Българският комунизъм. Дебати и интерпретации
A presentation of “The Bulgarian communism. Debates and interpretations” – research papers collection, edited by Mihail Gruev and Diana Mishkova
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A presentation of “The Bulgarian communism. Debates and interpretations” – research papers collection, edited by Mihail Gruev and Diana Mishkova
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In the post-war socialist Yugoslavia political and/or economic situation has become unacceptable for part of the population. Since legal emigration from Croatia was not allowed, the number of illegal immigrants increased since the end of World War II. The article deals with this group of migrants using the comparative analysis of original archival materials and available literature in the period from 1945 to 1961 when the state began to gradually open the border. Mostly young people, under 25 years of age, immigrated illegally, mainly for economic reasons, and this was associated with a tradition of emigration, especially in the coastal region. In addition to the poor economic situation, people also emigrated for political reasons, then for adventure, to avoid serving in the Yugoslav People’s Army or to escape from the law for committing criminal offenses. They were fleeing by land or by sea, which was much more successful. Usually the first destinations of the immigrants were Italy, Austria and Germany, from where the majority of them moved to overseas countries. Most people fled the districts of Rijeka, Pula, Zagreb, Zadar, Šibenik and Split that existed at that time so that 74% of all illegal immigrants came from them. The runaways were mostly workers, followed by farmers, vocational school students, public servants, pupils and students, sailors and craftsmen. According to gender, there were many more men than women among the runaways, most of whom were unmarried. The authorities were trying to prevent the escape abroad by methods of controlling the border and prison sentences, but also by the attempts to ensure better living conditions in the affected areas. As these measures had not yielded the desired results, but also due to the beginning of the economic crisis and the appearance of unemployment, the authorities liberalized emigration procedures and opened the borders to immigrants which resulted in a new wave of economic emigration.
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The article deals with the communist regime in the light of the state of the special closeness of all objects situated within it–open from outside and closed from inside–which closeness was initially generated by the nature of communism coming into existence. This special closeness resulted also in the specific manner of censoring under communism, named in this particular case ‘banning-approving’. Both Stanislavski’s method in its later imposed form and what has been known to be Socialist Realism are treated in this context. The most essential characteristic of the communist regime is exposed here in its ‘shoulding’. If in reality there was a modal clash between ‘should’, ‘is’, and ‘may’, what remained in art (of Socialist Realism) was just ‘should’ or ‘should not’. The shoulding gave those, who ‘shoulded’ the slip and that was why it was beyond reforming. Communism was an exclusive shoulding, which, due to its exclusiveness, became unableness.
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Based on newly discovered archival documents, the paper reveals the biography of Gregory Chochev who was a graduate of the Engineering School at His Majesty’s Navy in Varna and prominent communist functionary. It was found that after his emigration to the USSR in 1923, Chochev accepted family name Bilyarov, became an intelligence officer from the Soviet intelligence personnel and that he was repressed in 1938. The data records are published for the first time.
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Investigation into hundreds of civilian deaths during uprising was declared classified last year before any trials began.
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The article traces part of the discussions in Western studies about the meaning of the terms “Americanization” and “Sovietization”. The accents are placed on the impact of the promoted “American values” in Eastern Europe, especially in the USSR. More details are revealed about the mechanisms of influence used by the US Missions in Bulgaria after 1945 such as providing free access to the library of the political representation of the United States; donation of books and movies to various departments of the Sofia University, community centers and even Fatherland Front organizations. By overcoming the crisis in diplomatic relations of February 1950, despite ideological restrictions educational exchanges with the exchange of students, graduate students, and lecturers were restored after 1959. Pro-Western propaganda was also carried out through the activity of Radio “Voice of America”, Radio“Free Europe”, and BBC. The grueling confrontation between East and West gradually provoked ideas for “detente” that removed barriers between the two poles, but also raised requirements for adjustments in the behavior of the superpowers.
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The second half of the 1940s is a crucial transition period in establishing totalitarian control of society. The decor of pluralism and parliamentarism brought specific color in the life of Bulgarians in the first years after September 9, 1944. The Communist Party in Bulgaria,aided by the entry of the Red Army in Bulgaria and the arrangements between the members of the anti-Hitler coalition, actually became ruling political force, but did not immediately establish a dictatorship of the proletariat in the form of Soviet rule. The destruction of the old authority structures was followed by a period of existence of a parallel unregulated power at all levels. The orchestrated political pluralism did not provide for any serious political role for the coalition partners of BRP (k), whose political platforms detached from the historical context, were quite harmless. A side effect in the movement towards a totalitarian society was the emergence of opposition, which briefly stirred Bulgarian political space and created the illusion of political pluralism in the country. The regime defined itself as a “people’s democracy”, but behind the propaganda thesis about the authority practice shows violation of pluralism, constant interference in the internal life of the other parties, strict regulation of all components of public and political life, criminalization of dissent, including the whole society into state organizations working under the ideological and political leadership of the Communist Party. The affirmation of the communist regime was accompanied by the formation of party-bureaucratic class which acquired the status, powers and privileges, access to which remained limited for members of other parties. Corrupting party cadres, sensitive to domestic benefits, began in the first months after September 9 and gradually became a dominant practice that turned into hallmark of the regime and existed until the end of the 1980s.
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The proposed text interprets the incriminated from totalitarianism book of Panait Istrati „Confessions of a defeated” and his political reorientation from left to right. It shows his deep disappointment from Stalinist Russia, too.
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The text deals with key compositions in mural ensembles at the Cathedrals of The Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God (Veliko Tyrnovo) and of The Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God (Plovdiv) in the light of the developments related to regaining the Patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the mid-twentieth century. The decade following the World War Two was a time, when Bulgaria’s political system was subject to the Soviet totalitarian model. With regard to the Church, it meant pursuing a restrictive policy. On the other hand, however, the authorities spared no efforts to restore the Bulgarian Patriarchate, an issue of both domestic and foreign policy dimensions to it. The murals of both churches were made in 1950–1952 by teams led by this country’s most eminent Bulgarian historical painters, Nikola Kozhuharov and Dimiter Gudjenov. The representational programme was consistent with the political conjuncture. It was implemented in the vein of European academicism, the conservatism of which was close to the aesthetical concept of the method of Socialist Realism. Such plots and scenes were accentuated that could be interpreted not from the vantage point of faith alone, but also in the light of the dominant ideology. These pictorial ensembles would more often than not compromise the principles defining the nature of the Orthodox monumental and decorative church painting.
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The 1980s are quite interesting to researchers of contemporary architecture. That decade was the last under Socialism in Bulgaria, under the so-called ‘mature Socialism’, exhibiting a number of emblematic, large-scale and unique architectural works, some of which are commensurate with the world achievements. Despite of the state-of-the-art devices and the different exteriors, the official design of the governmental buildings is close in terms of its inculcations to that of the governmental edifices of the era of ‘Socialist Realism’ (1949–1956). The period of dogmatic appliance of ‘Socialist Realism’ in architecture was long gone back then, but in the Communist Party’s programmes and architectural literature it was still existing as a guiding architectural method. The representative governmental edifices of the 1980s evince typical features of a totalitarian architecture. During the decade under consideration, unique public buildings were also erected in Bulgaria, which were in tune with the world trends. The core principles of post-modernism in a number of cases were successfully applied along with those of modernism.
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The article discusses the life and work of Bolesław Weszczak (1910–1977), a labourer, a prisoner of the German concentration camp in Dachau (1940–1945) and an associate of the nationalistic and neopagan “Zadruga”. It also presents the activities of the conspiratorial group he was leading. The article defends the thesis that the arrest of Weszczak was what started the series of arrests of members of the “Zadruga” in 1949.
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The paper outlines the history of terrorism in imperial Russia at the turn of the 19th to 20th century as well as in the USSR. The author reviews Vladimir Lenin’s political ideas regarding terrorism and the validity of the Bolsheviks using terror. Then, the author presents the origin of terrorism and some of the arguably most important terrorist acts committed during the times of imperial Russia and the USSR up until 1991. The information presented in the paper shows that terrorism was valued as an instrument of political fi ght in the past and it has been elevated to the rank of art of war and developed on a mass scale. Its political infl uence is much stronger now than was the case of terrorists in the late 19th and early 20th century as a result of the omnipresent mass media spreading information.
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This review article discusses two newly-released publications on communist women activists: Kristen Ghodsee’s Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women and The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World, edited by Francisca de Haan. It focuses on questions of narrative and the persuasive function of the reviewed works, asking how and for whom one should write about communist women today. It brings to light methodological challenges, as well as those related to access to sources on communist women. It also reflects on the place that publications which tell stories of communist women who challenged gender, class, and racial inequalities in the past occupy in the perception of contemporary readers, so often confronted in these times with experiences of inequality and violence.
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The purpose of the article is to characterize the religious situation in the Recovered Territories at the end of 1940s through a case study of the events from Sulęcin. The author assumed that the new settlers were people of deep faith who cultivated old traditions. This enabled them to adjust to the new conditions following their forcible relocation from the Eastern to Western areas. The research problem focuses on the extraordinary event of bringing to Sulęcin a copy of the Miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa, on August 28, 1949. The following research questions were posed: why did the new settlers undertake this initiative, did they do it without the consent of communist authorities, who was the main originator of the events, as well as, what happened to him and to the copy of the painting thereafter. The settlers were distinguished by their strong Marian devotion. Traditional pilgrimages to Jasna Góra in Częstochowa were one way to show this. In August 1949, communist authorities denied permission for the settlers from Sulęcin’s Catholic parish to go on pilgrimage to Częstochowa. They decided to covertly bring a copy of the painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa to Sulęcin. The painting hangs in the church of St. Nicolas in Sulęcin to this day, serving as a symbol of local identity and integration of the parish community. The hypothesis concerning the settlers’ religiousness was confirmed, and shown to help them adapt to their new surroundings. On a methodological level, source analysis and comparative analysis were conducted. The article was based on sources such as archival documents, personal memories and local press accounts.
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Historians estimate that in Poland, between 1944 and 1956, more than a million people went through Stalinist prisons and camps, including around 100,000 sentenced by special military courts for the so-called anti-state activities. These courts passed at least 5650 death sentences, with as many as 2810 carried out. In this case, the Military District Courts (Polish: Wojskowe Sądy Rejonowe, WSR), established in 1946 and operating until their dissolution in 1955, were particularly repressive. Their task was mainly to judge civilians accused by the security apparatus of carrying out the anti-communist activity. Previously scattered materials, preserved after the operations of the military courts, were collected and merged in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (Poland), created in 2000. The case files of persons sentenced to punishment also include documents that have the character of self-testimonies. These are interrogation protocols, minutes of the main hearing, and requests for pardon. Materials of this kind, analysed from the perspective of their ego-documental value, can better explain the motives for the anti- -state actions and help to determine the state of consciousness of the convicted person in the last days of his or her life.
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Review of: Sovietisation and Violence. The Case of Estonia. Hrsg. von Meelis Saueauk und Toomas Hiio. (Proceedings of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Bd. 1.) University of Tartu Press. Tartu 2018. 335 S., Tab. ISBN 978-9949-77-824-9. ($ 19,95.) Toimik „Priboi“. Artikleid ja dokumente 1949. aasta märtsiküüditamisest [The File on Operation „Priboi“. Articles and Documents on the Deportations of March 1949]. Hrsg. von Meelis Saueauk und Meelis Maripuu. (Proceedings of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Bd. 2.) University of Tartu Press. Tartu 2019. 534 S., Ill., Kt., Tab. ISBN 978-9949-9687-1-8. (€ 16,–.) Propaganda, Immigration, and Monuments. Perspectives on Methods Used to Entrench Soviet Power in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s. Hrsg. von Meelis Saueauk und Meelis Maripuu. (Proceedings of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Bd. 3). University of Tartu Press. Tartu 2021. 280 S., Ill., Tab. ISBN 978-9949-9687-6-3. (€ 16,–.)
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This paper provides an analysis of the Armenian diaspora communities in Hungary, examining their struggles for diasporic authority and the distribution of diasporic capital. Using Bourdieu’s social field theory as a framework, the paper emphasises the significance of Stuart Hall’s concept of diaspora as a cultural identity that is consistently shaped by narrative. The methodology used includes 33 in-depth interviews conducted between 2015 and 2016 with individuals of Armenian descent based in Hungary. The paper presents three empirical investigations that provide insights into the positions and relationships within the Armenian diasporic field in Hungary. The first investigation focuses on Transylvanian Armenians and their diasporic self-image, the second explores the perspectives of late- and post-Soviet Armenians, and the third examines the positioning of Armenians from the Middle East who settled in Hungary. The analysis reveals the power dynamics and struggles for diasporic authority, highlighting the complexities of diasporic identity constructions.
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The article commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of leading Czech scientist Radovan Richta (1924 – 1983). The author identifies the focus of Richta’s lifelong efforts as the study of the problems of the scientific and technical revolution under socialism and its social and human contexts. He became famous in both the East and West for his interdisciplinary study Civilisation at the Crossroads, which was ahead of its time in many ways. Richta’s theory of technological evolution (toolmachine-automation), vision of post-industrial socialism, etc. are considered of particular importance. Richta was one of the co-authors of the term industrial society, one of the first to consider the idea of a global revolution, etc. Richta’s humanistic message remains inspiring even in the light of civilisational crossroads and contemporary crises. Richta (and his teams) can be described as the forerunner of reflections on the knowledge society, the cyber revolution, globalisation, the fourth industrial revolution and the impacts of technologies 4.0 and 5.0, reports of the Club of Rome, the theory of human capital, the systemic approach, the theory of chaos, etc.
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