"Continuities and discontinuities. Educational program of The Planned Parenthood Association in Krakow (1957 – 1993)"

Author(s): Barbara Klich-Kluczewska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

The article presents the program of sexual education prepared and offered by Krakow Branch of the Planned Parenthood Association in the wider context of socio-political situation in Krakow (1956 – 1989). Since the beginning of the Association’s existence, the special attention was paid to the development of educational program, which concerned the different aspects of „family life“. The article is going to answer the questions about its goals, the educational tools used to achieve them and its social targets. To accurately determine the position of the Association in the city‘s community I will analyse its foundation and activities in wider context of the pre-war traditions of the organisation and the activities regarding premarital counselling undertaken by the Krakow Catholic Church.

"Malenkij robot" a plány o československom národnom štáte

Author(s): Attila Simon / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

This study details how forced labour of Hungarians in the Soviet Union - also referred to as "málenkij robot" meaning "little work" in Russian - affected Hungarians in Slovakia. The author provides a short introduction to the historiography of the subject and outlines the history of abductions, but the study's core rests with the examination of what was the attitude of the Czechoslovak government toward the repatriation of Hungarians abducted from the territory of the then northern Hungary, currently southern Slovakia. The author observes that the Prague government pursued a selective repatriation policy and it made every effort to prelude their return to their homeland. That means the abducted Hungarian population of southern Slovakia became victim of the autocratic Soviet power and, at the same time, of the ambitions to build a Czechoslovak nation state.

"Marshallův plán pro mysl" za železnou oponou

Author(s): Martin Nekola / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2022

Alfred Alexander Reisch’s "Horké knihy ve studené válce: Program tajné distribuce knih ze Západu za železnou oponu financovaný CIA" published by Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů – originally published in English as "Hot Books in the Cold War: The CIA-Funded Secret Western Book Distribution Program Behind the Iron Curtain" (Budapest, Central European University Press 2013) – is the subject of this review. Reisch is an American political scientist of Hungarian origin, and he is also one of the protagonists of the book. The classified project of distributing books, magazines and other publications to the Eastern Bloc countries, which developed under the auspices of the Free Europe Committee (FEC) and with covert CIA funding, lasted from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s. During this time, according to Reisch, some ten million publications of various genres, from political and scientific literature to fiction, art books and dictionaries to fashion magazines, were sent across the Iron Curtain in inventive ways. The project’s organizers avoided shallow propaganda and, with the help of several covert organizations, targeted mainly intellectuals and students, opposition and regime elites and selected institutions. The reviewer admires Reisch for being the first to reconstruct, from fragmentarily preserved sources and interviews with witnesses, the history of the “mail project”, which, according to the reviewer, was one of the most successful and effective tools of American foreign policy in the Cold War. Despite some shortcomings, the book provides a wide range of previously unknown information and draws the reader into the plot like a spy novel.

"Социалистический реализм" и драма болгарского творца (середина 40-х - середина 50-х годов)

Author(s): Nataliya Hristova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1-2/1998

1962 Küba Krizi: Amerikan Arşivleri Üzerinden Bir Okuma

Author(s): Begüm Sezin ÖZCAN,Kaan Kutlu Ataç / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 39/2021

The aim of this study is to explore the 1962 Cuban Crisis, one of the most important nuclear crises of the Cold War, through the American archival documents. Archival documents are especially important in that they reveal the influence of President Kennedy, who was at the top of the American decision-making mechanism during the crisis, in ensuring the coordinated work of institutions related to national security. As a matter of fact, in this context, the Executive Board of the National Security Council (The Executive Committee of the National Security Council/ ExComm) stands out as a platform where Kennedy convened several times a day during the crisis and where representatives of institutions related to national security express their views freely. Archive documents of ExComm meetings appear to be an important point in understanding the mechanical nature of the crisis process. In this sense, the study answers the question of what is the place of the leadership structure in the foreign policy decision-making process, depending on the national security of America on the verge of nuclear war, and what motives the leadership structure acted on. In this context, theoretical information will be included in the first stage of the study. In the second part, it is discussed what parameters have an impact on the road to the crisis. In the third chapter, while the development of the Cuban Crisis is discussed in detail in chronological stages, the thoughts of the American decision makers on the development of the crisis are examined through archive documents. At this point, the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) documents of the US Department of State are supported and detailed with CIA documents whose secrecy degrees have been lifted. In the last section, the international environment that emerged with the end of the crisis was explained.

1968 - четрдесет година после

Author(s): / Language(s): Serbian

1968 – Forty Years Later represents a collection of historiographical works of 26 authors from different countries (Serbia, Russia, Czech, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Germany) about the international relations and the foreign-relation temptations of Yugoslavia and also about the domestic circumstances in Yugoslavia during the years 1967-1969. The first part of the book is dealing with topics like: 1968 as the turning-point for Eastern Europe, „Prague Spring“ after the increase of Soviet pressure on Czechoslovakia (July 1968), „Prague Spring“ and the attitudes of the Hungarian leadership, its influence in Bulgaria, the phenomenon of the Czechoslovak opposition after the defeat of the „Prague Spring“ in 1969-1972, the year 1968 as a point of departure of the new Yugoslav foreign policy orientation, Yugoslav reactions to the crisis in the Middle East and dictatorship in Greece, Yugoslav-Soviet, Yugoslav-Romanian and Yugoslav-Italian relations in the days of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia relations with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1960s, Yugoslav economic emigration in West Germany and the visit of the crew of Apollo 11 to Yugoslavia in 1969. The second part of the book is consisted from the works about Yugoslavia's activities in domestic and foreign policy after the intervention of the Warsaw Pact in Czecholsovakia in 1968, Yugoslav People’s Army’s ordeals in 1960s, the echo of the global student revolt of 1968 in Yugoslav youth and student press, student demonstrations in Belgrade and Yugoslavia in 1968, the case of Krunoslav Draganovic as one aspect of Yugoslav − Vatican relations, liberalization of Yugoslav theatre, and „rebellious“1968 in Istria. Most works are based on the new historical researches and they, after forty years, try to give a new answer and point of view on the issues connected with the happenings in 1968. The book contains also Chronology of the important events in 1968 and Bibliography of the selected Works on 1968.

1968. година – повратна за Източна Европа

Author(s): Iskra Baeva / Language(s): Russian Publication Year: 0

The year 1968 was one of crisis, both for Eastern and Western Europe. There was a similarity in student-riots (in France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia), but mutual differences were much greater. An attempt at revamping the social system which had been established after WWII under Soviet influence was made in Eastern Europe in 1968. The new leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, headed by Alexander Dubček undertook a reform with the goal of making the state socialism more democratic, in order to weld social security with human rights („socialism with human face”). In connection with reforms in the neighboring Czechoslovakia, Polish students stood up to protect intellectual freedoms. However, the government managed to stir up anti-intellectual and anti-Semitic sentiments and supress the dissatisfaction. Władisłav Gomułka came out against reforms. The changes in Czechoslovakia – abolition of censorship, preparation of the Action program with the aim of making socialism more democratic, economic reforms of Oto Šik – led to troubles in the relations between the countries of the Eastern Bloc. At meetings in Dresden (March 23), Moscow (May 8) and Warsaw (July 14–15), the leaders of the Warsaw-Pact countries increasingly criticized Czechoslovak reforms and demanded increasingly more determined that they be rescinded. Finally the danger of a reformist spill-over led to the decision to intervene militarily in Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. The military intervention changed the relations in Eastern Europe. Yu goslavia and Romania felt endangered and they reacted sharply. The suppression of the ”Prague Spring of ‘68” influenced mostly the attitudes of Eastern Europeans. They realized the preservation of the system and power was more important in the Eastern Bloc than the interests of the society.

A ‘Triangular’ Relationship with the Great Powers: The Case of the post-Cold War Vietnam Balancing versus China and the USA

Author(s): Leonid L. Kyianytsia / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2019

The present article attempts to analyze the case of Vietnam as a middle power caught in-between two potentially inimical greater states, viz. the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, in the aftermath of the Cold War, with a view to exploring the degree to which the former would have managed to maintain its relative independence in respect of each of the contending powers while drawing benefits from the relations with either of them.Making use of the multiple sources covering the presentday relations of Vietnam with both China and the U.S., the author argues that even though Vietnam had been confronted with several critical junctures wherein it may be motivated to fully align with either of the two powers, the country’s leadership would maintain a relatively neutral position while participating in the structures of interdependence and integration involving both great powers under consideration. Several implications for Ukraine’s international political strategy are thus foreshadowed in that respect.

A halk és a hangos: Kádár és Ceaușescu külpolitikája

Author(s): György Földes / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2022

The starting point for the comparison is 1965. It was in this year that Nicolae Ceaușescu was put in a position to control the foreign policy of his party and his country. János Kádár had already been doing this for eight years. After touching on the personal and institutional aspects of foreign policy, the study outlines the historical and structural factors, the coordinates within which the leaders of the two countries had to shape their foreign policy doctrine. It will then examine the extent to which foreign policies helped to advance the national interest and the domestic policy objectives of the group of leaders governing the country.

A Kominform a történeti irodalomban

Author(s): Gábor Székely / Language(s): Hungarian Publication Year: 0

A magyar menekültügy az ENSZ vizsgálóbizottsága előtt. Bang-Jensen küzdelme ügynökökkel és bürokratákkal

Author(s): András Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2016

The article focuses on those Hungarian 1956 refugees who gave testimonies in front of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary, established by the United Nations in January 1957 under the direction of Danish diplomat Povl Bang-Jensen to investigate and submit a comprehensive report on the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The Committee was charged to provide the UN with “the fullest and best available information regarding the situation created by the intervention of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, through its use of armed force and other means, in the internal afairs of Hungary….” After shortly reviewing the events preceding the formation of the Committee and pointing out both the failures and the achievements of the UN during the crisis, the author examines how this temporary UN body worked until the second half of 1958. New archival evidence casts light on a series of strange episodes occurred to members of the Committee as a result of the hostile activity of the Soviet and Hungarian intelligence. The climate of fear and suspicion around the Hungarian witnesses was worsened by the ambiguous attitude of the UN staff . Pressed by the Soviet Union and its satellite, the UN only gave half-hearted support to the finding activity of the Committee, and left many of its members without adequate protection. The study is based on recently available archival fi les; the documents and conclusions may be surprising even for those familiar with the history of the Cold War.

A Matter of Defi nition: The Birth of Socialist Realism in the West

Author(s): Natalia Skradol / Language(s): English Issue: 46/2016

The reflections in this article concern the creation, definition, and use of a concept that, while supposedly pertaining to the sphere of literature and the arts, was central to the ideology and culture of socialist societies: socialist realism. The article discusses transformations in Western reactions to the vocabulary and practice of socialist realism after its introduction as a formal doctrine in the USSR in the early 1930s, and after the creation of the Soviet Bloc in the late 1940s. The author argues that initial attempts by external observers to make sense of the term and related policies were refl ective of the semantics of the early Cold War in general. Exploring the vicissitudes of its (mis)understanding by Western journalists, intellectuals and politicians can help us understandthe mechanism behind much of intercultural and political communication between the two camps.

A Minor Affair or an Impotant Factor? (IMRO-Groupings in Bulgaria after the Second World War)

Author(s): Naum Kaichev,Ivanka Nedeva / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/1998

A párizsi béketárgyalások a kezdődő hidegháború kontextusában

Author(s): Barnabás Vajda / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2017

The study makes a research into the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 and its links with the unfolding Cold War. The author considers both the negotiation phase as well as the conference phase of the Paris peace process, from late-1945 until late-1947, and analyses the whole peace process in the wider context of international diplomacy. The main conclusions of the study are the following: (i) the process of the Paris Peace Conference as a case study shows the actual process how the relations between the two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, derailed form a cooperative phase to an open hostility; (ii) during the Paris Peace Conference we can already observe many signs of both strategical and ideological distrust, which (iii) became visible right after the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty on February 10, 1947 thus contributing significantly to the long set of superpower conflicts that we mark as the early Cold War.

A pártállam árnyékában

Kapitalista olimpia helyett Barátság Játékok

Author(s): Nikoletta Sipos-Onyestyák / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2015

With the goal of promoting peace, the modern Olympic movement was born on the eve of the 20th century, burdened with political and ideological tensions, therefore international conflicts have always had an effect on the summer Olympics. After World War II, despite the fact that the world had become bipolar, sports could continue to surmount the political, social and ideological differences between countries for some time. But in the 1980s, the conflict between the Soviet Union and the USA became so intense that the Olympic Games became the theatre of waging international conflicts with political leaders resorting to the means of boycott. The group of participants was not complete either at the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow, or in Los Angeles in 1984. In compensation, the athletes of the Socialist countries boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics could participate in the A-category Friendship Games in the summer of 1984. Staying away from the Olympic Games, however, deeply wounded everybody, and the “surrogate Olympics” provided opportunity for abuse. Even though the Olympics became victim of power politics in the 1980s, it managed to rise renewed from its ashes as the leaders of the biggest powers of the world realized that they need to resolve their political conflicts elsewhere. In 1989-1990, the transformation of world order and the series of regime changes provided a new framework and new possibilities for managing international sport relations.

A PEACEFUL INTERLUDE IN THE COLD WAR - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HUNGARIAN STUDIES AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY. A PERSONAL MEMOIR

Author(s): Denis Sinor / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2005

The memoir is the history of the Hungarian Chair at Indiana University from 1979 when the Hungarian Academy of Sciences endowed the Chair by the transfer of USD 250,000.

A Reevaluation of Soviet Policy in Central Europe: The Soviet Union and the Occupation of Austria

Author(s): Raelynn J. Hillhouse / Language(s): English Issue: 01/1988

In May 1955, as the fate of a divided Germany was sealed, another Central European nation which also had experienced a decade of Allied occupation and administration was reunited and granted its sovereignty. Until December 1954, it had appeared that Austria would remain indefinitely occupied and vulnerable to the whims of the Cold War due to Soviet insistence that the the Austrian and German questions be linked. Ironically, during a period of high international tension, as the Federal Republic of Germany was integrated into NATO and the German Democratic Republic became a founding member of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Great Britain came to an agreement to withdraw Austria from the Cold War. [...]

A SIGNIFICANT STEP TOWARDS THE SINO-ROMANIAN RAPPROCHEMENT: LI XIANNIAN'S VISIT TO ROMANIA (AUGUST 1964)

Author(s): Mihai Croitor,Sanda Croitor / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Organized between August 26-27, 1964, in Timiș, the Sino-Romanian talks represented a major step in the direction of achieving a rapprochement between Beijing and Bucharest. The Romanian authorities, taking advantage of the 20th anniversary of the „liberation of the homeland”, will hold secret talks with Li Xiannian, a member of the CCP CC.

A TALE OF TWO TRAGEDIES. A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NAKBA AND THE PARTITION

Author(s): Salman SIDDIQI / Language(s): English Issue: -/2019

The first half of the 20th century was one of the most turbulent periods in human history. Particularly with two of its major migrations: the population exchanges caused by the partition of India in 1947 and the exodus of Palestinians in 1948 after the formation of Israel (also referred to as the Nakba). Both of these events would go on to significantly shift the course of history in the 20th century. The Partition of India led to the creation of the Hindu-majority Republic of India and the Muslim-majority Republic of Pakistan, while the Nakba set the stage for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which continues to this day. This paper seeks to introduce and analyze the massive exodus of refugees generated from both of these events. There is also an analysis and comparison of how the two cases dealt with their migrations and ethnic cleansing. This paper also seeks to introduce and analyze the issue of absentee property between the two cases. The primary time period that is being analyzed is between 1947-1951 though some of the material may extend a little further for greater context.

ABD İSTİHBARATINDA YAŞANAN DEĞİŞİMLER

Author(s): Sait Yılmaz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 13/2012

Dünyada istihbaratın güvenlik, dış politika, savunma, özel şirketler ve teknoloji ile dansı her gün yeni örnekler ile başımızı döndürüyor. Geçtiğimiz döneme Wikileaks, El Kaide lideri Bin Ladin’in öldürülmesi damgasını vururken, Arap Baharı adı verilen Orta Doğu ayaklanmaları ile savunma-sosyal medya-istihbarat işbirlikleri bir kez daha öne çıkıyor. Siber alanda her gün yeni bir teknolojik gelişme ile karşılaşıyoruz. 11 Eylül 2001’den beri Batılı istihbarat servisleri büyük bir değişim geçirmekte, yeni güvenlik ortamına adapte olabilmek için teknolojiyi önlerine katarak yarışmaktadırlar. Görüntü ve sinyal istihbaratı için uzayda yapılan yarışa, ekonomik istihbarat alanındaki yarış eklendi. Son 50 yıldır istihbarat alanındaki reform girişimleri sadece teşkilat düzenlemeleri ile istihbarat örgütlerinin bir yere varamayacağını göstermiştir. İstihbarat reformları sadece prosedürel değişim değil, yeni durumlara kendini adapte edebilecek şekilde kültürel değişimi de gerektirmektedir. Bu makalede önce istihbarat alanında reform çalışmalarına daha sonra CIA’dan başlayarak, Amerikan istihbarat sisteminde son dönemde yapılan çalışmalara yer vereceğiz.