![1989 After 1989](/api/image/getbookcoverimage?id=document_cover-page-image_424955.jpg)
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; Czechoslovak residency; 1959; Cuba; Havana; Cuban Security Service; USSR; KGB; Soviet satelites;
In the second half of 1959, the policy of the Soviet Union and its satellites towards Cuba changed. An irreplaceable role in this process was played by the Soviet intelligence service, the 1st Chief Directorate of the KGB attached to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, headed by General Alexander Mikhailovich Sakharovsky , which also engaged the security services of Soviet satellites into the complicated foreign operation to obtain an important beachhead in the western hemisphere. However, the scope of Czechoslovak assistance in the area of security and the influence of the Czechoslovak State Security in Cuba have remained basically up to now on the edge of professional interest.
More...Keywords: Czecoslovakia; Foreign Legion; Pavel Knihař; Legion of Honor; communist regime;
Pavel Knihař celebrated his 80th birthday on 9 January this year. Many a young man could be envious of his physical and mental condition. But things were exactly the opposite when he was born in Třešť in Moravia. As he says, he survived only thanks to a “miraculous elixir”. A local quack smeared cat’s lard on the newborn’s little body and cured him. Pavel Knihař spent part of his childhood in Slovakia, where his father Josef worked as an inspector of farming cooperatives, while his mother Marie (née Burdová) took care of the household and the children – two daughters and two sons. Slovak schoolmates abused little Pavel, called him a dirty Czech and bullied him. The teacher was not kind to him either. The family came back to Bohemia in early 1939. Slovakia had become autonomous by then; separatist tendencies gained momentum there, and relations between Czechs and Slovaks deteriorated sharply. Back in Bohemia, Pavel’s situation was similar. His schoolmates abused him, calling him a dirty Slovak idiot, and the teacher punished him for speaking Slovak. It was not until the family moved to Prague in the summer of 1939 that the problems ceased and he finally “became” a Czech. Thanks to excellent academic results, Pavel went to the Higher Industrial Chemical School in Prague 1 in 1946. But politics thwarted his dream of becoming a chemist. He would certainly have had a successful career in chemistry, since he had completed his second (and final) year with honours. But February 1948 changed his life forever.
More...The politics of regional governance in the Danish-German border region is breaking new grounds for the European minority rights regime. Drawing not only on their well-developed cross-cultural knowledge and natural social capital but also on years of institutionalised intercultural dialogue at various levels, the national minorities have increasingly informed an emerging regional discourse seeking economic development through crossborder institutionalisation and capacity-building (Competence Analysis 2007). When a need for new cross-border infrastructure or service projects is identified, it is often the members of the national minorities that spot the opportunities. When harmonisation of social protection regulation was identified as a major hurdle to labour commute across the border, the national minorities engaged their national heads of governments to address the issue. When the 2007-2013 INTERREG Commission was established, representatives of the national minorities were seated alongside local representatives. When public authorities and local governments meet to review cross-border projects and progress, the national minorities participate. When the Euro-region assembly meet, representatives of the national minorities take their seats as elected officials. This is by no means a ‘best case’ scenario. The national minorities have fought hard for an increased influence through their local commissions and representative offices. Their political parties have been active since the end of World War II (Kühl 2001). And there are still areas where the national minorities are excluded even though their actions complement the ongoing strategydefinition (Competence Analysis 2007). But where the early years saw the minority parties pursuing an emancipation discourse, the broader European integration discourse has seen them turn to regional development (Klatt and Kühl 1999). Thus, years of trust building have enabled a ‘marriage’ between former antagonists in the common pursuit of regional development. This is a pursuit that aims at transforming a region that is still peripheral to nation-states’ economies into a progressive and modern border region. The ultimate goal is a prosperous region that can compete in the ‘new’ regionalism of the European Union (EU) (Keating 1998). But it is a region suffering the legacy of a ‘hard’ security border, even as the Schengen co-operation was initiated in 2001 (Klatt 2006). Thus, a common identity of the people residing in the region does not exist. Biculturalism is, however, everyday life for the national minorities and a united Europe without borders; it is a natural desire, the state boundaries having separated them from their kin-states for centuries. Moreover, a certain ‘Europeanness’ has come to inform their collective identities (Competence Analysis 2007, Malloy 2009). These factors contribute to the desire of elite actors for greater European integration, and thus create a new type of minority-majority politics in the border region. This politics is informed not only by the EU’s cohesion strategy, the Regional Policy, but also by the Council of Europe’s democratisation strategy, especially the Outline Convention. EU Structural Funds played a first role in initiating the cross-border co-operation, and the establishment of a Euro-region institutionalised the partnership. But it was the Council of Europe’s normative framework on minority rights, the Framework Convention, which became, if not key, at least a major factor in ensuring national minority participation in this co-operation. There is thus reason to argue that the intersection of these integration strategies makes for a view that the democratisation narrative on minority rights converges with the Europeanisation narrative in this border region.Although neither the EU’s Regional Policy nor the Council of Europe’s Outline Convention provisions national minority rights; they nonetheless address an issue of European integration that is contingent, namely the co-operation across state boundaries that for years has separated national minorities from their kin-states. Coupled with the ongoing implementation of the normative framework on minority rights ratified by both nationstates, this paper argues that the convergence of these narratives lends itself to support a different view of the European minority rights regime, a view based not as heretofore on normative frameworks but also on the dynamics of Europeanisation. Europeanisation is seen here not in terms of outward expansion of European values but as the ex post process of entrenching European values through deepened inward integration. The paper will describe and analyse the new type of minority-majority politics in the Danish-German border region with specific focus on the actions and functions of the national minorities in relation to the border region’s development strategy. It will be argued that because this new type of minority-majority politics is rooted in minority rights and functions on the basis of the core tenets of diversity and pluralism in European values, it speaks not only to the dynamics of Europeanisation but also puts the European minority rights regime in a new light.
More...The expression communist regime refers in this report to the Soviet-type system of rule installed in Hungary after WWII, which persisted until the democratic transformation of 1989–90. Historians attach various terms to this system and this period, and there are a number of incompatible frames for discussing events associated with them. János Kornai, for example, calls it the socialist system and lists as its most general attributes a one-party political system, a monopoly for Marxist-Leninist political ideology, predominance of state or quasi-state ownership, bureaucratic coordination, and a centralized command economy. In the 1950s the Soviet-type system (following Hannah Arendt, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Carl Friedrich) was frequently classed among the totalitarian systems, with chiliastic ideology, a single mass party headed by the dictator, state terror, a monopoly of mass communications, and a centralized planned economy as its main attributes. These translate into institutions and /or patterns of conduct. The institutions altered little over the history of the Soviet-type systems, but there was much change in their methods of working, social embeddedness, interactions, approach to the subjugated, social autonomies and individual strategies. But there also exists a concept of the Soviet-type system – particularly that of the post-Stalinist period – as latent pluralism, exemplified by the Western revisionism that flourished in the 1960s. Others see continuity with the efforts of the Russians (or the Chinese in an Asian variant) to build and maintain an empire. A few claim it to be an alternative to the West European/Atlantic form of modernity, or a kind of catch-up modernization dictatorship that reflects that.
More...Keywords: BiH; Public law; constitution; reform; constitution model; projection; political organisation; teritorial organisation; courts; organisation of courts; authority distribution;
(English edition) At the request of the Nasa stranka, within the frame of activities of the Public Law centre (further in text CJP), I have written the Projection of a new constitutional model for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Projection is included in this document. The constitutional solutions have been presented as a set of principles which are yet to be concretised. The model was developed in a form of thirteen theses. Actual solutions are presented from the thesis No. 6, while the first five theses define terminological and legal standards.
More...Keywords: history; violence
More...A survey of Hungarian industrial or applied arts is guided by historical factors, the practice of the craft , and social, political, and cultural movements. Th is survey can be divided logically into two parts, the first period lasting from the conquest of Hungary to the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, and the second from that time to our day. The first period, lasting about 900 years, included the whole Carpathian Basin as unifi ed geographical area. We shall focus our att ention on the 100 years of development that are in direct contact with our day. Th is period describes the time that the signifi cance of Hungarian applied arts within the applied arts of Europe and the world became stabilized.
More...Keywords: Putin; Russia; elections;
On 6 December Vladimir Putin announced that he will run in the presidential election to be held on 18 March 2018. The absence of any change in the office of Russia’s president is rooted in the logic of a personalised system of governance that has emerged in Russia. It is also a demonstration of the government’s will to maintain the present course in domestic and foreign policy, one that is static and devoid of any scope for development. This is regardless of the fact that the government is struggling with increasingly serious economic and socio- -political challenges. These mainly include economic stagnation, continuously decreasing real incomes, and tense relations with the West, all combined with the lack of a coherent, positive ideology to legitimise Putin’s model. Against this backdrop, the election-related actions the government has taken to date are of a provisional and tactical nature: they focus on efforts to achieve a stabilisation of the socio-political situation and to eliminate possible threats to the ruling elite in the pre- and post-election period. At the same time, attempts are being made to make the electoral ritual more attractive, so as to boost turnout and thereby demonstrate a high approval rating for both the president and the model of governance he endorses.
More...Keywords: China;nationalism;foreign policy;public opinion;Chinese nationalism;
The research describes the phenomenon of Chinese nationalism in the context of the foreign policy component of the mass consciousness of residents in China. The ideas of Chinese nationalism become more popular both on the individual level and the level of mass consciousness. This is according to opinion polls, data from the media, as well as views widely spread among the intellectual elite.Between 2000–2010 there was a significant rise of nationalism in China. The reason was the transformation of Chinese public opinion. Under the influence of progress in the development of China, people have come to realize that modern China certainly plays a crucial role in world politics and economics.A characteristic feature of modern Chinese nationalism is that it proliferates far outside of China. Currently, its main content is a growing anti-American and anti-Japanese views.The ideas of modern Chinese nationalism have become most prevalent among the younger generation of Chinese citizens. These processes are partially controlled by the PRC authorities, who need the population to have certain ideological orientation.Considering the rise of nationalism in China we can see the appearance of the ‘Chinese Dream’ concept in 2012.
More...Keywords: North Macedonia; international relations; diplomacy; OSCE; security; NATO;
More...Keywords: Macedonia; UN; peace operations; military; NATO; EU;
Over the past decade, Macedonia has provided only a few peacekeepers to UN peace operations. Instead, it has almost exclusively focused on participation in EU and NATO missions. Macedonia’s participation in UN peace operations began in October 2006 when it deployed a single police officer to UNMIL in Liberia to work on gender issues. Currently, it contributes a single soldier to UNIFIL in Lebanon. Macedonia has offered a limited contribution to UNIFIL since 2007, with one staff officer in charge of collecting information from both sectors East and West based in the mission’s Joint Operational Centre in Naqoura. As such, Macedonia lags behind its neighbors in the Western Balkans in terms of contributions of uniformed personnel to UN missions.
More...Keywords: Yugoslavia; yugonostalgia; active nostalgia; passive nostalgia; counter-hegemony; collective memory; post-socialist transition;
The article is focused on the active, emancipatory and counter-hegemonic potential of yugonostalgia and its creative inspiration. It is arguing that nostalgia is much more than an intimate, passive and bitter-sweet story invented by post-Yugoslavs to lament on their better past, but a new liberating discourse and an ideological platform with the potential to influence current political developments.
More...Keywords: Hungary; Political system; Head of state; Political history; Government forms;
It is widely thought that the head of state has a weak, constitutionally limited position in Hungarian politics. Looking more closely, however, several important factors seem to be worth analysing. While the strong head of state is part of Hungary’s long political tradition, during the transition from communism to democracy, its role was constitutionally weakened. This discrepancy would suggest broad opportunities for strengthening the informal position of the president; still, only isolated efforts have been made over the last two decades. These efforts, however, can always be traced back to the formal frameworks.
More...Keywords: University of Warsaw;history of the University of Warsaw Library; buildings of the University of Warsaw; Frederick Chopin;
The author gives an account of the most important events covering two hundred years of the history of the University of Warsaw and introduces profiles of its rectors, outstanding professors and graduates, among them Fryderyk Chopin. The book can be read as an introduction to the University’s history, and as a guide to its historic monuments and collection of plaster casts, as well as the engravings and drawings housed in the University Library Print Room. The author discusses the achievements and heritage of the Faculty of Science and the Fine Arts, and also of the School of Fine Arts, which existed on the University campus in the years 1844-1862. He also focuses on the history of the University buildings, its emblem and other symbols as well as he describes University’s scientific and intellectual achievements in the context of Poland’s history. The book is complemented with the interesting appendixes referring to the Chopins’ apartment at the University Campus, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, founder of the Museum of the University of Warsaw, the collection of Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi (University of Warsaw deposit in the National Museum, Warsaw) and the University graduates who won the Nobel prize. The final part is the calendar of the University history. This book, richly illustrated with little-known materials, is addressed to a wide circle of readers.
More...Keywords: design of the university buildings; architecture of the university; design standards for the university
The publication comprehensively covers the issues of designing various university spaces (didactic, research, office, social) and the related challenges. It analyzes the most important trends in architecture and urban planning, presents specific solutions used throughout the world. One of the chapters is devoted to the individual conditions and urban planning of the University of Warsaw. The chapters on spatial design standards were inspired by the experiences of the Office of Innovations in the Academic Space of the University of Warsaw.
More...Keywords: control;cooperation;production competence;production design and planning;production methods;quality costs;production costs;sustainable production;
Climate change, resource depletion, technical progress, growing consumer awareness and changing requirements causes companies to look for new production methods. They may concernvarious areas of the company’s activity, starting from product design, procurement organization, optimization of production processes, control of manufactured products and services, through improvement of work organization and reduction of production costs, and ending with the implementation of modern solutions based on digital technologies. The purpose of implementing new production methods is to improve labour mobility, optimization of the use of raw materials and resources, costsreduction, increase efficiency, productivity, etc. In the literature, there are many different types of methods that can be used by modern enterprises. It is practically impossible to present all methods in this study. The authors focused on the presentation of selected methods, which are characterized on the one hand by innovation and, on the other hand, by the possibility of implementation. Particular attention should be paid to methods focused on environmental aspects. This group presents basic information on environment-conscious manufacturing (ECM), life-cycle assessment (LCA) and waste management and recycling. These methods allow to implement the concept of sustainable development and are directly related to the 17 goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and adopted by UN member states. In the group of methods related to next generation production management, the focus was on Matrix shop floor control and cooperative manufacturing. Of particular importance is cooperative management, because cooperation in practice is considered as a specific resource and one of the most important factors of a competitive position. The next group of methods concerned production planning and control. Drum Buffer Rope (DBR) and theory of constraints (TOC) were discussed as part of it. From the company’s point of view, methods related to manufacturing processes are very important, including group technology (GT) and cellular manufacturing (CM). Another group focused on commercial aspects, including demand chain management (DCM) and competitive intelligence (CI). The chapter also presents methods related to auxiliary software support, advanced organizational manufacturing and focused on product design.In the first case, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was discussed, in the second, virtual enterprises (VE) and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) were presented, and in the third, the assumptions concerning the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and House of Quality (HOQ) method were shown. Additionally, Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP) are discussed within the framework of methods focused on cost and quality manufacturing.
More...Keywords: Gazeta Krakowska; Greek War of Independence 1821; 1821 Greek Revolution; Battle of Peta; fake news; news circulation; Philhellenes
“Gazeta Krakowska” was the main Polish newspaper of the Free City of Cracow or the Republic of Cracow (1815–1846), with two editions per week. In this paper I analyse information concerning the first two years of the Greek Revolution (e.g. Ypsilantis's campaign in Moldavia and Wallachia, Philhellenes’ activity, the Battle of Peta), especially news circulation, direct and indirect sources of information, fake news and occasional, mainly pro-Greek commentaries from the chief editor Jan Maj.
More...Keywords: Horodecki; architect; imperial biography; social biography; architecture of Kiev
This article presents the figure of the well-known Polish architect, Władysław Horodecki. He was primarily active in the lands of today's Ukraine, in Kiev, but also in other cities of Russia, and after Poland regained its independence his career dimmed. His biography is placed in the context of the non-obvious social space of the Russian Empire, which was perceived by the architect as a space of his own. The urban culture of Russia at the time exposes itself as a place of divisions distinct from contemporary national perspectives, revealing its integrative potential. Horodecki was also characterised by a high degree of mobility, accompanied by the crossing of both physical and social boundaries. His professional biography fits into the discussion of imperial biography as a relevant analytical model.
More...