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Review of: Epp Annus. Soviet Postcolonial Studies. A View from the Western Borderlands. London–New York: Routledge, 2018. 281 lk.
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Review of: Epp Annus. Soviet Postcolonial Studies. A View from the Western Borderlands. London–New York: Routledge, 2018. 281 lk.
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Stalinist literature has not received much attention from the aesthetic viewpoint. True, this could not even be expected of the criticism of the time, but a certain inconsistency can hardly escape the eye of today’s reader. The reason probably lies in the internal contradiction of socialist realism – the incompatibility of realistic vs romantic or utopian modality. Things were required to be depicted at once as they were and as they should or would be in the future. The article is focused on the depiction of meeting as one of the recurring motives in stories set in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Here the contradiction is in that the relatively realistic and democratic portrayals of meetings evolve into a utopistic unanimity of the so-called workpeople’s democracy, which is seen as the democratic ideal of the bright future. Such transition is accounted for by the dialectic of spontaneity and consciousness as a subtext of the social realist masterplot: in the course of the meeting the volatile force of the working people is transformed into a conscious Soviet-minded citizenship. Although the elaboration of the subtext can clearly be followed, the emphasis tends to shift from a convincing portrayal of the characters to that of the main character’s leadership. In this way, many a meeting in artistic representation (as an abstraction of social relations) unintentionally discloses its authoritarian essence.
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A survey is given of how the Estonian Soviet Writers Union was created and developed as a Sovietized creative organization and how the final formation of its membership took place from 1943–1946. Special attention is paid to the Board meeting of the ES Writers Union (22.12.1945) and the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers (30.12.1945) as key events of the process. The membership formation of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union as a Soviet-minded creative association started in 1942 in Soviet rear, when four leading writers were accepted as members of the Union of Soviet Writers, which united writers from all over the Soviet Union. The founding conference of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union, which took place in Moscow in 1943, granted membership to nine writers, followed by four more the following year. Thus the new union exited the Soviet rear with 17 members. The writers who had remained in Estonia during the war were not immediately admitted to the organization after Soviet re-occupation of Estonia in 1944, but they were registered as candidates for membership. Only at the end of 1945 the merger of the two groups into a single membership with equal rights was completed. On December 30th, at the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers, that membership elected full-staffed governing bodies of the union. This was the consummation of the process in progress since the very first year of Soviet power in Estonia (1940-1941) leading to a full Sovietization of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union. Another important point in the agenda of the 30th December general meeting was the change of the chairman of the ES Writers Union: August Jakobson was replaced by Johannes Semper. This administrative change was orchestrated by Nigol Andresen, then responsible for the management of the whole Estonian culture, who blamed the previous board for a failure in effectively launching the union, the implementation of its ideological reform and its involvement in serving the new authorities. The new chairman Johannes Semper was rather a representative figure, while practical management of the union became the responsibility of its vice-chairman Mart Raud and its secretary Paul Viiding. The knotty personal relationships and rivalry did not make things easier for anybody. The settling of accounts and taking sides after A. Jakobson’s removal in December 1945 had lasting ramifications. The confrontation (both behind the scenes and public) lingered for many years significantly affecting personal destinies as well as further developments in Soviet Estonian literary life.
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STENOGRAMA consfătuirii cu oamenii de știință și cultură din rîndul naționalității maghiare - 27 iunie 1968 -
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One of the existing files in the Central Historical National Archives that was published abroad is recorded under the number 31/1987 and contains, among others, the leaders’ speeches of the Warsaw Treaty Organization member states who had a meeting at Berlin, on the Political Consultative Committee (May 28-29, 1987). As these documents necessitate a large printing space, in this study we will confine to explain the context in which the meeting of the Political Consultative Committee took place at Berlin
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On September 8, 2022, the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER) organized, at the Jockey Club Bucharest, in partnership with the "Nicolae Iorga" Institute of History of the Romanian Academy, the "Petre Andrei" University in Iași and Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest, the debate "Mikhail Gorbachev and the failure of the Soviet experiment". The event was moderated by the historian Cosmin Popa (Institute of History "Nicolae Iorga" of the Romanian Academy) and had as guests Sorin Bocancea (political scientist, "Petre Andrei" University of Iasi), Stelian Tănase (political scientist) and Doru Tompea (political scientist) , "Petre Andrei" University from Iasi).
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This article aims to analyze a social phenomenon that took place during the entire communist period, but which increased in intensity in the 1980s and affected the whole society: the illegal emigration in it’s most dangerous form - fraudulent border crossing. Although freedom of movement was constitutionally established by the communist regime and was assumed internationally, by signing the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu dramatically restricted this fundamental human right. The complete isolation of romanians from the West was a major goal for the regime in it’s final stage. The method of crossing illegally the border was the most dangerous form of escape, the fugitives often risked their lives. This method was used by ordinary people, without privileges, who did not have the opportunity to obtain a passport. Thousands of Romanian citizens tried to flee to escape the harsh living conditions or the oppression of the political police but most of them were caught and convicted and some of them were even killed. In order to eradicate the phenomenon, a repressive mechanism was conceived and implemented by the force structures of the communist state, led by the Securitate. The methods used by the Nicolae Ceauşescu’s political police to stop the fugitives are revealed in the Securitate’s quarterly magazine
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This paper has been written based on the Yugoslav archival sources and relevant Serbian/Yugoslav and Romanian literature. It represents an attempt of reconstruction of Yugoslav policy towards Romania at the time of the Romanian internal crisis and the breakdown of communication between the King and the government. The emphasis was given to the Yugoslav support embodied in the readiness to cooperate with the government of Petru Groza in political, diplomatic, and economic fields despite the fact that diplomatic relations had not been established between the two countries by then.
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The paper focuses on Serbian media coverage of the historic events in Romania in December 1989. It pays particular attention to Yugoslav evaluations of the Romanian upheaval and the course of events that led to the fall of the regime in Bucharest. The research included press reports and comments from the most influential Serbian daily newspapers (Politika, Ekspres politika, Večernje novosti) and magazines (Nin, Duga and Ilustrovana politika). The paper aimed at evaluating the level of impartiality and objectivity of Yugoslav press reports and comments on the revolt in Romania and overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime in December 1989. The research puts the analysis of Yugoslav/Serbian perceptions of the revolt in Romania in the broader context of Yugoslav views on the Perestroika and its ideological and geopolitical consequences behind the Iron Curtain in 1989.
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Review of: Alina-Sandra Cucu, Planning Labour: Time and the Foundations of Industrial Socialism in Romania. New York: Berghahn Books, 2019
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Reviews of: Sõgelite saaga. ENSV kirjanduspolitruki poja Urmas Sõgeli memuaarid. Tallinn: Urgel, 2020. 271 lk. Mitmele isandale loodud kunst. Sots¬kolonialism ja Eesti. Koostanud Johanna Ross ja Epp Annus. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2020. 323 lk. Priit Põhjala. Keelekaste. Artikleid keelest ja kirjandusest. Tallinn: SA Kultuurileht, 2020. 238 lk.
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Review of the book about female political prisoners and the memory of communism in Romania "Ni victime, ni héroïne: les anciennes détenues politiques et les mémoires du communisme en Roumanie" authored by Claudia-Florentina Dobre is done.
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This paper aims to analyze the use of the theme of industrialization in the communist propaganda discourse in Romania in 1945-1965. According to the communist ideological paradigm, modernization was intrinsically linked to industrialization, understood as a denial of the local economic model of development, in which agriculture played an important role. In the sense of communism, the concept of modernization has known alienating forms, and the image of the “new man” has multiplied through the numerous examples offered by proletarian literature. We will highlight, therefore, the various typologies of this character (illustrative for the positioning of the proletariat, as the axis of the communist formula), in connection with the structural-social changes of quantitative type, generated by the manifestations of the industrialization process as such, corresponding to the first stage of Romanian communization. Oscillating between utopia and concrete achievements, between the clichés of party politics and the need to overcome objective social handicaps, industrialization in communist Romania eventually came to represent a true symbol of the triumph of the new proletarian ideology. The model was found in the Soviet one, the original source of the articulation of all the discourses of the Far-East-Central-Eastern European Left. On the other hand, to reduce everything to ideology and clichés, seems to us an error, as long as capitalist Romania was an example of blatant social inequalities, against the background of an economy that had serious delays, compared to the situation of other European states. . Modernization was absolutely necessary, and industrialization was a necessary argument for a broad process in this regard. Communist ideology will apply it (but) according to its specific paradigm, and literature will become the main mirror of the reflection of this obsession. A literature of a low aesthetic level, lacking authenticity and which (with very few exceptions) is of interest today only to literary historians or researchers of the totalitarian phenomenon. A literature that represented only the equivalent of communist dogmas and that insisted on the concept of "New Man", which they considered a symbol of the world that the communists were to build. However, this symbol was in reality the equivalent of the deepest antihumanism.
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The aim of this study is to present the opportunities for research into the worldview of historians, especially historians focused on contemporary history, where it can be assumed that their set of values may influence their interpretation of the relatively recent past. The author first defines the notion of worldview and justifies the analytical use of this concept in historiographical texts. He also considers the relationship between memory, history and historiography in the given context. The author states that not many Czech historians have so far reflected on the relationship between (individual and collective) memory and the work of the historian, especially with regard to his or her position in contemporary society, which is often reduced to the role of an objective “discoverer of historical truth”. Such (self)reflection presupposes the acknowledgement of the influence of the historian’s individual worldview (a complex of opinions and attitudes shaped by upbringing, education, memories, generational affiliation and so on) on his or her scholarly activity. The author of the study offers two possible and complementary ways to learn about the historian’s worldview: first, through his or her own testimonies and statements from more personal texts and ego-documents (essays, interviews, memoirs or social mediaposts), and second, through the analysis of his or her scholarly texts (journal studies, monographs and book reviews). The author demonstrates both approaches with concrete examples of works by historians of Czech contemporary history and concludes by outlining the aims and purpose of examining the historian’s worldview.
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The writings and speeches of Áron Márton clearly show his attachment to his parents and his native village. Leaving his homeland did not mean forgetting his native village and his homeland. As a priest and bishop, he remembered fondly his homeland, his mother and father, his brothers and their families, the temple of his baptism, his first communion, his first teacher, his school, his parish priest who encouraged his vocation, and so on. During the communist regime, the connection with his native village became even closer. In the summer of 1957, Áron Márton was not only forcibly relocated by the secular authorities, but inhumane means were used against the parishioners in his home village – mainly because of him. The faithful in Csíkszentdomokos also had to suffer for the great-born of their village. And Áron Márton could not help, he was in such a predicament that he could only support the humiliated people of his native village with his prayer. The mutual prayer – the bishop for the faithful and the faithful for the bishop – made trust and strength grow and brought the bishop closer to his native village and also his village closer to him.
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The national issue was crucial in the context of the transformation of Yugoslav society from socialism to the desired communism. However, in federal Yugoslavia, this issue was proved highly dynamic, and it was resuscitated anew and interpreted significantly differently. Republic leadership in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina forced the proclaimed principle of national equality, the dogma of brotherhood and unity; in addition, it was highly sensitive to any stepping out of the defined frame. It also listened carefully to impulses coming from other republics, following the events, especially in the Socialist Republic of Croatia and the Socialist Republic of Serbia, which could have affected the mood and activity of the population within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on the original archives, this paper focuses on the President of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina Branko Mikulic during the early 1970s, a period of significant political turbulence throughout Yugoslavia. We indicated what he spoke about the position and activities of the League of Communists, the adopted national policy, the conclusions of the 21st session of the Presidency of the LCY and their implementation in Western Herzegovina. Mikulic has been visiting this part of the Republic intending to encourage the activities of the League of Communists, on the trail of the conclusions of the Mostar Consultation (1966), and remove the mortgage of ustashism from the position of Western Herzegovina, unfounded insistence on collective responsibility and generalization. He insisted that the local staff under the aegis of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina should solve problems in this part of the Republic, as well that interference from the Socialist Republic of Croatia and the Socialist Republic of Serbia makes the position of the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina onerous. Ultimately, even though the 1970s was a decade of significant progress, the economic development of Herzegovina did not go according to plan and republic funds should have supported local loans and self-contributions to a greater extent. Life in Western Herzegovina has differed significantly from the model defined in party documents, numerous conclusions and resolutions. In congruence with the crucial transforming processes of Yugoslav federalism, there was no intention to change certain practices and attitudes of the Party. However, the national question, and thus the national affirmation, was under the firm supervision of the leadership, which was in constant fear of crossing the permitted border and disturbing the strict balance of nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina in conformity with its views and determinants.
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Moving to Romania in 1922, Hagop Djololian Siruni distinguished himself in short time obtaining the support and guidance of well-known historians such as Nicolae Iorga or Aurelian Sacerdoțeanu. He published numerous studies and articles based on archival sources in scientific journals such as ”Analele Academiei Române”, ”Revista Istorică”, ”Balcania”, ”Hrisovul”, ”Arhiva Românească” or ”Revista Arhivelor”. Also, he had a special merit in the development of Oriental Studies in Romania by teaching Armenian and Turkish; the first generation of Romanian researchers in the field of Turkology owed their preparation to Siruni and his language courses. However, the real ”treasure” that he left for the benefit of future generations of Orientalists is the ”Siruni Fond”, nowadays in custody of the National Archives of Romania. Composed of 1975 archival units and having the years 1597 and 1973 as time limits, the fond is too little known and used for scientific research. The reason why the documents and materials are in the possession of the Romanian Archives was the secret police agency involvement in the takeover of Siruni’s belongings.
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The paper analyzes the arrest and trial of a group of opponents of the communist regime in Yugoslavia in the mid-1970s in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, who were convicted of founding a terrorist organization that collaborated with Croatian anti-Yugoslav émigrés in the West. The verdict is compared with the investigative documents of the Yugoslav intelligence service, but also with the authorized record of the conversation that the author of this paper had with the first defendant Tomislav Držić in 2019. It is argued that this was a group of regime dissidents whose activity consisted of anti-regime conversations, writing anti-regime texts that were not disseminated, reading Croatian émigrés’ propaganda materials and Držić’s occasional contacts with émigré in Canada Stjepan Dubičanac, rather than a terrorist organization that could seriously shake the regime.
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