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Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century Sugata Bose. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2024. £29.95/$39.95. 288 pp. Cornerstone of the Nation: The Defense Industry and the Building of Modern Korea Under Park Chung Hee Peter Banseok Kwon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2024. £54.95/$65.00. 448 pp. North Korea's Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953–1965 Andre Schmid. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2024. £30.00/$34.95. 352 pp. Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia Meg Rithmire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. £64.00. 384 pp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability Michael Kimmage. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2024. £22.99/$29.99. 296 pp. Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence Yaroslav Trofimov. New York: Penguin Press, 2024. $32.00. 400 pp. The Showman: The Inside Story of the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky Simon Shuster. London: William Collins, 2024. £22.00. 384 pp. The Russia that We Have Lost: Pre-Soviet Past as Anti-Soviet Discourse Pavel Khazanov. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. $89.95. 208 pp. How Finland Survived Stalin: From Winter War to Cold War, 1939–1950 Kimmo Rentola. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2023. £25.00/$35.00. 304 pp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, we analyze the image of the Soviet Union and Russia presented by the Lithuanian and Polish states to the youngest generation. Our empirical data comes from textbooks for social sciences and recent history, beginning from the gaining independence of both countries after the First World War until the aggression on Ukraine in 2014. We focused on the ways of presenting to the pupils the politics, society, and culture of the Soviet and Russian states. We show how textbooks present the Russian state as irrational and dangerous and how the longue durée of the imperial thinking is seen as the leitmotiv of the narratives on Russian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute / Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi is the property of Journal of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vygotsky straddled the period of the Russian Revolution and found himself facing the Marxist materialist ideology of the Soviet Union with the need for a new method of psychology. Ironically, the Soviet Union's need for a Marxist based method of psychology coincided with Vygotsky's prior research on methods of interpretation which were inspired by Hegel and primarily based on the role of consciousness and culture. As a result of Vygotsky's pre-revolutionary work and inspiration from Hegel clashing with the postrevolutionary need for a new methodology for psychology, Vygotsky developed his Cultural Historical Theory. In presenting his new theory, Vygotsky attempted to resolve a fundamental ideological conflict between idealism and materialism. Furthermore, Vygotsky worked to create an effective new research method by drawing inspiration from Gestalt psychology, Hegel, Marx, and Engels. The result of Vygotsky's efforts was a theory based on psychology of consciousness and mind rather than a biology-based psychology focused entirely on analysis of stimuli and responses. In analyzing Vygotsky's theory, it is useful to draw inspiration from Vygotsky's criticism of pure empiricism, and to be inspired by Vygotsky's demonstration on how deeply rooted differences between societies may be bridged by finding unexpected commonalities within opposing ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the official Communist proclamations of women's emancipation and equality of the sexes, the gender complementarity paradigm took hold in popular and expert discourses in state-socialist Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union starting at least with the 1970s. This article presents an analysis of the late Soviet expert and pedagogical texts in the context of the Lithuanian SSR from a feminist and queer historical perspective. It shows how the adoption of complimentary, yet strongly differentiated gender roles by men and women was seen as key to marital happiness and a healthy Communist society. It further demonstrates how the emphasis on the need to foster traditional gender roles was interrelated to homophobia, as homosexuality was seen to pose a threat to the proper functioning of masculinity and femininity, and a reason for the fading attraction between the 'opposite' sexes. The article shows how Soviet expert and pedagogical texts borrowed from and at times paralleled similar ideas on gender and sexuality as they appeared in scholarship produced in other countries of the Eastern bloc, but also in 'Western' contexts, such as the United States. It deconstructs the perception that the 'return to traditional gender roles' discourse is only a result of post-socialist conservatism, and instead shows it as intrinsic to the moralistic dogmas of Soviet sexual science and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the interrelation between the lives and politics of trans* people in former Soviet countries and the development of the Internet. I argue that while there were possibilities for communication and connection for trans* people during Soviet times, the arrival of the Internet expanded these possibilities. Turning to media archaeology as a methodology, I investigate how early versions of the Internet shaped (digital) trans* communities and how these communities influenced knowledge production. I show that early Internet trans* users were involved in collaborative mutual aid practices that were fostered by the digital cultures of the time, Internet architecture, and earlier offline cultures. Focusing on a case study from Ukraine, the article highlights how trans* Internet users were (and continue to be) active contributors to global knowledge production and medical and technological innovation, fostering a collective ethos vital for trans* communities. I also point to the impact of the Internet's evolution and geopolitical changes on contemporary trans* communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space age has generated a profound uncertainty of experience between technology and utopianism. This essay makes a critical intervention in this uncertainty by examining a historically constructed tension between dwelling at and departing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Attention to this tension that underwrote the Soviet colonial project of conquering the cosmos and the terrestrial environment exposes the utopian vision of space travel and the ontology of a deflating present as a dialectic that questions the space age as a state of soon-to-be-leaving Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The patriotic fervour surrounding the "Great Patriotic War," amplified by Soviet propaganda, led to concessions for some religious groups, though still constrained by Soviet anti-religious legislation, while others were excluded entirely. This paper argues that ethno-religious groups that aligned with the Soviet narrative, which mythologised the war effort, were able to engage in limited religious activities. In contrast, communities excluded from this narrative were compelled to maintain their religious traditions clandestinely for a prolonged period. These excluded groups were also deprived of any centralised religious organisations or church structures. Consequently, unlike in Central and Eastern Europe, the struggle for religious freedoms in this context did not follow the typical church vs. state model, but rather a citizens vs. state dynamic. This phenomenon is particularly evident in northern Kazakhstan, where the deportation of various nationalities resulted in the coexistence of ethno-religious groups with vastly different statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "military" within the Nigerian context tends to be a misnomer for the Army, with the Navy and Air Force often at the scholarship margins. This article presents a corrective: it shifts the emphasis from the Nigerian Army within the historical discourse on politics and its impact on the military in Nigeria. The paper instead examines the Cold War political origins of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as an under-researched service branch of the Nigerian military. In 1962, after two years of political negotiations, Nigeria's politicians shunned British overtures and opted for West German assistance in establishing an air force. In examining the Cold War political environment, including the actors and decision-making in the two years leading to that outcome, the article employs interview data and historical sources from the National Defence College Abuja and the UK National Archives, including communiqués, letters and other forms of official corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to show how methods from Digital Humanities can be used to gather information from different databases to investigate and reconstruct the biographies of the Soviet citizens who took part in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). This study is based on the records of the closed Soviet war crimes trials against those who collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation. The authors suggest using open Russian databases created by the Ministry of Defense to verify the information contained in trial records, including both testimonies of witnesses and interrogations of defendants. Moreover, by comparing various sources, researchers can review the data and add more information to official Soviet records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note is dedicated to the development of Soviet military gynecology, a new field of military medicine in the Red Army during the Second World War. After briefly outlining the deployment of women in the Russian and Soviet armed forces, it examines the question of why the deployment of numerous female Red Army soldiers on the fronts led to the development of a special healthcare approach for these soldiers. This research note also shows that Colonel Prof. Joseph F. Zhordania, as the first chief gynecologist of the Red Army, played a key role in the formation of this new discipline of Soviet military medicine. In addition, some problems and consequences are described that arose from the medical care of the female personnel of the Red Army. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article articulates similarities and differences regarding policies on religion and religious minorities in contemporary Georgia and the country's early Soviet era. A comparison between developments in legislation and state apparatus shortly after 1921 (during the Soviet occupation) and 1991 (the restoration of independence) uncovers the policies and mechanisms limiting religious minorities in Georgia today, including the setting up of a State Agency for Religious Issues in 2014, as echoes of a painful past. In contrast to the Soviet regime, however, the main carrier of the dominant ideology responsible for this situation today is not the state itself, but the Georgian Orthodox Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians of the Soviet Union have increasingly turned their attention to the seemingly quiet years of 1958–1962. Turnover in top leadership within the republics has long been noted, but the causes of these changes and their extent are still not precisely known. This study examines turnover rates for each of the republic central committees, then uses Moldova and Latvia as case studies. We conclude that the root cause of the change was a desire to replace the older generation. The targeting of nationalists, the more usual explanation, was in fact a rearguard action by the old guard, which slowed but did not stop the shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This provincial case study demonstrates the diversity of political movements mobilised by environmental anxieties, particularly outside of Moscow, in the final years of Soviet Russia. By focusing on the emergence of green politics that promoted ecosocialism, the analysis takes up the call proposed by scholars of the Anthropocene by exploring late Soviet Russia as a place of political possibilities, where environmentalism-as-politics became a force for change. The failure of the green movement after 1990, in light of their successes before the dissolution of the USSR, offers new insights into the effectiveness of green politics in the Russian provinces prior to the disintegration of the USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soviet view of Allied rivalry over Iranian oil concessions lies at the centre of the discussion in this article. This rivalry, framed as 'rivalry within partnership', had earlier precedents, and was resumed with vigour in 1943, with the added dimension of propaganda used against each other. It took place at a crucial time for Iran, namely during the Allied occupation during World War II, coinciding with the Tehran Conference and the preparation of Iranian political parties for the fourteenth Majlis elections (along with the role that Muhammad Riza Shah Pahlavi played in the success of the newly established Tudeh Party of Iran in those elections) all of which as viewed from a Soviet point of view based on Soviet documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing war of aggression by Russia in Ukraine has brought international attention to the conflation of Ukrainian and Russian cultures and identities. Such conflation exists in various forms, at its most dangerous in weaponized distortions of history and pretexts for violence. These two distinct cultures can also be misunderstood unintentionally in ways that appear harmless, even in music libraries. Cataloging the Ukrainian music materials contained within the Margarita Mazo Collection at Indiana University has necessitated an examination of the historical relationships between Ukraine and Russia in general and the influence of the Soviet Union on music publications in particular. Best practices for catalogers, such as appropriate use of controlled vocabularies and accurate transcription of text, are expanded upon to promote understanding and appreciation of Ukrainian music and to ensure access to users who search in the Ukrainian language – perhaps the users for whom these materials are most vital. Librarians must be critical and well-informed to understand Soviet publications of Ukrainian music, intrinsic to which are state control, censorship, and the manipulation of cultural expression for ideological purposes. Here lies a crucial opportunity for reparative cataloging, in which music catalogers can provide authentic representation in bibliographic and authority records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Soviet Union (1924-1990) was a superpower with significant influence in international politics, especially during the Cold War, where it represented the second pole in the global conflict with the United States. Soviet leaders turned their attention to the Arabian Gulf region due to its immense economic and strategic importance. However, ideological differences between the countries in this region and the communist doctrine embraced by Soviet leaders hindered the normalization of relations between the two parties, particularly given the excellent relations between the Gulf states and Western powers, notably Britain and the United States. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 further strained relations between the Gulf states and the Soviet Union. The Gulf states feared Soviet expansion in the East and thus supported the Afghan resistance against Soviet forces. Additionally, the First Gulf War and Soviet relations with Egypt and South Yemen influenced the Gulf states' stance toward the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical stratification in world politics. It does so by analysing relations between two former Soviet states, Tajikistan and Russia, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The article investigates the underlying reasons for power asymmetries between the two countries, the ways hierarchies are sustained and enforced, as well as perceived and navigated at political and social levels. It is argued that Tajikistan's relations with Russia are explicitly postcolonial without clear-cut colonial precedents in Soviet times. Postcolonialism did not automatically result from the Soviet breakdown. Rather, it has gradually emerged because of the two countries' very different paths of integration into the global capitalist economy, which subordinated Tajikistan to Russia. In this way, new economic asymmetries exacerbated Soviet-era legacies and reinvented them in a new, hierarchical manner. Overall, the article contributes to the debate on the nature of post-Soviet legacies and what it means to be post-Soviet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the history and practices of establishing monuments to participants of the Second World War (Great Patriotic War) that appeared in Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Monuments are considered as a certain epistemological source for studying the various trends of the time, as evidence of public discourses popular during the period from the early 1990s to the present. Phenomenological and existential approaches are used in interpreting the question of how to understand heroism, what it means to be a hero, and how this phenomenon is correlated with ideas of heroism in Kazakh culture. The article is based on the analysis of cases related to the personalities of Bauyrzhan Momishuly, Rakhymzhan Qoshqarbaev, Aliya Moldagulova and Manshuk Mametova. The analysis includes: determining the location of the monuments; visual documentation and initial description. Content analysis of media materials and specialized literature on genealogy (shezhire), interviews with actors and experts, collecting oral histories, and analyzing documents accompanying the appearance of monuments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the multifaceted functionality of pioneer camps organized on the territory of Central Kazakhstan. An important component of the Soviet state's social policy was the development of cultural and leisure activities for children. Pioneer organizations were an important tool for the implementation of this function, designed to educate children in responsibility to society, to help the school prepare pioneers for the conscious and creative fulfillment of their duties. Thus, there was a synthesis of the activities of the school and the pioneer organization, in which the former acted as the implementer of the educational component, and the pioneer organization-the educational one. As a result of such complementarity, a comprehensively developed generation of Soviet children was formed, capable in the future of fully conforming to the propagandized image of "homo soveticus" ("Soviet man"), capable in the future of becoming the foundation of socialism under construction. The focus of the pioneer organization was the task of developing a socialist attitude to study, work and social work, which meant the incorporation of values such as indifference, collectivism, an active or active attitude to life. It was the pioneer movement that became the fundamental catalyst for the formation of pioneer camps, which were a place of ideological and political education of the younger generation throughout the territory of the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at offering a glimpse into the emotions of the prisoners in the camp ALZHIR (Akmolinskiy lager' zhen izmennikov Rodiny, Akmolinsk Camp of Wives of Traitors to the Motherland), Kazakhstan in Soviet times. Alzhir was a female forced labour camp in the time of the Soviet Union, a Gulag that darkened the history of the Soviet Union. This investigation will take place through a collection of letters, both from prisoners and their children, translated in English for the first time. Letters represent the only tool through which prisoners were able to communication with their families, and through which they were able to keep their maternal sense from which they had been violently deprived. The letters reflect the moods, needs, worries and the hopes of both the prisoners and the children left behind. The discussion concerning the letters reveals that the communication with the world outside of the camps (allowed only from 1940) was not enough to give back the sense of normality that the women yearned for whilst imprisoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Oikos: Lithuanian Migration & Diaspora Studies is the property of Lithuanian Emigration Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of College of Sharia & Islamic Studies is the property of Qatar University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article argues that the Ukrainian Red Cross (URC), the Central Commission for Aid to Children under the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee (CCAC), and the Committee for Aid to Sick and Wounded Red Army Soldiers (AUCCASWRAS) played a key role in launching waste recycling activities in Ukraine in the early 1920s. At that time, waste recycling was seen as a promising source of income, and these humanitarian organizations needed funds to carry out their activities, such as combating child homelessness, supporting and treating demobilized wounded and sick Red Army soldiers, providing assistance to the population of famine-affected areas, etc. This activity was possible due to the accumulation of large amounts of waste in Ukraine and the lack of systematic work on its collection and recycling. The author shows the role of these humanitarian organizations in the creation and operation of one of the largest waste collectors in Ukraine – the company Ukrutilzbir. It is concluded that the Soviet authorities tried to exploit the idea of charity, which was to be implemented in the form of free transfer of waste by enterprises to Ukrutilzbir, but it did not take root, as it contradicted the ideology of rationalism and pragmatism and economic relations of the NEP period. At the same time, the idea of creating Ukrutilzbir as a business project that generated dividends was implemented quite successfully. The achievements of Ukrutulzbir are considered in the context of the waste collection problems in an economy of deficit and the limited ability of the population and enterprises to produce large amounts of waste. The author concludes that the connection of waste collection with the idea of charity is one of the distinctive features of the early Soviet waste regime in Ukraine. This study is based on the use of previously unknown archival documents and reveals unexplored pages of waste recycling activities and sources of funding for humanitarian organizations in Ukraine during the early Soviet period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Babylon Center for Humanities Studies is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of the article is to identify the transformations that theological seminaries underwent in the Soviet era in their structural and functional organization. These changes are followed through the determination of the system of subordination of the seminary to the church and state authorities, consideration of the internal structure of the institution, and the outline of the functions of its governing bodies. The study is based on a comparison of the statutory documents of pre-revolutionary and Soviet times. Some institutional aspects are illustrated by the example of the Kyiv Theological Seminary, which functioned in 1947–1960. The study found that in their subordination to church authorities, seminaries in the USSR followed the model established in the Russian Empire. In their structure and functions of governing bodies and pedagogical personnel, they also reproduced pre-revolutionary models and were guided by well-tested mechanisms. Only those pre-revolutionary norms that were not consistent with the new reality underwent certain modifications. In particular, the positions of seminary confessor and honorary supervisor of the economic part were abolished, the ban on part-time work for seminary employees was lifted, and all teachers were allowed to participate in the Pedagogical Assembly. At the same time, an important factor in the functioning of seminaries in the Soviet era was the existence of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and its local authorized representatives. Formally, church educational institutions were not subordinated to state bodies, since the Church was separated from the state, but in practice, the Soviet authorities exercised significant influence on the course of processes within the seminary and its communication with the outside world, using informal mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Athenaeum: Polskie Studia Politologiczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Security Studies Nicolaus Copernicus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia i Polityka is the property of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After the fall of the USSR, Cuba was plunged into an economic crisis with devastating effects on the agricultural system. With few options, the government restructured its agricultural system from an industrial model to a model based on smallholders and agroecology. After several decades, the results of this transition have been far reaching for both landscapes and livelihoods. This research uses mixed-methods, including remote sensing, interviews, and economic and agricultural statistics to present the case study of a smallholder community that has undergone a shift from industrial sugarcane to small-scale agroecology. This work reveals that while agricultural extent has plummeted, production of staple crops has increased dramatically. At the same time, on-farm incomes and food market availability have risen steadily. In the context of strong social, economic, and environmental protections, this represents a process of a sustainable rural transition with several concurrent benefits to people and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses both well-known and unfamiliar paintings, illustrations and mosaics depicting the Ukrainian Donbas region by the Socialist Realist artist Aleksandr Deineka (1899--1969). Having been received, because of his modernism, rather sympathetically in the West, Deineka produced an array of Donbas images that can be employed as a starting point for analysing Soviet imperial ideology in art. The case of Deineka shows the extent of Soviet imperial and colonial strategies in regard to nations that were subjected to Moscow's rule, and that even Deineka, who is considered as a critical Socialist Realist, was one of the most powerful ideologues of Soviet colonial imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of History / Habaršy Tarihi Seriâsy is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of History / Habaršy Tarihi Seriâsy is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of History / Habaršy Tarihi Seriâsy is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Oriental Studies (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University) / Kazahskij Nacional'nyj Universitet Imeni Al'-Farabi Vestnik Seriâ Vostokovedeniâ is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar (RUHM) is the property of Centro de Estudios de la Guerra and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Berliner Debatte Initial is the property of Berliner Debatte Initial e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Berliner Debatte Initial is the property of Berliner Debatte Initial e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The extremely tense Romanian-Soviet relations after April 1964 would deteriorate even more during Mikhail S. Gorbachev's mandate. The leaders of Kremlin criticised Nicolae Ceaușescu and, at the same time, could not forgive him for his ambition and his demonstrative flirting with the West. Speaking about Nicolae Ceaușescu, Mikhail S. Gorbachev stated that after August 21, 1968, he began to distance himself from the Soviet Union and to emphasize his demand for Romania's independence and sovereignty to be respected in every way possible, so that this basic demand in itself, repeated on every occasion and even without reason, turned into a kind of incantation that brought with it doubled dividends. Nicolae Ceaușescu and socialist Romania proved to be the stumbling block in the process of reforming and restructuring the strategic glacis of the USSR, reforming socialism and trying to bestow a new perspective on an ideology that proved to be failing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESAM Academy Journal is the property of Tesam Academy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reflects the results of a comparative hermeneutical analysis of Soviet feature films of the second half of the 1950s – first half of the 1980s, including the study of cultural and historical contexts in order to consider their possible influence on the author's views, reflected in the specifics of the depiction of characters and reality, in the choice of plot motifs and other structural components of the film. Based on the results of the analysis, we described and systematized film images, types of movie characters and plot motives reflecting the prevailing “points of view” about cultural values and traditions, and characterizing stereotypical models of social interaction of characters in accordance with the five types of cinematic discourse (interpersonal, artistic-aesthetic, religious-ideological, historical-cultural, mythological), which constitute the content of the structural-functional model of cultural identity developed by us, which is represented in the domestic cinema. The analysis of research on the topic of the article has shown that the problem of cultural identity in the period under consideration was gaining relevance. This was due to the beginning of the weakening of the ideological press, which contributed to the revival of interest in culture. Filmmakers increasingly began to turn to folk culture, the peasant world, the history of prerevolutionary Russia and noble culture. The characters' interpersonal relations were characterized by sincerity and frankness, mutual understanding and mental closeness. The images of nature embodied the feelings of despondency and longing, born of the boundlessness of Russian expanses and contemplation of fading nature. Images of mythologemes of Russian culture – river, tree, house – appeared on the screen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second half of the 1940s and into the 1950s, attendance at French films at the French box office was at its peak. The genre spectrum of the leaders of the “golden ten” of the French film distribution was diverse, but in general it was based on films of entertainment genres, which starred the favorites of the French public. Beginning in the mid-1960s, attendance at French films began to gradually decline (largely due to competition from television and Hollywood productions). An even greater decline in cinema attendance in France began to be felt in the 1980s. This was affected not only by strong competition from Hollywood products and television, but mainly by the massive distribution of household video equipment, which riveted millions of French people to their home screens, who previously preferred to watch films in cinemas. In the second half of the 1940s, there were very few French films in Soviet film distribution. This was largely due to the fact that it was during this period that so-called trophy films (mainly American and German) were shown on USSR screens. Due to the fact that by the mid-1950s the screening of so-called trophy films (mainly American and German) in the USSR was completed, in the second half of the 1950s more new European films, including French ones, began to be released in Soviet cinemas. The “thaw” that came to the USSR brought significant changes to procurement policy. For example, of the top ten leaders in French film distribution in 1958, exactly half were shown on USSR cinema screens. The work of the Soviet film purchasing commission in the 1960s was quite liberal, which (especially after the start of the “Prague Spring” of 1968) could not escape the conservative wing of the “ideological front”: a number of articles were published in the Soviet press with sharp criticism of the distribution policy regarding Western film products, “promoting the bourgeois way of life.” Among the reasons why French films were not included in Soviet film distribution are the following: – Taboos on erotica, accentuated religious and Jewish themes; – The fear that Soviet viewers might somehow misunderstand shocking plot twists from the point of view of official Soviet morality, which were often found even in artistically significant films; – Exclusion from candidates for the purchase of films with an interpretation of Russian and Soviet themes (and accordingly, Russian and Soviet characters) that is unacceptable for Soviet ideology; – The struggle of Soviet censorship with incorrectly (from its point of view) ideological accents on military topics; – Undesirability for Soviet censorship of films “promoting the bourgeois way of life”; – The undesirability of images of charming criminals appearing on Soviet screens; – The unacceptability of purchasing new films with the participation of famous actors who publicly criticized the policies of the USSR; – Too high prices offered by copyright holders; True, in the Soviet film distribution in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s, French films began to increasingly appear, one way or another violating former censorship taboos. This was due to the fact that with the advent of perestroika, the work of the purchasing commission of the USSR State Cinema Committee became more liberal and in many ways began to focus on the purchase of highly artistic foreign films, and the former strict ideological and moral prohibitions ceased to apply.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The West is the empire that entrepreneurship built. All empires in the past have at some point collapsed. In recent years attention has been turning to concerns that the global economy is facing the polycrisis, and that collapse may be imminent. In this light, this monograph argues that there are at least seven sources of rot that affect entrepreneurship. These sources of rot follow from an analysis of the sources of rot which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is argued that all of these sources of rot are relevant in the West. The West has an increasingly powerful military-industrial complex which thrives on a Warfare Economy, science and research are declining, innovation is being disincentivised, the West is becoming a stop-button society that is seeing technological conservatism just when new technological innovations may most be needed, and the flow of information is increasingly hampering the role of entrepreneurs as knowledge spillover conduits as well as the functioning of democracy. While these factors impacted the Soviet Union, the West is now also facing the end of the hydrocarbon age and has to face the consequences of the financialization of the economy. From the analyses of how these sources of rot undermine entrepreneurial growth, follows two implications. One is that, given that the underlying sources of rot are similar in outline in an empire that has been built by entrepreneurship, and in an empire that has not been, then entrepreneurship is not a solution to avert collapse. A second is that if collapse is not extinction, it may be a reset to a system that has become too costly and too exploitative to maintain. Collapse may be welcomed, and may even be a feature, and not a "bug" of the evolution of society. These implications suggest that the West should be getting busy with succession planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a review of the books Mihail A. Lipkin (author), Sovet ekonomiceskoi vzaimopomosci. Istoriceskii opît alternativnogo globalinogo miroustroistva (1949-1979)/ COMECON. The Historical Experience of Alternative Global Organization of the World, 1949-1979, Vesi Mir Publishing House, Moscow, 2019, 183 p. and Mihail A. Lipkin (coord.), „Mirovaia sistema soțializma“ i globalnaia ekonomika v seredine 1950-h - seredina 1970-h godov/The World Socialist System and the Global Economy from the Mid-1950s to the Mid-1970s, Vesi Mir Publishing House, Moscow, 2019, 332 p. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes recent research produced in Russia and elsewhere, offering various perspectives on the historical event and military siege known as the Leningrad Blockade. We will identify and discuss the principal themes emerging from this recent research and categorize them into two fundamental approaches: the heroic and the accusatory. Furthermore, we will examine the advantages and limitations of these studies, compare their differing viewpoints, and analyze their contributions to the historiographical understanding of this event, as well as to a deeper comprehension of its significance. The article will conclude by comparing the work of two Russian scholars--Nikita Lomagin and Sergey Yarov--whose perspectives are essential for any analysis of the Leningrad Blockade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich's first book U voiny ne zhenskoe litso (The Unwomanly Face of War), a "novel in voices" based on oral histories, challenges the heroic narratives of the late Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War by depicting the ordinary lives of Soviet women soldiers. Alexievich contends that war is "unwomanly" and downplays the overt challenges to traditional gender roles that women soldiers posed. Nevertheless, she includes episodes that undermine her own assertions about women's difference from men and their desire to preserve life, creating ambiguity in her message and offering glimpses of an alternative gender order lurking under the surface. These alternative possibilities of understanding gender threaten both the war myth and the norms of Soviet gender relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I study why and how Soviet planners organized a scheme to collect food waste from Soviet residential buildings and food service establishments in Moscow and other cities and utilize it as a feedstock for pork production. By relying on sociologist Zsuzsa Gille’s “waste regime” concept and a great variety of primary sources, I analyze the Soviet “garbage feeding scheme” as a social institution that patterned the social behavior of actors who engaged with food waste in the USSR from the early 1930s until the beginning of the 1980s. I argue that Soviet planners, informed by zootechnics, perceived garbage feeding as a way to reconcile their goal to increase meat production with the reality of continuous grain shortages. As such, they imparted food waste with the economic meaning that it could be turned into other commodities – wheat and meat. I demonstrate that the Soviet garbage feeding scheme never became a success, as the collection of food waste that laid dispersed across many locations in cities posed too big of an organizational challenge for the USSR’s centralized bureaucracy, and because planners did not succeed at integrating Soviet citizens into its scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deciding how to relate to the Soviet past is a key question in the politics of memory for the societies and political elites of the post-Soviet countries. Throughout the post-Soviet decades Armenian political and intellectual elites tried to form a complex attitude to the Soviet past, neither rejecting, nor appropriating the Soviet legacy completely, but assimilating it within the paradigm of national history. Within this paradigm Soviet Armenia is viewed as a stage in the development of Armenian nationhood, as "the second republic", which links the first "attempt" at building a nation-state, "the first republic" of 1918–1920, to the "3rd republic", i.e. the post-Soviet state of Armenia. This paradigm, in which the Soviet past is neither completely rejected, or accepted, but certain elements of it are integrated into the national history narrative, is optimal for post-Soviet Armenia, given both the peculiarity of Armenia's historical experience (particularly the role played by Russia/USSR in the context of Armenian-Turkish relations), as well as the current geopolitical setting, in which Armenia and Russia are formal allies. This attitude, which can be described as "mnemonic ambiguity", allows the assertion of an independent and sovereign Armenian state as legitimate, while at the same time avoiding a confrontation with an ally in the realm of memory politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "On the continuation of the war in Ukraine: Clausewitz redivivus" by Hans-Heinrich Nolte deals with the conflict in Ukraine and the search for a compromise peace. After the epochal transition from 1989 and the retreat of the USSR under Gorbachev, there was remilitarization and new wars, including in Ukraine. It is discussed whether Ukraine should defend itself or whether there should be a compromise peace. Clausewitz is mentioned as a possible source for solutions. [Extracted from the article]