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The author describes the accomplishments of Slovene historians who pursue answers to open questions of twentieth-century history, drawing special attention to questions which have been the least examined in the Slovene historiography. In addition, he comments on the relationship between current political events and the historiography of Slovenia.
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The author concentrates on the treatment of contemporary Croatian/Yugoslav history in several monographs, overviews, and summaries of Croatian history published over the past ten years. In addition, he completes a short re¬view of research on contemporary history included in the scientific-historical projects financed by the Republic of Croatia’s Ministry of Science, Education, and Sport. He concludes that when guided exclusively by scholarly criteria, the matrix of Croatian historiography is developing in a satisfactory manner.
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This article gives information about the life of Adriano Colocci Vespuci and more concrete the time when he was in Bulgaria in 1885 during the crisis concerning the East question which would cause the Serbian-Bulgarian war. Colocci was among the adjutants and the henchmen of prince Alexander Battenberg. Colocci created detailed chronicle about the warfare and during this time he contacted many Bulgarians from different social classes and foreigners as well.
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This essay has two objectives: first, to better understand how Yugoslavia's communist regime went about constructing an officially-sanctioned memory of the Second World War through the building of monuments and graves for “fallen soldiers” (pali borci) and “victims of fascist terror” (žrtve fašističkog terora); second, to analyze how Yugoslav citizens reacted to such “sites of memory” from 1947 until 1965. I begin with a brief introduction to the activities of the Association of Veterans of the People’s Liberation War (Savez boraca Narodnooslobodilačkog rata [SBNOR, and then renamed SUBNOR in 1961]), the organization that I consider as the main vehicle through which “memory activists” in Tito’s Yugoslavia acted. I then move to an analysis of public responses to their memory-making activities vis a vis graves and monuments By analyzing archival documents, newspaper articles, and especially letters written to newspapers, I argue that, while many people did respond positively to these officially-sanctioned “sites of memory,” others reacted in a myriad of directly and indirectly confrontational ways. Allowing weeds and grass to engulf graves; permitting pigs to forage in front of monuments and tying horses to them; building monuments to anti-communist forces; telling jokes about monuments and harassing people trying to visit them; and smashing plaques and monuments into pieces, sometimes on several occasions; all of these behaviors suggest that a serious disjuncture existed between the projects which SBNOR’s memory activists were engaged in and some segments of the population’s degree of acceptance of them. I see this disjuncture as exemplified in two types of directly and indirectly confrontational behaviors: first, as indifference or perhaps disconnectedness to officially-sanctioned memories; second, as conscious resistance to such forms of remembrance. At the same time, it is important to note that the documents which serve as the central empirical basis for this essay demonstrate that a sizable group of Yugoslav citizens were also very much mobilized with the veterans of SBNOR in the project of constructing, reproducing and protecting a set of heroic memories about the “People’s Liberation War.” Taken together, the conclusions of this essay suggest the need to revise the existing literature on the history of the memory of the Second World War in Yugoslavia in several ways. It has been suggested by some scholars (e.g., Hoepken, 1999; Denich, 1994; and Hayden, 1994) that the communist regime's “official memory” of the war was constructed for a repressed society, and that this memory dissolved under the pressure of intellectuals during the country’s final decade of existence. This essay, which pays close attention to societal reactions to officially-sanctioned war memories in Yugoslavia, presents a different dynamic. That is, people were neither totally repressed by a certain set of memories about the war, nor simply passive and ready to be awakened by a group of intellectuals. Ordinary people reacted to graves and monuments—two of the most ubiquitous manifestations of “official memory” in Yugoslavia—in their own ways and on their on terms from the moment that such sites of remembrance were constructed. And their reactions, while often quite positive, were also indifferent and, at times, directly and indirectly confrontational and subversive.
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This work examines the National Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia, which Kreso argues can be reduced to two basic problems: the libration from fascist occupation and resolution of the national question within the occupied territory. For the first, scholars concentrate on the total forces of the National Liberation Movement for the second, they examine the participation of all of the nationalities in the Movement (which was seen as the necessary condition to solve the national question). Kreso seeks to connect these two problems by analyzing the relationship between efforts to realize the foundational goals of the Movement and efforts to resolve the national question. He describes these issues as they relate to the decision for a federal organization – in which the national minorities were guaranteed rights, and the Declaration of AVNOJ, in which the national minorities were generally ignored. He also addresses later documents of the Movement, such as the Declaration of the foundational rights of nations and citizens in 1944, in which Vojvodina and Sandžak were mentioned but Kosovo was not. Kreso describes the opposition that existed within the Movement, which created obstacles to the establishment of a foundational platform. He especially emphasizes the acts of a few representatives within the Movement who compromised the original platform (such as a lecture by Vaso Cubrilovic on the problems of national minorities).
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The author contends that it is necessary to have a good understanding of the ideological basis on which the construction of a socialist state was then taking place in order to understand all the complicated levels on which the takeover of government by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) occurred during the war and in the years 1945-1946. This basis in the widest sense was the theoretical work whose aim was to delineate a new proletarian state, and that was Lenin’s State and Revolution of 1917. Stalin, as Lenin’s «sole rightful» heir, praised and awarded that work with great authority in the 1930s. In this context, the author analyzes the phases by which Yugoslavia became a one-party state during 1945 in which all the levers of power and society was in the hands of the KPJ. Special attention is paid to developments in Slovenia and Croatia. In this sense the author draws attention to the fact the the communists did not only settle accounts with all those who did not belong to their political party, but that in an effort to create a centralized and unified Yugoslavia many leaders of the party from these two federal states suffered. Following the creation of AVNOJ as the apex of federalization, the attempt at centralization that followed led to conflict with the concepts that were winning over Slovenia and Croatia under the aegis of SNOS and ZAVNOH already in 1944. That is why the party leadership of Slovenia and Croatia was disciplined in the fall of 1944. At the end of this process, in December 1945, the Central Committee of the KPJ called the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Slovenia and Croatia to talks in Belgrade. In settling accounts with poltical opponents the OZN (Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda – Department of National Defense) and the judiciary (especially the extraordinary courts and the military courts) played a key role. Indeed, the OZN was by decree of the party the main executor of the party in the process of taking power. The manner in which government was taken ensured a monopoly of power to the party, while the methods used were very similar to those used in the Soviet Union.
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May 1945 brought the victory of the Partisan movement and the establishment of a new communist totalitarianism on Croatian territory. The new regime decided categorically to settle accounts with anyone who could possibly create difficulties with the implementation of their intended revolutionary changes. Following the example of Soviet practice, Yugoslavian communists turned all means at their disposal to a massive settling of accounts with all their enemies. To the public they justified this as a necessary punishment of war crimes. Consequently they wanted to portray all their opponents in the worst possible way, without regard to their actual responsibility for events that transpired during the war. Communist propaganda aimed at fomenting hatred of designated enemies. Special attention was paid to those individuals and groups who could by no criteria be labelled Ustaša or Ustaša collaborators. In many cases this was the public tarnishing of potential opponents (The Croat Peasant Party and the Catholic Church). This was a rather widespread occurence, which for certain individuals and groups ordinarily had drastic consequences. If these types of practices were predominant in the immediate postwar period, they did not disappear altogether later on. Thus, in the case of the Franciscans of Široki Brijeg, there was an attempt to hide one≫s own crimes in accusations directed at others.
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The subject of irony among legionaries may seem rather decontextualized, as the exclusive political faith, the total commitment, and the murderous consequences of the fascist ideology of the legionaries predispose their intelectuals to serious martial attitudes and rectilinear assertions rather than light approaches and multiple senses supposed by irony. Nevertheless, the situation of fascist intellectuals is ironic in itself, as they have to reconcile rational analyses and partisan obedience, which leads them to sacrifice their critical role and their intellectual superiority in front of mediocre fascist leaders. Fascist intellectuals as Mircea Eliade sometimes try to use ironical detachment in order to obtain some free space for critical mind, with no success; some of them do not try at all, as Emil Cioran, with huge spiritual collapse after the 1945 defeat and enormous success of their omni-ironic Weltanschauung afterwards.
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Interpersonal communication is one of the indispensable conditions for the functioning and organization of society, as the individual is a social being and relates to the other insofar as he communicates with it. Gender relations play an important role in interpersonal communication. Gender relations means the sum of conceptions, elaborated socially and culturally, regarding the man/woman difference, the power and inequality that structure the reproduction of these differences in the institutionalized practices of society. The notion of gender varies from a historical point of view and is one of the ways in which states are imagined, constituted and legitimized, because gender instincts can be partially explained in political terms, thus there are male and female cultures, as well as a difficulty of communication between representatives of different cultures.
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"For someone to acquire skill and ability in a particular branch of activity, thus becoming a labor force" – said Karl Marx in Capital – "education is necessary", adding that the communist order will ensure favorable social conditions for the individual qualities of to every man not to be stifled, but to be revealed and developed through education. The expression "multilateral development", applied to both the individual and society, has become one of the most common in Marxist pedagogy or Marxist-inspired theory. The communication aims to present the "multilateral development" and "formation of the new man" during the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, being composed of two parts. In the first part, the communication will deal with the Marxist-Leninist conception of multilateral education, which was necessary and possible in mass proportion only in the conditions of socialist and communist society. The second part will contain the conception of the Romanian Communist Party about the "multilaterally developed socialist society" and the "multilaterally developed personality" which was to be characterized by "creative spirit and the tendency towards self-improvement and self-improvement". The conclusions will aim at the fact that, in the case of communist regimes, "multilateral development" was only an ideological fiction, because, unlike the liberal regimes, in which education means emancipation and permanent creation, communist education was organized to ensure the strength of work distributed according to socialist planning, the regime emphasizing social and cultural homogenization, in order to create a "working class culture".
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The military operations conducted on the territory of Ukraine during the conflict started by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022 show that the chances for large-scale combat operations in Europe have significantly increased. Consequently, the way those operations are carried out must be carefully reconsidered. Adapting to the requirements of the modern battlefield requires rapid multi-domain integration of new technologies and modern weapons systems. Therefore, doctrinal changes are required. There is no doubt that the Battle of Kyiv is a valuable source of information for military leaders, regarding the conduct of military operations at each level. Therefore, a pertinent analysis in relation to the factors that have contributed to the battle’s outcome could be very helpful. The main objective of the analysis is to highlight lessons on the topic of planning and carrying out military operations at the tactical level. It emphasises both the determining factors for the failure of the Russian offensive and the features that gave the Ukrainian forces the upper hand, ensuring the successful defence operation. The research methodology is based on the qualitative evaluation of the available information, to enable an assessment of the battle from the combat functions perspective with the aim to identify possible gaps in Westernarmies’ way to carry out combat operations.
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Starting the study from the theory of the Heartland, drawn up by Halford John Mackinder, according to which who rules Eastern Europe rules the world, we identify the geopolitical importance of the Ponto-Baltic isthmus. The region imaginarily bordered to the North by the Baltic Sea and to the South by the Black Sea has been a hotspot throughout history. Thus, the strategic importance of the Ponto-Baltic isthmus and the conflicting interests in the region are the current reasons for the confrontation between the Russian Federation and the West. The illegal aggression of the Russian state in Kyiv confirms the hypothesis that Moscow is the main threat to the security and territorial integrity of the states of the Ponto-Baltic region. In this respect, to become aware of the regional geopolitical realities, in the first part of the research both the geographical coordinates of the Ponto-Baltic isthmus and the historical coordinates stated at the national level will be outlined, in keeping with the writings of scholars such as Simion Mehedinți and Nicolae Iorga. Afterwards, the strategy of the Russian Federation in the region will be analysed, in relation to the permanent fuelling of conflicts on the territory of states that pursue their Euro-Atlanticvision. Romania’s role in the Ponto-Baltic region will also be identified, through its status of a regional pivot and a relevant actor in the process of consolidating NATO’s eastern flank. The research will be the result of the cross-use of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, for an in-depth approach to the subject under study.
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Pre present context views the Church as a construct of human mind, promoting religiosity and a certain ritual (mostly needed by the people with no reference to a living God) whose main role is to provide social services in a given society, or, in a more plastic exposure, "the club of Christ". And this is in general accurate given that she passed through history making use of the same means and instruments of any human organisation. Her transcendent dimension was entrusted to the mystical minds and liturgists who defined her as a boat of salvation and the foretasting of the Kingdom. Is such an institution subject to change? If yes, what can be changed and when, in what extent and for what length? The study aims at a few attempts to accept change as a form of subsistence. The faithful have their own expectations from the main Church, the experiences of the Romanian Church members abroad bring new challenges facing this conservative institution. One cannot speak of real change, but rather an adaptation to the new context where the mythical approach of religion leaves more room for the rational approach and even to the pluralistic one. This is presented as the normal evolution of the future religion which expects to be more spiritual than institutional, in line with the new discoveries of neuroscience, evolution and hard sciences, towards an integral (even super-integral) approach.
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In response to the 2022 escalation of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, the European Union has implemented unprecedented sanctions targeting the Russian state, individuals supporting the war effort, and the Russian economy generally. These sanctions are unique in the history of the European Union, not only because of their political context but also because of their breadth and the novel legal instruments used. This paper will explore how these distinctive features might impact businesses working within the European Union.
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Stereotypes that are formed in a society in terms of phenomena, conditions and processes are persistent and difficult to destroy. The reasons for their presence are complex. A basic explanation in this direction is offered by Yul. Popova, who reminds the character of stereotypes as a categorizing mechanism of human perception and leads to economy of effort that is being achieved through them (Popova 2015). The millennial consecutive evolution of Chinese nation favors the accumulation of cultural layers from different historical periods and determines the existence of a number of secondary images that mediate the relationship (Vassileva 2018) of its representatives with reality. This paper aims to present and suggest possible explanations of the negative associations accumulated within Chinese society for centuries towards the Eunuchs’ stratum.Stereotypes that are formed in a society in terms of phenomena, conditions and processes are persistent and difficult to destroy. The reasons for their presence are complex. A basic explanation in this direction is offered by Yul. Popova, who reminds the character of stereotypes as a categorizing mechanism of human perception and leads to economy of effort that is being achieved through them (Popova 2015). The millennial consecutive evolution of Chinese nation favors the accumulation of cultural layers from different historical periods and determines the existence of a number of secondary images that mediate the relationship (Vassileva 2018) of its representatives with reality. This paper aims to present and suggest possible explanations of the negative associations accumulated within Chinese society for centuries towards the Eunuchs’ stratum.
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The article shed light on the early history of the Ottoman city of Akça Kizinlik, the predecessor of the modern city of Kazanlak, in order to discover the meaning of this name and its possible relationship with the name of the former Bulgarian district town of Krun. Evidence is presented that the city of Krun was located within the territory of today’s town of Kazanlak, near the Kulenska mahala residential district. This conclusion is supported by the linguistic analysis of the semantic rout Kizin of Kizýnlik, which regularly conveys the name of the medieval Bulgarian town of Krun. The first part of the Ottoman name, Akça “spring, a place rich in potable water”, repeats the meaning of the old Greek name Krunoi “spring”, latter transformed into Bulgarian name Kran.The article shed light on the early history of the Ottoman city of Akça Kizinlik, the predecessor of the modern city of Kazanlak, in order to discover the meaning of this name and its possible relationship with the name of the former Bulgarian district town of Krun. Evidence is presented that the city of Krun was located within the territory of today’s town of Kazanlak, near the Kulenska mahala residential district. This conclusion is supported by the linguistic analysis of the semantic rout Kizin of Kizýnlik, which regularly conveys the name of the medieval Bulgarian town of Krun. The first part of the Ottoman name, Akça “spring, a place rich in potable water”, repeats the meaning of the old Greek name Krunoi “spring”, latter transformed into Bulgarian name Kran.
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A paper reflects new dimensions of New Cold War geostrategic balance implications at pan-regional(European) and regional (Black Sea) levels that already has been transformed into classical hybrid warfare between the Russian Federation and NATO due to the Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. Currently adopted military doctrine of the Russian Federation envisages engagement into two military conflicts simultaneously and constructed its strategic operational framework founded on incorporation of three combat elements: military, non-military and information warfare measures and proper concepts. Hence, it means that Russia can beginwar-game scenarios at the same time against two neighboring nations as it occurs at time being against Ukraine and Georgia. At that respect, the incumbent Russian military leadership in aegis of so-called “GerasimovDoctrine” is promoting hybrid warfare as a key dominant grand strategy with relevant theater strategy and operational art elements (for instance, operational – strategic command HQ “South” and 5 Army Corp HQs). The military “muscle” could easily skew and twist European security environment that is much unprepared to the geostrategic challenge – Crimea occupation and annexation in 2014, war with Georgia in 2008, hybrid attack to Estonia in 2007 and very recently large-scale military intervention in Azov Sea and pending regional hegemony conditions in Caspian Basin. These military asymmetric challenges and risks deriving from the arms race derailed by the Russia’s incumbent authority, and security dilemma embroiled with by the elements of WMD are sufficient indications why the European security is plausible fragile against such challenges. From academic standpoint, the thesis deals in analyzing with the most dangerous threat targeting the European security architecture – asymmetric military challenge and realization of which is pursued in wagging hybrid war against Georgia and Ukraine. The new type of warfare is a probe stone perfected against these two post-Sovietnations indicates and poses real menace, mainly geostrategic origin, easily targeted NATO member-states, including Poland. The article predisposes reflection and understanding true meaning of so-called “GerasimovDoctrine” and the whole new version of Military Doctrine of Russia and how it is implemented at the stage. A shift transformation takes place in realms of contemporary century warfare doctrinal planning and the transformation has already implicated of identifying new type of warfare strategy – asymmetric war with representation of hybrid warfare that contributing in re-shaping a grand strategy that allows policymakers to steer through the uncertainties of a complex international security environment; Elaboration real content and new definition of “hybrid war” and its dual fold implications how to quell and deal with asymmetric military challenges and risks and how to cause the challenges on its matter. Moreover, it describes and review reformatting modality in planning and wagging war due to the military technology development that contributed to a far more complicated strategic environment for war than that of previous century. In that respect is to be identified new style of warfare – Urbanistic warfare presented in 2008 August Russia-Georgia war as well as in war in Ukraine (Mariupol battle) new definition of the warfare in general matter.
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It is a challenge to try to draw conclusions and find the characteristics of an ongoing crisis. Even more so when it is a large-scale war, like the one fought by Russia in Ukraine, a war already defined as a war of aggression of Russia in Ukraine, unprovoked, illegal and unjustified, an invasion of Russia in Ukraine aimed at conquering new territories for Moscow to annex. But, after three months of war, some basic arguments are already in place and it is worth assessing the regularities of this war and its particularities in a way that allows us to predict the evolution of this war. And if no two wars are alike, comparisons give us hints about previous behaviors and perspectives of evolution. In this case, the 7 districts buffer zone in Nagorno Karabakh could give us a hint on the way the destruction of Eastern Ukraine will be used in the future by Russia to deny any the presence of weapons close to its borders.
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The analysis of Ukrainian special operations forces’ capabilities is an important endeavor in studying the development of the war from Ukraine – as a consequence of the Russian Army invasion, in February 24, 2022. The actions of the Ukrainian elite military forces contributed to the failure of the initial Russian military planners’ strategic aims. National Ukrainian Army initiated the preparations to defend against an invasion force of the Russian Federation Armed Forces of 200,000 militaries, grouped in tactical units around the Ukrainian borders. Special operations Ukrainian forces had the significant role of stopping Moscow’s objectives established at the beginning of the Russian invasion and of obtaining these remarkable results within the fights against the Russian army’s units; they stood out, especially within the planned action of defeating the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. The role of Ukrainian special operations forces within the war in Ukraine consisted in bold actions behind the adversaries’ lines, resulting in destroying certain command points and in eliminating several important commanders from the command chain of the Russian Federation invasion forces. Ukrainian special operations forces engaged efficiently the fight with the Russian elite forces that landed in the neighborhood of Kyiv and also blocked the military actions that intending to get the control over certain strategic objectives.Interrupting the logistic flow of the Russian Armed Forces, destroying the Russian logistic centers from Ukrainian and Russian territory, as well as organizing resistance cells for guerrilla fight within the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russians are among the successful missions of the Ukrainian special operations forces. The endeavor of the current article is to analyze the Ukrainian special operations force’ transformation process since 2014 – an evolution from a structure specific for the „Spetsnaz” and Soviet Union (U.R.S.S) to the current capabilities and modern endowment, driven upon a development & training program, commonly developed with special forces units from NATO armies.
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The present paper approaches the significant contextual aspects in which 2022 NATO and EU strategic revision process is taking place. The study premises that Russian unjustified military aggression on Ukraine and the subsequent security challenges for the European security environment are only the most recent, visible, and implicitly, attention catching ones, and that the background of the current strategic revision of both NATO and the EU is wider and marked by the succession of internal and external crises in the last decade. However, despite the need to approach all these challenges, Russian invasion of Ukraine has a key role in these organizations’ strategic revision, as it can be considered a wake-up call, an undeniable proof that both NATO and EU have to adapt their role in the regional and international security context. Through this rather descriptive approach, this paper is meant to bring to attention the complexity of the current international and regional context, shaping NATO and EU strategic revision. Also, we will argue that one of the main challenges that are to come after this revision will consist in dealing with NATO-EU relation in the best possible manner. In order to do so, the argumentation will be built departing from the general regional context, taking in consideration both internal and external trends, continuing with the origins and signification of NATO and EU strategic revision. This will be the basis on which we intend to reveal some of the challenges of NATO-EU relation and how this relation was impacted by the unjustified Russian military aggression on Ukraine. The argumentation capitalizes recent events with relevance for NATO and EU approach to security and is built on inputs from the level of population perception on NATO and EU, as well as from national foreign politics and trends specific to the organizations themselves. Given that this paper was written before NATO actually published its 2022 Strategic Concept, the author will mostly capitalize on EU’ s official documents and, implicitly, on EU’ s perspective. The study concludes that despite the highly conflict-prone context, there is also a favourable ground not only for the EU to progress in its military dimension but also for doing this in full coordination with NATO, avoiding duplications.
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