L’Europe centrale dans le «concert européen»
The questions of connection to European Union in Central Europe at the beginnings of the 21st century . The author of this study analizes these questions in historical context.
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The questions of connection to European Union in Central Europe at the beginnings of the 21st century . The author of this study analizes these questions in historical context.
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During 1955-1956, using the two international „windows of opportunity” – the conclusion of the Peace Treaty with Austria, in August 1955, and the crisis in the Soviet bloc provoked by the Hungarian Revolution, in 1956 – the Romanian Communist leadership tried to force a Soviet decision regarding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Romania. This article recreates the circumstances of this crucial decision: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’ strategy,Nikita Khruschev’s reactions, and the divergent opinions within the RWP. Using new sources, the author revises previous interpretations and clarifies aspects remained unsolved until now.
More...Vanda Nicolski și emigrația românească din U.R.S.S. în timpul Marii Terori, 1936-1938, I
In order to better introduce the published documents, I largely explained the broader context which encompass the moment when they were written. Vanda Nicolski, a major leader of the Communist Party of Romania, a member of the Central Committee and of the Political Bureau during the ‘30s, wrote two large reports in June and August 1938, when she was in Moscow. Clearly, her confessions, written during the Great Terror, weren’t innocent pieces of evidence scrutinizing the history of the C.P.o.R. per se, but they were meant to incriminate as many professional revolutionaries as possible. I tried to explain what stood behind her statement. The contents exposed by Vanda Nicolski refers mostly to the complex and fluid relationships established into the Party inner circle during Al. Daneliuk-Ștefansky’s mandate as general secretary of the C.P.o.R., which overlaps mostly the Great Depression.The author also provides a lot of details regarding the policies put in place by the communist establishment, from Moscow, but from Romania too, in order to borrow the main features requested by Comintern in its so called „third period“. For instance, details from the inner party circle regarding the Grivița strike from 1933 could be very useful for any future discussion about one of the most important upheavals in Romania’s XXth century history.
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Since the takeover of the Soviet power in 1925, by adopting an ideology tributary to the Tsarist roots, Stalin succeeded – the signing of the Moscow Pact (August 23, 1939) – to impose his own ‘russocentric’ policy. Through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet-German partnership that followed (1939-1941), Stalin managed to create a replica of the Russian Empire at the western borders of the USSR. The extension of Soviet influence in the territories of eastern Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Southeastern Europe (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) meant ensuring a restricted security sphere at the boundaries of the west of the Soviet Union. We believe that, for Stalin, the security of the Soviet state could be fulfilled only through the international political supremacy, an ideal followed by every russian vojdi (leader). In our study we observe whether and to what extent the role of the Russian idea– manifested by the need for supremacy – was decisive in designing and implementing foreign policy directions by Stalin during the Soviet-German alliance (1939-1941).
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Since the former American official Raymond L. Garthoff disclosed the content of a secret conversation between the Romanian Foreign Minister Corneliu Mănescu and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, one of the most important episodes in Romania’s history has been shrouded in mystery. This article presents the American version of the conversation and asserts its significance for the evolution of the Romanian-American relations in the Cold War. There are still some aspects of the episode which are unclear and which may never be elucidated. However, the American version of the meeting of 4 October 1963 completes the overall picture of a year of profound changes for the history of the Cold War.
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In this article, the author publishes the last three parts of Mihai Botez’ survey that approached the analysis of the impact of the human rights issue on US foreign policy during the Carter administration), the US-Romanian relations since 1980 to 1985, and how American foreign policy influenced the evolution of the Romanian Communist regime and the perception of the general public toward America. Even if Botez’ study was not well received in the American circles, the text remains an original approach of American-Romanian relations during Ceauşescu’s regime.
More...Stenograma discuţiilor Ceauşescu – Genscher din 5 decembrie 1975
The official visit in Romania of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Federal Foreign Minister, was a good opportunity for the Romanian authorities to continue the policy of independence from Moscow. Bilateral relations, the issue of ethnic German immigration, aspects of international life were discussed by Nicolae Ceauşescu and Hans-Dietrich Genscher.
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On 4 December 1989, at Moscow took place the last meeting of the WTO members. Several issues concerning the situation in the socialist countries were discussed. Among them, adopting a Declaration by the five states that invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and which were willing to publicly admit that the intervention had been a mistake. In this article, the author analyses the historigraphical controversy related to Nicolae Ceauşescu’s refusal to sign the Declaration. Using recently declassified Russian documents, the author proves that the Romanian leader did not recant his 1968 position.
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The goal of the following research is to elicit the mechanisms behind the construction of local discourses around cultural project in Perm. To achieve this goal the researcher starts with historical comparison of social circumstances around local discourses in Perm in the XIXth, the XXth centuries and the post-Soviet era. When the research moves to the key events of cultural project in Perm, it reveals social conflict between local communities and project leaders. Understanding of this conflict requires the next step: reconstruction of the discourses belonging to various local cultural leaders, civic activists, leaders of the cultural project in Perm. Analysis of various interviews and publications of local media allows to scrutinize evolution of discourse from “unique identity of Perm” narrative to “resistance vs. Moscow invaders” narrative. The article ends with characterization of a new local discourse formed in the end of the conflict.
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The important role of expos in the twentieth-century history is highlighted. The dearth of factual definiteness and fundamental studies on Bulgaria’s participations in these events gave grounds for this paper. The mounting of the national participation in the International Exhibition in Paris 1937 is traced, which has begun two years earlier. The Export Institute and the royal Legation to Paris, whose archives are the main source of information used in this study, succeeded in attracting to the process renowned specialists in each of the fields to be presented at the expo. The article focuses mainly on the architectural and art designs of the Bulgarian pavilion. The commissions and contests are traced, preceding the construction and the decoration of the pavilion. The programme of the mural painting contest is covered in detail as well as that of the competition for an illustrative industrial map of Bulgaria. The work of architects Yordan Yordanov and Delcho Sugarev; of Ivan Penkov, the artist assigned to design the entire decoration and furnishing of the pavilion as well as the competition winners Detchko Ouzounov and Tsanko Lavrenov, is highlighted. The interior design and the decoration of the pavilion are in perfect harmony and completely in accord with the architectural design. The joint efforts of a number of specialists, the exchange of creative ideas and skills, though missing the deadlines, resulted in a consistent, compact and catchy visual effect with the pavilion’s illuminated sign Bulgarie.
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The basic source for the study of the pattern of a diplomat were old diplomacy guides from the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, written by authors such as Krzysztof Warszewicki, Wawrzyniec Piaseczyński and Stanisław Miński. They were all practitioners in the diplomatic service, and each of them had left their own ideas concerning this issue. Despite some differences in the emphasis on individual values, they remained consistent in the basic standards. That convergence concerns not only the axiological aspect, but above all the similarity of approach. As a result, we are dealing with depersonalized though personified patterns. This allows us to distinguish those patterns from personal ones, associated with real characters. This observation prompted the formulation of a new definition of a pattern and personal model, written from a historian’s point of view. Both: the above mentioned differentiation and the distinguishing of values conditioning the existence of patterns and models – hence moral authorities, distinguishing between the objective (external), subjective (internal), professional and socio-religious, constitute the essence of the paper. From this perspective, a model diplomat appears as a noble (usually) wealthy man (prefe-rably), a professional of the highest quality, while at the same time a good husband, son, father, neighbour, statesman, patriot and Christian. Analysing other patterns favoured at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, it can be seen that in general they represent a sum of clearly positive characteristics. The model of a diplomat ordering a double morality might be an exception to this rule. On the one hand, bearing in mind the tasks that the diplomat had to complete, this double morality was obvious, but on the other hand, such a requirement could evoke, and it really did, ethical discomfort and confusion of values. In no case did those confusions concern the authors of the guides. For them, the sovereignty of the fatherland and the Christian faith always remained the highest values. In the name of such values, even unethical conduct was ethical in every respect, because it served the supreme goals.
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Although the Eighty Years’ War has been a much-researched topic in Western European historiography, in Poland it still remains on the margin of interest of modern historians. In the present article, the initial stage of the Dutch Revolt against Spain, until the year 1574, was presented as an asymmetric conflict from the perspective of environmental history. As a result of the defeat of William of Orange’s regular army during the campaign of 1568, the main burden of the fighting was borne by the ‘watergeuzen,’ i.e. the captains and crews of frequently pirate ships equipped with letters of marque. Their actions kept the fire of revolt burning, and the capture of the port of Den Briel offered a sign for starting a new march into Brabant. The development of the events in the Netherlands and the military situation were influenced by climatic changes. The Little Ice Age left its mark on both the reasons for and particular events of the uprising. Cold winters or floods accompanying storms and thaws often determined the fate of cities and of the whole conflict.
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This article presents the offensive of the Dutch West India Company conducted in Brazil in 1634–1636. The conquest by Sigismund von Schkoppe and Krzysztof Arciszewski of one of the biggest cities of the New World – Paraíba and the fortress Arraial Velho do Bom Jesus, as well as the battle carried on 17th and 18th January 1636 were described. The Dutch successes during the war were mostly the result of military reforms carried out by Krzysztof Arciszewski in cooperation with Schkoppe. The Colonel mainly adjusted the organization of the army to the unusual terrain which was Brazil. At first, huge areas were controlled by a small army of several thousand. For this reason, and because of the landform, he reduced the number of companies and introduced military units of 40 or 50 people. He also gave up pikemen formations and increased the number of musketeers instead. Furthemore, the Colonel tried to unite actions of the navy and infantry.
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commanding troops with different kinds of weapon, as well as the lack of understanding of the changes in the battlefield at the beginning of the 18th century were the reasons why Polish cavalry officers, coming across a Swedish division, rarely decided to take up open battle. It was then when the basic action of the Polish cavalry became the hit-and-run attacks, based on the mobility of the troops and element of surprise. Such a situation had a place during the Tarnogród Confederation, when the enemy were the Saxon forces. As long as the hit-and-run tactics were applied, the confederates were successful, but whenever they decided to fight in the open field, they suffered defeat.
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The Boer War seems to be a classic example of an asymmetric conflict, mainly because of the difference in the potential of the two sides. It is worth considering, however, if it can really be classified as such. If we thoroughly analyze the events and development of the conflict, especially its first stage, it will turn out that it is hard to speak of an asymmetric conflict in this case. The Boer War adopted characteristics of an asymmetric conflict with time, with its peak in the autumn of 1900, when the Boers finally started using typical guerilla tactics.
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The term ‘asymmetric conflict’ is mainly used with reference to modern times to describe a conflict of two enemies whose resources differ significantly. However, it seems justifiable to use this term also to refer to confrontations which took place in the past. That is why an analysis was made of the Third Anglo-Afghan war as an example of an asymmetric conflict. At first sight it would seem that what we have here is a typical clash between a weaker opponent and a much more powerful one. However, a more in-depth analysis of the characteristics of this conflict in the context of asymmetry questions the simplified assertion that the Third Anglo-Afghan War was this kind of confrontation.
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