Download or read book Forgotten Pages in Baltic History written by Martyn Housden and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The years from 1918 to 1945 remain central to European History. It was a breath-taking time during which the very best and very worst attributes of Mankind were on display. In the euphoria of peace which followed the end of the First World War, the Baltic States emerged as independent forces on the world stage, participating in thrilling experiments in national and transnational governance. Later, following economic collapse and in the face of rising totalitarianism among even Europe’s most cultured nations, Baltic communities succumbed to nationalism too. During wartime, Baltic peoples became both victims and, sometimes, victimisers. Ultimately their victimhood lasted until the end of the Cold War, yielding consequences still discernible at the start of the twenty first century. Taking the period 1918 to 1945 as pivotal, this collection of essays examines some of the key themes in Baltic History as they are emerging today. These include appreciations of identity, autonomy and the rights of national minorities; the everyday and social foundations of international security; and the importance of historical memory to popular and political identities.

Download or read book A History of the Baltic States written by Andres Kasekamp and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this key textbook, Andres Kasekamp masterfully traces the development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Employing a comparative approach, a particular emphasis is placed upon the last one hundred years, during which the Baltic states achieved independence, endured occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking modules on Eastern or Central European History, Communism and Post-Communism, the Soviet Union, or Baltic Culture and Politics. Engaging and accessible, this is also an ideal introduction to the Baltic States for general readers.

Download or read book Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric Federations written by Gorana Grgić and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last years of their existence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) found themselves facing a similar and very grim state of affairs. After their disintegration, the former Yugoslav republics spiralled into a set of ethnic conflicts that did not leave a single one of them unscathed, and in the ex-Soviet space, conflicts were far more limited. This book offers an in-depth analysis of the difference in state collapses and ensuing conflicts in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia by focusing on their asymmetric ethnofederal structure and the different dynamics of ethnic mobilization that the federal units experienced. Moreover, it explores the links between identity politics and international relations, as the latter has been a latecomer in research on ethnonationalism and ethnic conflict. Finally, it contributes to the literature on the democratization-conflict nexus by proposing that the sequencing of ethnic mobilization and political liberalization has significant effects on the likelihood of conflict. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Post-Soviet politics, Balkan politics, ethnic conflict, peace and conflict studies, federalism, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

Download or read book The New Revolution written by Richard C. Williams PhD. and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-10-22 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The material has been assembled and updated from my doctoral thesis, Social Causes of Violent Revolution in Eighty-Six Nations Since World War II, written in 1978 (found on the dissertation shelves of Norlin Library, University of Colorado, Boulder). In this current update, I have enlarged the scope of the project to include nonviolent revolutions as well. South Africa has been the obvious model here and suggests that the most successful revolutions in the world have indeed been nonviolent. There have been a few others as well in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Examining the causes and developments preceding these revolutions and comparing them with political and social conditions today has convinced me that our own country may be facing some kind of radical social upheaval during the coming century. By examining more closely the causes of such upheavals in the world during the 20th century, I would hope we could then see how closely current conditions match those early ones. Remember that Thomas Jefferson said that this country would need a new revolution every twenty years. (God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Stephons Smith in Paris on November 13, 1787).

Download or read book Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe written by Péter Apor and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collection of essays in Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe addresses institutions that develop the concept of collaboration, and examines the function, social representation and history of secret police archives and institutes of national memory that create these histories of collaboration. The essays provide a comparative account of collaboration/participation across differing categories of collaborators and different social milieux throughout East-Central Europe. They also demonstrate how secret police files can be used to produce more subtle social and cultural histories of the socialist dictatorships. By interrogating the ways in which post-socialist cultures produce the idea of, and knowledge about, “collaborators,” the contributing authors provide a nuanced historical conception of “collaboration,” expanding the concept toward broader frameworks of cooperation and political participation to facilitate a better understanding of Eastern European communist regimes.

Download or read book The Shadow in the East written by Aliide Naylor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An insightful, nuanced account that highlights the present multitude of currents at play in Europe' - Peter Pomerantsev The Baltics are vital democracies in North-Eastern Europe, but with a belligerent Vladimir Putin to their east – plotting his war on Ukraine – and 'expansionist' NATO to their west, these NATO members have increasingly been the subject of unsettling headlines in both Western and Russian media. But beyond the headlines, what is daily existence like in the Baltics, and what does the security of these frontline nations mean for the world? Based on her extensive research and work as a journalist, Aliide Naylor takes us inside the geopolitics of the region. Travelling to the heart of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania she explores modernity in the region, investigates smuggling and troop movements in the borderlands, and explains the countries' unique cultural identities. Naylor tells us why the Baltics have been vital to the political struggle between East and West, and how they play a critical role in understanding the long running tensions between Russia and Europe.

Download or read book Narratives of Exile and Identity written by Tomas balkelis and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an innovative effort to situate Baltic testimonies to the Gulag in the broader international context of research on displacement and memory, scholars from the Baltic States, Western Europe, Canada, and the United States seek answers to the following questions: Do different groups of deportees experience deportation differently? How do the accounts of women, children and men differ in their representation? Do various ethnic groups remember the past differently: how do they use historical and cultural paradigms to structure their experience in unique ways? The scholars researched the archives, read testimonies, interviewed former deportees, and examined artifacts of memory produced since the late 1980s, applying crossdisciplinary approaches used at the study of the Holocaust testimonies; the testimonies of women have received a particular emphasis. The essays in the book also examine the issues of transmittance, commemoration and public uses of the memory of deportations in contemporary social, cultural and political contexts of Baltic societies, including the reflection of Gulag legacy in literature, the cinema and museums.

Download or read book Toward Nationalizing Regimes written by Diana T. Kudaibergenova and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these new nation-building processes. In this comparative study, Kudaibergenova takes the new states and nations of Eurasia that emerged in 1991, Latvia and Kazakhstan, and seeks to better understand the phenomenon of post-Soviet states tapping into nationalism to build legitimacy. What explains this difference in approaching nation-building after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What can a study of two very different trajectories of development tell us about the nature of power, state and nationalizing regimes of the ‘new’ states of Eurasia? Toward Nationalizing Regimes finds surprising similarities in two such apparently different countries—one “western” and democratic, the other “eastern” and dictatorial.

Download or read book The West s East written by Lukas Milevski and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2004 the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania - finalized their return to the West by joining NATO and the EU after definitively throwing off their 'captive nations' status by regaining independence in 1991. This has not, however, halted resurgent Russian revanchism in the region; given Russia's aggressive actions starting in Ukraine in 2014, defense of the Baltic has gained a new urgency and prominence. In The West's East, Lukas Milevski places the Baltic states in strategic and historical perspective. Through these nations' experiences, he sheds light on how independent states have been able to persist, despite being surrounded by predatory great powers. The work offers a deep overview of the region's history, from the indigenous Baltic tribes which populated it to the post-Cold War era, followed by recent political analogies of West-Russia relations. Analyses of today's strategic balance in the region indicate the various actors' geopolitical outlooks, strategic cultures, military capabilities, and non-military security vulnerabilities. As Milevski argues, the NATO-Russia relationship will play the major role in any potential conflict in the Baltic, but neutrals Finland and Sweden must also be factored into the strategic analysis. Using the logic of strategy he anticipates potential military interaction in the region step by step-from deterrence, to Russia's choice of offensive strategy, to area denial and NATO's return and break into the Baltic theater, and finally war termination-to determine the answer to the ultimate question: how much defense for the Baltic is enough? The West's East gives both experts and policymakers alike the background and framework for thinking strategically about a region that has re-emerged as a significant geopolitical concern in the Putin-Trump era.

Download or read book From Socialist to Post Socialist Cities written by Alexander C. Diener and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of post-socialist cities has become a major field of study among critical theorists from across the social sciences and humanities. Originally constructed under the dictates of central planners and designed to serve the demands of command economies, post-socialist urban centers currently develop at the nexus of varied and often competing economic, cultural, and political forces. Among these, nationalist aspirations, previously simmering beneath the official rhetoric of communist fraternity and veneer of architectural conformity, have emerged as dominant factors shaping the urban landscape. This book explores this burgeoning field of research through detailed cases studies relating to the cultural politics of architecture, urban planning, and identity in the post-socialist cities of Eurasia. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.

Download or read book Post Communist Transitional Justice written by Lavinia Stan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how the former communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe have grappled with the serious human rights violations of past regimes.

Download or read book Shadowlands written by Meike Wulf and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located within the forgotten half of Europe, historically trapped between Germany and Russia, Estonia has been profoundly shaped by the violent conflicts and shifting political fortunes of the last century. This innovative study traces the tangled interaction of Estonian historical memory and national identity in a sweeping analysis extending from the Great War to the present day. At its heart is the enduring anguish of World War Two and the subsequent half-century of Soviet rule. Shadowlands tells this story by foregrounding the experiences of the country’s intellectuals, who were instrumental in sustaining Estonian historical memory, but who until fairly recently could not openly grapple with their nation’s complex, difficult past.

Download or read book Defining Latvia written by Michael Loader and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In just over a century, Latvia has transitioned from imperial periphery to nation-state, then Soviet republic, and finally following the collapse of the Soviet Union to an independent republic. Defining Latvia brings together the latest research on the multiple social, political, and cultural contexts of Latvia throughout this turbulent period. Its ten chapters are written by leading political scientists, historians, and area studies specialists from across Europe and North America. The volume moves beyond an exclusively political context to incorporate a variety of social and cultural perspectives, ranging from the experiences of Latvian mapmakers in the Russian Empire, to the participation of Latvians in the Wehrmacht and Red Army during World War II, Latvian national communism, and the development of extremist politics following Latvia’s accession to the European Union. Other chapters address developing trends in the fields of history and political science, including the history of antisemitism, memory, language politics, photography, and political extremism. Based on the book’s temporal span from the nineteenth century to the present, the authors and editors of Defining Latvia understand the construction of Latvian identity as a continuous and interconnected process across significant political and ideological ruptures.

Download or read book Chosen Legacies written by Linde Egberts and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The urge for regional identity has not declined in the process of globalization. Rather, heritage is used to develop regional distinctiveness and to charge identities with a past. Particularly helpful for this aim are creation stories, Golden Ages or recent, shared traumas. Some themes such as the Roman era or the Second World War appear easier to appropriate than, for example, prehistory. This book assesses the role of heritage in the construction of regional identities in Western Europe. It contains case studies on early medieval heritage in Alsace and Euregio-Meuse Rhine, industrial heritage in the German Ruhr area and competing memories in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region in the Netherlands. It presents new insights into the process of heritage production on a regional level in relationship to processes of identity construction. The theoretical analysis of "heritage" and "regional identity" is innovative as these concepts were hardly analysed in relation to each other before. This book also offers insights into policy, tourism, spatial development and regional development to policymakers, politicians, designers and professionals in the heritage and tourism industries.

Download or read book The Horror of Himmler s Death Squads written by Norman Ridley and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2024-09-30 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Second World War, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were occupied on three separate occasions – twice by the Soviet Union and once by Nazi Germany. The signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939 allowed the Soviets to dominate the Baltic states without fear of German reprisals, causing many in the German-Baltic populations to flee to Poland. Soviet rule of the Baltics was brutal with the purging of political elites and deportation of many tens of thousands in a bid to turn them into vassal states. Consequently, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, many Balts saw it as a liberation from Soviet cruelties. The reality was, however, that it turned out to be the beginning of something much worse. During their occupation of Poland prior to Barbarossa the Nazis had decimated the Polish political elites, and the Jews there had been herded into ghettos in preparation for deportation to the east where they would serve as slave labour in the Nazi economy after the conquest of the Soviet Union. Similar policies were to be adopted in the Baltics when Heinrich Himmler's murder squads, the Einsatzgruppen, were allowed to move into the newly-occupied territories. Operating behind the advancing German forces Einsatzgruppen A, B, C, and D – four special mobile killing units, each made up of about a thousand men from the security police and the German intelligence service – proved to be more than willing to carry out Himmler's orders. He had called for the removal of every vestige of opposition to Nazi rule, which primarily meant complete elimination of the ‘inferior’ races who were unfit for work and the ghettoization of others in preparation for their economic exploitation. On foreign soil, away from scrutiny and free of all constraint, the Einsatzgruppen discovered that through the mass shootings of communists, Jews and gypsies it was possible to accelerate the pace of the Holocaust, slaughtering men, women and children in their tens of thousands. The Einsatzgruppen were assisted by local ‘volunteers’ who helped to identify victims as well as kill them; in places whole Jewish communities were swiftly eliminated. Many of the killers and victims had known one another as neighbors and colleagues. This massive slaughter of civilians convinced Heydrich and Himmler that complete extermination of Jews was within their grasp and before very long, in the death camps, new industrial methods of killing would be devised.

Download or read book As the Witnesses Fall Silent 21st Century Holocaust Education in Curriculum Policy and Practice written by Zehavit Gross and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents the most comprehensive collection ever produced of empirical research on Holocaust education around the world. It comes at a critical time, as the world observes the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We are now at a turning point, as the generations that witnessed and survived the Shoah are slowly passing on. Governments are charged with ensuring that this defining event of the 20th century takes its rightful place in the schooling and the historical consciousness of their peoples. The policies and practices of Holocaust education around the world are as diverse as the countries that grapple with its history and its meaning. Educators around the globe struggle to reconcile national histories and memories with the international realities of the Holocaust and its implications for the present. These efforts take place at a time when scholarship about the Holocaust itself has made great strides. In this book, these issues are framed by some of the leading voices in the field, including Elie Wiesel and Yehuda Bauer, and then explored by many distinguished scholars who represent a wide range of expertise. Holocaust education is of such significance, so rich in meaning, so powerful in content, and so diverse in practice that the need for extensive, high-quality empirical research is critical. Th is book provides exactly that.

Download or read book A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe written by Balázs Trencsenyi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-10 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of political ideas and discourses. Its principal aim is to make these cultures available for the global 'market of ideas' and revisit some of the basic assumptions about the history of modern political thought, and modernity as such. The present volume is the final part of the project, following Volume I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Long Nineteenth Century', and Volume II, Part I: Negotiating Modernity in the 'Short Twentieth Century' (1918-1968) (OUP, 2018). Its starting point is the defeat of the vision of 'socialism with a human face' in 1968 and the political discourses produced by the various 'consolidation' or 'normalization' regimes. It continues with mapping the exile communities' and domestic dissidents' critical engagement with the local democratic and anti-democratic traditions as well as with global trends. Rather than achieving the coveted 'end of history', however, the liberal democratic order created in East Central Europe after 1989 became increasingly contested from left and right alike. Thus, instead of a comfortable conclusion pointing to the European integration of most of these countries, the book closes with a reflection on the fragility of democracy in this part of the world and beyond.