"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.

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

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

1968 - четрдесет година после

Author(s): / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 2008

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 Kominform a történeti irodalomban

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

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: 01/1989

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 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.

ABD’nin Askeri Güç Uygulamasının Dönüşümü

Author(s): Özdemir Akbal / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 18/2019

Systemic International Political Theory (SIPT) has been trying to explain how states interact in the systemic international political structure. The interaction can be described as a cooperation and conflict as well. Within this context the SIPT evaluates the military practices as a means of the foreign and international politics. This essay analyses how the United States military power transformation is influenced by international political structure. The restrictive and equalizing features of international political structure generates equal environmental conditions for all units in the systemic structure. Thus, each acting unit in the structure needs transformations and reformations. As an acting unit in the international political structure, the United States also needs transformations and reformations for maximization its security. In this respect, the United States military power practices have changed especially in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. As a consequence of these developments United States military power practices based more on special and covert operations and supporting the regional allies as well.

About Us and Our Neighbours: History Textbooks in the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine

Author(s): Sergiu Musteaţă / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

The principal research question pursued by this work is as follows: How do the Republic of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine present one another in their history curricula and textbooks? How do the history textbooks of each of these three countries present the relationship between majorities and minorities?This book is thus focused on two main objectives: first, to generate improved understanding of the state of the discipline of history in these countries via discussion of reforms to and debates around history curricula in each country, and second, to shed light on the ways in which history textbooks in each of the three countries represent the other two and their peoples.Curriculum development and textbook production in all three countries still remain centralised. Textbooks are produced by state and private publishing houses. Most textbooks are curriculum-based and developed according to the guidelines issued by the Ministries of Education. Through their textbook publishing policy, these ministries control the content and quality of textbooks. History curricula and textbooks in all three countries have progressed, but we still encounter many problems. Among them are the following:• the content of curricula and history textbooks continues to place too much emphasis on national aspects to the detriment of the world, regional, and local dimensions of history;• it reflects the history of wars and violence instead of giving more space to periods of peaceful coexistence, cooperation and cultural communication, or of mutual enrichment between various social groups as well as between nations;• it neglects regional history and cultural and historical links with neighbouring countries;• as it stands, it causes problems in history education and the development of ethnic identity, as well as the relationship between “Us” and “Others”;• it leads to or accepts poor textbook design.The relationship between national and European history remains a closely debated topic in all three societies. Their shared reality, as evidenced by this study, is that all three countries are currently not presenting one another in any meaningful way in their history textbooks at all educational levels. In all three countries, history education and textbooks are dominated by political history and narratives of victimisation. National histories do not pay attention to their neighbours.History textbooks play an important part in the process of collective identity formation, building a relationship with the past and creating an image of the “other”. The content of textbooks determines, in many cases, students' attitudes to their neighbours. Therefore, in order to improve the situation in history education and to develop a tolerant approach to “others” in history textbooks, there is a great need for joint efforts by politicians, professionals and members of civil society in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.

Al Doilea Război Mondial – Crâmpeie din imaginea ostaşului sovietic în memoria românilor

Author(s): Livia Coroi / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: XIV/2014

The image of the soviet town takes form through the veterans` testimonies and through a collective memory of those from Brad and the surrounding areas. The historical research approach is based on the usage of qualitative methods and through such a mean, especially,being activated the autobiographic memory. The veterans have seen the soviet town as an enemy between the 22nd of June 1941 and the 23rd of August 1944, and then as an ally until 9th or 12th of May 1945. Distinct of the war rigors, the soviet enemy (mainly the Russians and not the Kazaks) was having a human dimension, presenting a somewhat clemency towards the defeated Romanian soldier. The inter-human relationships were being dominated by suspicion during the alliance, the Romanians cutting off the interactions with them, thus it did not exclude moments of communication and support. The veterans` testimonies help shaping the image of the soviet town and, through the light of the report with the rest of the population, the pieces of information given by them,here, being filled by those of the locals who were children or young women during the war. Witnesses talk about Russians storming in their houses, usually their behavior being abusive, frequently drunk, raping women, committing crimes and forcefully taking control over food and other goods. The image at this point is mostly negative, but even here the distinction between the Russians and the others, more exactly the Kazaks, is made, to the disadvantage of the last. Despite these happening 60-70 years ago, the stories were told with great detail, especially due to the dramatic experiences occurred due to the war.

Allied Deliberations on Bulgaria World War II. A Selection of Documents from the Files of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Department of State. Compiled and edited by Alfred M. Beck. Sofia, American Research Center in Sofia, 2016. 734 p.

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2018

Book Review

Ambiguous space: Ádám Bodor’s Sinistra District

Author(s): BORBÁLA ZSUZSANNA TÖRÖK / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2008

In the first decade after the collapse of state communism, Transylvania-born Ádám Bodor’s novel Sinistra District has been praised as one of the most accomplished allegories about Ceaupescu’s totalitarian regime. Reread today, the novel reveals its virtue as a historiographical reflection of much larger time-span. Looking at the “natural history” and ethnography of Sinistra District, the author draws parallels with Transylvanian regional historiographies, from the Enlightenment to the 20th century, including references to the local lore.