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Using a new and innovative approach to investigating corruption, the present article discusses whether changes have been recorded in corruption in the Czech Republic over the last hundred years. Dr...

Marxism was not merely a teaching of historical or economic materialism; it was also a teaching about the rescue, a “Messianic mission”, of the proletariat, about a perfect society due in the future, a teaching of the man’s power and defeat of the irrational forces of nature and society. The features of the selected “People of God” have been transferred onto the proletariat. A logically contradictory blend of materialist, scientific-deterministic and non-moralist elements with the idealistic, moralistic and religious mythmaking elements has existed in the Marxist system. Marx created the proletariat myth and his mission was object of faith. Marxism was not merely a science and politics, but also a religion. His power was based on this. Communist atheism represented a type of “apophatic theology”, the next step of development that should lead to deletion of the theological component. The most significant features of this process were violence and totalitarianism. The energy of negation of the previous religious concept was transferred into affirmation of the new, terrestrial hierarchy. That is how the god-type leaders appeared quite rapidly as the state forms of the service and worshipping of God, which represented more than good conditions for the formation of personality cults. Just like all religions, communism is irrational, dogmatic and based on faith, rather than on science. Just like Christianity and Islam, communism had its own scriptures, the works of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. Just like most other religions, required irrational faith; the people living in communist countries had to cherish absolute faith in the order and its leaders, whereas the others were treated as classic heretics. Like in the Soviet Union, the totalitarian political power in Yugoslavia was imposed through sacralization of the Communist party and its leader. The most important elements in this process were the level of party Manichaeism, viewing of the party as the center of “holiness” surrounded by the sinister “mass of enemies”. A new faith was developed over time, which replaced the original tendency to have things improved. Communists were unforgiving in treating their political opponents as deadly enemies. Any connivance was experienced by the representatives of “new religion” as “intolerable weakness”. In the overly religious world at the turn of 20th century one of the instantly obvious characteristics of communism as ideology was the apparently clear lack of religiousness. When it turned out that “the plagues of communism had brought nothing more than death and poverty, totalitarian regimes and tyrants”, offending of atheists, especially after the world wars, by labeling them communists was widespread very much. And indeed, communism did not appear to have any gods, churches or holy books. Nevertheless a logical question came up why an apparently godless ideology has caused a catastrophe of such scale. The answer is more than simple: that ideology was far from atheistic, communism contains all the most specific features of religion, so it is no wonder it has brought so much pain, suffering and death.

The urgency of the study necessitates participation in the coverage of wars of aggression, which require participation in the struggle against four members of Lenin to replenish the power of the Ukrainian People's Republic, as well as the establishment of a communist regime that helps mass terror and voting in Ukrainian organizations. The purpose of the articles is to reveal the main forms, methods and means of the Russian communist regime's next turn of Ukrainian lands, the overthrow of the independent UPR, total increase of agricultural and industrial products that use mass terror and food dictatorship, which caused the terrible Holodomor. To solve the problems, chronological, historical-legal, historical-comparative, structural, analytical-critical and statistical methods are used, which contribute to the objective and comprehensive study of the problem. The results of the study: a critical analysis of the ideological and political principles of decrees, resolutions, directives and orders of the Central Committee of the RCP (B) and the RSFSR SNC, which testified to their purposeful content and nature of the Russian Bolsheviks' aggressive policy towards Ukraine.

s early as the dawn of modern age, Benjamin Constant (1819) wrote that the current democracy, unlike the ancient one, based on slavery and perpetual wars, is based on capital, while Braudel (1979) shows that capitalism as a concept could not exist without the other concepts preceding it in the sequence they occur in society, i.e. capital and capitalist. Therefore, I regarded capital, meaning the foundation of both democracy and capitalism, as a particularly challenging object of study from the standpoint of its formation, development, location in the economy and ownership in post-communist Romania. I deem the amount, quality, origin and behaviour of capital are pivotal for a solid democracy and an efficient functioning of capitalist market economy in our country. The book Capital in post-communist Romania, based on long data series, may cast a historical perspective on the economic and social phenomena and processes under scrutiny. They are meant to help devise and implement public policies for making the objectively necessary corrections to the Romanian society after such an intricate transition, as well as to prepare the actions for securing Romania’s future development. I viewed this scientific endeavour as useful after identifying a shortage of information and, against this backdrop, of analysis on economic and social results of Romania’s transition, also by comparison with other former communist countries.

What challenges have we met while writing the history of communist countries before and after 1989? This article introduces a special section devoted to the historiography of the recent past in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. It shows that many of the methodological choices made after 1989 eschewed any critical examination and replicated or denied choices made before 1989 without reflecting on them. The section also reflects upon personal continuities. And it finally shows that history writing has been instrumentalized for political purposes after 1989 just as it had been before 1989. In other words, it acutely raises the question of continuities in historical practices despite the 1989 political rupture.

In the end of the 1980s and during the 1990s, the religious communities in Yugoslavia wholeheartedly critiqued the ‘totalitarian communist government’ claiming that it had imposed, from the above, the ideological restraints and suppression of religious freedoms. Therefore, many religious elites accepted the process of Western European liberalization in order to win the fight for religious freedom, as well as to affirm its role and power through free elections. In the anti-communist context, the religious elites insisted on the return to tradition, to ancestors, to the past, and mostly neglecting the narrative of ‘the new future.’ This paper examines the way in which nationalism – which establishes its power through the use of religious symbols in order to unify and mobilize the masses— came to existence after the disintegration of a multi-ethnic state, such as the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire, on the one side, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on the other. In such a way, religious universalism reduces itself on the particular national myth, which, through the symbol of the victim, constructs the ‘chosen people’ whose politics is not based on joining, connecting with other people, but on separation and division.

Heritage conservation provides economic, cultural and social benefits to urban communities. The building conservation role has changed from preservation to being part of a broader strategy for urban regeneration process and sustainable development. Heritage buildings are vital in for transferring the cultural identity for upcoming generations. Where heritage buildings can no longer function with its original use, proposing a new function is necessary to preserve the significance of the heritage building. This study aims to explore the fascinating dialogue between totalitarian regimes introduced in two museums adapted within the anti-nuclear bunkers in Tirana. The architectural projects of the museum aim to preserve the identity of their interior. While the careful architectural intervention is necessary to create the atmosphere of totalitarian ideology, in many cases we have to do with the continuity of existing architectural and urban elements in these particular projects. The work explores two museums, BuncArt 1 and BunkArt 2, quite interesting reflection of the parts of history, during the years of world wars and the period of dictatorship of communism, with the facilities and elements exhibited there. In the meantime, thereafter, one can speak of a longer period for the period of the communist regime extending from 1945 to 1990. The impact of communist ideology, coming from the communist bloc of the East, also affects architecture and urban studies in Albania. In some respects, we have a silent follow-up to the monumental interventions that were made before the end of World War II. Another important element was the radical intervention in the bunkers in the territory and in the cities. Their quantity is considered with an amount of 700 thousand pieces. They were different in size and were seen more as defence-related parts rather than as a direct link to the new realist-socialist architecture. The return of some of them to the exhibition space was a good step to revitalize them. Currently they have been transformed into successful tourist attractions. Visitors come to perceive three important elements: (1) attractive military engineering, carried out in contrast to the challenges of the time, (2) the suffocating atmosphere during the communist dictatorship, which required extreme safeguards, (3) elements and historical facts of the World War period, as important elements during the Cold War. An ambitious third project, which is expected to be implemented in the future, is the conversion of the Pashaliman Naval Base in Vlora into another important military museum. This port was originally set up by mid-Fifties, by Russian troops, to have control over the Adriatic. The port is currently part of the military, thought to turn into a strong tourist pole.

The aim of this study is to analyse the voluminous emigration correspondence of Count Béla Teleki in order to highlight his main thoughts about the future of Transylvania. Béla Teleki was one of the most important Transylvanian politicians in the middle of the 20th century. His political career reached its peak at the time when Northern Transylvania was regained by Hungary after the Second Vienna Award. At the end of the Second World War, Teleki was persecuted by the Secret Police of the new Hungarian Communist Regime. Starting from 1951, he lived in the United States until his death on 7 February 1990. During the decades of his life in emigration, he carried on a great correspondence with the leading personalities of the Hungarian emigration in the West, several members of the American Senate, and even with President Gerald Ford. In this way, Béla Teleki became one of the central personalities of the Hungarian emigration in the Western World. His opinion, his voice were determining. This study summarizes the most important theme Béla Teleki was preoccupied with, the future of Transylvania, as he imagined it, by making a short analysis of his correspondence consisting of thousands of letters.

This paper addresses the main issues raised by Fr. Popieluszko in his homilies given in St. Stanislaus Kostka church, located in the Żoliborz district of Warsaw, throughout the Martial Law period in Poland, along with the significant events in his life in the background. The prominent place among these issues occupied the matter of relationship between Church and communist state. While criticising the most dangerous activities of the official authorities, Fr. Popieluszko was aware of his being exposed to harassment and even to death. At the same time, he hoped that his standing up for the persecuted and imprisoned was somehow complementary to the “diplomatic” activity undertaken by then Church hierarchs and instrumental in exercising his personal pastoral mission. He regarded Holy Masses for the Motherland and for those who suffered for their country as the necessary instrument of influencing social consciousness and the attempt at national reconciliation. From today’s perspective his heroic deeds must be recognized not only as the expression of deep patriotism but also in terms of religious concept of sacrifice.

The article attempts to generalize social and economic consequences of legitimation of the communist regime in Ukraine on the basis of analysis of historical and statistical data, and to confirm the fact of mass artificial famine in 1921–1923 and regular confiscation, export of grain and food products abroad from Ukraine. To ensure a comprehensive study of the main aspects of the research topic, we used historical, problem-chronological, historical-comparative, historical-psychological methods, as well as general scientific methods – systematization, analysis, generalization, modeling, etc. The new archival materials from the funds of State Archives of Zaporizhzhia Region were introduced into the scientific use that prove the facts of mass artificial famine of 1921–1923, as well as the materials from the State Archives of Khmelnytskyi Region that confirm the facts of regular and extra confiscations and export of grain, especially abroad. It is mentioned that after the legitimation of party and Soviet organizations in Ukrainian territories with the use of Cheka, the Bolsheviks conducted the policy of confiscations, product dictatorship, used already known and created new mechanisms of terror. In 1922, mass famine covered Zaporizhzhia province, and because of the lack of relief aid, people were physically exhausted, ate surrogates, died of starvation; there were cases of cannibalism. During 1922, the system of compulsory extra confiscations (of rye and wheat) for starving regions was introduced in the regions that suffered less, especially in Podillia province. Regular extra confiscations and export of grain from Podillia province had prolonged effects, which later led to the stagnation of agricultural sphere in the region, facts of starvation and hunger edema.

The article analyzes the state of orphanages in Zaporizhzhia province during the mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 to explain the dynamics of how they were created and why they were closed, to characterize the attitude of Zaporizhzhia party nomenclature towards the aid for children starving in the orphanages. Statistics on the number of children's shelters and the number of children in them are summarized; on the basis of archival documents the author's tables of calculating the dynamics of movement of a contingent in shelters of Zaporizhzhia province are made; social and living conditions of children who were brought up there are disclosed.The mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 had devastating consequences for the starving provinces of Ukraine: the Bolshevik prodrozkladka exhausted the Ukrainian peasantry, and the famine was especially raging in the southern Ukrainian provinces, where more than 40% of the population were affected. The situation was aggravated by the systematic arrival in Ukraine of children from the Russian provinces, as a result of which the orphanages of the USSR were overcrowded, and the level of their provision with food and industrial goods was characterized by poverty.In 1921–1923, the Bolshevik Communist regime deliberately created a situation in which Ukrainians died en masse from artificial starvation. However, it was noted that the government had claimed responsibility for the crime. This was probably done unknowingly, but the presence of reports describing the poverty of shelters and recording the mass mortality of children suggests that officials were aware of the causes of the famine and its nature, and knew the names of its organizers. However, a caste of communist party nomenclature had already begun to form, which, under the guise of propaganda rhetoric, sought to seize control of food resources and people. In our opinion, the aggravating factor was the fact that Bolshevik officials appointed the management of shelters not on a professional but on a class basis. In Ukraine, the mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 significantly adjusted the juvenile policy of the Soviet system. It became distorted by ideology, corruption and bureaucracy, and children were turned into zombies by communist judgments.

After the establishment of the communist regime in Albania, many Albanian students, mainly males, went to study in the Mecca of Revolution—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Many of them fell in love there and married Soviet girls who returned with them to the tiny Balkan country to build socialism with their Albanian husbands. These women were considered as missionaries who were helping Albania to build a communist future. In 1960, however, their position changed when the Albanian leadership refused de-Stalinization and denounced the Soviet Union as an imperialist power. After Enver Hoxha’s split with Khrushchev, many Soviet women left Albania, but others decided to remain with their husbands in that country. Albanian authorities, considering Soviet women spies of the KGB (The Soviet Committee of State Security), persecuted many of them.

The empirical literature on the nexus between finance and economic growth is vast, but two issues have been almost absent from it. One is the role of financial depth in communist countries with min...

Dr. Radan Sarafov (1908-1968) lived actively but his life is still relatively unknown to the Bulgarian academic and public audience. He was a strong character with an ulti-mate and conscious commitment to democratic Bulgaria. Dr. Sarafov was chosen by IMRO (Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) to represent the idea of coop-eration with Anglo-American politics prior to the Second World War. Dr. Sarafov studied medicine in France, specialized in the Sorbonne, and was recruited by Colonel Ross for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), remaining undisclosed after the with-drawal of the British legation in 1941. After World War II, he continued to work for foreign intelligence and expanded the spectrum of cooperation with both France and the United States. After WWII, Sarafov could not conform to the reign of the communist regime in Bulgaria. He made a connection with the Anglo-American intelligence ser-vices and was cooperating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for more than a decade. Sarafov was caught in 1968 and convicted by the Committee for State Securi-ty (CSS) in Bulgaria. The detailed review of the past events and processes through personal drama and commitment reveals the disastrous core of the communist regime. The acknowledgment of the people who sacrificed their lives in the name of democrat-ic values is always beneficial for understanding the division and contradictions from the time of the Cold War.