KAKO ŽIVJETI VLASTITI IDENTITET U PODIJELJENU DRUŠTVU I DISFUNKCIONALNOJ DRŽAVI

Author(s): Mladen Ančić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2015

Kad je svojedobno Mirjana Kasapović prvi put formulirala svoje stajalište o Bosni i Hercegovini kao podijeljenu društvu i državi, izazvala je otpor u bošnjačkim akademskim krugovima, otpor koji se pretvorio u raspravu što se rastezla i razvlačila na internetskim i stranicama maloga broja tiskanih medija. No bila je to stvarno tek „bura u čaši vode" - rasprava je angažirala tek toliko ljudi da ih se može pobrojati na prste dviju ruku. Sve je to ostalo pokopano negdje na rubu društvenoga života - nekoliko bošnjačkih intelektualaca, uglavnom politologa, tri ili četiri hrvatska povjesničara i sociologa i, što je posebice važno uočiti, nijedan sudionik rasprave na srpskoj strani, razmjenjivali su misli i artikulirali pa onda branili stajališta koja se, bar na prvi pogled, odnose na ključne elemente društvenoga života Bosne i Hercegovine. Nitko se, međutim, izvan toga kruga nije čak ni „počešao po glavi" zbog toga i pokazao kakav-takav interes za tu raspravu.

Je li hrvatska vlast 1990-ih bila antisemitska?

Author(s): Andrijana Perković Paloš / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2016

The main goal of this paper is to discuss whether the first President of the Republic of Croatia Franjo Tuđman and the Croatian leadership in the 1990s were anti-Semitic. The minimization of the number of Holocaust victims and Holocaust denial, which includes statements that the Holocaust was a myth or a hoax produced by the Jews, are considered to be driven by anti-Semitism. These theories were present in historiography and later in politics. The outburst of political anti-Semitism, according to Western historians, can be found in Eastern Bloc countries after the collapse of their communist regimes. Croatia began its journey towards democracy and independence within this framework. Even before he became Croatian president, Tuđman was a controversial person due to his book Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy, which some circles described as anti-Semitic. Some of his statements were misinterpreted and his policy of national reconciliation, which meant ironing out the half-century-old political divisions between the Croats, was perceived as the rehabilitation of the Ustasha regime and its Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which carried out genocide against the Serbs, the Jews, and the Roma during World War II. Such widespread perception, supported by Serbian propaganda, prolonged the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Croatia and the State of Israel until 1997. The relations between the Croatian leadership, Croatian people in general, and the Jewish community in Croatia in the 1990s were, however, very positive. Some established members of the Jewish community held high-ranking positions in the Croatian leadership. An appeal made by Nenad Porges, president of the Jewish community of Zagreb, to all the Jews in the world, in which he claimed that the Croatian Government was not anti-Semitic, proves the stability of those relations and the support of the Jewish community to Croatia during the Greater-Serbian aggression.

Македонска Голгота. Спомени и изповеди от Ениджевардарско. С., Тангра ТанНакРа–ИК, 2009. 751 с.

Author(s): Divna Gotseva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2015

Book review

Николай Поппетров, Войн Божинов. Национално могъща и обединена България. Формациите на радикалната десница и националният въпрос. С., ИК „Гутенберг“, 2014. 273 с.

Author(s): Rumyana Parvanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2015

Book review

Найден Геров и Драган Цанков в лабиринтите на въпроса: Българската уния

Author(s): Antoaneta Kirilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2015

Based on known and newly found documents the author traces the specific actions taken by the Russian diplomacy to abolish the Bulgarian Union in the middle of the 19th century. The main role in this task was assigned to the Russian consular agent in Plovdiv Nayden Gerov. The article highlights the activity of N. Gerov and D. Tsankov and presents their opinions on how to solve the Bulgarian Church Issue showing clearly the difference in the positions of the two prominent figures of the Bulgarian national movement. One of them was a Russian diplomat who was obliged under his official position to follow Russia’s policy towards the Bulgarian-Greek religious strife, which coincided with his personal beliefs to solve the Issue within the traditional Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox. The other was a Bulgarian journalist, politician and public figure offering to Bulgarians a union with the Roman Catholic Church as the way out of the tangled religious issue. The author tries to give a reasoned answer to the question which is a major focus of this article: What did the Bulgarian union achieve for the national movement in the mid-19th century and in this sense – was it its well thought out, far-sighted and politically justified „alternative“?

Geopolitical position of Poland - from time of partitions to the independence

Author(s): Jowita Brudnicka - Żółtaniecka / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2016

To understand contemporary geopolitics, especially Polish geopolitics you have to refer to the history. Polish geopolitical philosophy has flourished in a crucial period in the history of the country - the To understand contemporary geopolitics, especially Polish geopolitics you have to refer to the history. Polish geopolitical philosophy has flourished in a crucial period in the history of the country - the time of the fall of the First Republic and partitions. Sketch of Polish geopolitics is well composed into the broader plan of European thought. This is not just a simpple analitycal exercise. Article contains the suggestion, that the events, experiences and geopolitical configurations may exhibit amazing repeatability.

Řeč obžaloby namísto nezaujatých argumentů

Author(s): Luboš Veselý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2017

In the beginning of his work, the author presents a brief list of publications on Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, which has hitherto been published in the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), noting the politicized perception of this historical figure and mutually conflicting national narratives which his life story is set into. While Ukrainian view mostly adores Bandera as the founder of the Ukrainian statehood and national hero, the Polish and Russian (formerly Soviet) ones generally condemn him as a radical nationalist, fascist, and anti-Semite responsible for crimes perpetrated by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiya Ukrains’kykh Natsionalistiv – OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya – UPA) in Western Ukraine in the 1940s. The author then proceeds to the publication of Polish-German historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe,Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist. Fascism, Genocide,and Cult (Stuttgart, Ibidem 2014), which is so far the first attempt at a scientific biography of Bandera. The author questions and argues against Rossoliński-Liebe’sapproach to the topic, which he claims to be conforming to many negative patterns in Bandera’s appraisals, failing to describe historical events without an a priori biasor presenting new views, although Rossoliński-Liebe used almost all published works on the topic, as well as a mass of archival sources and memoir testimonies. Rossoliński-Liebe equals Bandera with the Ukrainian nationalism, and regards the latter as a violent movement without setting it in a context. The author argues that ignoring the historical context, one-sided optics, and emotional judgments are significant weaknesses of the work, which thus fails to meet the demands placed upon a balanced scientific biography.

Kdyby to neskončilo, bylo by to na věčné časy a nikdy jinak

Author(s): Jiří Suk / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2+3/2019

Yurchak, Alexei: Bylo to na věčné časy, dokud to neskončilo: Poslední sovětská generace. Translated from the English original by Přemysl Houda and Veronika Bránišová.(Edition Politeia.) Prague: Univerzita Karlova and Karolinum, 2018, 388 pp., ISBN978-80-246-3662-7. In the reviewer’s opinion, the book Everything was forever, until it was no more: The last Soviet generation by Alexei Yurchak (original edition: Princeton (NJ), Princeton University Press 2005) strives to provide a plastic and accurate picture of the period reality and mentality as they appeared to Soviet citizens in the last decades before the fall of the Communist regime. The author wrote it in the United States, obviously reacting to simplified, binary interpretations of the late Soviet Communismin the West. The author presents his arguments in an extremely inventive manner, precisely employing his methodological principles when analysing specific social phenomena. In doing so, he builds his analyses around a central principle of validity of the authoritative (Marxist-Leninist) discourse in the Soviet Union, which,however, permitted various interpretations for the purpose of fulfilling individual interests and goals and whose decomposition at the time of Gorbachev’s perestroika led to the collapse of the whole system. However, the reviewer argues that the above principle has a much lower interpretation weight and that the author generalises selective social experience of Komsomol functionaries when attempting to prove that, rather than opposing the system, Soviet people were creating their own living space outside it. The reviewer contemplates the nature and limits of political resistance in a Communist system and, in the end, takes note of problematic attempts of some Czech historians to apply Yurchak’s propositions to interpret the situation in Czechoslovakia.

Les déserteurs bulgares en France pendant la Première Guerre mondiale

Author(s): Georgi Peev / Language(s): French Issue: 3-4/2022

One of the still poorly studied problems related to the participation of the Bulgarian army in the First World War is the desertion of its ranks. The number of deserters is not to be underestimated –according to official figures, it was nearly 7,000 people. While there is some evidence of this phenomenon in the battles in Dobrudja against the Russian army, there is a complete lack of research on the Thessaloniki front and the reasons, scale and peculiarities that characterized the desertion to the French side. The purpose of this article is to fill this gap and analyze the various reasons for this action. It examines the gradual change in the ethnic composition of the army with the recruitment of more and more ethnic minorities from Bulgaria and the occupied territories, the poor conditions and supplies, the fatigue of war, which lead to a weakening of discipline and morale, Russophilism among some soldiers and officers. The study also provides data on the methods of propaganda used by the French command to incite Bulgarian soldiers and officers to surrender, as well as on the treatment of deserters. Particular attention is paid to a specific structure – the “Organization of Bulgarian Workers”, as well as to the problems faced by the authorities in the use of the soldiers and officers enlisted in it.

Американски поглед върху следвоенната съветска политика в Източна Европа – от създаването на Източния блок до краха на системата

Author(s): Iskra Baeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Изселването на етнически немци от Източна Европа в СССР в края на Втората световна война. Между историческата наука и политическата употреба на миналото

Author(s): Lyubomira Valcheva-Nundloll / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The Soviet military presence in Bulgaria after 9 September 1944 and the establishment of the new government are the subject of contradictory historical interpretations. The anti-German measures introduced at the end of World War II including the internment of citizens of Germany and its satellites, and the labor mobilization of ethnic Germans in the USSR represent a fragment of the Bulgarian past that was only brought to the public attention after the fall of socialism. While the political use of this past has led to the indirect inclusion of the anti-German measures in the list of crimes of communism condemned by Europe, scholarly analysis reveals a complex process transcending the context of the local political regime. The study of this little-known fragment of Bulgarian history brings forth the question of the distinction between the principle of nationality and that of citizenship in a Balkan country confronted with the Soviet suspicion of the German population in securing territorial control. The growing importance of national memory for the emerging European (historical) consciousness provokes reflection on the role of a historian in defining this ambiguous past influencing the present. The European construction of supranational historical memory presupposes the supranationalization of related national historiographies. The article places the history of the German population in Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War and the political use of this past in an expanded context, drawing on primary Bulgarian and Soviet sources, on historical scholarly works, and on research studying the construction of historical memory.

Russia – full spectrum revisionist? What the Kremlin’s exploitation of the Belarusian political crisis teaches us about the nature of Russia’s confrontation with the West

Author(s): Michał Klonowski,Michał Słowikowski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The political crisis in Belarus, provoked by public dissatisfaction with the fraudulent presidential election in August 2020, has entailed a number of consequences for the international status of Belarus. On the one hand, there was a rapprochement with Russia and, on the other, Belarus found itself in a state of Cold War with the West. The reasons for this state of affairs should be seen primarily in the attitude of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who perceived the social protests as a serious threat to his illegitimate rule and, at the same time, inspired by the West. The threat of losing power caused him to turn to Russia for help, which was given to him. Russia was guided primarily in this case by its own fears, which concerned: the threat of losing control over a geopolitically important region, the shrinking of the area considered to be a zone of exclusive interests in favour of the West, the prospects of the successful democratisation of Belarus and the transmission of the virus of democracy to the Russian political system. Lukashenka, still unsure of his position and Russia’s support, has taken steps to strengthen the Kremlin’s loyalty. To this end, he continued to take anti-Western actions, aware that his closest ally in the Kremlin was the Siloviks group, which was the most influential group of the Kremlin’s elite and at the same time responsible for the Russian confrontation with the West. From Russia’s point of view, the Belarus-Russia conflict has become a platform for a whole spectrum of revisionist activities: offensive, defensive and isolationist. At the same time, Belarus and its conflict with the West have become part of information warfare against the West, as a part of which the Kremlin was generating tension in the capitals of European countries and the United States. Russia was interested in keeping this going as long as possible, which was not necessarily in line with Lukashenka’s own expectations.

The Macedonian Question through the Eyes of Foreign Researchers

Author(s): Slavi Slavov / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

Review of “Foreign Honorary Members of the Macedonian Scientific Institute (1923– 1947)”

Tabuji padajo - učimo se dialoga : LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii in LIT - Lingua Imperii Titi

Author(s): Jože Dežman / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1-2/2017

LIT—Lingua Imperii Titi is the deformed language of Titoism. With it, the communist minority tried to control the majority. In this article, it is emphasized on the examples of mass killing sites and graves that the Titoist elite is trying to conceal the crimes of Titoism, which is why most casualties of the Second World War and the revolution became taboo. LIT has falsely presented communists to be national heroes as the only heroes from the Partisan movement. LIT claims and emphasizes that a majority of the population followed Titoism. However, more than half of the casualties of the Second World War and the revolution became taboo, and Titoism repressed more than half of the population. Those who contributed to the fall of Titoism with non-violent resistance remained forgotten. The resistance of the threatened farmers in the village of Srednja vas in Bohinj is described as an example of the resistance of farmers.

Опити за разрешаване на езиковия спор с Република Македония (1995 – началото на 1997 година)

Author(s): Krasimira Todorova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2023

This article aims to examine the policy of the cabinet of Zhan Videnov on the language dispute with the Republic of Macedonia by focusing on the diplomatic activity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in terms of its approach to the problem, the way of conducting negotiations and the choice of negotiation strategy. For this purpose the analytical method is applied. The problem in bilateral relations arose during the administration of Prof. Lyuben Berov (December 30, 1992 – November 17, 1994) in connection with the dispute in which language to sign bilateral documents, and it blocked Bulgarian-Macedonian contacts for a long time. The first attempt to unblock the language dispute was made in 1995–1996. The article shows that the government of Zhan Videnov was consistent in its policy towards the Republic of Macedonia. In its attempts to resolve the language dispute it demonstrated continuity with the previous government and insisted on the formula that documents should be signed “in the official languages”. The draft declaration and its defence is analyzed in detail and is assessed as successful. The conclusion is that the government almost succeeded in unblocking the bilateral relations, but lacked the political time to complete the second round of negotiations and sign the final document. A comparison is made with the Joint Declaration signed in 1999 between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, and it is found that, although different, it contains the most important elements of the project advocated by the cabinet of Zhan Videnov.

Montenegrin-Bulgarian relations before and during the First Balkan War

Author(s): Aleksandar Stamatović / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2023

This paper deals with Montenegrin-Bulgarian relations before the First Balkan War that Montenegro and Bulgaria waged against Turkey together with their allies Serbia and Greece. Montenegrin-Bulgarian relations went from 1878 to 1912, mainly became better and better. These two states had no territorial or global conceptual conflicts of interest. Both were aware that they would have to go to war with Turkey to liberate the Balkans from five centuries of Ottoman occupation. This concept had an emotional character. Unlike the relations between the two countries, both were Slavic, so it was insisted on that detail, which was promoted by the mutual protector and ally Russia. The unfolding of events at the end of the First Balkan War, and immediately after it, as well as the fact that Montenegro was ethnically closer to Serbia than Bulgaria, committed it to go to war against Bulgaria in 1913, although Montenegro did not benefit from that war.

The Stance of the Great European Powers on the Creation of Albania and the Question of Scutari in 1913

Author(s): Saša Knežević,Boris Vukićević / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2023

The paper explores how the international policy addressed the Albanian question during the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. The paper sheds light on the dynamics of relations between the Powers just before the onset of the World War I and points to the course a small country’s ambitions were dealt with under the European Concert, the last stand of whose was the Scutari crisis of 1912/13. It discusses one of the major debates during the Balkan Wars, the fate of Scutari. In order to present the impact of the European Powers’ diplomacy and its modus operandi, the article brings in light the unpublished British historical records from the Public Record Office, published diplomatic documents, the contemporary press that covered these events and relevant books and articles on the matter. The article proves that, despite being part of different alliances, the Great Powers were not eager to clash in regard to interests of a small Balkan country, and that all military efforts of Montenegro were, from the very beginning, futile and diplomatically groundless.

Soviet Bloc, Power Struggle, and Social Changes in Syria (mid-1950s – mid-1960s)

Author(s): Nadya Filipova / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2024

Потери болгарской армии и ее противников в боях за Добруджу (сентябрь 1916 г. – январь 1917 г.)

Author(s): Sergey Nelipovich / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3-4/2024

Combat losses of the armies of the opposing sides are an indicator not only of casualties incurred and the intensity of battles, but also a factor in assessing the combat effectiveness of troops. In the article, based on documents from the State Military Historical Archive of Bulgaria (DVIA), the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), the Austrian State Archive (OStA), the Bavarian Main State Archive (BayHSA), information collected by researchers from different countries, the losses of the armies of Bulgaria, Romania, Austria-Hungary, German, Ottoman and Russian empires during the Romanian campaign (September 1916 – January 1917), an important part of which was the Dobrudzha operation of the 3rd Bulgarian army. In these battles, the Bulgarian troops suffered the heaviest losses of all the Allied contingents (up to 50 thousand people), but at the same time inflicted a serious defeat on the enemy troops and disabled more than 0.25 million of their soldiers.

Гръкоосманизъм срещу панславизъм: Власис Гавриилидис и неговият поглед върху руската балканска политика

Author(s): Slaveya Kotova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2025

In the years following the Crimean War, a segment of the Greek elite recognized the incompatibility between the so-called “Great Idea” of Greek unification and Russian imperial ambitions regarding the Straits and the Ottoman capital. On an ideological level, the rise of Pan-Slavism also posed a threat to Greek claims of cultural supremacy over the Orthodox Slavic populations in the Balkans, fueling Russophobic sentiments within Greek society. Against this backdrop, the Bulgarian- Greek church dispute erupted, reinforcing fears of a Slavic conspiracy orchestrated by Russia. It was in this context that Vlasios Gavriilidis’ text Greece and Pan-Slavism appeared in 1869. The present article critically examines the historical overview of Russian eastern policy as presented by the author.