Around the Bloc: US-Soviet Relations on ‘Hair-Trigger’ Alert in 1983
Britain wants to bar the release of papers showing a close call between the Cold War superpowers.
More...We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Britain wants to bar the release of papers showing a close call between the Cold War superpowers.
More...
This article is devoted to the problem of economic consequences of the pact Ribbentrop–Molotov.The discussion about the pact is going on for many years, however it is marred by scarcity ofresearch examining the impact of the pact on the war efforts of the Nazi Germany in 1939–1941, theyears of the utmost success of the Nazi war machine. The present paper relies on newly discovereddocuments revealing the economic relations between Germany and several states, including USSR.It constitutes a comparative study of the trade between Germany and Western democracies on theone hand, and between Germany and USSR on another, in order to better comprehend the role ofthe pact Ribbentrop–Molotov in the growth of the Nazi Germany’s war machine.
More...Интервю на Любомила Соленкова с Мария Велева
Memories of Professor Maria Veleva on Her Scientific Work with Academician Konstantin Kossev
More...
The purpose of the article is the presentation of the most important facts concerning the situation in Vietnam in 1940–1945 with particular focus on the independence efforts of the population of that country ended in a partial success in the form of proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in September 1945. The text includes, among others, the geopolitical importance of the French Indochina in the context of the War on the Pacific, the policies of the colonial administration, Japan’ s activities aimed at taking the control over Vietnam, the activity of the local communist movement and the role of the United States in setting in motion the process of decolonisation of the Indochinese Peninsula.
More...
The purpose of this text is to attempt a synthetic portrayal of the issue of memory of the Second World War as a source of inspiration in Polish contemporary art since 1989. The year 1989, which marked the beginning of systemic transformation in Poland, was also the beginning of the process of transformation of the paradigm of collective memory of World War II. The appearance of issues omitted in the institutionalized discourse of the period of the Polish People’ s Republic contributed to an increase in artists’ interest in the mechanisms of constructing the collective image of the past. The particular ‘memory boom,’ which involved a sharp increase in the number of publications on so-called ‘white spots’ in the history of Poland, also manifested itself in the visual arts, among others, in the works of Mirosław Bałka, Zbigniew Libera, Wilhelm Sasnal, Piotr Uklański and Artur Żmijewski. Most of the works created in the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century concerned the memory of the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations during the German occupation. In many cases, the means of artistic expression employed by their creators evoked controversy and objections by those who found them inappropriate. The basic objections raised against artists referring to ‘war issues’ were: the instrumental references to the issue of the Holocaust, dictated by trends, and the lack of deep reflection on the attitudes ofperpetrators, victims and witnesses of the events at that time. The fact that artists drew from collective images brought with it other effects also. Many works created in this period served the following functions: c a t h a r t i c – involving the purification through art of the recipient’ s feelings and emotions, h e u r i s t i c – resulting from treating creation and its outcomes as a research process whose important elements include the posing of hypotheses and their verification, m n e m o t e c h n i c a l – being an exercise in memory through the medium of art and, finally – c o m m e m o r at i v e, embedded – following Pierre Nora – in the era of commemoration and the call to remembrance. The manners of portraying themes of memory of the war in Polish contemporary art since 1989 seem to have confirmed the social aspect of artistic creation, involving – in the case being discussed – the exposing of, but also the formation of collective images of the past.
More...
The purpose of this article is to show the survival strategies and the everyday life of Jewish women living on the so-called Aryan side in occupied Krakow and its surroundings. Ego-documents are the core source: relations and diaries collected in the Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Archives of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Kraków. A thorough analysis of the phenomenon is very complex, therefore this article only discusses the fate of the Jewish women who co-existed amongst Polish society rather than those who did not have ‘Aryan documents’ or could be betrayed by their appearance, and were thus forced to remain in hiding the whole time. The article not only pays attention to the survival strategies and ways in which they disguised their origins and identities, but it also explores the everyday life, family relationships, work and religious life of these women. The author’ s aim was not to analyse aid provided to Jewish women by non-Jews, or symmetrically, to synthesise problems regarding the selling out of Jews in occupied Krakow. Both issues do appear in the article, but rather as background to the individual cases, since they were, in fact, inseparable elements of any survival strategy on the Aryan side in the GG ‘capital’. The article also notes the absence of certain topics in the interviews, related to the daily life of Jewish women in hiding, which makes a more comprehensive analysis difficult.
More...
The policy of the communist authorities towards writers and artists in the 1945 to 1989 period can be divided into several stages. The first lasted from the end of 1944 to November 1947. The second stage lasted from November 1947 until the end of 1949, when socialist realism was forcibly introduced into all areas of cultural life. The third stage ended at the beginning of 1955, when one could observe a weakening of the authorities (accused of violations of the socialist rule of law). The whole year 1955 and the turn of 1956/1957 is referred to as the “thaw” period. During Władysław Gomułka’s era (October 1956 – December 1970), the attitude adopted by the authorities towards artists remained mostly unchanged. It manifested itself as an ideological offensive and repression of any emerging signs of resistance in that community. When Edward Gierek was in power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (1970–1980), the policy towards writers and artists evolved in two stages. The first (1971–1976) was characterized by liberalism and pragmatism, as part of a regime’s legitimization strategy. During the second stage, lasting from February 1976 to August 1980, preventive and repressive elements began to prevail in the position taken towards artists, who increasingly voiced opposition towards the authorities. Opposition was to be quashed by more stringent censorship, numerous searches, interrogationof artists and harassment. In 1980 and 1981, the authorities concentrated on ensuring that the managing bodies of the artist/writer associations had the right political credentials, although with no effect. They supported artists with communist party affiliations and unsuccessfully tried to attract the neutral centre and to exploit it. During the martial law period, the authorities adopted a repressive policy towards artists, but they failed to put an end to their boycott of public institutions. The attempt to use artists to legitimize the activities of the authorities in the perestroika period was only partially successful. Finally, the cultural policy of the authorities was put aside altogether after the political changes of 1989.
More...
The article describes diplomatic operations carried out by Poland’s MP and executiveminister in Sofia Adam Tarnowski, one of the leading representatives of Polish diplomacyin the Second Republic of Poland. He was the longest serving Polish diplomat in the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1930–1941). Later he emigrated to London to hold prominent functions: a general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an MP in the Czechoslovakiangovernment in exile, Minister of Foreign Affairs during and after the war in the governments of Tomasz Arciszewski and Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. Chronological dividinglines of the study are: the fall of Poland in September 1939 and Bulgaria breaking off itsdiplomatic relations with Poland in March 1941. At that time, the Polish diplomatic post in Sofia was one of the very few legations which dealt with diplomatic issues despite the German seizure of Poland. When the war had broken out, Tarnowski began conductinga serious diplomatic campaign towards establishing contacts with his occupied motherland,helping people threatened by Nazi repressions, and informing foreign governments of crimes and destruction taking place in Poland. Tarnowski was supported by a group of Bulgarian diplomats sympathising with Poland. They stayed in Berlin and occupied Warsaw and provided priceless services to our country by carrying money, letters, and information about the Nazi crimes in the occupied Poland in their diplomatic bags. Our MP in Sofia would give shelter to Polish refugees, protect valuable objects belonging to the national heritage, and organize redeployment of Polish troops from Bulgaria into Turkey. The most spectacular operation managed by Tarnowski was the evacuation of a group of several dozen Polish airmen (in September 1940) by sea from the Black Sea coast to Turkey. A very important element of Tarnowski’s operations was the intervention with the Bulgarian government to help Polish scientists from the Jagiellonian University and the AGH University of Science and Technology arrested by Germans in November 1939. Tarnowski talked to Professor Bogdan Fiłow, President of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, a world famous archaeologist, who was about to become Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The sources of the article include: unknown historical documents from AAN, published diplomatic and intelligence documents, journals and recollections. Bulgarian sources and analyses, including video footage, were also used.
More...
Hungarian State Award for a Bulgarian Scientist
More...
Illegal emigrations of football players from the People’s Republic of Poland were quitefrequent, but in most cases they were not treated as high profile in the mass media. The only exception was the 1988 escape of Andrzej Rudy, a player in Poland’s national football team. The examples of emigrating athletes discussed in the text have been divided into two categories: defectors per se (those who left their teams’ foreign training camps), and peoplewho refused to go back to Poland after legally obtaining a consent to travel to a Western country (or Yugoslavia). The first case of an athlete illegally leaving Poland took place inthe 1950s, while the last one in the last months of the break-through year of 1989. It wasusually footballers playing for Silesian clubs who opted for illegal emigration to West Germany. Family reasons were often quoted as a basis for making such a decision – numerousdefectors were able to prove their German roots. The 1980s saw a particular intensificationof escapes, which was related both to deteriorating economic conditions in Poland and more liberal passport policies at the end of the decade. It is worth noting that the communistauthorities changed their attitude towards the phenomenon. While in the 1960s the secret police would keep the defectors and their families under surveillance, 20 years later the government would simply register anyone “refusing to return to Poland”.
More...
In the third period of Ukrainian prerevolutionary statehood, called Directorate, national groups took over the authority. As a result of various events, in February 1919 Symon Petlura became the leader of the republic. One of the most revolutionary decisions of the Directorate consisted in adoption of the act of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Although the episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church boycotted this act, the Directorate strived hard to execute its resolutions. One of the most important Directorate’s actions was sending to Constantinople a representative of O. Łotocki’s government, with the mission of gaining the ecumenical patriarch’s – Germanos V’s support. A fast collapse of the new authority made it impossible for the Ukrainian nationals to achieve the main objective – the autocephaly of the Church.
More...
The Japanese started coming to the United States at the end of the XIX century. The fact that they were not welcome was reflected in the US state and federal legislation. In the 1920s the Japanese society – embracing two generations – counted fewer than 300,000 people. The first generation, the Issei, were deprived of the right to naturalization. Their children, the Nisei – born in the United States and in the majority of cases Americanized – constituted the second generation. The Japanese lived mainly in Hawaii, as the biggest national minority, and in the West Coast, especially California. In the 1930s life was difficult for the Japanese living in the United States. Apart from the previous problems, they had to cope with new ones – connected with the economic crisis and Japan’s foreign policy. Their widespread and selfless support for Japan’s aggression against China was not only disapproved of by Americans; it also complicated their situation on the eve of the war. On the other hand, it was the time when the Nisei actively joined political life. Their biggest organization, the Japanese American Citizen League (JACL) was quite successful and in the Territory of Hawaii some Japanese became members of the local legislature for the first time.
More...
Harriet Low Hilliard’s memories were written in the first half of the 19th century during her four year stay in the Portuguese Macau, on the southern coast of China. She was twenty years old when her aunt Abigail Low and uncle William Henry Low invited her to travel to Macau. It was time when women were not allowed to enter Canton which she visited thanks to the position of her uncle. In her memories, Harriet Low Hilliard describes everyday life of foreigners in Macau, bringing up such subjects as accommodation, food, fashion and customs of Europeans in that small Portuguese colony, as well as customs of the local people working and living in Macau and its suburbs.
More...
The main aim of the paper is to analyze the ground-breaking imperial edict issued in the Middle Kingdom in 1906, which introduced a package of reforms aimed to establish a constitutional monarchy. The edict is an important part of the process of selective adaptation of not only certain Western institutions, but also the fundamental principles relating to the core organization of the political community. This process was neither mechanical nor one-dimensional. „Translation” of the Western object was involved in a number of dilemmas and challenges (the relationship between the tradition of the „new”; instrumentality or autotelicity of copying foreign institutions; selection of native counterparts of the copied objects). The main theoretical perspective employed in the paper is the “legal transplant” theory. It enables to point out a broader set of conclusions about the process of copying foreign laws and institutions basing on the particular example from China at the beginning of the 20th century.
More...
In this article, the author analyzes the development of the autonomy of Vojvodina after 1848, and points to a transformation of its fundamental characteristics in this period. Indeed, Vojvodina was created primarily as an aspiration of Serbs in Southern Hungary to establish their own autonomy. However, during the XX century, especially during World War II, the character of autonomy has changed from explicitly ethnic to multiethnic, until its suspension in 1988. The author, therefore, considers that this via facti abolition of Vojvodina’s autonomy was just one of the initial events related to the collapse of the complex Yugoslav federalism in the early 1990s. New political trends in Serbia after 2000 have also not contributed to changing this situation. Moreover, the author concludes that the otherwise collapsed autonomy of Vojvodina within the Republic of Serbia will continue to gradually disappear and that its civil and multiethnic identity will be marginalized again, including the cultural, historical, geographical and other unique characteristics of this part of the country.
More...
In this article the author tries to analyze extraordinary life of famous painter Vincent van Gogh. The article consists of eight parts. The author stars with the general characteristic of Vincent’s childhood, which was the product of a strict Calvinist upbringing, and his first apprenticeship with the international art dealers, Goupil. The second part concentrates on Vincent’s attempts to follow in his father’s footsteps, his preoccupation with religion and study of the Bible, which led him to missionary work as a lay-preacher in the Borinage, a coal-mining district in Belgium. In the third part the author tries to show the beginnings of van Gogh’s art work, but the author notes that Vincent wasn’t really interested in following any traditional art education. In another part of the article the author concentrates on stormy relationship with Clasina Maria Hoornik, better known as Sien, a woman older than Vincent. In the fifth part author notes that Vincent finally understood that to be taken seriously as an artist, he had to come to Paris, where he befriended many of the aspiring artists of the day. The six part concentrates on van Gogh’s staying on the south to Arles, in Provence and his unsuccessful attempt to realize the biggest dream of his life, establish an artists’ colony, a “Studio in the South”, as he called it, where artists could work together in a collegiate culture. In another part of the article the author focuses on tragic consequences of Paul Gauguin’s stays in Arles – Vincent suffered repeated episodes of mental instability and madness. At the end of the article the author concentrates on van Gogh’s stays in Auvers and the mystery of his tragic death.
More...
The history of the martyrdom of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy is still being researched. The present article refers to the content of one of the sources presenting the life in KL Dachau, where the largest number of clergy were imprisoned during the whole World War II. The source is a personal notebook authored by a member of the Society of St Francis de Sales, a seminarist Wiktor Jacewicz. He managed to survive a period of five years in Dachau. In his notes, we can find a description of different elements from the daily life of the concentration camp in Dachau such as prayer, sacraments, work, study, correspondence and sports. The source is a valuable contribution to our knowledge about the reality of life in KL Dachau.
More...
The end of the Second World War did not bring an end to partisan activities in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Resistance began to grow as a result of the Soviet presence in many of these countries, built mostly upon the structures created to fight the Nazis during the German occupation.
More...