![Ştefan cel Mare într-o viziune poporană la 1871–1873](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2008_17078.jpg)
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The Modern Romanian historiography has studied thoroughly the wars of Stephen the Great. The research was focused mainly on the big clashes with his neighbors, on the chronology of the campaigns, on the strategic and tactical aspects, on the quality of the armament, and on fortifications. Until recently, little attention was paid to the anthropological aspects of war. A recent study by Maria Magdalena Székely and Ştefan S. Gorovei,“Semne şi minuni” pentru Ştefan voievod. Note de mentalitate medievală (SMIM, XVI, 1998, p. 49-64) proposed a new approach to the topic aiming to contribute to a renewal of the political and military history of the reign of Stephen the Great. The present paper uses the same methodology by integrating the military events in a wider perspective and understanding the medieval sources not as objective and accurate testimonies of past events but as literary artifacts aiming to shape the reality according to a textual strategy of the author. From this perspective, analyzing war from its start until the conclusion of the peace can bring new insights into the perception of military conflict by the medieval society, into the topoi used by medieval sources to shape the confrontations between Stephen the Great and his enemies. The paper focuses on the declarations of war, on the symbolic gestures during the military expeditions, and on triumphal entries. All of these aspects are seen as three different chapters of the same story. The data concerning Moldavia are compared with examples from the Byzantine world or from Western sources in an attempt to underline the similarities but also the specificity of the Moldavian case.
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Counterfeiting of coins is mentioned in a multitude of medieval written sources, manuscripts and books, starting with the Laws of the Visigoths in the mid 7th century, through the Visitation of the Chapter of Esztergom in 1397, to the Inferno, first part of Dante Alighieri’s most important work, the Divina Comedia from the first two decades of the 14th century, which reached far beyond its age. The paper gives a selection of only partly used and often entirely unknown facts from medieval documents. This creates the pre-conditions for them to become more widely known and accessible.
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The former Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty often lived in Slovakia during the Second World War. His contacts with the political elite of the regime, his views on the geopolitical situation and his ordinary human joys and sorrows are the subject of a study based on previously unused and partly unknown foreign archive collections. It provides information about many behind the scenes events in the relationship of Ferdinand to the Slovak regime and its representatives. The study is a micro-analysis of an aristocrat and monarch mentally rooted in the 19th century, who found himself mixed up in the Second World War and Slovak development. Ferdinand is remembered as a monarch, who loved the people and nature of Slovakia. History of Slovakia during the Second World War. Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty and Slovakia.
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The aim of the study is to examine, on the basis of documents in the National Archives of the Czech Republic, the final part of the process of economic reform developed in Czechoslovakia almost from the beginning of the 1960s. After the invasion of the occupation armies in August 1968, its end was definitively decided, in spite of the fact that there was still some verbal support for the continued development of the economic reform and some space for the presentation of theoretical views that were not in harmony with the official policy. In this period during 1968, as well as during the so-called pre-spring, Slovak economists formulated some interesting views.
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In the period 1934 – 1949, not only the real international situation, but to a large extent also political illusions were reflected in the relationship of the Slovaks to Russia. The alliance between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in 1935 also had the support of Slovak members of the ruling circles in Prague. The orientation to Nazi Germany determined the foreign policy of the Slovak state from March 1939. The pact between Berlin and Moscow briefly opened the possibility of diplomatic relations between Slovakia and Russia. The entry of Slovakia to the anti-Soviet war on the side of Nazi Germany changed the political priorities. The anti-fascist elements in the illegal resistance took over the initiative in relations with Moscow. From the anti-fascist uprising in Slovakia, through the political developments in the first post-war years, the Slovak communists replaced spontaneous sympathy for Slavonic Russia with organized “love for the Soviet Union”.
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The article analyses the literary image of forcible re-Catholicization and maps its perception against the background of the confessionally determined reception of the historical novel Odkaz mŕtvych (Message from the Dead). The reception of Rázus’ novel was influenced by Protestant and Catholic historical memory, which included the images of the bad Jesuits or the good Jesuits. The stereotype of the bad Jesuits was updated and politically exploited in the conditions of the totalitarian Ľudák regime. Thus the novel contributed to strengthening anti-regime views in some segments of the reading public.
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The crucial characteristic of modern societies is the fact that they possess a stronger ability of adaptation than all the other societies (Parsons, 1992: 9). The power, which modern societies are able to express both inside themselves (through control and development of the resources available) and towards their surroundings (i.e., other existing societies), is mainly (but not only) rooted in the extremely high degree of their social integration, based on highly developed division of labor (organic solidarity – Durkheim) and the specific normative system. This integration is achieved by certain institutions and in all three spheres of social activity: economic, political and cultural. In economy, the main integrative mechanism is the market.
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The association of Romanian intellectuals with the ideology of the extreme right has been a subject of ongoing debate in historiography. Authors from different academic fields have tried to analyze the reasons for the “strange” engagement of some of the most prominent representatives of the brilliant Romanian “new generation” of the 1930s with the Romanian authentic fascist movement, the Iron Guard. Additional acuteness is brought to the debate by the fact that some of the “Guardist” intellectuals, such as Mircea Eliade and Emil Cioran, later received worldwide popularity. But scholarly interest is somehow restricted to the interwar period only and almost no attention is paid to this relationship in the immediate period that followed.
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Orient-Express was not the first agent of Europe in the Balkans.1 I use it here only as a symbol of European penetration. The destination of this train – famous not only from Agatha Christie’s novel – depends, in fact, on one’s point of view. The train was called Orient-Express because its “godfathers” thought of it as a connection to the Orient, to the exotic, picturesque and multinational. From the Balkan point of view, however, it was, in a sense, an ‘Occident-Express’, for its orientation was North- West: the railway station Paris-East was the final point of the two-days trip, while at the same time the express was one of the direct providers of everything European to the Balkans.
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Jan Długosz, in his "Annals", during the first eight months of 1430, the period incredibly important for Poland because of the so called coronation storm at that time, that is the attempt of Witold Kiejstutowicz, a great duke of Lithuania to get the crown, presented the tour of king Władysław Jagiełło over Szeroka Wielkopolska, from April to August, in a very hackneyed way. In the meantime, the data quoted prove that during the monarch’s stay in Łęczyca, there was a convention of the king with the rich and gentry of Szeroka Wielkopolska. Most probably, the events related to the coronation storm happening after the convention in Jedlna (February/March 1430) were summed up. Political consultations in Łęczyca were conducted by the king exclusively in the circle consisting of the archbishop from Gniezno, other bishops from Wielkopolska, a bishop from Chełm, a chancellor (also being a bishop in Włocławek), a vice‑chancellor and high- and low-ranking officials from the territory of Wielkopolska sensu stricte, Kujawy, Łęczyca, Sieradz, Dobrzyń lands, representatives from Mazowsze and few Małopolska confidantes (Jan from Szczekociny, Piotr Szafraniec). Perhaps it resulted in the the lack of the information about the convention in Łęczyca in Jan Długosz, fairly thoroughly describing the political events of 1430 in his chronicle. Thus, a chronicle could have no information about this fact, especially when the sources do not indicate that his political mentor was there: Jan Oleśnicki, a bishop from Kraków. During the tour over Szeroka Wielkopolska, king Władysław also made relatively many new nominations to high land officials of middle Polish hierarchy as a result of death of the previous land possessors. The very nominations introduced relatively young people in majority. As a result, the majority of the nominated remained in the composition of the political elite all over Poland till the beginning of the ruling of Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, Jagiełło’s younger son. They also played an important role during tutelary ruling at the time of minority of Władysław III (1434—1438), his absence in the country (1440—1444) and interregnum after his death. It is not out of the question that the parts of the nominations in question were made just at the convention in Łęczyca, at last after its end.
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The article describes the history of the bourgeois families in the 14th century in Kraków, who derived from Racibórz and cultivated the tradition of their origin by means of systematically spelling their names in the Racibórz way. The source basis includes the local books of Kraków, conducted systematically since 1300, though having the oldest record dating back to 1289, court books from the second half of the 14th century and documents of different provenance. The oldest representative of the inhabitants from Racibórz in Kraków was Herman from Racibórz, fulfilling the function of the town councilor in Kraków many times at the beginning of the 14th century, an opponent of Władysław Łokietek’s ruling, one of the main initiators of rebellion in 1311. The author analyses the history of Herman’s family, considers the possibility of the identification of the family of Aleksy from Racibórz, a town councilor from the second half of the 14th century. He also presents the role of other families from Racibórz, especially the ones deriving from Fryderyk and Fryczek. The author also took a position on a commonly-known opinion in the literature that Herman from Racibórz and others, as well as the majority of the bourgeoisie from Kraków in the 14th century were Germans. Not questioning the fact that they were German‑speaking, he underlines the fact that Polish, German and Czech was used both in Racibórz and Kraków.
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"A diplomatic code of the monastery in Tyniec" covers a diploma of Władysław, a prince of Oświęcim, dated "MCCL pleno". An exhibitor, in presence of his brother, Janusz, a prince of Racibórz, in view of Tyniec profession of his son Włodzimierz, used him to bequeath a few countries in Zator to Tyniec Benedictines. Because Władysław of Opole (1246—1281) was not entitled a prince of Oświęcim, did not have either the brother Janusz or the son Włodzimierz, whereas the receiver of nomination, an abbot Daniel, is not known from the 13th century sources, the researchers regarded the document to be a falsification. They did not pay attention to the record in the obituary notice in Lubiń, which, dated back to 21 May, noted down the death of Włodzimierz, a brother of Tyniec and prince of Oświęcim, and Sczygielski’s complement that Włodzimierz was the son of the prince of Zator. A disputable document is not about Władysław of Opole, but Władysław (Włodek) of Zator. His brother was Janusz of Zator, sometimes confused with Janusz of Racibórz, which was reflected in a diploma coming in fact from the end of the 15th century, most probably from 1477—1494 when Włodek and Janusz co-ruled the duchy of Zator. At this time Andrzej Ożga and Jan Sułowski ruled the Tyniec abbey, from 9 January 1486 and 7 October 1486 respectively. A few-month-gap (from 9 January to 7 October 1486) was probably filled in the ruling by an abbot Daniel, unknown to the sources, whose death was noted down by obituary notices in Lubiń and Tyniec on 6 June.
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Melsztyński family played an important role in the history of Poland. The scientific literature devotes much room to the outstanding representatives of this family. A detailed image of the family who faded in the first half of the 16th century, was outlined by Włodzimierz Dworzaczek in his Leliwici Tarnowscy, published in 1971. One should realize that the knowledge included in this book is not exhaustive. Thanks to the studies conducted recently, a load of new information on people from the family circle was gathered, allowing for, among others, moving the dates of the appearance of many figures and completing biographies by the facts unknown so far. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries the family in question started to clearly lose its significance. The reason for that was the activity of two lords from Melsztyn at that time, Jan and Wincenty, who lost the whole estate in a mindless way. In addition to that, Wincenty was pronounced an exile for unruliness and debauchery. The last generation of Melsztyński family, represented by Wincenty’s children, Jan and Katarzyna, did not have either the estate or the connections with the family residence, that is the Melsztyn castle. Many factors contributed to the collapse of one of the most magnate’s families in Poland in the Middle‑Ages. The most important included improper upbringing of children, too strict and conservative, which was the source of extreme and unpredictable behaviours of Jan and Wincenty, and, unquestionably, the lack of outstanding personalities in the last generations of this family.
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