‘Tsars and Monsters’: Reflections on Soviet cinema during perestroika

Author(s): Lars Karl / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2015

When the new general secretary of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in 1985, a political, social and economic change was introduced at all levels of the Soviet system. The new course known as perestroika, filmmakers began to explore previously forbidden themes, and distributors released films that were suppressed by pre-glasnost-era censors. Soviet cinema underwent a revolution, one that mirrors the crucial changes that took place within Soviet society between 1985 and 1991. This article represents an overall survey of the effects of this revolution on the work of Soviet filmmakers and their films – and might help to interpret the final collapse of the USSR from a different perspective.

“From Kragujevac to Kilimanjaro”: Imagining and re-imagining Africa and the self-perception of Yugoslavia in the travelogues from socialist Yugoslavia

Author(s): Nemanja Radonjić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

The article examines travelogues about Africa from a philosophical geography point of view, and compares them to other contemporary representations of Africa. It contextualizes the travelogues both within Yugoslavia and the tides of afro-optimism and afro-pessimism as well as numerous other Cold War phenomena. It also uses the travelogues to establish an auto-representation of Yugoslavia vis-a-vis Africa

“It Was the Poles” or How Emanuel Ringelblum Was Instrumentalized by Expellees in West Germany

On the History of the Book Ghetto Warschau: Tagebücher aus dem Chaos

Author(s): Stephan Stach / Language(s): English / Issue: 6/2018

The article investigates how the Holocaust distorted and exploited in Cold War debates on the example of genesis and reception of the book Ghetto Warschau. Tagebücher aus dem Chaos [Warsaw Ghetto: Diaries from Chaos]. The book is a translation of the essay Stosunki polsko-żydowskie w czasie drugiej wojny światowej [Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War], written by the Jewish historian and creator of the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto Emanuel Ringelblum while hiding from the German Occupiers in Warsaw in 1944. Ringelblum addressed his essay to the Polish reader discussing the relation of Christian Poles and Polish Jews under German occupation based on his own experience and the material he had collected. It was originally published in several portions in the Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute, an early Holocaust Research Center based in Warsaw. The German translation was based on this publication and published in summer 1967 in a Stuttgart-based publishing house. However, the new title, introduced by its German editors, suggested it was Ringelblum’s diary. Above that the blurb and many footnotes highlighted the role of Poles as perpetrators in the Holocaust, while minimizing that of Germans. As the article shows, the book was prepared by the Göttinger Arbeitskreis ostdeutscher Wissenschaftler [Göttingen Working Group of Eastern German Scholars], a Think Tank with close ties to the German expellee community, campaigning for a revision of the Polish western border. Göttinger Arbeitskries used the book and earlier on excerpts of Ringelblum’s text for a smear-campaign in the West-German expellee press. Through the biased presentation and distorted context of the work these former Ostforschers sought to portrait Poles as eternal anti-Semites and the factual perpetrators of the mass murder of Polish and European Jews following their anti-Polish agenda. Polish nationalist within the ruling Polish United Workers Party in turn exploited the book and the campaign based on it, which coincided with the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland. Though the Institute was not involved in the publication of the German book, the Polish national communists accused it of supporting German revisionism and “Zionists” abroad in their slander of Poland.

“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.

“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.

“Working Class Gone to Heaven””: From Working Class to Middle Class and Back

Author(s): Tea Škokić,Sanja Potkonjak / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

This paper problematizes the relationship between the working and middle classes in socialism, which was characterized by consumer culture and state of welfare. It also tackles the extinct middle class in the post-socialist context of the economic crisis and economically defined but politically void "new" working class. The economic realization of the Yugoslav socialist model - a hybrid of planned and market economies - combined the capitalist idea of the state of welfare with the communist execution of social rights. The socialist consumer culture, "searching for welfare", established a homogenous middle class as a proof of its own social success, leaving the "working class" to be conveniently invoked only in ideological manifests of the governing nomenclature. The discussion about the capitalist restoration of the post- socialist period gives precedence to the lament over the extinction of the middle class and its high standard of living over the issues of class relations. On the other hand, the majority of the 286,075 unemployed and 15,230 of the employed who did not receive their salaries in the first quarter of 2015 are low-skill or vocational work- ers, i.e., the working class. This new relationship between the working and middle classes problematizes the socialist inheritance of transformation of the working class into the middle class, the recent phenomenon of economically defined working class without a political meaning, the post-socialist class inequality between the employed and the unemployed, and the emancipation of the worker as "the scorned subject" and his mobilization without being necessarily included in the middle-class political activism for the "general good".

„Duch czasu wycisnął jednak na tej pracy swe piętno”. Historia Zagłady w badaniach Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego w okresie stalinowskim

Author(s): Stephan Stach / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 13/2017

The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was probably the only research institution in the Soviet Bloc and one of very few that undertook research on the Shoah during the 1950s. This article analyses the institute’s research and working conditions against the background of the general political regime under Stalinism in Poland. It argues that despite sometimes heavy-handed political biases in its publications, the institute made an important contribution to research on the Shoah. Its work also came to the attention of Jewish centers outside the Soviet Bloc, though it was seen through the prism of the Cold War.

„Je třeba se poučit“

Vývoj politických struktur organizace Varšavské smlouvy v letech 1985–1989

Author(s): Matěj Bílý / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1/2019

The study analyzes the functioning of political structures of the Warsaw Treaty organization between the advent of Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of the state socialist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe in the end of the 1989, which has hitherto been examined only superficially. Using results of research in Czech, German, and Polish archives and drawing from studies of published documents, it describes in detail the substantial changes in the day-to-day operation of political structures of the organization, which took place at that time. It attempts to clarify and evaluate the essence of these shifts, to assess them in the context of previous developments, and to outline their significance for the fate of the Warsaw Treaty after 1989. It shows that Gorbachev initiated fairly significant changes in the organization, but he rarely promoted their implementation in anassertive enough manner. However, the greater openness toward and incentives presented to the allies, which characterized the approach of the Soviet Secretary General, were only partly successful. On the one hand, the political structures of the Warsaw Treaty started working in a routine manner for the first time in the history of the organization since 1985, becoming a venue where information was shared and foreign policy viewpoints and initiatives of member states were presented, the deepening crisis of the Eastern Bloc notwithstanding. On the otherhand, however, day-to-day problems in the operation of the political structures of the Warsaw Treaty persisted, reflecting the impasse the Eastern Bloc as a whole and the system of relations between its member states, built in the previous four decades, found itself in. Before 1989, the Warsaw Treaty organization was unable to strengthen itself sufficiently enough, and the collapse of the then existing political regimes in Central and Eastern Europe doomed it to an early demise.

„Meka moć“ i globalno upravljanje svetom

Author(s): Jovan Ćirić / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 3/2014

To enslave someone without any war is the culmination of the military art, used to say one ancient Chinese philosopher. One American politician also said that it is not important how many enemies you have killed, but it is important how many enemies you have attracted to become your ally. On the other side Stalin ironically asked Churchill and Roosevelt how many troops and arms Vatican Pope holds in his hand? Few decades after that, Vatican Polish Pope John Paul II answered on that question, by destroying the Berlin Wall and the whole communism. Anyway, it could be said that for the victory in the so-called Cold War thanks, bombs, aeroplanes, troops were not so important, but the important was how to conquer the heart and the soul of the young people of the opposing side. In that sense Hollywood, R’n’R, pop-culture and generally said the way of life, the life style had the most important role. Even when you hate America, you like Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola, said one Serbian researcher and it is a key for understanding what the soft power is. But, the author of this article thinks that the analyze of the soft-power is important not only for the understanding what has happened in the history in the so-called Cold War. It is also important to understand the system of the rulling of the contemprorary world. French President De Gaulle used to say that it is very dificult to be the ruler of the nation that has more than 300 species of cheese. So, it is always better if people are dressed on the same way, if they watch same movies, if they listen same music, if they believe in same ideas, if they have the same life-styles. Having in mind that the role of the pop-culture and the soft power has the great importance in the global rulling of the world. In that sense, it could be said that different forms of manipulation and media propaganda are very important, and because of that the author of this text has payed great attention to advertising and persuasion. The unification of the life-styles in Mao Tse Tung’s and Stalin’s dictatorships were too obvious, much more than it is obvious today’s unification in the empires (dictatorships) of Beneton, Nike, Lewis, Hugo Boss, and other fashion companies and companies that produce pop-cultural products..

„Oblonul de fier”: Percepțiile unui secretar al lui Iuliu Maniu despre începutul Războiului Rece

Author(s): Oana Ionel,Dragoș Marcu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: I/2006

Nicolae Pascu, whose political memoirs are now made public for the first time, was an interesting character: lawyer, state official, journalist, entrepreneur and active member (with quite important political responsibilities) of the National Peasant party (NPP). He wrote several works dealing with the final years of the NPP. Some of the pages of his political memoirs are vivid - even if sometimes astonishingly naïve - descriptions of events and trends belonging to the early stages larger framework, we now call The Cold War: the political activities of the Soviets in Romania; the domestic political struggle between the Soviet-sponsored Romanian communist and their non-totalitarian competitors; the feeble attempts of the West to involve itself in the effort to preserve the political status quo in Romania; the important amount of wishful thinking which can be detected in the behavior of some leaders in the Peasant Party. All these elements, however sketchy, can be regarded as an important historical source, enabling the researcher to better understand the way in which Cold War started in Eastern Europe.

„Pošteni posrednik”. Jugoslavija između starih i novih spoljnopolitičkih partnerstava sredinom pedesetih godina

Author(s): Vladimir P. Petrović / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The contribution is dealing with the specificities of an important stage in the transformation of Yugoslav foreign policy in the 1950s, characterized by the Yugoslav attempt to conceptualize a flexible diplomacy by performing the role of a broker in international affairs. Mediation in resolving crises was a pragmatic manifestation of the Yugoslav doctrine of active peaceful coexistence, as well as an attempt to harmonize various commitments acquired during intensive cooperation with the West, the East and the noncommited countries. The role of Josip Broz Tito in the development of the Middle East crisis 1955–56 is particularly scrutinized. Through his contacts with state offi cials of all sides, he attempted to alleviate the crisis, legitimizing at the same time an awkward Yugoslav position and presenting the country as a useful impartial channel of global communication. This strive towards the role in international relations which Yugoslavia could hardly sustain brought mixed results. The unpredictability of the international brokering was underlining the tension between the goals of such policies and the scarce resources Yugoslavia had, and was largely abandoned in favour of more institutionalized approach to international relations.

„Republica Maramureș” și strategia politicii de sovietizare a României în viziunea administrației americane

Author(s): Cornel Sigmirean,Gheorghe Cojocaru / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 18/2015

The “Republic of Maramureș” was a distinct state of affairs generated by the Soviets in their politics of subordinating East and Central Europe by installing communist regimes. In the political practice envisaged by Lenin and completed by Stalin, for the extension of communism outside the Soviet Union and its control over a large part of the world all possible actions were allowed, regardless of its immorality and absence of historical or legal foundation.

„Wykupywanie towarów spożywczych trwa”, czyli rzecz o reakcjach społeczeństwa polskiego na kryzys kubański na przykładzie województwa szczecińskiego

Author(s): Katarzyna Rębacka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 02/2016

1962 saw one of the biggest political crises between the super- powers of that time: the USA and the USSR. Never before during the cold war had the lives of the inhabitants of the whole globe been threatened with a total extinction. Was the Polish society conscious of that? Was it prepared for a confrontation, which must have ended in a different way from all the wars that had been waged before? In the documents drawn up by party’s activists and by SB (Public Security Service) functionaries October 1962 constitutes an interesting problem. But that does not refer to decisions made by high- ranking officials. Archival material provides a lot of information concerning the attitude of the society. Therefore it is feasible to answer the question whether the Polish society was conscious of a possible result of the conflict; whether buying out foodstuffs and other necessities could secure their lives; whether the Polish people were interested in and excited about the conflict at all. The author attempts to answer those questions in the article, and – at the same time – to prove that the sources in the archives of the IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) might be useful in investigating problems of social history.

Југославија и блискоисточна криза 1967–1968. године

Author(s): Aleksandar Životić / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The crisis in the Middle East in 1967 left extremely durable marks not only on the relations in the Middle East, but also on global international relations. The vehemence of the conflict between Israel and the Arab nations caused the reaction not only of the countries from the region and both super-powers, but also of other major powers and smaller countries, particularly the non-aligned ones. As a non-aligned country with a tradition of very close ties with Arab countries, Yugoslavia took an active part in the events caused by the brief Third Israeli-Arab war in which the armies of the Arab nations had been routed. Ever since the crisis started, the Yugoslav administration reacted swiftly, participating in a number of actions aimed at helping the Arab countries and alleviating the consequences of the disastrous defeat of their armies. The Yugoslav diplomacy was particularly active in evacuation of the Yugoslav Blue- Helmet contingent stationed in Sinai, which was successfully done. Considerable military and economic aid was sent to the Arab countries. In the diplomatic field Yugoslavia advocated the interests of the Arab nations, insisting on a compromise solution – which at certain point led to a brief cooling of the Yugoslav-Arab relations caused by the rigidity of the Arab nations. The Yugoslav attempt at diplomatic mediation was based on day-to-day contacts with great powers, with an attempt at broader and more versatile engagement of the non-aligned countries with the aim of strengthening the position of the Arab countries. However, the crisis in the socialist world in 1968 and the aggravation of the conflict in the Far East, particularly the war in Vietnam, coupled with the transition of the process of solving the Middle East crisis into a slower, negotiatory phase, caused the Yugoslav diplomacy to show less interest in the removal of the consequences of the Middle East crisis.

Југословенско-италијански односи и чехословачка криза 1968. године

Author(s): Biljana Mišić Ilić / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The crisis in Czechoslovakia greatly influenced the development of political and economic relations between Yugoslavia and Italy. Yugoslavia’s disagreement with the policy of the USSR and her condemnation of the military intervention removed any doubt as to the independence of her foreign policy and spurred Italy to change her policy toward the official Belgrade which had hitherto been marked by reserve and distrust. Furthermore, Italy started regarding her relations with Yugoslavia from the point of view of her own security. This opened the way for improvement of relations between the two countries, so that Italy and Yugoslavia tried to demonstrate by a number of activities, the policy of goodneighborly relations and cooperation. After the August events in Czechoslovakia and the danger the USSR could militarily intervene in Yugoslavia too, Italy started lending support to the official Belgrade through numerous public and secret statements of her state officials. At the same time, she launched initiatives to solve unsolved questions in bilateral relations, such as drawing the definitive borderline. In the field of economy she tried to help Yugoslavia in her negotiations with the European Economic Community concerning export of some Yugoslav commodities to the countries, members of the Community. The new course of Italian policy was welcomed in Yugoslavia, due to the importance of this country for the Yugoslav state. Therefore the official Belgrade tried to use the propitious attitude of Italy to solve numerous matters concerning bilateral relations, particularly those from the sphere of economy.

Југословенско-румунски односи у данима совјетске интервенције у Чехословачкој 1968. године

Author(s): Vladimir Lj. Cvetković / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The crisis which started with the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet, Polish, East-German Hungarian and Bulgarian troops on August 21. 1968, influenced Yugoslav-Romanian relations too. Although the Czechoslovak crisis was globally the „topic of the day” and left its mark on the overall international relations of those days, it seems it had special significance for Yugoslavia and Romania and their mutual relations. That significance laid above all in the fact that refusal to take part in the joint action of the countries of the Warsaw Pact (the member of which it was) in Czechoslovakia, was the point of greatest and most audacious divergence of Romania from the Soviet Union and other East European countries, members of the Warsaw Pact and the Comecon, which came about as the result of the process of gradual and cautious emancipation from the Soviet political and economic domination, that had been going on from mid-1959s. At the same time, the situation created by the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in the period that immediately followed, with the atmosphere of increasingly strained relations of both countries with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries which lent support to the intervention in Czechoslovakia, brought the Yugoslav-Romanian relations to the peak of rapprochement, which was refl ected in frequent contacts on the highest, as well as on lower diplomatic levels. Thus the final result of Romania’s distancing from the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact and the Comecon, was at the same time the peak of rapprochement with the neighboring Yugoslavia. Therefore the Yugoslav-Romanian relations in the days after the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia had a double significance for Yugoslavia. On the level of bilateral relations, the crisis helped Tito during his talks with Ciauşescu in Vršac on August 24, 1968 to define, the framework of Yugoslavia’s future support for Romania’s „independent way”, limiting thus the „intimacy” of the Yugoslav-Romanian embrace. On the other hand, on the level of Yugoslav-Soviet relations, Tito’s influence on Romanians to ease tensions, made it possible for him to send the signal to the Soviets that, despite all differences and ideological divergence, Yugoslavia wasn’t willing to effectively support desires of a member of the Soviet bloc to leave Moscow’s fold.

Ценен документален сборник за най-новата история на България

Любомир Огнянов (съставител). Политическа история на съвременна България. Сборник документи. Т. I. (1944–1947). С., Държавна агенция „Архиви“, 2016.

Author(s): Vladimir Migev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 3-4/2017

Book review

Циганите и изселванията на „българските турци“ (1948–1989)

Author(s): Plamena Stoyanova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2017

“The Gypsies are our own, domestic problem” is a phrase attributed to the long-term former head of the old communist Bulgarian government, Todor Zhivkov. The government policy towards the Gypsy minority in communist Bulgaria is one of inclusion to the Bulgarian way of life, and its implementation is carefully tailored to the specificities of Bulgaria as a country.It is a little known fact that towards the end of the 1940’s, the Bulgarian Gypsies suddenly turn from a “domestic problem” to something much larger and thus become part of the great confrontation between the two world political camps divided by the Iron Curtain. This takes place during the emigration of the ethnic Bulgarian Turks which starts in 1948, and during which, applications for emigration are filed by both Bulgarian Turks and Muslim Bulgarian Gypsies. It is this latter ethnic minority that becomes the cause for a serious conflict between ‘communist Bulgaria’ and ‘capitalist Turkey’.This paper aims at following the events from the end of the 40’s until end of the 80‘s of the previous century as well as analyzing the consequences of the confrontation between the two neighbouring Balkan countries.

Червената армия – „армия-освободителка“ или окупатор: поглед от XXI в.

Author(s): Petya Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 5-6/2016

The article is dedicated to some issues related to the memory of one of the most important events of the 20th century – World War II. The author traces the debate on the role of the Red Army in the war as part of the total revision of its history picking up momentum after the collapse of the communist system and the self-dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The analysis of the changes over the past three decades in the views of this greatest clash in the history of mankind, respectively, the role of the Soviet army in it, rests on several basic postulates. The first of them is the view that history is an endless process of self-knowledge and is related to the need of each generation to make sense of the past in terms of the issues and problems of its present, i.e. the rethinking of what happened during the Second World War is not an exclusive priority of the post-communist era. Secondly, this is a process that affects, at one time or another, each of the states participating in the war, not just the countries of Eastern Europe, from the so-called “socialist camp”, which for many years were forced to adhere to the Soviet version about the war. Thirdly, the history of World War II, taken as a collective historical memory, demonstrates clearly the “multivoicedness” of the historical narrative, the principle inability to build an adequate account of the past from a single point of view within an unmistakable history. On the contrary, we are witnessing a kind of “war of memories”, not only between national discourses but also between the “memories” of different groups of society within one country. It is undisputed, however, that the great rewriting of the history of World War II is in the post-communist era and is mainly related to the participation of the USSR in the war. And the great “battle” of the memories here is led between today’s Russia on the one hand and the former members of the “socialist camp” and of the Soviet Union itself, on the other. That is why the debate about World War II and the role of the Red Army is traced in the article through the prism of the development of the historical policy of the participants in the war. The zigzags in the Russian interpretation of the historical events are compared to the new narratives of Poland, Ukraine and the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the countries located in a special region of Eastern Europe, designated by the Yale University Professor Timothy Snider as the geographical, moral and political centre of the mass murders in the old continent.

Япония – трудният път към демократизацията (1945–1950 г.)

Author(s): Elitsa Mihaylova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1-2/2015

The end of World War II creates multiple new challenges for the Japanese society. The country is devastated and besieged by the victors. General MacArthur is appointed at the head of the occupational forces and Japanese find in him a person truly concerned about their faith. His primary tasks are: the restitution of the broken economy, the democratization of the country as well as its demilitarization. All that could only be achieved through a comprehensive reform of the Japanese legislation, the first step being the adoption of an entirely new constitution. The next step is concentrated on the annihilation of the big monopolists – zaibatsu and the big land owners, which is significant for the stabilizing of the economy and overcoming the ancient feudal dependency of the common peasants. Multiple reforms are conducted closely connected with the relationship between employers and common workers by creating completely new syndicates and trade-union organizations, whose purpose is to guarantee the rights of the workers and to create safer and healthier work environment. All that helps the inveterate Japanese community gradually get used to and accept the ideas of the democratic world and to fully take advantage of its positives.