L’Europe centrale dans le «concert européen»
The questions of connection to European Union in Central Europe at the beginnings of the 21st century . The author of this study analizes these questions in historical context.
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The questions of connection to European Union in Central Europe at the beginnings of the 21st century . The author of this study analizes these questions in historical context.
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The objective of the paper is to point to some of the issues of the recent historiography on the orders of Templars, Johannites and Antonites in Slovakia as well as in the neighbouring central European countries. While quite many publications have been published recently, their quality varies considerably. The present paper tries to respond to some of the published data in order not to let them go unnoticed. Thus, the author wants to correct numerous errors that have appeared in the recent literature and put the record straight. That is because some of the works published today are strongly influenced by Romantic writings of the 19th century and have nothing to do with modern research.From the end of the 11th century on, the European history was affected by the more than 200 years lasting crusade movement with the accompanying but intense phenomenon of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Its ideology, motivation and, in consequence, its overall inculturation as well, have been dealt with by several authors and the topic still fascinates and attracts the attention of contemporary historians, writers and even flm-makers. Thus, the period had literally generated three basic knightly religious orders – Templars, Johannites and Teutonic Knights. Later, other hospitaller religious orders got involved in the broad social-charitable area of the life of medieval history. Already the Baroque writings were primarily focused on the mysterious Templars who are also now revived by amateur endeavours of certain researchers to search for their tracks in Slovakia. In their works one can clearly see an uncritical compilation of older literature, although in the neighbouring countries one can notice going back “ad fontes” (especially in the Hungarian historiography). In particular, it is the historian of the University of Szeged in Hungary, Zsolt Hunyadi, who provided us with the most comprehensive historiography of knightly religious orders in the former Kingdom of Hungary.A brief overview of locations bound to the tradition of the so-called red monks was recently published by Miloš Jesenský and Pavol Matula in the pseudo-scientifc work entitled Po stopach templarov na Slovensku [In the Track of the Templars in Slovakia] (Bratislava : Goralinga 2008). It belongs to the romantic writings of the 19th century and has nothing in common with the modern scientifc investigation.In the paper the above mentioned overview still asks itself the fundamental question to explain the Templar tradition in the broader geographical framework of Central Europe. In the reply at the frst place there is the famous trial with the Templars that took place in their home country – France, and ended up in dissolving them in 1312. According to a papal order their possessions were passed to the order of Johannites. In Hungary the events of the trial were not as dramatic and they were basically peaceful. The second factor is the distribution of the order‘s houses, primarily in the territory of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia and in Danubian Hungary. The Preceptory of St. Martin in Zagreb, the castle at Bela near Varaždin and Blatnica in Croatia and Trnava in Slavonia were mistaken for other sites.In the case of Hungary, after the extinction of the Arpads a strong support from the rulers of the Anjou dynasty was received by the Johannites who alongside King Charles Robert fought at the Battle of Rozgony in 1312. In contrast to the Templars, they were known – together with the order of Teutonic Knights – for founding and running spitals or hospices for wayfarers.The Crusades, especially the third one (1188/1190), were marked by a major transit through Central Europe, where in the Danubeland, particularly in Croatia, not only Templar, but also Johannite preceptories would be founded, supported by numerous donations from the king and the nobility. At the end of the 12th century, in the royal town of Székesfehérvár a Johannite convent was established while other Johannite convents were founded in baths (Esztergom, Gyor) and in spitals (Sopron). The order came to Hungary through German guests and it provincially fell under the administration of the monastery in the Bavarian Memmingen near Augsburg. At the end of the 13th century, probably from there they came to Spišské Dravce and then to Bratislava and Romanian Sighishoara. In earlier Slovak writings both religious houses were paid only marginal attention.The interest in the order of Antonites has increased only in the last decades, chiefly with the critical analysis of the sources of Hungarian historians, primarily Tamás Grynaeus and Judit Majorossy.
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The aim of the paper is to analyze the decisive years of the second postwar in the Balkans through some of the most significant reports written by Italian diplomats and preserved in the collection of the Italian Diplomatic Documents. In those years, with the exception of Yugoslavia, which Italy was divided from, by the territorial dispute on Trieste, the Italian diplomacy had no particular ambitions in Southeast Europe. At that time, Italy was a Country who had been defeatednonetheless its diplomacy had great knowledge in the Balkan issues. Therefore, their analysis, sufficiently objective and well informed, provides an interesting standpoint of those decisive years for the contemporary history of the Balkan Countries and the Cold War in Europe. The establishment of communist-Stalinist regimes, the conflict between Tito and Stalin, and the bloody age of purges inside the different Communist parties deeply marked those crucial years.
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German emigration from Romania was a process conducted over a half of century. As a result, the causes of this process were many and they knew its own dynamics. From the desire to integrate into the "great German nation", specific of the early years of the Second World War, to the desire to accede to a higher standard of living, area motivations of individual experienced a lot of variations. In our opinion, based on the study of archival and oral testimonies, mostly applications for emigration were motivated by a desire to family reunification, in first decade after the Second World War, and by the economic difficulties from Romania, for the 80’s.
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During 1955-1956, using the two international „windows of opportunity” – the conclusion of the Peace Treaty with Austria, in August 1955, and the crisis in the Soviet bloc provoked by the Hungarian Revolution, in 1956 – the Romanian Communist leadership tried to force a Soviet decision regarding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Romania. This article recreates the circumstances of this crucial decision: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’ strategy,Nikita Khruschev’s reactions, and the divergent opinions within the RWP. Using new sources, the author revises previous interpretations and clarifies aspects remained unsolved until now.
More...Vanda Nicolski și emigrația românească din U.R.S.S. în timpul Marii Terori, 1936-1938, I
In order to better introduce the published documents, I largely explained the broader context which encompass the moment when they were written. Vanda Nicolski, a major leader of the Communist Party of Romania, a member of the Central Committee and of the Political Bureau during the ‘30s, wrote two large reports in June and August 1938, when she was in Moscow. Clearly, her confessions, written during the Great Terror, weren’t innocent pieces of evidence scrutinizing the history of the C.P.o.R. per se, but they were meant to incriminate as many professional revolutionaries as possible. I tried to explain what stood behind her statement. The contents exposed by Vanda Nicolski refers mostly to the complex and fluid relationships established into the Party inner circle during Al. Daneliuk-Ștefansky’s mandate as general secretary of the C.P.o.R., which overlaps mostly the Great Depression.The author also provides a lot of details regarding the policies put in place by the communist establishment, from Moscow, but from Romania too, in order to borrow the main features requested by Comintern in its so called „third period“. For instance, details from the inner party circle regarding the Grivița strike from 1933 could be very useful for any future discussion about one of the most important upheavals in Romania’s XXth century history.
More...Un raport al ambasadorului sovietic Tiajelnikov, 19 august 1989
It has been argued that Nicolae Ceauşescu asked for a joint military intervention of the WTO against Poland in August 1989. The request would have been motivated by the need of saving Polish socialism, after Solidarity’s victory in parliamentary elections. However, the author of this article thinks the theory ungrounded, as he publishes an excerpt of Soviet Ambassador E.M. Tiajelnikov’s diary, mentioning the discussion with Nicolae Ceauşescu, in 19 August 1989. Ceauşescu’s message to Gorbachev contains no reference to a potential military intervention in Poland. The author’s assessment is founded also on the similar reactions of other members of WTO.
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Since the takeover of the Soviet power in 1925, by adopting an ideology tributary to the Tsarist roots, Stalin succeeded – the signing of the Moscow Pact (August 23, 1939) – to impose his own ‘russocentric’ policy. Through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet-German partnership that followed (1939-1941), Stalin managed to create a replica of the Russian Empire at the western borders of the USSR. The extension of Soviet influence in the territories of eastern Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Southeastern Europe (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) meant ensuring a restricted security sphere at the boundaries of the west of the Soviet Union. We believe that, for Stalin, the security of the Soviet state could be fulfilled only through the international political supremacy, an ideal followed by every russian vojdi (leader). In our study we observe whether and to what extent the role of the Russian idea– manifested by the need for supremacy – was decisive in designing and implementing foreign policy directions by Stalin during the Soviet-German alliance (1939-1941).
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Since the former American official Raymond L. Garthoff disclosed the content of a secret conversation between the Romanian Foreign Minister Corneliu Mănescu and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, one of the most important episodes in Romania’s history has been shrouded in mystery. This article presents the American version of the conversation and asserts its significance for the evolution of the Romanian-American relations in the Cold War. There are still some aspects of the episode which are unclear and which may never be elucidated. However, the American version of the meeting of 4 October 1963 completes the overall picture of a year of profound changes for the history of the Cold War.
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In this article, the author publishes the last three parts of Mihai Botez’ survey that approached the analysis of the impact of the human rights issue on US foreign policy during the Carter administration), the US-Romanian relations since 1980 to 1985, and how American foreign policy influenced the evolution of the Romanian Communist regime and the perception of the general public toward America. Even if Botez’ study was not well received in the American circles, the text remains an original approach of American-Romanian relations during Ceauşescu’s regime.
More...Stenograma discuţiilor Ceauşescu – Genscher din 5 decembrie 1975
The official visit in Romania of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Federal Foreign Minister, was a good opportunity for the Romanian authorities to continue the policy of independence from Moscow. Bilateral relations, the issue of ethnic German immigration, aspects of international life were discussed by Nicolae Ceauşescu and Hans-Dietrich Genscher.
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On 4 December 1989, at Moscow took place the last meeting of the WTO members. Several issues concerning the situation in the socialist countries were discussed. Among them, adopting a Declaration by the five states that invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and which were willing to publicly admit that the intervention had been a mistake. In this article, the author analyses the historigraphical controversy related to Nicolae Ceauşescu’s refusal to sign the Declaration. Using recently declassified Russian documents, the author proves that the Romanian leader did not recant his 1968 position.
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The article is based on documents of the Bulgarian Communist Party group at the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome drawn up in the 1950s: minutes of meetings, plans, reports, etc. They recreate truly and vividly the spirit of the coldest phase of the Cold War, which dominated the Bulgarian-Italian relations at that time as well. The documents provide clear evidence of the way in which Party members, respectively all Embassy officers, perceived the world in which they worked and lived as required. Seen through their eyes, the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome resembled a besieged fortress. There was even more to it. Full, with small exceptions, of people selected according to the criteria of partisan suitability, most of them with limited knowledge, and some of them without language skills, obsessed with paranoia and spy scare, burdened by Marxist-Leninist scholasticism, the Embassy was no exception against the backdrop of the other missions abroad, but in hindsight and through the eyes of its party elite today it seems like a veritable small mental home. A mental home under siege. Furthermore, at that time the position of a Press Attaché at the Embassy was held for several years by Valeri Petrov, the future wellknown writer, screenplay writer, playwright and translator, which would also be of interest to those who know and appreciate his work.
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Luigi Vittorio Ferraris shares impressions of Sofia and People’s Republic of Bulgaria acquired during his diplomatic mission in 1959 – 1962 as an Advisor at the Italian embassy in Sofia. He focuses on the daily life of the diplomatic person, the meetings and contacts with Bulgarian intellectuals and Italian students, gives assessments of the mass organizations of students, athletes and others. His estimates of economic relations between Italy and Bulgaria, the economic and political situation of the country, as well as the country’s foreign contacts, are discussed in the context of Bulgaria’s Balkan policy. The author’s diplomatic experience is supported by data from reports of Robero Gaja, Minister Plenipotentiary in Sofia (1958 – 1963), as well as data from other documents stored in the author’s personal archive and the Historical Archive of the Italian Foreign Ministry.
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The goal of the following research is to elicit the mechanisms behind the construction of local discourses around cultural project in Perm. To achieve this goal the researcher starts with historical comparison of social circumstances around local discourses in Perm in the XIXth, the XXth centuries and the post-Soviet era. When the research moves to the key events of cultural project in Perm, it reveals social conflict between local communities and project leaders. Understanding of this conflict requires the next step: reconstruction of the discourses belonging to various local cultural leaders, civic activists, leaders of the cultural project in Perm. Analysis of various interviews and publications of local media allows to scrutinize evolution of discourse from “unique identity of Perm” narrative to “resistance vs. Moscow invaders” narrative. The article ends with characterization of a new local discourse formed in the end of the conflict.
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The important role of expos in the twentieth-century history is highlighted. The dearth of factual definiteness and fundamental studies on Bulgaria’s participations in these events gave grounds for this paper. The mounting of the national participation in the International Exhibition in Paris 1937 is traced, which has begun two years earlier. The Export Institute and the royal Legation to Paris, whose archives are the main source of information used in this study, succeeded in attracting to the process renowned specialists in each of the fields to be presented at the expo. The article focuses mainly on the architectural and art designs of the Bulgarian pavilion. The commissions and contests are traced, preceding the construction and the decoration of the pavilion. The programme of the mural painting contest is covered in detail as well as that of the competition for an illustrative industrial map of Bulgaria. The work of architects Yordan Yordanov and Delcho Sugarev; of Ivan Penkov, the artist assigned to design the entire decoration and furnishing of the pavilion as well as the competition winners Detchko Ouzounov and Tsanko Lavrenov, is highlighted. The interior design and the decoration of the pavilion are in perfect harmony and completely in accord with the architectural design. The joint efforts of a number of specialists, the exchange of creative ideas and skills, though missing the deadlines, resulted in a consistent, compact and catchy visual effect with the pavilion’s illuminated sign Bulgarie.
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