Bulgarian Intelligentsia and the Reforms in the Sphere of Culture at the End of 1980s.

Author(s): Evgenia Kalinova / Language(s): English / Issue: 3-4/2015

At the end of 1980s the effects of the Second Cold war and Gorbachev’s “perestroika” force Bulgarian Communist leader Todor Zhivkov to attempt to overcome the economic crisis and to remain in power through quick and large-scale economic reforms. Until the summer of 1987 Zhivkov unsuccessfully seeks Soviet approval of Bulgarian reforms. Without it, he is forced to react quickly. The new model, known as the “July concept”, is approved in July 1987 and charts a way towards limited pluralism in the economic and political spheres. The Bulgarian intelligentsia shakes off its apathy. In 1988 it emerges openly on the political scene, which forces the authorities to pay particular attention to it, alongside economic and ethnic problems. The present paper deals with these reforms and the relations between the regime and the intellectuals until the end of the state socialism.

Bumbling Idiots or Evil Masterminds? Challenging Cold War Stereotypes about Women, Sexuality and State Socialism

Author(s): Kristen Ghodsee,Kateřina Lišková / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation of relevant sources unless the fact or idea is considered “common knowledge:” bits of information or dates upon which there is a wide scholarly consensus. This brief article reflects on the use of “common knowledge” claims in contemporary scholarship about women, families, and sexuality as experienced during 20th century, East European, state socialist regimes. We focus on several key stereotypes about the communist state and the situation of women that are often asserted in the scholarly literature, and argue that many of these ideas uncannily resemble American anti-communist propaganda. When contemporary scholars make claims about communist intrusions into the private sphere to effect social engineering or the inefficacy of state socialist mass organizations or communist efforts to break up the family or indoctrinate the young, they often do so without citation to previous sources or empirical evidence supporting their claims, thereby suggesting that such claims are “common knowledge.” We believe that those wishing to assert such claims should link these assertions to concrete originating sources, lest it turn out the “common knowledge” derives, in fact, from western Cold War rhetoric.

BÜYÜK HİDROLİK YAPILAR-SOĞUK SAVAŞ- SINIRAŞAN SU SORUNLARI İLİŞKİSİ VE SOĞUK SAVAŞ’IN BIRAKTIĞI MİRAS

Author(s): Ahmet Conker / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 2/2019

It is no exaggeration to describe the 20th century as the century of the big hydraulic infrastructures. Notably, the number of large dams has proliferated during the period between 1950-80 that corresponds to the Cold War era. This study seeks to analyze the relationship among the Cold War, the large hydraulic works and the transboundary water relations. Gathering empirical evidence from the different transboundary water basins, this study argues that the Cold War influenced large hydraulic works and transboundary water relations in two ways. On the one hand, the Cold War era constituted a conducive political environment for the proliferation of large hydraulic works, and henceforth, it has strongly affected transboundary hydropolitical dynamics. On the other hand, the Cold War has conditioned the regional contexts in which transboundary water relations take place. Finally, the paper also finds that even though the motivation to build large hydraulic works, which is the legacy of the Cold War era, appears to slow down in the developed countries, it is still intact in the developing countries.

CAPTIVE MINDS AND SCAPEGOATS IN STALINIST HUNGARY

Author(s): Attila Pók / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2006

This paper makes an attempt to analyze the mindset of creative Hungarian intellectuals who accepted various influential roles in Stalinist Hungary. It uses contemporary and other Hungarian and non-Hungarian patterns of intellectual behavior as a basis of comparison. The argument is shaped with the help of the conceptual framework of scapegoating.

CAUCASUS WAR – THE END OF THE COLD WAR OR A NEW COLD WAR?

Author(s): Constantin-Gheorghe Balaban / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2008

Russia’s present actions to contest some essential instruments defining Russian interaction with the Occident must be read from the logical perspective of a great power being in search of its last recognition. Now, Russia introduces the military dimension in the power game1 and, as it seems, exits stronger from the Caucasus conflict. Russia is a great power. It pertains to this reality. Or, the relations with Russia can’t be indifferent. Especially now, when the Georgian crisis with its regional and global impact will enter in history as a symbolic moment for the unipolar order end2 , at least for the huge Euro-Asian Space.

Ceauşescu şi studiile viitorului în România, I: Johan Galtung la Bucureşti, 1974

Author(s): Ana-Maria Cătănuş / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 1-2/2017

At end of the 1960’s, while already a specific research field in the United States and Western Europe, future studies developed also in Romania. That happened under the direct benediction of Nicolae Ceauşescu who saw in forecasting a useful tool to step up the way towards the socialist multilaterally developed society. Following that goal, interdisciplinary groups of researchers were set up to develop methodologies and in 1971 the Forecasting Central Commission led by Ceauşescu himself was established to prepare long-term forecasts. In 1972, Bucharest became the first Eastern European country to host the Third World Futures Research Conference. The documents published in this article reveals the acknowledgement of the importance of Romanian future studies in the 1970’s. As president of the WFSF Johan Galtung mentioned in his meeting with Nicolae Ceauşescu in May 1974, Romania had become a centre of gravity in social sciences. During the meeting, the two discussed also the establishment of an International Center of Methodology for Futures and Development Studies in Bucharest.

Christopher B. Balme, Berenika Szymanski-Düll (eds.), Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Author(s): Ana Teodorescu / Language(s): English / Issue: 8/2017

Cold War Redivivus?

Author(s): Ion DEACONEASCU / Language(s): English / Issue: 20/2008

This article analyses Russia’s role in the today’s stage of the international relations, starting from the largely accepted idea that the old enemy could not become friend and strategic partner for the EU and the USA but also arguing that, with a huge energy potential, with reform-driven and well-intended politicians, Russia would not afford, in the years to come, to be co-substantial to the Cold War and to continuous conflicts.

Collegium Germania 2. Probleme der Entwicklung Bulgariens in den 20-er bis 90-er Jahren des 20.Jahrhunderts.

Author(s): Gospodinka Nikova / Language(s): German / Issue: 1-2/1999

Crizele Războiului Rece: o perspectivă americană

Author(s): Octavian Roske / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 3-4/2019

This is a review of the book "Cold War Through Documents. A Global History", Third Edition, Edited by Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon, Lanham, Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, 366 p.

Csehszlovák-szír kapcsolatok a hidegháború első felében, és ezek tükröződése a korabeli sajtóban

Author(s): Tamás Pataki / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The study summarizes the relationship between Syria and Czechoslovakia. It investigates the most important events in the Middle East country at the time of the Cold War including general diplomacy contacts as well as some specific arms trafficking between these countries. Besides the analysis of the Czechoslovak-Syrian relationship in the context of the Cold War, we explore and show the media appearance of these relations as well, and we show how colourfully some of the main events appeared in the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian language press.

Cultul personalității lui Nicolae Ceaușescu reflectat în marcarea unor sărbători naționale și internaționale

Author(s): Cristian Culiciu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 2/2016

The article deals with the way the ruler of Communist Romania from 1965 to1989 Nicolae Ceaușescu used various national and international celebrationsin order to forge his cult of personality that exceeded even the one of hispredecessor, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. The author focuses especially on thefollowing celebrations like the National Day – 23rd of August (1944), the Dayof the Republic – 30th of December (1947), the second being a kind of thesecond National Day; as well as May 1 – the international Workers’ Day. Thecelebrations and the way they were used are contextualized in relation to thepolitical, ideological and international dimensions of the Communist regime inRomania from mid 1960s to the late 1989.

Cultural Encounters and the Role of Art in Yugoslav-US Relations 1961-1966

Author(s): Stefana Djokic / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

This paper discusses the role of art in Cold War diplomacy in Yugoslav-US relations between 1961 and 1966. During the 1960s, culture was often, sometimes unwittingly, at other times intentionally, infused with the politics of the Cold War. According to one line of existing scholarship, the rise of US art after WWII and exhibitions of American art abroad amounted to cultural imperialism and a “profound glorifying of American civilization.” These historians persuasively identified the political motives behind the exhibition strategies of American museums, such as MoMA’s promotion of Abstract Expressionism through the International Program of Circulating Exhibitions (established in 1952), or the US Government’s Central Intelligence Agency endorsement of US art through its offices around the world. Accordingly, Abstract Expressionist works were staged as par excellence representations of America’s democratic values, where the messages of freedom and individuality behind the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock were contrasted against the tyranny and totalitarianism of the USSR. Indeed, John Hay Whitney, Chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, explicitly stated that the role of the Museum and of art is to “educate, inspire, and strengthen the hearts and wills of free men in defence of their own freedom.”

Cultural Heritage of the Post-totalitarian Cities: 20th and 21st Centuries. Foreword

Author(s): Martin Pekár,Andrea Pokludová / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Throughout the world cities after the fall of the totalitarian regimes deal with numerous issues that affect the everyday life of their inhabitants. The cities, which benefited from the economic direction of the totalitarian regime concerning selected sectors of the economy, may become sites on the periphery of events after several years. Conversely, the democratization of post-totalitarian societies associated with the opening of borders, free movement of persons, knowledge and technologies in a short time can affect the development of cities and towns stagnating in the previous era.

Das Ringen um die Seele Asiens

Author(s): Paul Linebarger / Language(s): German / Issue: 042/1952

David G. Tompkins, Composing the Party Line. Music and Politics in Early Cold War. Poland and East Germany

Author(s): Rüdiger Ritter / Language(s): German / Issue: 1/2015

Review of: David G. Tompkins: Composing the Party Line. Music and Politics in Early Cold War. Poland and East Germany. Purdue Univ. Press. West Lafayette, Indiana 2013. VII, 300 S. ISBN 978-1-557-53647-1. ($ 39,95.). Reviewed by Rüdiger Ritter.

De la Marea Alianță la Războiul Rece: Uniunea Sovietică și Marea Britanie în documente

Recenzie la O.A. Rjeșvski, Stalin i Cercill'. Vstreci. Besedî. Diskussii. Dokumentî, komentarii, 1941-1945 (Stalin și Churchill. Întâlniri. Convorbiri. Discuții. Documente, comentarii, 1941-1945), Moscova, Nauka, 2004, 564 p.

Author(s): Laurenţiu Constantiniu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: I/2006

Der NKWD-Staat

Author(s): Günther Birkenfeld / Language(s): German / Issue: 018/1950

Mündliche und schriftliche Berichte ehemaliger Internierter aus den Konzentrationslagern im sowjetisch besetzten deutschen Gebiet lieferten das Material für diese Untersuchung, mit der versucht wird, Wesen und Absicht des NKWD-Systems der „politischen Internierung“ auf deutschem Boden zu erkennen. Aus der Fülle der Protokolle in Form eidesstattlicher Zeugenaussagen, die von den Entlassenen bei der „Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit“ niedergelegt wurden, bevorzugte der Verfasser diejenigen Berichte, die sich durch besondere Urteilskraft und Vertrauenswürdigkeit auszeichneten oder Fälle von grundsätzlichem Interesse mitteilten. Die Protokolle umfassten im Durchschnitt zehn, in einem Falle sechzig Schreibmaschinenseiten. Unter den vorwiegend der Intelligenz angehörenden Gewährsleuten befanden sich: ein Hochschuldozent der Philosophie, ein Versicherungsagent deutscher Abstammung, aber ausländischer Staatsangehörigkeit, ein hoher Finanzbeamter (Jurist), eine Kriminalkommissarin, ein Industrieller, ein Lager-Arzt (Internist), ein jüdischer Bürgermeister der Sowjetzone, dessen sämtliche Angehörige in Auschwitz vergast wurden, und zwei Kaufleute. Von jüngeren Jahrgängen: ein Kommunist (Mitglied einer antifaschistischen Widerstandsgruppe, seit 1937 und wiederum seit 1946 in Buchenwald), ein zwanzigjähriger Bergarbeiterssohn aus Recklinghausen, ein neunzehnjähriger Volkspolizist aus der Sowjetzone, der Verhaftungen durchzuführen hatte, und ein sechzehnjähriger Thüringer, der grundlos verdächtigt wurde, dem „Werwolf“ anzugehören, und drei Jahre in Buchenwald verbrachte. Zwei dieser fünfundzwanzig Gewährsleute sind Mitglieder der NSDAP gewesen, einer von ihnen beteiligte sich an der Aktion vom 20. Juli 1944 und wurde vom Offizier zum Gemeinen degradiert. Die aus allen eingesehenen Berichten gezogenen Erkenntnisse wurden mit den Feststellungen verglichen, die von den Mitarbeitern der „Kampfgruppe“ und von Angehörigen der Abteilung für Flüchtlingswesen beim Magistrat von Groß-Berlin bei den vielen täglichen Gesprächen mit Entlassenen gemacht worden sind. Der Autor unseres Beitrags, der Schriftsteller und Romanautor Günther Birkenfeld, der als Herausgeber einer Zeitschrift, Rundfunk-Kommentator, Gründungsmitglied des neuen deutschen PEN-Clubs zu den demokratischen und fortschrittlichen Elementen der Berliner und der deutschen Öffentlichkeit gehört, ist Mit-Lizenzträger der von Rainer Hildebrandt geleiteten „Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit“.

Der Westen und die Zukunft Russlands. Eine Rundfrage zu George F. Kennans Aufsatz

Author(s): Raymond Aron,Fyodor Stepun,Ernst Reuter,David Dallin,Max Beloff,Wilhelm Röpke / Language(s): German / Issue: 037/1951

Answers and Contributions régarding the essay of George F. Kennan (published in issue 34 of Der Monat) by Raymond Aron, Fedor Stepun, Ernst Reuter, David J. Dallin, Max Beloff, Wilhelm Röpke,

Deterring Things with Words. Deterrence as a Speech Act

Author(s): Juha A. Vuori / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

As ColdWar historians and fans of the film Doctor Strangelove know, deterrence can be atricky business. The complexity of deterrence and the lack of attention that has been paidto its social effects have too often left one of its forms – nuclear deterrence – depoliticized,uncontested, and thus a danger to us all. I argue in this article that speech act theory can provide insights into deterrence and its concomitant political effects. It can be used to philosophically explain the communicative difficulties involved in deterrent relationships, and to form a basis for a critical stance on deterrence as politics. This entails a shift of focus from deterrence as a state of mind to the politics of deterrence and the deontic powers it wields – a shift from the causative aspects of deterrence to the deontology of deterrents. The analysis of such political functions is aided by the neologism of deterrentification,which refers to assertive and declarative acts that alter the status functions of things so that they are thought to act as deterrents and bring about determent in someone or something.It also aids in conceptualizing how the status of deterrents can be cancelled, and how nuclear weapons can be drawn away from the exceptional sphere of deterrence and back intothe sphere of politics. Such a status transformation is required to achieve a sustained nuclear disarmament.