Ideas, reality and the international context of the social state in the Slovak Republic of 1939-1945

Author(s): Ľudovít Hallon,Michal Schvarc / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2015

The conservative forces in the Slovak society of the first half of the 20th century sought models in Christian solidarity and the corporate state, which would replace parliamentarism of the Western type. The ideas could be put into practice after the seizure of power in autumn 1938 and especially after Slovakia became independent in March 1939. However, the ally of independent Slovakia, Nazi Germany rejected the corporate state. Therefore, the idea of Christian solidarity was replaced with the idea of Slovak national socialism and plans for a corporate social system for the Slovak working community according to the German model. The regime of the Slovak Republic of 1939 – 1945 attempted to put the new principles of the social state into economic and social practice. However, the implementation of the ideas of the time about a social state and the political system of Slovakia stopped half way.

Bezpieczeństwo na granicy. Aktywność OUN w latach 1930–1935 na podstawie sprawozdań sytuacyjnych (Wschodnio)małopolskiego Inspektoratu Okręgowego Straży Granicznej

Author(s): Magdalena Gibiec / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

The present article outlines the activity of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the area of Polish-Czechoslovak borderland and its impact on the local people. On the basis of situation reports of the Lesser Poland Regional Inspectorate of the Border Guard, issued between 1930 and 1935, an attempt was made both to present the methods of prevention of the OUN operations that threatened the security of the Polish State, and to track a nationality situation in the borderland.

Przesiedlenia ludności na Ukrainie w latach 1933–1934

Author(s): Robert Kuśnierz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

After the Great Famine in Ukraine that killed at least 3.5 million people, the Bolsheviks faced a problem of a lack of resources and people to work on the land. Thus, a decision was made to bring to the most depopulated areas peasants from Russia and Belarus, as well as some farmers from other regions of Ukraine, less affected by the famine. The action did not succeed, as a majority of peasants who were brought to Ukrainian lands devastated by the Holodomor went back to their homes.

The Ideas of Modern Catholicism and Lithuanian Art Criticism in the 1930s

Author(s): Pillė Veljataga / Language(s): English Issue: 01+02/2017

This article analyses the diffusion of the ideology of modern Catholicism and its effect on aesthetics and art criticism in Lithuania in the 1930s. The young generation of Lithuanian Catholic aestheticians proclaimed that art was not only intended to serve as an image of a dehumanised civilisation but also as an effort to prevail over its negative impact. They adapted the New Humanism ideology of French modern Catholicism as a programmatic guideline for contemporary art. The article reveals that although the theoretical art conceptions of the young generation of Lithuanian Catholic art critics were similar, their interpretations of Lithuanian art were rather different.

Sprawozdanie z konferencji naukowej „Senat II Rzeczypospolitej (1922–1939) «rzecznik rozsądku, rozwagi i miary»”, Warszawa, 11 XII 2017 r.

Author(s): Joanna Piórkowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

Elaborat poselstwa polskiego w Berlinie z listopada 1926 r., pt. „Rzut oka na rozwój stosunków politycznych francusko-niemieckich w okresie ostatnich kilkunastu miesięcy w związku z polityką Anglii, Włoch i Polski”

Author(s): Krzysztof Kania,Krzysztof Kloc / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

Ukraińska transmoderność albo dysharmonia kanonów europejskiego i ukraińskiego modernizmu

Author(s): Iwona Boruszkowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 33/2017

This article is an attempt to give a synthetic overview of the phenomenon of modernity in the Ukrainian literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It considers the problem of the Europeanization of Ukrainian culture and presents different views of researchers on the phenomenon of modernism.

Svájciak a magyar történelem sodrában, 1867–1990

Author(s): Antal András Kováts / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2017

Nineteenth-Century Hungary offered attractive opportunities for Swiss professionals. The formation of their institutions and associations falls into the period following the so-called Austro–Hungarian Compromise (1867). Until the end of World War II their number oscillated between 500 and 1100, then fell back drastically. The paper addresses the question of how the native Swiss, whose country of origin had long been attached to the tradition of direct democracy, dealt with the historical storms that swept through their adopted homeland. A dilemma repeatedly haunting them in periods of crisis was the possibility of returning to Switzerland which, however, would probably have involved the loss of their property. While most of the settlers were quickly assimilated, in extreme situations they could generally rely on the assistance of the politically neutral and prudent Swiss government.

Egy másik 1956. A romániai jiddis színház 80 éve

Author(s): Corina L. Petrescu / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2017

In December 1956 the Bucharest-based Teatrul Evreiesc de Stat celebrated the 80th anniversary of the birth of Yiddish theater. For the occasion, a bilingual memory book was published with the title Optzeci de ani de teatru evreiesc în Romînia 1876–1956 / Akhtsik yor yidish teater in Rumenye 1876–1956. The paper examines how this memory book reflects the relation of Romanian Yiddish theater’s actors to Yiddish theater history and to the cultural politics of the People’s Republic of Romanian in the 1950s.

„A haza legyen minden gyermekének hazája” - A Szent István-kultusz reprezentációi Szlovákiában a két világháború közötti időszakban

Author(s): Miroslav Michela / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

The study is dealing with an analysis of political and symbolic levels of the cult of St. Stephen in (Czecho)slovakia during the inter-war period. The author primarily focuses upon the manner in which this formally religious cult was transformed into a „national”. He deals with his representations in Hungarian and Slovak nationalist discourses after the establishing of the Czechoslovak Republic. Different cultural representations of St. Stephen point out to significant confessional, ideological and national narratives, which constructed the cult in the 20th century. The author highlights the fact that the principal consensus was not even arrived at within the proper „nation states” despite the efforts of Slovak and Hungarian ruling elites to enforce their unified (and mutually antagonistic) politics connected to St. Stephen. Although it is not possible to speak about the fully unified „Slovak” or „Hungarian” narrative in connection to St. Stephen’s cult, the author primarily devotes himself to the trends embodied in the power and cultural elites. At the same time he attempts to draw some attention to some micro-levels of the topic. In Czechoslovakia a relatively negative and disapproving attitude towards the cult of St. Stephen gradually prevailed as the cult was linked to the idea of enforced assimilation and practice by the Hungarian elites in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867–1918). Contrary to that, the dominant part of the Hungarians living in Czechoslovakia shared same beliefs as in Hungary. However, after 1918 St. Stephen came to represent a type of transcendental guarantor that „the extraction from a national community” would not be permanent. Representations reproduced in the inter-war period and disseminated through education in schools and at home also reflect the contemporary situation to a large degree. The author highlights that the past – as a tool of political legitimation – takes on tropical meanings.

Idea narodowa w konfrontacji z zamysłami wspólnotowymi. Przykład Jugosławii

Author(s): Elżbieta Znamierowska-Rakk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2018

Cristian Racovski şi teoria degenerării birocratice a socialismului în Uniunea Sovietică

Author(s): Florin Constantiniu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2018

The article consists of a conference delivered by Academician Florin Constantiniu on February 24, 2009, at the Center of Russian and Soviet Studies within the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy. The main theme of the conference was the theory of bureaucratic degeneration of Socialism in the Soviet Union on which Rakovsky wrote in a letter addressed to another leader of the Trotskyist opposition, G.B. Valentinov. On this occasion, Florin Constantiniu discussed the origins of Rakovsky’s theory, its main principles, the context in which it had been formulated and its validity not only for the Soviet Union but for the East European countries. The article comprises also the lecturer’s answers to the questions from the audience at the end of the conference. The text represents a genuine lesson on totalitarianism history as well as the author’s view on the developments in post-communist society.

Reformacja w ‘Odrodzonej Rzeczpospolitej’. Polskie ewangelickie środowiska opiniotwórcze w okresie międzywojennym wobec dziedzictwa Reformacji

Author(s): Tadeusz Stegner / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2017

The Polish Evangelical opinion-forming circles within the interwar period presented their opinions in the Evangelical press, among others, “Głos Ewangelicki” (Evangelical Voice) and “Zwiastun Ewangelicki” (Evangelical Herald). For the Polish people then Reformation time was the period of building up foundations for the Polish Protestantism. Efforts were focused on strengthening their sense of both Polish as well as Protestant identity and witnessing the Polish roots of the Polish Protestantism. Much space was dedicated to the person of Martin Luther, importance of Reformation for the development of the Polish culture and national language. The fall of the reformation movement and its various trends were considered. Approach to the achievements of Reformation both in European and Polish dimensions was pretty uncritical – as it was the God’s work and gave people, including Poles “true” faith.

Życie społeczne parafii luterańskiej w Białymstoku od I do II wojny światowej

Author(s): Krzysztof Maria Różański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2017

The article completes the picture of the situation of the Lutheran congregation in Białystok in the interwar period. It presents lively educational and cultural activities conducted by the parish, the latter to include: choirs, library, pastoral care, youth groups, military chaplaincy. The article also de-scribes the parish's relationship with the German People's Union in Poland which resulted in bad reputation and troubles for the community in the post-war period, although in fact these relations were limited and terminated quite fast.The issue of personal and national tensions within the congregation - illustrated by the case of division in the years 1931-32 - is also discussed. At that time two separate parish councils functioned that did not recognise and fought each other (one of them even questioned the authority of the Consistory in Warsaw and considered joining the congregation of another church). It even came to an intervention of the state authorities. After the breakout of World War II Podlachian Protestants – officially considered to be Germans – were mostly evacuated to German Reich. Those who remained were mostly exiled by the Soviet to Siberia or Kazakhstan andsome converted to Roman Catholicism. After the war only few remained. The congregation was closed in 1978 but since 2002 it is again active and vital. The article ends a series of four articles summarizing the history of the Lutheran congregation in Białystok.

Imiona chrzestne mieszkańców parafii Gdeszyn w świetle ksiąg metrykalnych z lat 1930-1970

Author(s): Dariusz Jóźwiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 8/2016

This article constitutes a comparative study of the research conducted by the author in the light of the materials on the study of historical demography that have been published so far. Results presented in this article are an outcome of the conducted analysis of baptismal records from 1930 to 1970 in Gdeszyn parish. The article has a cross-cutting nature as the collected data were divided into nine periods counted every five years. The analysed research material includes data starting from the interwar period, through the times of the Second World War and ending up on the Communism period. This article shows what, in the light of the registers of metrics, the notion of baptism looked like, which names were popular from 1930 to 1970 as well as what the characteristics of birth seasonality were. The results obtained are similar to the studies conducted by other researchers in this field.

Scientific Ideals and Political Engagement: Polish Ethnology and the ‘Ethnic Question’ Between the Wars

Author(s): Olga Linkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 114/2016

The article brings to light the relationship between politics and social sciences in interwar Poland in its local and transnational dimensions. It explores the beginnings of expertise in ethnology and the evolution of the discipline’s tools and methods as closely linked to the political goals of the interwar Polish state, and the post-coup Sanacja [Sanation] regime in particular. Ethnologists carried out fieldwork focused on multiethnic territories, such as Eastern Galicia, which were subjected to international territorial disputes. The collaboration with politicians and the administration – developed mostly in the framework of research institutes – was a source of inspiration and, at the same time, stiff competition between scientific schools. To illustrate some consequences of this collaboration, the article traces an argument over scientific approaches to the ‘ethnic question’ which involved ethnologists and empirical sociologists, and the connection of this argument to the objectivity principle in science. These different approaches reflect international theoretical and epistemological divisions at the time as much as they show the direct and indirect exchange of ideas within the European scholarship.

Romanian Eugenic Sub-Culture and the Allure of Biopolitics, 1918–39

Author(s): Marius Turda / Language(s): English Issue: 114/2016

By the late 1920s a considerable body of eugenic literature in Romanian, Hungarian and German had been produced in Romania, illustrating the growing importance afforded to science and evolutionary theories of human improvement in this country. Engaging with this literature, this article investigates the emergence of a Romanian sub-culture in Transylvania and the Banat, sanctioned through eugenics and biopolitics, and promoted by cultural associations and prominent intellectuals and politicians. In so doing, this article contributes not only to a new appraisal of the relationship between ethnic minorities and majorities in interwar Romania, but also to a new understanding of the ways in which eugenics and biopolitics were harnessed to Romanian narratives of nation-building during the interwar period.

‘Crippled Equality’: The Act of 1 July 1921 on Civil Rights for Women in Poland

Author(s): Michał Gałędek,Anna Klimaszewska / Language(s): English Issue: 113/2016

While analysing the legislative output of the interwar Republic of Poland, most Polish researchers highlight the significant achievements of the so-called Codification Commission established in 1919, whose twenty years of efforts resulted in the drafting of a host of important codes and other acts of high legislative value. This output, however, could only be put to a very short-lived use in the 1930s. Its full potential was not unleashed until after the Second World War, in a completely changed political reality. On a day-to-day basis, the Polish state of the interwar period faced a number of issues that it either desired to overcome or was forced to do so. One of them was the crippled legal status of women, particularly jarring in the reality of the interwar times. Although the reborn Polish statehood, true to lofty democratic ideals, immediately took it upon itself to change the clearly underprivileged legal status of women, the final effect, that is the legislation in force as at the outbreak of the Second World War, looks meagre. The modern codification had not been adopted, the legal particularism in the scope of civil law had been maintained, the anachronistic codification of the preceding century upheld – the ideals of equal rights for women were made a very much imperfect reality. In this article, we attempt to trace the history of how this came to be by examining difficulties in introducing the principle of equality of women’s rights. The example we have chosen serves to shed light on the mundane efforts to overcome the mounting problems with realizing ideas of modernization upon the underlying legal foundations of a country which, at first sight, seems utterly ill-prepared to tackle this task properly.

An Ordinary Man, a National Hero, a Polish Palach? Some Thoughts on the Memorialization of Ryszard Siwiec in the Czech-Polish Context

Author(s): Sabine Stach / Language(s): English Issue: 113/2016

On 8 September 1968, Ryszard Siwiec set fi re to himself during a harvest festival in the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. Through his self-immolation, he sought to protest against Communist rule in general and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in particular. However, his death did not gain wider attention. Further protests ‘by fi re’ took place in the subsequent months and years in East Central Europe. Among them was the self-immolation by the Czech student Jan Palach in Prague. In contrast to Siwiec, this young man was immediately recognized as a martyr in Czechoslovakia as well as on the other side of the Iron Curtain. It was only after 1989 that Ryszard Siwiec’s story became increasingly well-known. Today, his act still remains in the shadow of Palach’s, however. This article deals with the marginal position of Siwiec in the Polish national pantheon. By reflecting on the various constraints on creating martyrs in state and post-socialism, it focuses on one particular aspect of Polish and Czech – or rather Polish-Czech – memory politics. As for the ‘Polish Palach’ Ryszard Siwiec, the paper demonstrates that Czechs have played a crucial role in popularizing him.

Two Months of the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Offensive with the Legions’ Fifth Regiment (fragments), prefaced by Maciej Górny

Author(s): Maciej Górny,Marceli Handelsman / Language(s): English Issue: 113/2016