We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Central Committee Decisions on Education (from: Pravda, Moscow) Current school questions (from: "Communist", Moscow, and others) College today (from: "Izvestia", Moscow, and others) Construction of Research (from: "Komsomolskaya pravda", Moscow, and others) Statements of the Intellectual elite (from: Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moscow, and others)
More...
CHAPTERS FROM TABLE OF CONTENT: Military-technical superiority and its essential characteristics (from: "Communist Woorushennych Sil", Moscow) On the Present State of the Soviet Military Doctrine (from: "Krasnaya Svedda", Moscow) The decisive Factors: Weapons - Technology - Management (from: "Communist Woorushennych Sil", Moscow) Nuclear Weapons in modern Naval Warfare (from: "Soviet Military Review", Moscow) From Bucharest to Karlovy Vary (from: Pravda, Moscow, and others) The military policy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Soviet view (from: "Communist Woorushennych Sil", Moscow)
More...
The Middle East was the first region of the Cold War confrontation between global powers. The Cold War lasted in the region 44 years, from 1946 to 1990 and exerted a strong influence on its history. The Middle East countries were under strong pressure from both powers and had to agree on one side of the global conflict. At the same time, they searched for room for maneuver to realize their own interests and relations between them played an equally important role in shaping the history of the region as the impact of factors outside the region. The situation varied in this respect – some countries had lasting consequences in their choices; others – changed the orientation in foreign policy, trying to use the confrontation between the powers in the best possible way to achieve their goals
More...
![Jerzy Zajadła, Odpowiedzialność za mur. Procesy strzelców przy murze berlińskim, [Wydawnictwo Arche, Gdańsk 2003]](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2008_52567.jpeg)
The transformation, which has always existed for the armies throughout history, evolved in a different direction with the end of the Cold War, and it was believed that the conventional army approach could not adequately respond to the changing security threats for states. This situation has revealed the necessity of restructuring armies under the new threats and mission types that emerged. In this study, the new missions for the armed forces, which emerged as a result of the change in the military with the end of the Cold War and which are the subject of the discipline of military sociology, are discussed through the analysis of the US, Russia, and Türkiye. While the states in the two opposite blocks of the Cold War period put military institutionalization and practices on the top of their agenda in line with the leading powers of the blocks, the main problem of the study is how this process will be realized in the new period after the Cold War. As per the way the problem is posed, the three countries selected are considered appropriate for this analysis. Contrary to the traditional view, this study argues that the sole function of armies is now not only to battle but that they have gained different functions in the new era and that the countries have created new missions and institutional structures quite similar to each other, in contrast to the military understandings that diverged in line with the rigid blocs of the past. In the Turkish literature, there are almost no studies on the new missions that have emerged as a direct result of the transformation of the armies. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will make original contributions to the military sociology literature.
More...
The article provides an initial overview of the observation of the Sudeten German Homeland Association (Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft – SL) and its functionaries by the Czechoslovak State Security (Státní bezpečnost – StB) until the late 1960s. For this purpose, the collection and evaluation of information about the SL is considered and the goals pursued by the StB are being researched. Furthermore, some informants from the SL are introduced and their motives for working with the StB are given. It was found that the observation was relatively intensive and shows that the StB was well informed about what was happening in the SL in the second half of the 1950s and 1960s. The SL was perceived as a revanchist and hostile organization and the aim of the StB was to weaken it. This particularly applied to the nationalist wing around the Witiko-Bund, which dominated the SL during the period under study. To this end, as an active measure, they disclosed, for example, the Nazi past of leading SL functionaries.
More...
The Ackermann-Gemeinde was founded in 1946 as a Catholic community by German expellees from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. In comparison to other Sudeten German organizations, the Ackermann-Gemeinde made very early contacts with specific circles in communist Czechoslovakia. During its ‘Osthilfe’ the Ackermann-Gemeinde sent theological literature, fiction and medicines across the German-Czechoslovak border from the mid-1960s onwards. These activities aroused great interest from the State Security Service (Státní bezpečnost – StB) because the Ackermann-Gemeinde succeeded in establishing close contacts with the Czech Catholic Church, which was viewed as hostile to the Czechoslovak state. With the “Revanche” campaign, the StB used several agents to observe Adolf Kunzmann (1920–1976), the head of the ‘Osthilfe’. Even when the Prague authorities did not stop the cross-border activities of the Ackermann-Gemeinde completely, they fundamentally changed their outlook.
More...
The observation of the Carpathian Germans by the Czechoslovak secret service has hitherto received little attention. The security files of the Czechoslovak foreign secret service, the counterintelligence and individual agent files, which are kept in the archives of the Nation’s Memory Institute in Bratislava, can serve as a primary source for this research. The resettling of Carpathian Germans from Czechoslovakia after 1945, together with a German minority remaining in Slovakia, represented both a domestic and foreign policy problem for the communist regime. In order to manage this, state security monitoring was used as an effective means of control. Not only were the Carpathian German organizations and their protagonists, as well as their contacts to Slovak political exiles in the FRG, observed, but also Germans in Slovakia. Important instruments included the infiltration of agents, the instrumentalization of individuals’ Nazi past and the creation of internal conflicts. The article also provides initial suggestions for further research.
More...
This study initially presents the circumstances that largely determined the situation of ethnic Germans in Hungary during the first two decades of communist rule. As the community was permanently torn apart by the post-war expulsions, a survey is made of the opportunities for contacts between the two parts of the community and their representative organizations (the Democratic Association of Hungarian Germans and the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Ungarn [Homeland Association of Germans from Hungary]). The analysis examines how these representatives perceived the situation of the other part of the community. What did they consider to be the main problems and which issues did they address in their discussions? The study then turns to the efforts and institutional means of the authorities to control the activities of these organizations.
More...
In this article, the author addresses the issue of NATO enlargement, expanding upon it with examples such as FYROM, and the name-dispute that did not allow it to became NATO member despite being ready to joint NATO as early as 2009, Montenegro, with significant progress, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the conditions attached for joining the Alliance, Georgia, elaborating on the pros and cons of Georgian NATO membership, Ukraine, with a large pro-Russian population in its Eastern part and with particular historical significance for Moscow. Then, he writes about the roots of the delicate membership debate and about Russia’s perspective on NATO admitting new members from the former Eastern hemisphere, during the almost twenty years of the enlargement process. To conclude, the author gives us his insight into how to deal with the membership question with regard to the four aspirant countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYROM, Georgia and Montenegro.
More...
In the author’s opinion, an important aspect of regional stability and security is the air traffic common air picture. Knowing where friendly aircraft are enables the identification of the potential enemy and the potential threats. The access of civil aircraft in restricted military areas and even the distribution of a greater volume of airspace can be solved more easily, which will also have a commercial value. In principle, international, regional and national organisations, civil airlines and other civilian airspace users have reached a developed level of cooperation in order to use airspace properly. The problem has been that the goals and objectives of civilian operators do not match the ones of military aviation and, hence, the major differences between these two big categories of airspace users.
More...
This article is an homage to Václav Havel’s eventful life and key contribution to the Alliance. The author begins by mentioning one of Václav Havel’s beliefs, namely that human rights and dignity are superior to any state sovereignty. Then, he writes about his contribution to the fall of communism in his country, the quick re-establishment of Czechoslovakia’s independence and the important process of his country’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. Truly convinced of the indivisibility of freedom, Havel argued that the openness of the Alliance towards new European democracies was a key part of redefining itself. Václav Havel viewed NATO as something more than just a military organisation that provided extra security guarantees to its members. For him, NATO represented an alliance whose goal was to defend the shared values, moral principles, culture and civilisation through solidarity and strong political commitment.
More...
In 2002, during the Prague Summit, when Romania was asked to join the Alliance, NATO member states decided to take concrete actions in order to transform the Alliance. The pillars of this transformation were the establishment of a new smaller command structure and the creation of a NATO Response Force, capable of intervening in crisis management inside or outside the Alliance area of interest. Currently, at the Alliance level, one has noticed that, even though significant changes have taken place at the level of the command structure, for various political, resource-related etc. reasons, they have not entirely reached the objectives set in 2002 and, consequently, a new complex process meant to review NATO’s command structure is in full swing.
More...
This article deals with the development of economic cooperation in the socialist market between 1953 and 1968 from the perspective of the Czechoslovak economy. The period of Antonín Novotný at the helm of the Czechoslovak Communist Party was a controversial one, as it was characterized by both the efforts to reform Stalinist anachronisms and the initially low capacity to sustainably root these reforms in the fragile frozen ground of Cold War-era soil. The question is whether the gradually unfolding Khrushchev Thaw that accelerated its onset from the second half of the 1950s onwards made it possible to plant certain reforms and reap their fruits in the longer term. It is also necessary to raise the question of the nature of the key actors and obstacles in the process of reforming intra-bloc cooperation. In particular, the archives of the Czechoslovak industrial ministries located in Prague were consulted to research these issues.
More...
Review of: Kyrill Kunakhovich. Communism’s Public Sphere: Culture as Politics in Cold War Poland and East Germany. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022. 354 pp. ISBN 9781501767067.
More...
This article presents some considerations regarding the role and utility of military force as an instrument of power politics. In this respect, the article analyses some opinions of academics and military thinkers on this matter, as well as findings from the author’s experience. The conclusion is that even though asymmetry seems to be in the ascendant today, the role of the state will continue to influence the utility of military force in this century. However, it has to be considered that military force alone cannot be a solution and all the instruments of a state should be involved in achieving the political goals, within a comprehensive approach. As far as the Romanian military is concerned, emphasising its role among other instruments of the state power could lead to better awareness about its needs and better access to the necessary resources for its transformation.
More...
Czy na podstawie tego, co napisano o Związku Sowieckim w okresie zimnej wojny, nie można powiedzieć czegoś ważnego również o współczesnej Rosji? Oczywiście dzisiaj kontekst jest inny, jednak renesans badań nad historią sowietologii jest faktem.
More...
The Albanian diplomacy during the 70ies of the Cold War, concerning the relations with the People's Republic of China, was very careful to transmit mot a mot every single word to the Albanian leadership. Except two "independent studies" based on press information about what was happening in China just before and after the death of Mao Zedong, the Albanian ambassadors wouldn't dare to instruct Enver Hoxha how to deal with China. Foreign policy was totally at the hand of the Albanian dictator and the Albanian ambassadors were only couriers of the Party of Labour of Albania. The Albanian ambassadors were totally aware of the terrible consequences that would fall on them if they would challenge this unwritten rule. To everybody was imposed the selfisolation doctrine and the building of socialism with our own forces by Enver Hoxha. This situation remained unchanged until the end of the communist regime in Albania.
More...
Review of: Serhii Plokhy. The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story. Oneworld Publications, 2016. xiv, 370 pp. Maps. Notes. Index. £10.99, cloth.
More...
