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The relationship between United States and Israel it is considered a special one by taking into consideration a complex set of aspects. The reasons for this strong connection can be gathered around the realist concept of interest. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze these reasons, the changes and/or the continuity of the relations of the two states after the Cold War. Such a presentation can be a valuable contribution in describing some of the main tendencies of the international system in our days. After the end of the Cold War we notice a continuity but also a reconfiguration of the relationship between the two actors. The first visible change we can observe stands in the degree of and predictability of Israel’s actions towards the United States. On the other side, the main element that suggests a strong prevailing continuity in the relation between U.S.A and Israel is obvious if we take into consideration the political discourses of the American presidents after the end of Cold War. Also it’s interesting to observe the fact that both the Republican and the Democrats sustained the Israeli political ideas and cause along more than a century.
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The aim of this paper is to relate some of the main postcolonial issues and key concepts to postcommunist studies and determine their reliability in this juncture. Is postcolonial discourse a suitable source and voice for the former communist area? Where can the two go together and where should they be separated? The author has focused on some brief issues in methodology and society related terms for both discourses, although numerous other directions should be explored.
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The article is based on a study on analysis development,optimization and automation of complex power systems modes in Ukraine in the second half of the twentieth century. The study demonstrates for the first time the deployment of innovative scientific researches according tothe development of methods and software simulation for power systems,relying on archival materials contributed by Ukrainian scientists. The article also introduces the scientific school of the Institute of Electrodynamics at NAS, Ukraine involved in the field of automation of power systems modes. The scientific school, founded by academician S. A. Lebedev, has developed in the works of L. V. Tsukernik, I. M. Sirota, B. S. Stogniy, A. V. Kirilenko,V. N. Avramenko, and others. The main research areas at the Institute of Electrodynamics are calculation of transient state and the stability of power systems; calculation and analysis of normal and emergency modes; calculation of settings of protection devices; analysis and forecasting of electrical loads;and development of operational mode control issues. Also, the activities of the higher electrotechnical school are taken into consideration. In Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, under the supervision of Professor V. G. Kholmsky, the most important research on the development of calculation theory, methodology of analysis and optimization of electrical networks modes were made. Professor G. I. Denisenko at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute initiated the ground-breaking development of the simultaneous electric power transmission of AC and DC.
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A presentation of “Balkan Smoke. Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria” by Mary C. Neuburger
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The Soviet Union as a typical totalitarian regime was strongly inclined to celebrate various events which were of great propaganda value to the regime. One of such occasions was the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The article presents basic ways of influencing the public opinion in Soviet Russia in 1933–1939. Special attention is paid to the fact whether successive celebrations of the “October Revolution” made more evident contents that emphasised the strengthening of Stalin’s dictatorship in the USSR, a change in the course of Soviet foreign policy, or propagated the policy of the Communist International. Whether there were some other subjects and topics brought up in occasional speeches and manifestos? What was the proportion between internal and external affairs brought up in enunciations delivered on this occasion? To whom were they addressed and in what way? And what was the actual purpose of the anniversary celebrations of the victorious Bolshevik coup of 1917? Were there, apart from successive publications of documents “in honour”, any other tools of influencing the public opinion? All these questions can be answered after a thorough analysis of speeches and statements made by the leading politicians of the Soviet Union or specially appointed people. It is also highly reasonable to analyse other – than words – elements of propaganda tactics to influence people.
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The purpose of this article is to examine Franciszek Ryszka’s view of the interwar Poland, including the way in which the view evolved throughout his academic career. The author begins his analysis with texts which, written in the period of the Stalinization of Polish historiography, contributed to the ‘black legend’ of the Second Republic. As the research into the Second Republic progressed and the circumstances in which the historical profession operated changed, Ryszka’s picture of the inter-war Poland grew more objective. The most original parts of his works are those that draw on his own experience – the account of the country life from the perspective of a landed gentry family, the description of the lifestyle and cultural patterns to which this social group adhered, and the analysis of the group’s slow decline and of the rural poverty.
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The author of this article starts from the assumption that the vision of reality to be found in textbooks of the political economy of socialism should be treated as part of the official discourse of the Polish People’s Republic. In the analysis of a number of selected textbooks, he focuses mainly of the “stimuli” issues. After deconstructing the relevant texts, he proceeds to search for all kinds of regularities, politically correct statements and ways of masking purely ideological beliefs. His focus is also on the criticisms repeated in different works by different authors.The article offers the analysis of the history of ways of speaking about historiography’s social function. This approach is inspired by Foucault’s view of how historical interpretations are shaped. The author also touches on the issue of the knowledge/power relation, following ‘French Theory’ in his understanding of it. The way in which politics and education coexisted in Communist Poland offers a clear-cut example of the interrelation between power and knowledge. The educational materials intended for Polish students and Polish intelligentsia distorted the picture of both the past and present.The author shows that ‘Foucauldian practices’ adhered to in the political economy of socialism involved the use of a set of incentives designed not only to motivate employees of different level to work better but also to shape their political and moral and historical views.
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Władysław Gomułka was the Polish communist leader who, most probably, played the most important role in the history of Poland. In the years 1943–48 he was the Secretary of the Polish Workers’ Party, and next, from 1956 to 1970, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. According to the rule ‘the more power the more responsibility’, which had particular significance in non-democratic systems, Gomułka was responsible or co-responsible for everything good but also for everything bad that happened in Poland during his rule. At the same time he is this Polish communist leader, on whose life and activity over twenty books were published. One of the recent ones was published by Anita Prażmowska. Unfortunately, this is not a successful attempt.
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A presentation of “City Planning of Sofia. The Pulse of the City in Time”
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A presentation of ‘The Reich and the Kingdom: the German Presence in Bulgaria 1933–1940’ by Vladimir Zlatarski
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Immediately after the war a discussion about the condition of the natural environment in Poland was held mainly in the specialist press that emphasised its degradation as especially dangerous for the society biologically and psychically wasted by experiences of the war. During the period of deStalinisation and political “thaw” after the 1956 October the subject of air and water pollution was more and more present in the press, but also in discussions of both the leaders of the state and some organised circles of the society. An increasingly well-known deteriorating state of the natural environment which adversely affected economic performance forced the government to search for remedies. As a result, new legal regulations were introduced with accompanying organisational changes. The most important of them were: the establishment of the Ministry of Navigation and Water Management (1957), Central Water Management Board (1960), and local structures responsible for the protection of waters from pollution, the introduction of the Water Law (1962), and the enactment of the Air Pollution Protection Act (1966). From 1960s on, systematic pollution tests of waters and air were carried on, which indicated that between 1967 and 1970 the condition of lakes and rivers deteriorated in comparison to the period of 1964–1967. In the same period there was an increased emission of greenhouse gases and reduced dust emissions. The main reasons for this were: the inefficacy of adopted laws (including a penalties system), insufficient financial investments in effective purification equipment, which was technologically outdated in its large part, the lack of qualified personnel specialised in environmental protection. There were, however, in the analysed period some elements of environmental awareness of people which were expressed, among other things, in letters sent by Polish citizens to the government.
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With the end of the Second World War, the feldsher’s profession was regulated by legal acts dating back to the interwar period. The leading act was the Act of 1 July 1921, on the feldsher’s profession, which briefly defined the feldsher’s qualifications. The key legal act regulating the legal position of feldsher was a law passed by the Legislative Sejm on 20 July 1950, on the feldsher’s profession. The feldsher’s powers were divided into two groups: activities performed independently (that is, in feldsher’s points and non-public health care institutions) as well as activities carried out non-independently – that is, under the guidance of a physician. The issues related to professional secrecy and disciplinary liability were regulated separately. Trying to determine the feldsher’s position in the system at that time, during the legislative work, it was recognized that it would be a profession between a doctor and a nurse. The reason for the adoption of such a solution was the possibility of performing small independent treatments, to whose performance a nurse was not authorized. Initially, the feldsher’s profession enjoyed the great interest of those willing to practice the profession. At this time, medical publications often presented the social advancement of feldsher school students, who continued their medical education after graduation. However, the interest in the feldsher’s profession gradually began to decline and the school year 1962/1963 was the last period of the feldsher’s education in Poland. The last feldsher school functioned then in Warsaw. From this moment on, the feldsher’s profession was left to its own devices. Since 1956, the feldsher’s qualifications have been extended to the possibility of working in sobering stations. Further powers were awarded to the feldsher in the 1960s, including issuing death certificates, diagnosing venereal diseases during medical examinations in sobering stations, and the inclusion of this profession in the fight against infectious diseases. In the case of the feldsher’s profession, the issues of a prestigious nature, such as the introduction of appropriate decorations similar to those of the physician or nurse, for instance long-term seniority, were also omitted. The feldsher’s profession was recalled when Poland entered the European Union structures, which led to the introduction of a new regulation in 2005 regulating the scope of activities to which the feldsher was qualified.
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The purpose of the article is to analyse the discourse formulated by the communist party in postwar Poland (1944–1989) on the category of “woman”. The author attempts to answer the question about what was understood by this category, what traits were attributed to women, in what way their social roles were perceived and what roles were postulated for them. Women in the understanding of the party and its activists made a separate group with its own identity. The way in which this category of “women” was constructed was based on the party’s ideology, but also on quite traditional concepts of gender, which resulted in certain contradictions: on the one hand the fight against stereotypes of women and their roles was proclaimed, while on the other some of them were shaped and strengthened. This was to serve political purposes: to mobilise women to “build socialism” in areas seen as “feminine” (for instance health and social care, household management, etc.). Conclusions drawn from the analysis lead us to a different thesis than the one formulated by Eva Fodor for Hungary; she claims that the “female subject/communist personality” was subordinate to that of male. In Poland the discourse of the communist party sought to incorporate values and roles it saw as female into the construction of a socialist society, without suggesting the inferiority of women.
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After the Second World War Ryszard Zakrzewski (1913–1994) was a well-known exile political and social activist in Great Britain. In the late 1940s he became one of the leaders of the Polish Socialist Party in emigration. He was also active in the Polish Ex-Combatants’ Association and the Federation of Poles in Great Britain. In 1956, the intelligence of the Polish People’s Republic got interested in his person. Over the next few years Zakrzewski maintained contacts with intelligence officers, employed as diplomats at the Polish Embassy in London. Despite the fact that he was not formally recruited, he provided information about activities of certain political groups on emigration, especially socialists. And, as evidenced by documents, he was paid money by some of his contacts. And it was also him, who sought to made his talks of political nature. When his contacts were exposed by British counterintelligence, he ended his collaboration. In the following years Zakrzewski continued to participate actively in the political life of the Polish emigration, and in 1989 he became a minister of the last Polish government in exile.
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An individual approach to the process of identifying fallen victims of armed conflicts in the 20th century enjoys widespread popularity in Western Europe (Germany, Holland), Central and Eastern Europe (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Anglo-Saxon countries (especially USA) and Russia. Each of them is characterized by different identity determination resulting from the circumstances surrounding the death of a murdered person. The development of technology makes it possible for us to use methods that were inaccessible ten years ago: DNA comparative studies that ultimately verify the identity of a victim. The studies have been used for over twenty years to restore the identity people who were murdered and lost in the aftermath of the armed conflict in former Yugoslavia, especially Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Poland, the identification of bone remains was carried out in certain individual cases, such as the skull of Ludwik Szymański, a Polish officer murdered in Katyn. Mass comparative studies of the DNA of the wanted people and their families were first used in Poland against anti-communist soldiers of the independence underground, who were sentenced to death in 1944–1956 by military district courts and shot in the prison in Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw.The article presents the research methods used in Poland, such as the analysis of source materials, geo-radar survey and comparative research of DNA material on the example of the largest works. The aim of the paper is to present sources materials that have contributed to locating and then estimating the size of burial fields. The author also describes other methods of identifying victims, critically presenting each of them.
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Until the mid-19th century, Slovenia had two distinct territorial fields of language use that coexisted in the central and eastern Slovene linguistic, administrative-political, and geographical areas: (1) central Slovene (the so-called kranjščina) and (2) eastern Slovene (the language of Prekmurje and eastern Štajerska). Their half-century long convergence, permeation and entwinement resulted in a formation of the unified norm of standard Slovene in the middle of the 19th century (the so-called new Slovene or unified standard Slovene). In the past, this double development of the Slovene standard language was incorrectly explained – instead of applying a double notion based on historical development (central Slovene standard language and eastern Slovene standard language), an inaccurate opposite emerged: standard language vs. standard language delusions. The attempt of a black and white portrayal of the linguistic circumstances in the development of Slovenian was to enact the linguistic equation central vs. peripheral = norm vs. particularism. Through this attempt, standard Slovene was equal to the central, correct and distinguished language with its opposite, the incorrect regional language of the Slovenian language periphery.
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The first periodical publications carrying news written by and for Arabs appeared during the first part of the 19th century. The major developments in the field of non-governmental Arabic press occurred, however, only during the second half of that century. That was also the time when Jews started to take an active part in founding, editing, and writing for Arabic newspapers, periodicals, and professional journals in various parts of the Arab world. First it included newspapers and periodicals in Judeo-Arabic dialects and only later in standard Arabic language. The main centres of journalistic activity by Jews in the Arab world were Baghdad, Cairo, Beirut, Alexandria, Damascus and Tunis. Newspapers founded by Jews were mostly ephemeral, however, there were also periodicals that prospered for decades. There was a connection between the involvement of Arab Jews in canonical Arab culture and the development of the Arabic-Jewish press and journalism: wherever Jews tried to integrate politically, socially and culturally into society (Iraq, to a lesser extent in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria) there were always active Jewish owners of Arabic newspapers and periodicals as well as editors and journalists writing in standard literary Arabic. But wherever Jews showed no significant interest in the canonical Arabic cultural activities of their society (e.g. North Africa), only periodicals in Judeo-Arabic dialects written in Hebrew letters are to be found (in addition to newspapers in other languages). Jewish newspapers published in both Judeo-Arabic dialects and standard Arabic had generally one main aim in common: promoting modernisation of Jewish life in Arab societies and encouraging Jews to become acquainted with the achievements of Western civilisation. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there has been a sharp decline in Arabic journalism by Jews; in fact we are currently witnessing the demise of Arab-Jewish culture. A tradition that started more than fifteen hundred years ago is vanishing before our eyes.
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