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The Polish democratic opposition created a polemical to the official vision of modern history (unmasking white spots such as the Katyn massacre, Soviet repres- sions against Poles, and the history of the Home Army). The subject of Polish-Jew- ish relations was also addressed, referring to the negative attitudes of Poles towards members of this minority, including the use of violence. The opposition initiatives related to the history of the Kielce pogrom, which took place in July 1946, were part of this trend.
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The Christian Social Association, founded in 1957, was one of three (officially tolerated) groups of lay Catholics in the post-1956 People’s Republic of Poland, along with the Znak movement and the PAX Asso- ciation. It was the smallest of them, but it played an important role in the Communist authorities’ religious policy, which sought to antagonise Polish Catholics. Presided over until 1968 by Jan Frankowski, between 1968 and 1974 by Zygmunt Filipowicz, and from 1974 by Kazimierz Morawski, it was a place of constant factional struggles, often controlled by the authorities with the help of secret collaborators with the Security Service. One of these was Stanisław Jan Rostworowski.
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Nicolae Ceaușescu was Romania’s primary leader for almost a quarter century. He established a dictatorial, neo-Stalinist regime, striving for total control over society. He built an excessive cult of personality around himself and aimed to implement a “dynastic” communism akin to that of North Korea. He staunchly rejected all internal reform efforts while pursuing a “separate path” in foreign policy within the Eastern Bloc. During the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Romania, he was stripped of his power and subsequently executed. How did the former shoemaker’s apprentice become a communist revolutionary? To what extent was his life path determined by his inherent, childhood, and adolescent personality traits, what was his family background, and how did he undergo the process of socialization? How did he ascend to the pinnacle of power? What do we know about his long reign and subsequent ignominious downfall? In my study, I primarily seek to answer these questions.
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In 1949, Mao Zedong was celebrated by hundreds of millions as a liberator, a victor over the corrupt Guomindang regime. Within a few years, however, it became evident that he was even more ruthless than many of his imperial and republican predecessors. He laid the foundations of modern China, but due to his wrong decisions tens of millions of Chinese people starved to death. In the last decade of his life, he led his country to international recognition, but the society was on the brink of total chaos. So who was Mao Zedong? Was he a brilliant politician driven by sincere enthusiasm, or a calculating technician of power politics who was ready to destroy Chinese cultural heritage and to unscrupulously attack his fellow leaders who threatened his position? This study cannot provide definitive answers to these questions. Here we can only attempt to present some elements of Mao’s relationship to power and the leadership methods of the politician who had perhaps the most significant impact on China’s 20th-century history.
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The visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland in June was undoubtedly the most important domestic political event. During his nine-day tour of the country, the Pope was greeted with a triumphant reception by the populace everywhere. Numerous Catholic pilgrims came from other Eastern Bloc countries, especially from neighboring Slovakia. During his stay in Warsaw, the Pope also met party leader Gierek. Undoubtedly, the Pope's visit further strengthened the position of the Catholic Church in Poland. The party and government will have to take this factor into account in the future as well, since the church was able to exert a moderating influence on the growing dissatisfaction of the population.
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General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship ended in Spain in 1975, the next almost ten years were crucial for the Spanish kingdom. The country had to reposition itself in the international context in order to redefine its role in accordance with its size, geopolitical importance, political and economic weight. The task was not easy in this area either: along with the challenges the country faced in the field of internal affairs, the overwhelming shadow of the dictatorship that had existed for thirty-six years had to be overcome in terms of foreign policy as well. Although the country’s international relations improved during the last twenty years of the regime, important measures had to be taken with the purpose of transforming Spain into a country that could be regarded as a Western European democracy. The aim of my article is to describe how this Iberian country tried to return to the democratic system of international relations and how foreign governments reacted to Spain’s endeavours.
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s the opposition movement in Lithuania was primarily formed around the Catholic Church, and it had become one of the most organized and successful dissident group in the Soviet Union. The primary mouthpiece of this movement was the illegally published newspaper Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, which positioned itself as the defender of human and national rights, as well as the freedom of religion. The Chronicle grants us insight into the events concerning the Catholic Church in the 1970s and 80s and serves as a historical source. The dissident movement against the Soviet Union in Lithuania was helped by the fact that the country managed to keep its ethnic identity (80% of the population was Lithuanian, and there were no large-scale attempts at colonisation, as opposed to Estonia and Latvia), and also religious homogeneity (Lithuanians were mostly Catholic, while the majority of Latvians and Estonians were Lutherans or Orthodox, and only a minority were Catholics).
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The GDR had a unique position among the countries of the Eastern Bloc, as its history was always more connected to the FRG than its fellow Socialist countries. The emigration problem constantly plaguing the GDR had always determined its self-definition and political communication, and the problem continued even after the building of the Wall. The aging population also led to ever increasing labour and skill shortages in the country. The solution came in the form of labour exchange contracts with other Socialist countries, which also involved student exchange. However, expanding connections to even countries within the bloc were not without risks for Eastern Germany. By the mid-1980s the leadership of the GDR also lost its trust in the Hungarian system, as more and more press releases, diplomatic and state security reports indicated changes, economic transformation, and ongoing reform processes in Hungary.
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Jusst prior to the so-called Six-Day War, delegations from Egypt and Syria hurried to the Eastern bloc states to acquire more intensive diplomatic support, humanitarian help and arms supplies. One of the main destinations was Czechoslovakia which between 1955 and 1968 was one of the main supporters not just for the Arab States but even for most of the Third World countries and national liberation movements. So, it was no surprise that the Communist leadership did not hesitate when they had to choose after the armed conflict: the defeated Arab states (Egypt, Syria) or victorious Israel? Despite the fact that Czechoslovakia played a key role in the first Arab–Israeli War (supporting the Israeli militias and army with weapons), from the early fifties to the mid-sixties, the relations between Israel and Czechoslovakia remained very cold. So first, it seemed that the suspension of diplomatic ties would not have any longstanding consequences on Prague’s Middle East-policy nor the country itself. However, before and during the Prague Spring, there were shown displays of public sympathy for Israel – not just from the intelligentsia, but from the members of the so-called Communist reform movement alike. Although there were some signs of warming up the former Czechoslovak–Israeli relations, the invasion of the Warsaw Pact and Gustáv Husák’s “normalization” ruined such hopes. Moreover, after 1968 the Czechoslovak leadership attempted to return to the “golden age”, but due to the purge in the country and some changes in the Middle East, this remained an unfulfilled dream.
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Csikós Gábor – Kiss Réka – Ö. Kovács József (szerk.): Váltóállítás. Diktatúrák a vidéki Magyarországon 1945-ben. MTA BTK – NEB, Budapest, 2017. 780 oldal
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After the end of the Second World War Germany was split and the divisions between the peoples of the two Germanies were reflected in their different political systems. They were aggravated by the policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) which wanted reunification of Germany, while the Democratic Republic of Germany (GDR) sought, above all, to gain international recognition. In 1969, a big turn occurred in relations between the two countries when the social-liberal coalition led by Willy Brandt came to power. The „Neue Ostpolitik“ of Willy Brandt aimed to take a more realistic approach to the dominant trends in East-West relations. The paper aims to explore the achievements made in the field of contractual relations and to examine to what extent this policy model can be applied by countries facing similar problems. In this regard, the author has considered the case study of the two Koreas. The success in conflict resolution largely depends on the ability of the parties involved to adapt to the changes in the international environment when they occur. The author concludes that Neue Ostpolitik is partially applicable to the case of the two Koreas.
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In October 1950, the staged trial with the Rector of Piarists’ College František Ambrož Stříteský took place at Litomyšl. The study devotes its attention to the incident between the Minister of Education and Enlightenment Zdeněk Nejedlý and the parents of tried young men, included in the “group” of Stříteský. They asked the minister for help but he refused to receive them and shouted that “the reaction had to be exterminated as a nest of vipers”. Nejedlý played an important role in organising the music festival called Smetana´s Litomyšl as a regular event. He made friends with various inhabitants from Litomyšl, among them clergyman and musician Jaromír Metyš, who asked Nejedlý to help his son in 1950. The author analyses models of Nejedlý’s manners in conflict situations. He has his doubts about the con-frontation, if it had happened in the way it has been interpreted by the families of the persecuted. The saying about “the nest of vipers” could be heard two years later in Gottwald’s speech connected with the trial of Rudolf Slánský. The study also deals with a mechanism of forming collective memory. The character of a historian is important as well as that of all learners.
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Billy Graham, one of the most recognisable American preachers, was known primarily for his large-scale evangelisation projects, organised initially in the United States and Western Europe, and then on other continents. In a favourable situation of political détente between the USA and the Soviet Union, Graham, in October 1978, visited Poland, delivering a number of sermons to the faithful of the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations. From a religious point of view, Graham’s teachings bore clear features of evangelical Protestantism, weakly rooted in Poland. Teaching also had a cultural dimension, trying to instil in the faithful such character traits as the courage to make decisions, being guided by Christian values, the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and openness to other people. Graham’s charisma and unquestionable missionary zeal thus became an opportunity to present the values of American evangelicals and, for Poles, an extremely rare opportunity to encounter a different religious culture that carries values so important to Americans as freedom, liberty, searching for one’s identity and deepening spirituality. In the reality of the Polish communist state, this religious message also had a deeper dimension, being a breath of freedom flowing from the USA.
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This study examines the psychological effects of Stalinist social engineering in Hungary in the early 1950s through the memoirs of a former warden and the patient files of the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. The life stories reveal pathogenic factors such as overwork, identity rupture, abrupt social mobility, and the politicization of everyday life. The experiences of psychiatric patients as a minority also provide insight into the conflicts of the majority within society. An important finding of the study is that not only did the obvious victims show symptoms of mental illness, but even the most privileged leaders found that Soviet voluntarism encountered not only economic obstacles or even social resistance but also a more elementary limitation: the limits of their own physical and mental capacity.
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The contribution of Bavaria to the transfer of 1956 Hungarian refugees was considerable: 90.000 Hungarians crossed the Austrian-Bavarian border, most of whom headed for another European or overseas country. More than 15.000 people travelled by plane from Munich to the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, which was made possible by the refugee-aiding action labelled Sicherer Hafen (Safe Haven). The German Federal Republic hosted some 14 500 Hungarians, 1541 of whom were located in Bavaria. Bavaria played a major part in the German aid for the Hungarians as well, for it was from here that the humanitarian transports departed for Hungary and the Bavarian-Austrian border. In Bavaria, the refugee Hungarian schoolchildren could continue their studies in Hungarian, with the Hungarian Realgymnasium located in the building of the former Benedictine monastery at Burg Kastl. The Bavarian state contributed significantly to the licensing and funding of the school. The Hungarian university alumni were assisted in continuing their studies by state scholarships.
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