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After Solidarity’s oppression in December 1981, a far-flung transnational network of support committees emerged, providing material aid and raising international awareness for Solidarity’s fate. In the existing literature, this kind of human rights advocacy is usually seen in association with the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. According to this interpretation, the West managed put its human rights values unto the agenda of East-West détente at Helsinki, thus spurring opposition movements in the Soviet bloc. This article puts forth a different interpretation. Though the Final Act was doubtlessly important, Solidarity still needed western supporters who would bring its situation before the Conference on Security and Cooperation and other international forums. Why did they help? And why did others not help? Usually, Western human rights advocacy is seen as an offshoot of the Cold War. Surprisingly, however, Solidarity’s diverse group of supporters did not entail only western “Cold Warriors,” but also French leftist intellectuals and even peace activists. To understand the motivations of Solidarity’s diverse supporters, the article argues, we have to understand two points: First, in the early 1980s, human rights activism was still a comparatively novel form of organizing political protest; second, Solidarity was a movement which eschewed western political categories and undercut taken-for-granted assumptions about the Cold War. For a variety of western actors, supporting Solidarity was a way of formulating a human rights policy in line with their own political views. Solidarity thus emerges as a contested icon – a powerful symbol which the movement’s supporters tried to claim for their own interpretation of human rights.
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One of the decisive moments during the protests of August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk was the end of the so-called “little strike” and the announcement of a sympathy, solidarity, strike. The management’s capitulation under pressure from the protesters and their promise to meet their submitted demands surprised the Strike Committee, whose members, especially those favoring the management, voted on August 16th to end the protest action. The majority of the shipyard workers, who had been fighting for higher wages, a free trade union and work for their dismissed colleagues, Anna Walentynowicz and Lech Wałęsa, did not understand the need to continue the protest in solidarity with the workers of other establishments. Nevertheless, they managed to start the sympathy strike thanks to the activists from the democratic opposition who appealed to the workers to remain at the shipyard. In order to continue the strike, it was necessary to form a new leadership and to record thae demands that were common to all the workplaces. This is how the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy, MKS) came to be, bringing together representatives from workplaces in the Tri-City area and drawing up the list of 21 demands, which is now a part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Registry. This article focuses on the circumstances surrounding the ending of the so-called “little strike,” the start of the sympathy strike and the formation of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee. The author looks into the various, sometimes contradictory versions of the events as described by witnesses and compares them with the existing documentary evidence.
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This is a group of articles dedicated to the memory of Octavian Roske, cofounder of the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism and editor in chief of Totalitarianism Archives (1993-2022).
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The study looks at the educational concept of two youth associations, namely the Scouting and the Pioneer movement as two defining youth associations in the 20th century Hungary. In the beginning of the 20th century, due to several social influences, there was an increased demand for communities that bring young people together and educate them outside of school. The Scouting movement spread in the first half of the century, and was replaced by the Pioneer Association during the socialist–communist Hungary. Both youth movements were closely linked to politics and ideology. The study analyses the common and opposite characteristics, everyday life, and mainly the educational concept and structure of the two youth associations with the help of literature and the contemporary press.
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Between 1948 and 1989, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), specifically its Central Committee (Ústřední výbor or ÚV), held a monopolistic grip on power in Czechoslovakia. Both the government and, to a greater extent, the parliament were subject to its authority, transforming into willing executors of the communist leadership's will. In 1968, these institutions attempted to assert their independence and reclaim lost positions, paradoxically led by predominantly communist figures. The following study outlines this development by describing the establishment and activities of the National Assembly's defense and security committee in Czechoslovakia. It focuses on the security issues that played a distinctive role in 1968, particularly after the August invasion, leading to conflicts among high-ranking officials of the state and the party.
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The creation of fake resistance groups within so-called control networks was an effective method used by totalitarian regimes to gain control over potential expressions of resistance while suppressing the most serious threats that could endanger the regime itself. However, when courageous citizens are willing to risk their lives for freedom and democracy, how should their actions be evaluated? Can the label of "resistance fighters" truly be denied to them? This text explores the fate of dedicated democrat and skilled organizer Miroslav Havlíček, who, in his struggle against two totalitarian regimes, faced a significant share of misfortune. The narrative touches on the StB operations "Robinson" and "Bříza."
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The text traces the changes in the ethnic identification of Muslims in the municipality of Gotse Delchev (with a special focus on the villages of Breznitsa, Lazhnitsa and Kornitsa, where assimilation, called the "revival" process, has taken the most victims). The four censuses after 1989 were used, the first of which (in 1992) – annulled be-cause it did not correspond "to the real ethnodemographic structure of the popula-tion".Quantitative and qualitative studies have also been used to show a correlation between the memory of assimilation and the ethnic identification of people in the re-gion. The results of the study "Majority and Minorities: Attitudes towards the Differ-ent" are given, which also affects the attitude of the majority to the "revival" process.
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This study proposes an analysis regarding the positions of the communist regime’s historiography in the question of the agrarian reform from 1921 and the role of the monarchy inside it. A general view, often selective, could only exacerbate the stereotype regarding the fact that the communist historiography may have been exclusively antimonarchic. Several case studies had proven that the historical truth was able to find itself in what regards the role of Carol I in the Independence War, or even in the topic of the coronations. This study shows that the rehabilitations, even with the hidden intent to naturally uproot the monarchy from the collective mentality of the Romanian society, was able to tackle a subject that was criticized even by the socialists and the communists from its historical period. And, as we will notice, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s historians were not afraid to attack the communists that were linked with the International back in the 20’s, all while the same historians would recognize the role of King Ferdinand in what regards his promises made in the trenches of the Great War and even to the pressure he made in applying the agrarian reform (that was also recognized for its positive effects on the Romanian society).Thus, the expected results consist in the continued improvement of the (still in working) chronology regarding the position of the communist historiography in the matter of the monarchic institution, as well as pinpointing some grave mentality (and even historical) mistakes that are still haunting the contemporary historiography and the position of the mass-media in what regards the agrarian reform. Also, we will pinpoint several work methodologies of the communist historians and their continued adaptation, strongly linked with the positions of the Romanian Communist Party.The main sources consist of the general historiography of the regime (including authors like Vasile Liveanu, Georgeta Tudoran, Ion Bitoleanu, Gheorghe Unc, Ioan Scurtu, C.C. Giurescu, Damian Hurezeanu, Nicolae Dascălu, Dumitru Almaș, Aron Petric, Mircea Mușat, Ion Ardeleanu, Ioan Saizu or Ilie Puia), Revista de Istorie (Studii) [The History Journal (Studies)], Magazinul istoric [A Historical Magazine] and communist textbooks.
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The present work analyses the professional activity, but also the personal course of the Transylvanian historian David Prodan in a chronological approach, during ten years characterized by profound political and social changes. We have used both the works published by Prodan and original materials from the collection of the Academician David Prodan Memorial Museum in Cluj-Napoca.The beginning of the period is marked by the publication of his doctoral thesis, Răscoala lui Horea în comitatele Cluj și Turda (The uprising of Horea in Cluj and Turda Counties), which surprised contemporary historical research, being considered the most valuable contribution to the knowledge of the subject after the appearance of Nicolae Densușianu’s work. A steady professional rise followed until 1944 and an extremely rapid one between 1944 and 1948.The initial historical investigations about Horea’s uprising, which were put to good use in such instances as the publication of several reviews in AIINC, were followed by numerous studies of agrarian history, such as those on iliș and tretină in Transylvania. Starting with 1944, the profile of a researcher passionate about Romanian historical realities in Transylvania took shape, addressing the social history of serfdom and the political history of Transylvanian Romanians in his works. He elaborated the work Teoria imigrației românilor din Principatele Române în Transilvania în veacul al XVIII-lea. Studiu critic, Toplița la 1785 (The theory of Romanian immigration from the Romanian Principalities to Transylvania in the 18th century: Critical study, Toplița in 1785), Iobăgia în domeniul Băii de Arieș la 1770 (Serfdom in the domain of Baia de Aries in 1770) and Supplex Libellus Valachorum, works in which he approaches the events in an innovative way, at the same time appealing to a materialist-dialectical vision of the evolution of society.In 1948, David Prodan was co-opted as a member within some of the most important national cultural forums: The Academy of the People’s Republic of Romania, The University of Cluj and the Institute for History and Philosophy of the Academy of the People’s Republic of Romania, from Cluj.
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The article explores the profound impact of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book, Souostroví Gulag (The Gulag Archipelago), first published in Paris in 1973, which laid bare the atrocities of the Soviet repressive system and labor camps. It delves into the origins and evolution of Solzhenitsyn's monumental work, a product of his personal experiences, historical sources, and accounts from hundreds of former prisoners. The piece also scrutinizes the reception and repercussions of the book in both the democratic West and the communist East, where it was prohibited and only disseminated in samizdat form. The article posits that Souostroví Gulag was a literary and historical watershed that dispelled illusions about communism and the Soviet Union, playing a pivotal role in the moral and political awakening of numerous individuals globally.
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The article marks the 90th anniversary of Nikolaj Kiselev's book, Tábory smrti v SSSR (Camps of Death in the USSR), which offers a first-hand account of the conditions and atrocities in the Solovetsky camps, the precursor to the Gulag system. Kiselev, a former Soviet security officer who escaped to Finland and then Prague in 1931, provides an insider's perspective. The article reconstructs Kiselev's life story and the genesis of his book using archival sources, press reports, and various editions of the book in Czech, Russian, and German. It also underscores the Czechoslovak context of the book, first published in Prague in 1933, and the intrigue and skepticism of the Czechoslovak authorities and public towards Kiselev and his revelations.
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The article delves into the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal in the Soviet Union, built between 1931 and 1934 by over 100,000 Gulag prisoners under severe conditions, resulting in high mortality rates. The canal served as a testament to the Soviet state security's utilization of forced labor for large-scale projects. A group of 120 writers, spearheaded by Maxim Gorky, visited the construction site and penned a monumental book glorifying the canal and the prisoners' "re-education". Despite receiving endorsement from the highest authorities and widespread distribution both domestically and internationally, the book and most of its authors and editors fell victim to the Great Terror of 1937. Labelled as "enemies of the people", they were arrested and executed, and the book, which contained evidence of their activities and photographs of many purged officials, was confiscated and destroyed, with only a few copies surviving in foreign libraries.
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The article examines the political repression in the Soviet Union in the interwar period and how it was reported in the Czechoslovak press. It focuses on the sources and quality of information, the ideological bias of different newspapers, and the impact of censorship and propaganda on the public perception of the Soviet reality. The article analyzes the reports on the Solovetsky Islands, the Belomor Canal, the collectivization, and the Great Terror, and compares them with the testimonies of former prisoners and recent historical research. The article concludes that the Czechoslovak press provided a relatively accurate picture of the Soviet repression, but it was often distorted by the political agenda of the journalists and the readers.
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The article discusses the cases of several Czechoslovak citizens who were persecuted by the communist regime for publicly criticizing the Soviet Union, the main ally of Czechoslovakia after World War II. The author examines the legal and political aspects of these cases, as well as the personal motives and experiences of the defendants, who were often former prisoners of the Soviet Gulag. The article also analyzes the impact of these cases on the public opinion and the official propaganda of the communist regime, which tried to suppress any negative evaluation of the Soviet reality. The article concludes that the cases of the so-called “defamers” of the Soviet Union reveal the contradictions and tensions between the communist ideology and the actual situation in the Soviet bloc.
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The article aims to analyse the main features of international relations after Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2022. The author's hypothesis is that after the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014, the stage of cold peace established at the end of the first Cold War ended, paving the way for the new or second Cold War. This last war shows similarities with the period of the bipolar Soviet-American confrontation, but there are also relevant elements of differentiation: a multipolar rivalry, the decrease in the importance of the ideological factor, the fragmentation of international politics. In the study, the author offers arguments for the relevance of history in understanding the new Cold War. At the end, the article shows that during the new Cold War there were substantial changes in the geopolitical role of Romania, which became a border state with a region of conflict, a situation that has wider political and economic implications.
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