenty were opened to train “agents in skirts”. Similar schools and courses were opened in Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. The Soviet secret services and partisan counterintelligence bodies were well informed about such work of the German secret organs. The performance of agents trained from among the civilian population was low. There were some tactical successes and actions by enemy agents (especially on the eve and during the period of punitive operations), but strategically this work by the Germans actually failed.
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This article explores demographical processes during the Great Patriotic War in the southern regions of the RSFSR: in the Krasnodar Krai and Ordzhonikidze (Stavropol) Krai, Rostov Oblast, Stalingrad Oblast, and Astrakhan Oblast. The study is based on published and archival documents from the Central Statistical Administration under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Fund in the Russian State Archive of Economics. Demographic dynamics in the southern regions of the RSFSR in 1941–1945 had common features with the main demographic trends elsewhere in the RSFSR and the USSR. This was a deterioration in indicators of natural reproduction in the second half of 1941–1942: a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in mortality, including that of children, and a decrease in natural growth in the first half of 1942. At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, the main trends in demographic dynamics changed: the birth rate stabilized at an extremely low level, followed by slow growth, and mortality decreased markedly in comparison with 1942. Regions in the south of the RSFSR differed by more significant scales of population decrease and directly irretrievable losses. The reasons for this were not only the loss of mobilized cohorts, but also demographic consequences of evacuation and Nazi occupation. After occupation, the population of the southern Russian regions amounted to 60–70 % of the pre-war level.
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The article covers the problems of relations between the Leningrad City Health Department and the Military Sanitary Department of the Leningrad Front in 1941–1942. The medical institutions of the Front Evacuation Point were located within city limits due to the unfavorable combat situation. This led to conflicts between military and civilian medical agencies, both at the stage of medical support of military mobilization and deployment of a network of evacuation hospitals in the first months of the war and later. The lack of clarity on subordination, rights, and obligations had a negative impact on the deployment and ongoing activities of evacuation hospitals, the conduct of anti-epidemic measures, and personnel policies. This could undermine the combat capacity of the troops and, ultimately, threatened Leningrad. However, attempts to redistribute powers between civilian and military medical institutions were not motivated by personal self-interest of their leaders, but by the interests of the service personnel. Most likely, personal responsibility for implementing instructions of parent bodies forced them to concentrate all control in their hands to use resources promptly to avoid lengthy inter-agency coordination. Despite difficult relations and differences, the health care system of blockaded Leningrad was able to solve its main task: to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of troops and the population and to restore combat losses of the army units defending the city.
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The activities of the Sector of Modern History of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences at the turn of the 1930s–1940s were investigated. The study is of particular interest due to the fact that the history of many Soviet academic institutions has been little considered by Russian historiographers, even though the daily activities of such institutions are immensely important for analysis of the mechanisms of functioning of Soviet historiography as a whole. The study aims at reconstruction of the stage of formation of the Sector of Modern History at the turn of the 1930s–1940s based on office documents, letters of scientists and their memoirs, scientific works, etc. The following aspects were discussed: the personnel structure of the Sector of Modern History; its arrangement; areas of research. The main attention was paid to the latter. The process of working on the key collective research projects of the Sector, i.e., educational literature on modern history for secondary and higher schools and the corresponding volumes of the multi-volume “World History”. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the mechanism of research work developed by the Sector of Modern History in the early 1940s was retained in the subsequent years.
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