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"Ковачница за мъже" или ... задължителната наборна казарма в представите на българина през Социализма

Author(s): Iliya Valev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2014

One widespread proverb in Bulgaria, knowing some different versions, says that “Man, who did not passed conscription is not a man”, “A boy, who failed to enter military service is second-hand man”, “A man, who has not walked as a soldier knows nothing”. What exactly is conscription according to public understanding of Bulgarians? What attitudes have the society to compulsory conscription? Frontier of what is the portal on the military unit? These and other issues related to conscription during socialism will be explored.

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Към модернизация и еманципация - мъжките момичета на социалистическия свята

Author(s): Zhanina Stoyanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2014

Аfter the adoption of the Dimitrov Constitution of 1947 bulgarian women received an equitable rights with men. This includes access to male jobs, which is part of the emancipation in its socialist version. Women enter in branches of light and heavy industry. Newspapers, magazines, cinema and literature become active participants in building image of the new women – „masculine women”.

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Спомени за погребалните обичаи на мюсюлманите по време на комунизма

Author(s): Sevim Kurtchu / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2014

The article presents funeral rites of Muslims in Bulgaria during the period of socialism. The author held fieldwork in the region of Kubrat (Northern Bulgaria). Memories about official communist policies are explored in terms of atheistic assimilatory communist policies.

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България и българите в идеологията на югославските комунисти

Author(s): Milen Mihov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2013

The formation of communist Yugoslavia goes through formation of a federal state after the Soviet pattern. The project implementation requires the formation of People’s Republic of Macedonia as a national state of the „Macedonian nation”. The communist project of Macedonia is characterized not by its ideological construction but by the underlying nationalism. Maintaining the stable image of Bulgaria and the Bulgarians as enemies and cause of the partition of Macedonia is of great importance for the internal consolidation of Yugoslavia.

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Културата и идеологическият императив зад „желязната завеса“ в началото на Студената война

Author(s): Evgenia Kalinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2013

In the end of 1940s and the beginning of 1950s, in close connection with the sharp ideological East-West opposition, the Stalinist model of socialism was imposed on East European states. Its important characteristic feature was the total control over the cultural processes and the constant attempts at using the intelligentsia for the realization of the Communist party’s political program. The present paper aims at presenting the concrete parameters of this process on the basis of Bulgarian case. The accent is put on the copying of the Soviet example in managing the culture and in preserving the control over the intelligentsia in the sphere of literature and arts. During the period in regard the repressive character of the Communist regime was most clearly manifested. There were firm instructions to follow strictly the model of „socialist realism” and to reject „the reactionary” Western culture. The intellectuals and their professional unions were constantly under suspicion for direct relations with the „enemy” and such cases are discussed in this paper. It also aims at analyzing the models of intellectual behavior in the face of Communist party efforts to make the intelligentsia serve its political intentions.

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Kриза и гурбет в постсоциалистическия период (по материали за бесарабските българи)

Author(s): Sonya Sredkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2012

The article presents ethnographic data concerning temporary labour migrations of Bulgarians from the diaspora. Migrations to “the old fatherland” are the special focus in this study.

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Жилището на бесарабските българи в руската и постсъветската историография

Author(s): Elka Mincheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2012

The article presents studies of houses and constructions in Bulgarian and Gagauzian villages in Bessarabia. The author argues that post-soviet studies have elaborated a detailed picture of the technology and rituals related to newly constructed homes.

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Избирането на д-р Желю Желев за председател (президент) на Народна република България от Седмото Велико народно събрание

Author(s): Asen Tyutyundzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

The article examines a number of specific political events and processes, which led to Dr Zhelyu Zhelev’s election, by the Seventh Grand National Assembly (GNA), as Chairman/President of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. It presents a brief historical overview and analysis of the emergence of a democratic opposition in Bulgaria and the opposition’s subsequent discussions with the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) at the National Round Table. Special attention is paid to debates within the most important anti-communist federation, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), and its initial nomination of Dr Petar Dertliev for the presidency. The article considers the five voting rounds, which did not result in the election of head of state, as emphasis is laid on the motives and political views of the three candidates for the post. The reasons for the BCP’s unwillingness to support Dr Dertliev’s candidacy and his decision not to run are analysed at considerable length. Attention then focuses on Dr Zhelev’s nomination for the post by the UDF and the sixth round of voting by the Seventh GNA, which led to his election as President. The reasons for the BCP’s decision to support an opposition candidate are discussed as well as “the historic compromise” that was made in electing, for the first time in several decades, a head of state who was nor connected with the Communist Party.

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Contra spem spero. Spotkania Herlinga z Szałamowem

Author(s): Grzegorz Przebinda / Language(s): Russian,Polish Issue: 2/2019

The article is an attempt at a comprehensive, synthetic description of the attitude of Gustav Herling-Grudzinski (1919–2000) – a great Polish writer in exile, a prisoner of Stalinist labour camps (1940–1942), and then the author of A World Apart (1951) – to the work of Varlam Shalamov (1907–1982) – an eminent Russian writer who wrote in the USSR and had been a former long-term prisoner of the Soviet labour camps (1929–1931; 1937–1951). Shalamov is primarily known as the author of the brilliant, but extremely dark Kolyma Tales (written in 1954–1962, and published 1966–1967), autobiographical, but above all describing the state of the human being of the first half of the 20th century in extremely inhuman conditions. Eagerly reading Shalamov from the beginning of the 70s until the end of his life, Herling sought from this Russian brotherly soul of his (whom he had obviously known from his publications only) the answers to both historical and metaphysical questions. On the one hand, the attitude and creative works of people like Shalamov proved to him that “another Russia” did exist – as a sort of “underground source” in the process of liberating of Eastern and Central Europe from the yoke of Communism – inevitable in Herling’s view. On the other hand, the Polish writer did not accept Shalamov’s extremely pessimistic picture of the world and the human being, strongly believing that there is a “hard core” in man, in Franz Kafka’s language, that cannot be eradicated by even the most inhuman system, neither Nazism nor Communism, referred to by Herling as “twin brothers”. The Polish writer finally recognized Shalamov – a convinced atheist it should be added – as a saintly person, alongside with the noteworthy figures who were so important for Europe – Father Maksymilan Kolbe, Janusz Korczak, Albert Camus or Franz Kafka.

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LES ÉCHELLES SPATIO-TEMPORELLES DES PRATIQUES DE LA FRONTIÈRE. MOBILITÉS, MÉMOIRES, ET DÉVELOPPEMENT URBAIN DANS LE BANAT ROUMAIN (JIMBOLIA)

Author(s): Bianca Botea / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

I propose here to look at the transformations of a border landscape of a small town (Jimbolia, Romania), in a context of border opening after 1989 and industrial crisis. I focus my attention on the role of the border in the social configurations of the city, both at the level of the daily practices of its inhabitants (and tourists), and at the level of the urban renewal. I also examine the extensible social spaces that are created around the use and crossing of this border and I show the time-space scales of these territories of circulation. I show that they mobilize networks of kinship, language and more broadly ethnic, as well as the memory processes. The text opens up to methodological and epistemological aspects concerning the “multi-site ethnography” of borders.

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LE RETOUR DES PÉLASGES. INÉGALITÉS ET IMAGINAIRE NATIONAL SUR LA FRONTIÈRE ENTRE LA GRÈCE ET L’ALBANIE

Author(s): Gilles de Rapper / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2023

The revival and popular success of theories on the Pelasgian origin of Albanians since the late 1990s is a significant phenomenon of post-socialist identity processes, yet relatively neglected by the scientific literature. The now well-established neo-Pelasgian discourse sees Albanians as direct descendants of the Pelasgians, a prehistoric population conceived as the origin of all civilizations in the ancient Mediterranean. The aim of this article is to provide a first picture of this quest for origins and to propose an explanation. The argument is that neo-Pelasgianism can be seen as the result of a combination of the history of ideas about the origins of Albanians since the nineteenth century, on the one hand, and of the dynamics of identity linked to the opening of Albania’s borders at the beginning of the 1990s and the massive migration of Albanians to Greece, on the other. The demonstration is based both on a review of the neo-Pelasgian literature and on fieldwork conducted in southern Albania. It aims to show that far from being limited to the reveries of amateurs, discourses on imagined origins, of which neo-Pelasgianism is an example, have real effects on societies and territories.

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Subcultures as Active Participant in the Transition: the Bulgarian Case in the 1980s – 2000s

Author(s): Alexandаr Karakachanov,Nina Debruyne / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2023

The object of research presented in the article is the transition from a totalitarian to a democratic society in Bulgaria from the 1990s and the 2000s, and its subject is the contribution of the subcultural communities formed in this period, to the implementation of various social changes. The main research hypothesis is that at the end of the totalitarian regime and in the beginning of the transition in the political, economic and cultural life in Bulgaria, there were formed several main subcultures with various degrees of critical influence over the development of social processes in the country. A main mechanism of influence which transforms the subcultures in active agents of the historical change are the so-called ‘culturemes’. So far, the study identified several significant subcultures of which two political playing the leading role in the transition. They are based on ideological structures consisting of limited number of simple ideologemes (the culturemes of the political conscience). The research is based on a sociocultural analysis of documents, surveys and interviews. It combines the perspectives of social history with those of political science and social anthropology.

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SOUS LE SIGNE DE PERESTROÏKA : HISTOIRE, TÉMOIGNAGE ET RÉSILIENCE DANS LE ROMAN NOUS DÎNERONS EN FRANÇAIS (2015) D’ALBENA DIMITROVA

Author(s): Vassiliki Lalagianni / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

Albena Dimitrova (1969 – ), Bulgarian-born writer, poet and playwright, belongs to the corpus of « contemporary extreme » women writers who have chosen to express themselves in French, in the context of a migratory or exile situation, or out of an attraction to this language that represents the host country, France. In her novel Nous dînerons en français (2015) Dimitrova blends individual stories and major national events with extraordinary mastery. This work of autofiction bears witness to an era marked by austere politics in Bulgaria throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a tumultuous period when perestroïka and glasnost challenged the regime in power. Through the prism of a passionate and forbidden love, Dimitrova sketches the background of existences, showing how the destinies of individuals are buffeted by the winds of History.

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HUMAN RIGHTS AND INSTITUTION BUILDING IN POST-SOCIALIST ALBANIA. THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Juliana GJINKO / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

Central and Eastern European nations have undergone significant socioeconomic policy reforms since the collapse of their socialist centralized systems. Since 1992, the Republic of Albania has faced numerous significant obstacles, and at first, eliminating gender inequality was not given much priority. In addition to being a fundamental right and a shared ideal of EU institutions, gender equality is a crucial component that must be included in the legal systems of all candidate nations hoping to join the EU. Social exclusion in developing countries can take two forms: active or passive. Women's needs and interests are typically overlooked because they are shut out of numerous aspects of life, including work, education, access to the legal system, the realization of their property rights, and so on. The Republic of Albania has created several laws, policies, and action plans about gender equality in the wake of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in addition to policies against human trafficking, domestic abuse, closing the representational gap in politics and the economy, and other issues. In this essay, I examine Albania's approach to assessing European standards and, if applicable, modify them to fit regional political customs and cultural norms. The best way to enforce laws, rather than just creating rules, models, and regulations, is to ensure that the body of law is in harmony with the culture in which it operates. In pursuing full EU integration, this is an overall effort to assess and contrast some of the approaches and measures Albanian representatives and society have taken to address the gender factor in the democratization process and institution-building.

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THE NECESSITY AND EFFICIENCY OF NATO-LED INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO AFTER 1999

Author(s): Cristina - Alexandra Deffert,Iuliana Neagoş / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

On June 11th, 1999, NATO initiated the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a peacekeeping mission, in Kosovo, immediately following the ratification of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. At that juncture, the Yugoslav military forces were deeply embroiled in hostilities with the Kosovo Liberation Army, thereby precipitating a dire humanitarian crisis within Kosovo. The exodus of nearly a million individuals from Kosovo as refugees, a significant proportion of whom never returned to their homes, underscored the gravity of the situation. Subsequently, KFOR's mission centered on the establishment of a secure environment and the facilitation of unimpeded freedom of movement for all inhabitants across the entire expanse of Kosovo, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. This paper seeks to delineate whether the sustained presence of a permanent peacekeeping force within the region was a requisite imperative and whether it has engendered any salutary impacts on the broader spectrum of human security.

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THE MOST RECENT COLLECTIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE TRANSNISTRIAN ISSUE: ”THE ARMED CONFLICT OF THE DNIESTER. THREE DECADES LATER”, BY PETER LANG PUBLISHING GROUP

Author(s): Marius Spechea / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The publication of the international volume dedicated to the conflict on the Dniester, ”The Armed Conflict of the Dniester. Three Decades Later”, published by the prestigious Peter Lang Publishing Group in the series "South-East European History" represents the crowning of a sustained effort of almost three years from several editors and researchers from Romania, the United States of America, Germany, Turkey and the Republic of Moldova coordinated as volume editor by Professor Eugen Străuţiu. The current context of regional and international security makes studying and deeply understanding the dynamics of the Transnistrian settlement an asset for anyone who wants to understand the overall picture of our geopolitical region.

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”ASPECTS OF ISLAMIC RADICALIZATION IN THE BALKANS AFTER THE FALL OF COMMUNISM” PETER LANG PUBLISHING GROUP

Author(s): Nicoleta Annemarie Munteanu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The international volume ”Aspects of Islamic Radicalization in the Balkans After the Fall of Communism”, published in 2023 by the Peter Lang Publishing Group represents a genuine assessment of the Islamic fundamentalism way spread in the Balkans since communism` fall, among the Muslim population, which add to the already existing literature. The studies included in this volume bring to the fore specific issues regarding certain geographical areas: Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Serbia, as well as holistic approaches within the role of Islam in the Balkans and the related connections with the historical, religious, political, economic, and social aspects in terms of radicalization.

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Българската народна армия в оценките на НАТО за Съветския блок, 1950 - 1953 г.

Author(s): Boyan Zhekov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1s/2024

In the period 1950 – 1953, NATO member countries and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (NRB) were on the opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. As a result, the Bulgarian Armed Forces found a place in the Alliance’s estimates of the military potential of the Soviet bloc. Expectedly, the Bulgarian army was rarely an independent object of analysis in the NATO documents. More often the Bulgarian armed forces were considered within the framework of the overall findings regarding the military capabilities of the USSR’s satellites. Of course, it is not enough just to describe what information about the armed forces of NRB can be found in the materials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from the beginning of the 1950s. It is far more important to compare the estimates with other data concerning the Bulgarian army at that time.

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The Discourse of the Past and the Role of Memory in the Lithuanian and Latvian Cultural Press during the Transition Period (1988–1992)

Author(s): Viktorija Jonkutė / Language(s): English Issue: 52/2023

The aim of the article is to analyze the discourse of the past that developed in the Lithuanian and Latvian cultural press in the late 1980s and early 1990s, discussing the dominant conceptions of history and perception of time. It is generally argued that with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union an era of presentism began. However, the post-Soviet transition materialized in the Lithuanian and Latvian cultural press as a reconstructive, retrospective transformation, dominated by narratives about the past. This research is based on theoretical assumptions about collective memory (Halbwachs 1951; Assmann 2020), the regime of historicity (Hartog 2015; Koselleck 2004), and the inventory of temporal perspective (Zimbardo, Boyd 1999; 2008). Most of the analyzed material is cultural periodicals: weekly Literatūra ir menas (Literature and Art) and Šiaurės Atėnai (Athens of the North) and monthly Pergalė (Victory; in 1991 renamed Metai (Year)) and Kultūros barai (Domains of Culture), Sietynas (The Pleiades), Nemunas (The [River] Nemunas); Latvian monthly periodicals Avots (Source) and Karogs (Flag) and weekly Literatūra un Māksla (Literature and Art). These are occasionally supplemented by other periodicals and publications, as well as by the general context. Researching them, ten discursive functions of the interacting (re)constructed forms of memory were identified: communicative/informational, functional/pragmatic, testimonial/justice-driven, emotional/therapeutic, ontological/metalinguistic, reproductive/mimetic, identity-based, social/ mobilizing, ethical/moral, political/ideological.

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CUCIURGAN POWER PLANT. RISKS FOR THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Author(s): Iachimenco Iurie / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Today, the energy dependence of the Republic of Moldova has its beginnings in the communist period. Through the secret Ribbentrop - Molotov pact (1939), Bessarabia was ceded to the USSR, which fully benefited from this territory, exploiting, and using all the natural and human resources to the maximum, therefore a multitude of plants and factories were being built for this purpose. However, given the fact that the small country located between the Prut and Dniester rivers has no natural fuel deposits and no energy resources of its own, to reduce production and logistics costs, it was necessary to supply this territory with energy. Thus, in 1964, the USSR built a thermoelectric plant not anywhere, but very strategically located on the banks of the Dniester River, in the city of Dnestrovsk in the region called Transnistria, on the border with Ukraine, which was closer to the USSR's sphere of influence than Romania. The operation of this energetic complex was also strategically thought out. The power plant was to operate based on natural gas, fuel oil and coal, which were not found on the territory of Bessarabia anyway. In 1992, through the direct involvement of the Russian Federation, the newly independent state Republic of Moldova, followingly lost constitutional control over this territory and the plant and other strategic industrial objectives. Heretofore, this territory is politically controlled by the Russian Federation, which, using the leverage it has in Transnistria, energetically blackmails the Republic of Moldova to obtain political dividends and to keep it in its sphere of political influence. However, the military conflict in Ukraine could change this situation in the region.

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