‘TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT PERSECUTION’: THE PERCEPTION AND THE ASSESSMENT OF THE BOLSHEVIK PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH BY THE ORTHODOX CLERGY, WHO SERVED IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORY IN 1941-1944, AND BY MEMBERS OF CHRISTIAN SEMINAR IN THE 1970S

Author(s): Ivan Petrov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This article concerns the assessment of the Bolshevik anti-religious policy in two key periods of the history of the Orthodox Church in Russia in the 20th century. The first period was the Nazi occupation, which in many ways lifted the self-censorship of the clergy and believers: the representatives of the clergy could openly and without embarrassment speak out about the Bolsheviks and their religious policies and give a moral assessment of the pre-war tragedy. The representatives of the episcopate and of the ordinary priesthood began to oppose Bolshevism, some due to their own career motives, some due to their convictions.

‘WHITE KERCHIEFS’ AGAINST ATHEISM

Author(s): Liudmila Artamoshkina / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

For 70 years the official religion of the Soviet power was atheism. How did it happen that not only was the existence of the Orthodox Church officially allowed but real faith was preserved outside official institutions as well as beyond the borders of state ideology? What were the ways of passing religious traditions from generation to generation? What were the main features of “people’s faith” phenomenon?

“2,000 Jews Have Registered So Far” - Historiography and the Holocaust in Rostov-on-Don

Author(s): Christina Winkler / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Rostov-on-Don is known for being the site of the largest massacre during the Holocaust in contemporary Russia and witnessed the annihilation of Soviet Russia’s third-largest pre-war Jewish community within only a few days. It is considered the Russian Babi Yar by some Russian historians. Yet, outside of Russia, the city’s tragic past is hardly known. In August 1942, a massacre was committed here by Sonderkommando 10a of Einsatzgruppe D. The numbers of victims of the mass atrocity diverge in the literature, in some cases considerably. A conservative estimate is that 15,000-18,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered within only three days on the outskirts of Rostov, near the Zmievka colony. Some scholars speak of even higher victim numbers. Nevertheless, the atrocity has not received much scholarly attention. The events in Rostov are but one example of the escalation that Hitler’s Judenpolitik had undergone between the beginning of ‘Operation Barbarossa’ on 22 June 1941 and the summer of 1942. It illustrates that it is vital to bring together all existing sources, including perpetrator documents, records of post-war trials, as well as Soviet files, because a one-sided focus on perpetrator documents in previous Western studies on Rostov does not allow for a full understanding of the scale and the course of events, as this article aims to demonstrate.

“ART BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE!” THE SOVIET CULTURAL POLICY AND ESTONIAN COMMUNITY HOUSES

Author(s): Egge Kulbok-Lattik / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Estonian community houses were built in towns and the countryside by the local people, who had been joining cultural and other societies since the second half of the 19th century. These cultural centres supported the process of building the Estonian state. The space for culture became basis for the lifelong learning system of informal education, which later was regulated and developed according to the politics of culture and education in the Estonian nation-state (1918–40) and the Soviet Union (1940–91). After the invasion of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union in 1940, extensive restructuring or sovietization of the Estonian public administration, economy and culture began. The article examines the sovietization process of Estonian community houses, i.e., how they were turned into the ideological tools of Soviet totalitarian propaganda.

“DID YOU BRING NEW SONGS?” THE ROLE OF CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC MUSIC IN HUNGARY

Author(s): Kinga Povedák / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2011

Contemporary Christian music appeared in Hungary in the 1960s. In a unique period of Hungary when religion was suppressed and rock and roll was denounced, the merging of the two, Christian rock music was even more disapproved during the communist regime. For many, contemporary Christian music was more than simply music; it indicated opposition against the political system. Therefore contemporary Christian music was an alternative music not only from a clerical but also from a political point of view. This article tries to analyze the function of contemporary Christian music in listeners’ religious folklife, their experience during listening to contemporary Christian music.

“Diesem Film liegen Tatsachen zugrunde ...” The Narrative of Antifascism and Its Appropriation in the East German Espionage Series Das unsichtbare Visier (1973-1979)

Author(s): Sebastian Haller / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2014

Since narratives of legitimation have to adapt to shifting discursiveenvironments, they cannot be regarded as static phenomena. To present a soundunderstanding of their embedment in a specifi c context, narratives have to beapproached from a variety of perspectives – they necessitate, in other words, a“thick description”. Th is paper addresses the narrative of antifascism as a centralelement of public discourse throughout the history of the German DemocraticRepublic (GDR) and contextualizes it specifi cally in East German televisionculture. In addition to providing an understanding of antifascism as an ideologicalsignifi er exclusively for historical phenomena, such as National Socialism(NS) or Italian fascism, this paper proposes to conceptualize the narrative ofantifascism – as it was offi cially defi ned in the GDR/SBZ – as a discursive formationthat encompasses various political narratives such as militarism and imperialism,as well as past and present political events. Based on this assumption,the highly successful espionage series Das unsichtbare Visier (1973-1979), whichwas produced by the DEFA and broadcasted by the East German state television(DFF/DDR-F), will be discussed in relation to its exploitation of the narrativeof antifascism. By approaching these issues, it is the objective of this paper toexamine the practices of the appropriation of the narrative of antifascism in anera that was marked by the development of popular (socialist) television cultureand, moreover, to contribute to the discussion of the dialectic between stabilityand fl exibility that is inherent to narratives.

“Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism”: The Attitude of the Party of Labour of Albania about Western Communism in the Early 1980s

Author(s): Enis Sulstarova / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2016

Following the rift with China, Albania found itself on a lonely road towards pretending to protect the purity of the Marxism-Leninism in Europe. Although diplomatic relations with the West were restricted only to trade, the Albanian Communist leader, Enver Hoxha, was interested in recent developments inside Western Communist parties. Through Eurocommunist theorizations, the parties in Italy, France and Spain abandoned revolutionary aims, incorporated democracy in their ideology and tried to build electoral coalitions with socialist parties and other left-wing forces. By contrast, the Albanian Enver Hoxha considered that Communist revolution was still possible in the world, and the Communist parties still acted as Leninist revolutionary vanguards. From this perspective, he denounced Eurocommunism as a continuation of “revisionism”. This paper will present the attitude of the Party of Labour of Albania about Western Communism by placing it in its historical context and framing it in light of broader debates inside the European Communist movement.

“Fotografia si mjet i përhapjes së propagandës së emancipimit të gruas në Shqipërinë komuniste”

Author(s): Irida Vorpsi / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 32-33/2014

This paper analyzes the visual representation of women in Albania from 1945 to 1990, as especially in ´the pictures magazine "New Albanian", organ of the Organization of Women's Union of Albania. The study is based on the theory of analysis and synthesis of photography, Manfred Lueger, and proposes the analysis visual through the concept of "glorification symbolic", to accept the latter as part of the necessary effort of the ideological regime to prove that participation of women in politics and in the labor force was a sign of their emancipation. By analyzing the pictures, there is a kind of "neglect" aspects linked to femininity, and the female identity compacted with contemporary ideological purposes.

“Havarie”: Reading East-German Society through the Violenc/se of Things

Author(s): Thomas Lindenberger / Language(s): English Issue: 42-43/2016

“Ligji i shenjtë i partisë”Ateizmi dhe politika ndaj fesë në Shqipërinë komuniste

Author(s): Egin Ceka / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 32-33/2014

Artikulli në vijim është një paraqitje e përgjithshme e marrëdhënieve të shtetit me fenë në Shqipërinë komuniste në periudhën 1944 deri 1990, i shtrirjes graduale të kontrollit shtetëror dhe më pas i ndalimin dhe kriminalizimit të jetës fetare në sferën publike dhe private. Fokusi i tij përqendrohet tek politikat shtetërore dhe të drejtuesve tij të lartë si aktorët dominantë të kësaj marrëdhënieje. Çështjet që ngrihen kanë të bëjnë, ndër të tjera, me funksionin legjitimues për pushtetin të ndalimit të fesë dhe të zëvendësimit të saj me ateizmin shtetëror, perceptimin e ateizmit si një ideologji zëvendësuese për vakumin e krijuar nga ndalimi i fesë, rolin e intelektualëve si përçues të ateizmit në shoqëri, por edhe mbijetesën e fenomeneve dhe besimeve fetare deri në rënien e sistemit socialist. Pa pretenduar se çështjet dhe përgjigjet e ofruara e shterin problematikën e shtruar, ky shkrim, nëpërmjet analizës së motiveve dhe të interesave politike të veprimit, të përcaktimit të vlerave dhe të mënyrës së komunikimit të tyre në publik, synon të hedhë dritë mbi një kapitull akoma të pandriçuar mjaftueshëm të historisë bashkëkohore shqiptare.

“LIVING IN TRUTH”. NARRATIVES OF ROMANIAN DISSENT IN THE 1970s AND 1980s

Author(s): Ana-Maria Cătănuş / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

This article proposes an analysis of Romanian dissent from its springing moments in 1977 to the end of the Communist regime in 1989. The study follows the context in which dissent emerged and developed, such as the changes in the economic and political situation that drove Romania into a deep economic crisis and revealed the Stalinist nature of Ceauşescu’s regime. Furthermore, it investigates upon the sources of inspiration of Romanian dissent such as Charter 77 or, later in the 1980s, Soviet perestroika. The core of the article tackles the main forms of Romanian dissent from its founding moments to 1989.

“Omladinskim snagama, radnijem brigadama...”

Author(s): Omer Hamzić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 42/2016

In the first part of this paper, the author tried to prove that the cult of work among the young people, without which there is no their personal, nor the communal progress, can be revived and nurtured on the examples of the voluntary youth work. In this paper, the opinion dominates that the work and employment are the best means of proper education and preparation of a young men for life, which is the main positive achievement of the voluntary youth work in the Socialist Yugoslavia. This dimension of youth work actions should be positively valorized, although they were the factor of establishment and stabilization of a regime which can be to the great extent criticised and objected to. As a former youth officer and organizer, in the second part of the paper, the author puts forward his own memory and experience from the local labor action “Gracanica 77”, which had a number of specific features (not being of the local type) and achieved the significant results. It was the last labor action of such proportions in Gracanica, which was quickly forgotten. By this paper, the author made an effort to “return” it from oblivion.

“One Camp, One Banner”

How Fidesz Views History

Author(s): Krisztián Ungváry / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The historical memory of a society reflects its political situation. In the last two and a half decades, the political system radically changed in Hungary,and a reevaluation of the historical past is completely natural after such a change of regime. In a country where after 1945 the (first clandestine,but soon open) dictatorship of the Communist Party made any discussion of the past all but impossible, with the communist view of history being forced on the society, the years of the transition should have brought significant changes in symbolic memory. Yet, looking back on those years, it is surprising how little changed in the first decade after the regime change,and how much a decade later.The failures of the socialist–liberal government, the economic crisis, and the policy of Fidesz are all responsible for the renaissance of extreme rightwing ideas, though not to the same extent. What proved decisive is the elevation of a memory politics that is compatible with Jobbik to the status of state policy—a continuation, in fact, of the slogan “One camp, one banner.”This policy proved to be a success to a certain extent, as today the rightwing interpretation of history dominates in Hungarian society. This politics legitimizes figures who can only be despised in Western Europe. Far from being a temporary phenomenon, the radical shift is more and more marked in Hungary. Similarly to the situation in Poland, a social democratic renaissance is quite unlikely to happen in Hungary any time soon. Neither has the former state party any chance to return to power. As opposed to Poland, however, liberals have no chance either in Hungary—they are not even represented in the parliament any longer. For the time being, only Fidesz is capable of keeping Jobbik at bay. This, however, should not make us forget that there is no clear boundary line between the view of history of the two parties, a fact that is the result of Fidesz’s double-faced policy. Will there be anything to convince voters, fed by dangerous ideological fodder, to use their common sense, and choose a democratic option at the time of crisis and social conflict? The answer to this question is shrouded in obscurity.

“Revis(it)ing the Romanian Cultural Heritage” during Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s Regime. Th e Role of Literary Critics in the Battle for the Canon as a Form of Preserving the Cultural Memory of a Community

Author(s): Ruxandra Câmpeanu / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2015

As an instrument of preserving the cultural memory of a community, the literary canon is usually a highly stable structure in its core elements. However, with the advent of the Communist regime after the Second World War, the Romanian literary canon underwent a drastic process of reconstruction. As early as the 1940s, what was euphemistically dubbed “revisiting our cultural heritage” actually equated to a radical revision—a purge of the literary canon through the filter of Marxism-Leninism. Not only writers of literature, but literary critics themselves were subjected to this process. In this paper, I aim to discuss the role played by literary critics active during Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s regime in rehabilitating their predecessors. My focus will be on the press debate surrounding Titu Maiorescu’s rehabilitation in 1963.

“Revoluția silențioasă”: revizuirea identității naționale în Moldova Sovietică la apogeul „dezghețului” lui Hrușciov (1956-1957)

Author(s): Igor Caşu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2015

“Scientific Communism” and the Modern Political Science in Ukraine

Author(s): Vyacheslav Vilkov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The article is devoted to the topic, which for the current generation of both Western and post-Soviet political science communities seems to be “Terra incognita.” It delivers the detailed analysis of conditions and key determinants of the foundation of such representative for Soviet ideology study course as “scientific communism.” The author also takes into consideration the motivation of the Soviet ruling class (CPSU) and scientific authority of USSR. Article attempts to reveal several following issues on “scientific communism”: a) its theoretical and ideological essence as a metanarrative in the socialistic countries; b) peculiarities of foundation, functioning, ideological, theoretical and methodological support of the system of professional training in the field of scientific communism in the Soviet Union and the Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv in the period of the 60’s — 80’s.

“Talkin’ bout a Revolution”

Author(s): Dalia Báthory / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2016

The proclamation of liberal democracy as the absolute winner of the Cold War and the emergence of “prosecutorial” history after the fall of the Eastern Communist Bloc seemed to have established a certain path for researchers with regard to postwar dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe. A closer look at the meaning of “revolution” as well as at new research efforts reveal strong connections between the East and the West during that time, that determined changes in the pattern and style of the scientific discourse analysing the post-war decades.

“The church does not emigrate”. The bishop Albert Klein and the emigration of evangelical Lutheran priests from Romania (1969–1989)

Author(s): Cosmin Budeancă / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

My study focuses on some aspects of the role played by the Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Albert Klein in the emigration of ethnic Germans (Saxons) of Transylvania, Romania, between 1969–1989, especially in the prevention of the emigration of the Evangelical Lutheran priests. This paper is based on general studies on the history of Germans in Romania during communism, on documents of the archives of the former Romanian political police (Securitatea) and on seven oral history interviews conducted with people who knew Bishop Albert Klein personally.

“THE PURE TEACHINGS OF JESUS”: ON THE CHRISTIAN LANGUAGE OF WILHELM WEITLING’S COMMUNISM

Author(s): Anton Jansson / Language(s): English Issue: 29/2018

The relation between communism and religion is a complex and contested question. In this article I will engage with this question concerning one specific thinker, namely Wilhelm Weitling (1808-1871). Weitling researchers have interpreted religion differently and have seen it as everything from the foundation of all his thought, to a negligible addition to a basically secular theory. In this article I argue that Weitling’s work needs to be understood as expressing a Christian political language, in the sense suggested by the intellectual historian J. G. A. Pocock. Departing from this, this article seeks to unpack the Christian political language of Wilhelm Weitling and to sort out how it is expressed in his three main works.

“There is no Nation without History, There is no Family without a Family Tree” - On Sibe Ethnic Nationalist Aspirations through the Example of a “Family Tree Unification” Story

Author(s): Ildikó Gyöngyvér Sárközi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The 1949 rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party (Zhongguo Gongchandang 中国共产党) was the beginning of a new era in China: the declaration of the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo 中华人民共和国) was the first step on the “socialist road” leading to the creation of the long-coveted Chinese national unity. However, progress on the “socialist road” has posed many challenges for the ethnic minorities living within China’s borders. Mostly because melting into the Chinese national unity – paradoxically – became a symbol of the autonomy of ethnic minorities. In the spirit of this process, the ethnic nationalist aspirations of the Sibe (Chin. xibo zu 锡伯族; Sib. sibe uksura ᠰᡞᠪᡝ ᡠᡣᠰᡠᠷᠠ), the ethnic minority I studied, unfolded alongside the writing of Chinese national history. In my work, I follow these endeavors from the 1950s until recent times. At the center is a story that is seemingly about the knowledge base of Sibe ancestors, the family trees, and beyond that, about the “reunification” of a clan that was torn apart in 1764 by thousands of miles. But, in fact, it formulates much more than that: the idea of political martyrdom by the Sibe in the interest of creating the Chinese national unity. It is through this story that I wish to provide an insight into how Chinese national unity was created.