ЮЛИЯ КАНТОР. ПРИБАЛТИКА 1939–1945 ГГ. ВОЙНА И ПАМЯТЬ
Review of: IGOR KOPÕTIN - Юлия Кантор. Прибалтика 1939–1945 гг. Война и память. Москва: Росспэн, 2020, 359 c., ISBN 978-5-8243-2405-1.
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Review of: IGOR KOPÕTIN - Юлия Кантор. Прибалтика 1939–1945 гг. Война и память. Москва: Росспэн, 2020, 359 c., ISBN 978-5-8243-2405-1.
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The article explores a period that can be regarded as a preliminary stage in the purposeful development of Estonian military vocabulary: the years 1885–1913. This period began with a translation made by Jakob Hurt and ended with the outbreak of the First World War; by then, the Estonian military vocabulary was already developing under very different circumstances. Over the period from 1885 to 1913, three books were published in Estonian for the Estonian soldiers serving in the Russian army, two of them translations and the third one an original print: A Handbook for Estonian soldiers („Abinõu noorte Eesti soldatite õpetamise juures“, 1885) translated by Jakob Hurt, A Dictionary for Estonian Soldiers („Soldati sõnaraamat”, 1890) by Ado Grenzstein, and A Handbook for Estonian Non-Commissioned Officers („Käsiraamat alamwäeteenijate Eestlaste tarwis“, 1896) translated by Johann Elend. While Estonians know Hurt and Grenzstein as important cultural and social figures, Elend’s name is rather unknown today and there is little information about him. We observed the circumstances under which the Estonian military vocabulary began to take shape, examined the linguistic views of said authors, and offered examples on the use of language in the cited works. The period in question has been little studied so far. This is partially due to the fact that Estonians took part in the military activities of the Russian Empire during 1885–1913 quite moderately, compared to the subsequent period. Therefore, research material is scarce. It can also be assumed that in the context of topics such as Russification and its consequences (e.g. the agrarian issues), language-related questions may have remained only a niche. The authors of this paper compensated the deficit of materials to study with an interdisciplinary approach. We based our work on the thesis that combining historical science with a philological methodology allows us to get a more extensive picture of the overall period, the language development, and the factors that affected it. The topic was examined from three viewpoints: non-linguistic, linguistic, and metalinguistic.
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The army outpost on Biğān Island on the Euphrates (in Iraq) was excavated in the early 1980s, but it is only now that a thorough examination of the material from the Roman layers has been completed, giving grounds for a revisiting of issues related to the site’s chronology, function and role in the frontier zone between Rome and the empires of the East. The archaeological sources, mainly pottery and coins, are discussed in light of the army post’s island location and its role in interregional and long-distance trade. Of greatest interest in the pottery category are the transport/storage vessels that seem to belong to the same family as the widely discussed so-called Mesopotamian Torpedo Jars.
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The article analyzes legal normative documents and acts to characterize the joint activities of the customs and military departments in the organization of customs supervision during the reign of Peter the Great. The research novelty of the article is in the fact that it is the first special study of this issue, which reveals the historical reasons that led to the involvement of military personnel in the activities of customs officers, determines the forms of customs supervision in which streltsy, soldiers, and their commanders participated, and identifies problems that existed in the activities of customs or sea and land outposts and prevented successful implementation of the customs policy. The authors conclude that the increase in the effectiveness of customs supervision during the reign of Peter the Great, in addition to the gradual reorganization of the customs system and introducing the practice of analyzing the activities of customs and outposts, was also facilitated by the use of military personnel for guard duty, guarding outposts, and conducting relevant investigations, as well as by the adoption of legislative acts aimed at strengthening the discipline and responsibility of army and customs officers. The relevance of the study is determined by the importance of using historical experience for organizing joint work of various departments and paramilitary organizations in order to counter threats to the country’s economic security.
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Franciszek Studziński joined the Polish Legions as a volunteer in 1914, where he served in the 1st Infantry Regiment, with which he followed its entire combat route. He was also active in the underground Polish Military Organisation. In independent Poland, he served in the 25th Infantry Regiment, with which he survived the entire Polish-Bolshevik War. He was decorated for gallantry on the battlefield with the 5th Class Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Military Cross. He served in the Border Protection Corps as commander of the 6th Border Battalion in Iwieniec, and later in other units of the Polish Army. In the autumn of 1939, he made his way to Hungary, where he was interned. In summer 1941, he escaped from the camp and returned to Warsaw. From 9th December 1941, he was a commander of the Tarnopol District of the ZWZ-AK (the Union of Armed Struggle). In August 1944, he was arrested by Soviet counterintelligence and imprisoned in Kiev. Later he was transferred to the NKVD POW and internment camp 174-454 in Diaghilev near Ryazan, and in July 1947, to camp 150 in Gryazovets. On 4 November 1947, he returned to Poland. Despite the failure of a secret police provocation, carried out in October 1952 (a proposal to join the alleged WiN Association), he was arrested in December 1952 and sentenced to almost 5 years in prison. He was released in 1955 on the wave of a political “thaw”. Ill and living in extreme poverty, he died on 23 May 1964. His fate during the second Soviet occupation and the collaborationist communist rule exemplifies the similar stories of the Polish Army, Home Army, the WiN Association and other independence organisations that sacrificed their lives for the Fatherland.
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The rapidly advancing digitisation of Russian archival collections opens up new possibilities for Polish historians. The Red Army troops entering the Polish territory in 1944 appointed military commanders in towns and villages, who for some time were the chief authority for the Polish population and the Red Army troops staying there. After launching the January 1945 offensive, the Soviet Army occupied Central Western Poland and entered the territory of the Western and Northern Territories, which had belonged to Germany before the war. Military commanders were also established there, but due to the lack of Polish administration, their rule was more extensive and lasted longer, also in 1946. Under the commanders' rule, which lasted for months, about one-third of the area of the Polish state, where millions of Germans still lived, came under their rule. Thousands of murders of civilians, rapes and the large-scale transfer of looted property to the USSR took place. These events placed a heavy burden on the Soviet military administration and the commanders. The paper aims to present three regulations concerning the work of Soviet military commanders in Poland. They were found in the resources of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. They show the changeability of the concept of activities of military commanders in the Polish lands. The scope of their influence also changed. The first one, from July 1944, concerned only Lublin. The second one, from August 1944, concerned the area of operation and stationing of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Przemyśl, Rzeszów, Sanok). The last one, issued in October 1944, came from the highest level, the General Staff of the Red Army, and regarded all troops stationed on Polish territory.
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Review of: OLEH RAZYHRAYEV, Oleksandr Havryliuk - Lubow Żwanko, Wybitni Polacy i Charków: słownik biograficzny (1805–1918), tłumaczenie Tetiana Dowżok, Majdan, Charków 2019, 396 s.
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The subject of the article is the history of POWs camp of Wadowice in years1918 – 1921. There was not any in-depth monograph about this camp, so thearticle will fill this gap.Mentioned camp was located in southern Poland and was used to jail andisolate prisoners-of-war from Eastern Galicia (Ukrainian Galician Army), the RedArmy and UPR’s Army. Besides them, a lot of civilian internees also were isolatedhere. History of camp begins in November 1918 and ended in autumn of 1921 y.In article, a few issues were analysed: which groups were in the camp, how manypeople were there, how was the alimentation, which illnesses spread among POWsand internees and how big was level of death and how was cultural life in the camp.The article was written on the basis of the archival materials from various archiveand many books and scientific articles.
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In the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century, the Kingdom of Sweden was almost constantly engaged in armed conflicts with neighbouring kingdoms. Both offensive and defensive wars were characteristic of the Swedish foreign policy from 1550s to 1650s. The same period witnessed the emergence of the Swedish Empire because, due to these conflicts, Sweden was able to acquire new domains in the Baltic region and to expand its territories in both east and south. These geopolitical realities pushed all Vasa kings into multiple projects aiming to rationalise Sweden’s army and its military strategy as well as to develop the acquired areas in various ways. Our article presents two development project examples of this emerging empire (1) Scottish officers (the Swedish Crown acknowledged the military expertise of Scottish troops as well as their officers and tried to harness this experience for Sweden), and (2) the planned modernisation of Ingria through German and Dutch colonisation and agricultural development. The article examines the needs and expertise expectations that the Swedish Crown directed towards these foreign groups. The emergence of Sweden as a European empire did not occur in a geopolitical vacuum. International contacts and the influx of European expertise into Sweden were important factors in the building of the Swedish dominion in the Baltic region. By focusing on these foreign expert groups, one operating in the military world and the other in the agricultural sphere, this article illustrates the functions and roles that the Swedish Crown expected foreign experts to have on the eastern frontier of early modern Sweden.
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A significant turning point in relations between the Soviet Union and Romania was associated with the incorporation of Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina into the USSR, which took place in the context of Soviet-German rapprochement. To this end, the Soviet leadership developed a set of preparatory political-diplomatic and military-propaganda measures. Soviet political and diplomatic actions were based on fundamental military preparations. In order to prepare and further joining Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina to the USSR, the Southern Front was created on the basis of the Kyiv Special and Odessa military districts. Army General Georgy Zhukov was appointed as a commander. The General Staff of the Red Army developed two variants of actions by Soviet troops. The first one provided for measures in case the Romanian government would not agree to the peaceful transfer of Bessarabia and Bukovina to the USSR. The second variant was an action plan in case of a voluntary retreat of Romanian troops west of the Prut. The first option was taken as the base. As early as June 26, 1940, on the border with Romania, the Soviet command concentrated 32 infantry, 2 motorized infantry, 6 cavalry divisions, 11 tank, 3 airborne brigades, 16 artillery regiments of the commander-in-chief’s reserve, 14 corps artillery regiments and 4 separate artillery divisions. In the main areas of the offensive, more than a triple advantage in manpower and means was provided. At the same time, for the purpose of ideological support, a huge propaganda apparatus was prepared to work with the population. In accordance with the Directive of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army № 0140 (June 21, 1940), a large number of political workers were sent to the disposal of the Southern Front. One month before the start of the military operation, all employees of party and Soviet organizations were considered as mobilized. After appropriate training, they were ready for further activities as editorial staff, propagandists and agitators. Concert brigades and drama theatre groups were organized for the cultural service of the population. There were selected mobile library, gramophone records, and films. Book-mobile was arranged; everything necessary for the publication in Romanian newspaper was completed and provided with everything necessary. Due to the diligence of all these preparatory acts, the territories of Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina were occupied by the Red Army according to all the rules of military art (all elements of military operation were used: military force, local military pressure, military intelligence and counterintelligence, agitation and propaganda), thanks to which the USSR could reach its purpose.
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Review of: Zbigniew Bednarek: „Polskie dziennikarstwo wojenne. Twórcy, gatunki, konflikty zbrojne i polityka międzynarodowa”. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2020, s. 500.
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Reviews of: Vasile I. Schipor, Bucovina de lângă noi. Viața științifică, literară și artistică la început de mileniu, vol I–II, Iași, Editura Tipo Moldova, 2019, 900 p. + 633 p/ Dan Prisăcaru, Petre Otu, Marius Iorgulescu (coordonatori), Contribuția Armatei Române și a elitelor la apărarea și recunoașterea internațională a Marii Uniri (1918–1920), București, Editura Militară, 2020, 581 p./ Cornel Ungureanu, Mitteleuropa periferiilor, ediția a 2-a, revăzută și adăugită, Timișoara, Editura „Brumar”, MMXVIII, 424 p./ „«Mesager bucovinean». Revistă de cultură pentru bucovinenii de pretutindeni”, Cernăuți – București – Rădăuți – Chișinău, serie nouă, anul XVII, nr. 1–2 (65–66), 2020, 128 p./ „«Bucovina literară». Revistă a Societății Scriitorilor Bucovineni”, Suceava, serie nouă, anul XXXI, nr. 1–2–3 (347–348–349), ianuarie – februarie – martie 2020, 126 p.; 4–5–6 (350–351–352), aprilie – mai – iunie 2020, 126 p.; 7–8–9 (353–354–355), iulie – august – septembrie 2020, 126 p.; 10–11–12, octombrie – noiembrie – decembrie 2020, 126 p.
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Les Principautés danubiennes Moldavie et Valachie trouvées seront l'occupation militaire et administrative russe pendant septembre 1769 et 1774, ont subi les difficultés irnposees par la guerre russe turque de 1768. Pendant 1772-1774, dans la Moldavie, par l'ordre du commandant russe P.A. Rumeanţev, a été rétais les recensements du potentiel materiei et humain de cette région.
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La guerre d'lndependence de 1877-1878 et la première guerre mondiale de 1916-1919 ont une nouvelle législation agraire, Romme récompense pour les paysans, la force sociale qui a soutenu en principal l'effort materiei et militaire dans ces guerres.
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History and literature complement each other. In other words, a historical text has a literary dimension, and a literary text has a historical dimension. History tells about the past, but does not decipher its internal mechanisms. Literature, on the other hand, helps us understand how behaviors and identities are formed. History shows us the mistakes of the past, but does not give us enough elements to avoid repeating them. This is what literature does, and the works of Grossman and Pahor, representatives of two cultures - Russian and Slovenian - are an argument in this regard. These two authors present us with an image of war and one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century, the concentration camp.
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Alexandru Marghiloman was the most important political man from Buzău at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the Crown Council of Sinaia, on 21 July 1914, when he was convened by the old King Carol I to decide the fate of the country in those critical moments at the the beginning of the war, Marghiloman proposed the solution of “armed expectation”, i.e. a neutrality that seemed to be favorable to the Central Powers. Alexandru Marghiloman reached the peak of his political career between 5 March and 24 October 1918, when on the one hand he managed with great patriotism the union of Basarabia with Romania, on 27 March/9 April, and on the other hand he assumed the sacrifice of saving the state and the dynasty by signing a “Punic peace” with the Triple Alliance, on 24 April/7 May. The Bucharest peace negotiations concerned not only the territorial seizure of Dobrogea, desired by the Bulgarians, and the mountain ridges, desired by the Austro-Hungarians, but espescially the maintenance of the military administration in order to exploit until exhaustion the territory under the occupation of the Central Powers. Although accused of collaborationism with the German occupier by his political opponents, many eager to capture the glory of the creation of Greater Romania, Marghiloman’s justification is masterly: „Greater Romania was made neither according to your political conceptions, nor according to our plans, Romania came out of the instinct of all Romanians, not from the calculations made by others!”
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The Vidin region has attracted much scholarly attention, particularly due to the bloody uprisings in the area around the middle of the nineteenth century. For a long period, Balkan historians have understood this mid-nineteenth century crisis as an inevitable consequence of a Bulgarian national awakening. Although the recent scholarship challenges the nationalist narrative, it continues to ignore the complexities of the socio-legal structures in the Vidinese hinterland, which had developed in the course of the eighteenth century, and reduces all conflict lines to the duality of interests between peasants and proprietors. Going beyond the dualistic narratives of exploitation, this study aims to historicize the land question in the Balkans by presenting the Janissaries both as actors of the Ottoman military establishment in the Vidin region and as rural investors who enjoyed benefits from and shaped the workings of the area’s land regime thanks to their own networks and the state’s policies. By doing so, it contextualizes the ruptures and continuities in landholding patterns, and also highlights the rural entrepreneurship of the Janissaries, who in Ottoman/Middle Eastern scholarship have generally been portrayed as active historical agents of city-based riots and urban-centered commercial activities.
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Interview conducted by Octavian Manea with Dr. A. Wess Mitchell, co-chair of the NATO 2030 Reflection Process
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From a global geopolitical perspective, the US’s and NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan reflects a radical shift in their strategic priorities: a departure from Halford Mackinder’s concept of the Heartland, encapsulated în Z. Brzezinki’s 1990s definition of Central Asia aș the „Eurasian Balkans.”, thus preferring to prioritize the Indo-Pacific Ocean (and implicitly its Rimland), most probably motivated by the strategic imperatives of the« containment »of China and Russia, in the international system of the 21st century. In the short term, it is still unclear whether the Taliban-led Afghanistan will have a stable government with liberal macroeconomic thinking, willing to work with Central Asian neighbors to complete projects beneficial to trade and regional development. The future will tell us whether Afghan leaders, including the Taliban, will be able to show that the blood and wealth shed by Western countries in Afghanistan over the past 20 years has not been wasted în vain just to return to a pre-modern war-torn country plagued by hatred and death and with a future very similar to its tragic past.
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Interview conducted by Octavian Manea with Robert O. Work, the 31st Deputy Secretary of Defense.
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