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Politics of Memory

Interview with Nikolay Koposov: "Putin’s Actions and Ideology Are Changing the World, Making It Potentially Unsafe for Everyone for Generations to Come"

18 Feb 2025 Nikolay Koposov

Nikolay Koposov is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at the School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining Georgia Tech, he worked at Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Helsinki, and École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He was the Founding Dean of Smolny College, a joint venture between Saint Petersburg State University and Bard College, New York. Koposov specializes in modern European intellectual history, post-Soviet Russia, and the politics of historical memory. He has authored six books, including Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia (2018), and Pamjatʹ strogogo režima. Istorija i politika v Rossii (2011). He has also contributed to international expert groups on memory politics.
History

Resistance Through Pop Culture and the Ideology of the “Russian World”: on Deconstruction in Times of War

18 Feb 2025 Nadia Kiss Luidmyla Pidkuimukha Yuliia Kolisnyk

The article analyses the main trends in pop culture since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. In particular, the paper investigates which tools and elements of ethnic culture have been used to construct the image of Ukraine and new Ukrainian heroes. Moreover, the image of Ukrainians in the global arena and in modern Western pop culture is presented. In contrast, the article demonstrates how the imperialist ideology of the “Russian world” has been deconstructed in contemporary Ukrainian pop culture. The data for the research consists of memes, caricatures, songs, cartoons, merch, and graffiti that have mainly been created since 24 February 2022. The investigation is informed by multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) involving analysis of verbal and non-verbal semiotic sources as well as of discourse and sociocultural practice.
History

Interview with Zianon Pazniak The Idea of Being a Prophet Never Crossed My Mind. I Simply Knew the Russians

18 Feb 2025 Zianon Pazniak

Current Issues

Articles

History

A Word from the Editors

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

The Russian View of Polish Influences in Lithuania and Belarus in the Early Twentieth Century

25 May 2021 Darius Staliunas

The Polish National Project. In the Process of the Revival of the Lithuanian Nation in the Context of Lithuanian Research

25 May 2021 Rimantas Miknys

The article shows that three phases can be identified in the process of the emergence of the modern Polish nation: 1) the post-partition phase, i.e., Romanticism, which was based on the tradition of noble identity (1795–1863); 2) the phase of redefinition of the Polish political nation towards a “triune” nature (1864–1869); 3) the phase of flourishing nationalism (1890–1918). Based on this thesis, the article uses analysis of Lithuanian historiography to show what influence the Polish national project had in each phase in the process of formation of a modern Lithuanian nation. The article concludes that the positive influence of the Polish national project, which also inspired other nations, is noticeable in the first two phases of the development of the modern nation. In the first phase, Polish Romanticism, a romantic version of the Polish nation, had the greatest impact on the crystallisation of the national-cultural interests of these societies, specifically on the production of distinguishing national-cultural features (books, publications on ethnographic themes, folklore, history etc.). The idea of the statehood of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, on which the Polish national project was based until the January Uprising, was very important for Lithuanians. After the January Uprising, when the dominant choice of the nation was based on the nationalist principle and political forces formed on this basis prevailed, the Polish national project rivalled the Lithuanian one. Tensions grew in the early twentieth century, when the Lithuanian national movement formed independent political objectives in relation to the Polish project. During the First World War, this led to open conflict between Lithuanians and Poles.

A Sign of the Past: The Untold Story of Hungary’s Synagogues and the Memory of Disappeared Communities, 1945–2024

25 May 2021 Lorant Bodi Hanna Mezei

After the Second World War, the situation of synagogues in Hungary was unique compared to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. While in Poland, Czechoslovakia or Germany a large number of synagogues were demolished, in Hungary – with the exception of a few cases – such destruction did not take place. Nevertheless, as a result of the demographic catastrophe caused by the Holocaust and the ensuing internal migration and emigration, most of the synagogues in the countryside were gradually abandoned and fell into disrepair. After the 1956 revolution, the National Association of Hungarian Israelites, for various reasons (such as economic considerations, political pressure, etc.), decided in the 1960s and 1970s to sell some 60–70 synagogues to the state or local companies. The authorities then used either the building or the land, intentionally or unintentionally erasing the memory of the once thriving Jewish community. Thus, the transfer of ownership of synagogues during the Kádár era became a widespread phenomenon and even a general policy in the interaction between the state and Jewish representatives. The problem of abandoned synagogues has been on the agenda in Hungary ever since, and various attempts have been made to address the issue over the past seven decades. Based on archival material and oral history interviews, this paper outlines the historical context in which the sale of synagogues took place and analyses how the policy of dealing with the material heritage of the former Jewish communities during the Kádár era and since has been shaped as an act of remembrance.
History

“We Really Did Not Expect to See You Again”: A Case Study on Jewish–Non-Jewish Relations in Post-War Szeged*

25 May 2021 Dora Pataricza Mercedesz Czimbalmos

The Jewish Community of Szeged, Hungary, has a rich cultural and historical heritage dating back two centuries. Like most Jewish cities in Europe, much of Szeged’s Jewish population was destroyed in the Holocaust. It was the main deportation centre for Csongrád County (southern Hungarian settlements) and parts of current northern Serbia (Bačka region). It was also the main deportation centre for southern Hungary. At the end of June 1944, three trains departed from Szeged, deporting the Jewish population from this city and the surrounding villages, totalling 8,617 people in only three days. Approximately half of the deportees were taken to Auschwitz, where most were killed upon arrival; partly unintentionally, the other half ended up at the Strasshof Labour Camp near Vienna, where most people survived. This resulted in Szeged’s Jewry having an exceptionally high rate of survival (an estimated 60%), including children and the elderly. What was the nature of the relationship between Jewish survivors and their non-Jewish neighbours upon their return to Szeged, and what factors contributed to the development of these relationships? What were the experiences of Jewish survivors in attempting to retrieve their confiscated property, and what factors facilitated or hindered their efforts? How did Jewish survivors cope with the challenges of rebuilding their lives in Szeged after the war, and what role did their relationships with non-Jewish neighbours play in this process? The proposed paper presents and analyses the survivors’ fates upon their return to Szeged and their relationships with their non-Jewish neighbours. These narratives include the non-Jewish local population’s reaction to the return of Jews, accounts of attempts to recover looted property, and the depiction of life in Szeged immediately after the war.

Minsk Jews after the Holocaust in the Last Decade of Stalin’s Rule (1944–1953)

25 May 2021 Iryna Kashtalian

“The Germans Equated the Karaites and the Jews”: the Shoah and the Karaite Policy in Melitopol’ District (1941–1943)

25 May 2021 Yuri Radchenko

This article explores the Holocaust, German Karaite Policy, and Jewish–Karaite relations in Melitopol’ region during the Nazi occupation. The author uses unpublished sources from Ukrainian, Israeli, German, and Lithuanians archives, as well as oral history testimonies from his private collection to demonstrate that Jews in Melitopol’ were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators throughout the entire period of occupation, with the culmination of this policy occurring in the first days of the Wehrmacht’s arrival in Melitopol’. The property of the murdered Jews was confiscated by the local administration and handed over to the German army. Jews who concealed their nationality and went into hiding in Melitopol’ or nearby villages were persecuted by the Germans and their collaborators throughout the entire period of occupation. Local Karaite activists, with the support of local self-government officials, managed to convince the employees of SK 10A that the local Karaites had nothing in common with the Jews and were in fact a Turkic people professing “their own religion”. Close examination of the archival materials reveals that the Karaite narrative in Melitopol’ had already fallen under the strong influence of Karaite Turkic nationalism in the pre-war period. Within this narrative, there was an attempt to eliminate any Jewish elements from the everyday culture of local Karaites. The Holocaust is mentioned in this narrative only in general terms, most often in the context of the fact that the Germans sought to eliminate the Karaites, but the latter managed to convince the former that they were a separate ethnic group altogether. The research demonstrates that the subject of the Holocaust is practically absent from the postwar trials of collaborators in Melitopol’, as evidenced by the trials of members of the local self-government, Andrei Putov and Vasilii Perepletchikov. The documents prove that representatives of the Melitopol’ local administration participated in the looting of Jewish property after the first mass executions. However, the role of the local government in the first and bloodiest Aktion remains unclear. The Ilarion Kurylo (Krymchak) trial highlights the role that members of the rural self-government played in not only the persecution but also the rescue of Jews, as well as attempts to influence the local administration of OUN (b) and OUN (m).

Jews in the Czech Lands in Year One*: In the Jewish Community, in the State and Among Neighbours. A Return to the First Republic of Czechoslovakia?

25 May 2021 Blanka Soukupova

After the Second World War, the fraction of the Jewish population in the Czech lands that survived the Shoah coped with this tragedy in various ways. This text addresses the main minority strategies: emigration (primarily to Palestine/State of Israel), engagement with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, unconditional assimilation into the Czech nation (intentional departure from Judaism), the reconstruction of Jewish religious communities and Jewish life in general, and seeking solace in faith (especially typical of those repatriating from Carpathian Ruthenia/Transcarpathian Ukraine). It also analyses the perspectives of these life strategies, the manners in which they were pursued, and both their successes and failures in relation to the previous attitudes of survivors and their situation following the liberation of Czechoslovakia in May of 1945 (loss of relatives, property, confrontation with the anti-Semitism of individuals as well as the rise of state anti-Semitism). Various rituals, organized by Jewish religious communities in cooperation with state authorities, were often used as a particular way to cope collectively with the Shoah (celebrations, the unveiling of monuments and memorials to deceased and fallen members of the Jewish minority, and Shoah-themed exhibitions).  
History

Russian Academic Imperialism: How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

History

On the Circumstances of the Origin of the Figure of 3.5 Million Deaths from the Famine of 1921–1923 in the Ukrainian SSR: A Source Analysis

25 May 2021 Hennadii Yefimenko

History

From the Editor-in-Chief

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

International affairs

Interview with Lauri Mälksoo. Russian Intellectuals Were More Interested in Issues of Justice Than in Law as Such

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

History

The Lost Borderlands and the Trap of the Periphery An Accident of History or Historical Regularity?

25 May 2021 Jan Kieniewicz

Subjugated Nations or Separatists? Polish and Russian Emigrés and the National Question in the Soviet Union in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s

25 May 2021 Łukasz Dryblak

The national question in the Soviet Union was one of the main topics of discussion between Polish and Russian émigrés in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Polish and Russian émigré circles’ attitudes towards Promethean peoples, described by the Russians as separatist, were key to the political concepts promoted by these circles. Both émigré groups sought to win each other over to their point of view and vied with each other for influence with the political elite in the US. After the Second World War, the Russian side presented a number of collaboration proposals to Polish political circles, seeking to draw the Poles away from both the pursuit of the Intermarium idea and collaboration with subjugated nations. In my article, I argue that the dominant anti-imperialist stance in Polish politics and the growing support for Ukraine’s independence after the war influenced the thinking of Russian democrats. As a result, and also because of international developments, the Russians were forced to modify their political programmes. From 1918, Russian émigré circles moved from questioning the very existence of subjugated nations to recognising their cultural distinctiveness and (in the case of some socialists) acknowledging their right to determine their fate through plebiscites. The Poles’ promotion of the idea of freedom for “Promethean” peoples also undermined the one-dimensionality of the American (and not only American) view of the Russian problem, dominated as it was by the Russian narrative. Drawing on an analysis of the activities of the most influential Polish and Russian political circles, I answer several crucial questions: How did these two émigré groups influence American politics? Was the Polish side’s refusal to cooperate with the Russians relevant to the development of the cause of the subjugated nations? Finally, how did the Poles contribute to the spread among Russian émigrés of the idea of the independence of Promethean nations?  

An Ally for Show. Soviet Diplomats and the Visit of General Władysław Sikorski to the Soviet Union in 1941

25 May 2021 Mariusz Wołos

Władysław Sikorski’s visit to the Soviet Union in 1941 was one of the most important events in relations between the Polish government-in-exile and the Kremlin. Soviet diplomats prepared for the arrival of this Polish guest with great care. This was demonstrated by a special memorandum prepared on General Sikorski by the Fourth European Department of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs for their superiors, tracking his whole life and emphasising his anti-Piłsudski and anti-German stance. The deputy head of the Soviet diplomatic apparatus, Andrey Vyshinsky, shouldered the burden of contacts with Poles on behalf of the foreign affairs ministry. The Polish side did not manage to use Sikorski’s visit to ensure that the Soviets fulfilled their commitments resulting from bilateral pacts signed in summer 1941: accelerating the process of freeing Polish citizens from jails, gulags and special settlement areas; employing all those fit for military service to form an army; redeployment of the army being formed to areas where it would be easier to obtain British provisioning aid; and evacuation of 15,000–20,000 soldiers to the United Kingdom and Egypt. The Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, was personally involved in hosting General Sikorski as this was a very important visit to him. This was expressed in the granting of loans to Poland to organise an army in the Soviet Union and aid for Polish citizens, as well as a number of minor concessions. A declaration on friendship and mutual support was ceremonially signed. The Soviet side ensured that Sikorski’s visit was publicised in the press and on the radio, even filming the more important events for propaganda purposes. His radio address was translated into many foreign languages. This was important for Stalin, who exploited the visit of this Polish guest to reduce anti-Soviet moods, not only among Poles living in the Soviet Union, but also among Soviet citizens mindful of the scale of repressions in the 1930s. In reality, the alliance with Poland, including the formation of a Polish army in the Soviets, had been a burden on Stalin from the outset. However, Sikorski’s visit at a time of particular danger to the further existence of the Soviet state suited him well. Hence the hypothesis that the Soviet dictator treated his Polish partner as the titular “ally for show”, both for his own citizens and for international opinion.

The Impact of the Soviet Factor on the Development of British-Czechoslovak Relations during the Second World War

25 May 2021 Radosław Żurawski vel Grajewski

The article is an attempt to observe the evolution of the role of the Soviet factor in British-Czechoslovak relations during the Second World War. In the months  preceding and at the beginning of the war, its influence was barely noticeable. The USSR then acted as an ally of Germany. Only in August 1940 did the FO note attempts to establish cooperation between the Soviet government and the Czechoslovak Provisional Government. From the fall of 1940, contacts were developed between the Soviet and Czechoslovak intelligence services. The role of the Soviet factor in Czechoslovak policy began to grow rapidly from the summer of 1941 – the entry of the USSR into the war with Germany and Moscow's full recognition of the Czechoslovak government in exile. The USSR's position on this matter forced Great Britain to similarly recognize the Czechoslovak authorities. Since then on, the Soviet factor as a lever for achieving political goals in relations with the British was used permanently and on an increasing scale by Czechoslovak diplomacy. Moscow's support (this time ineffectively) was also used to force the British to recognize the pre-Munich borders of the ČSR and the so-called ʺRevocation of Munichʺ – thus recognizing the invalidity and illegality of the Munich Agreements of 1938 from the very beginning of their existence. London observed with concern the decline of Czechoslovak diplomacy into the position of a Soviet vassal, especially clearly visible in the  forced abandonment of its plans for federation with Poland demanding by Kremlin. From these positions, the FO opposed Beneš's visit to Moscow, which was expected already in April 1943 and which threatened to deepen Poland's isolation after the Soviet authorities broke off relations with it. Beneš tried to discredit the opinions about the Soviet invader policy and eventually paid a visit to Moscow and led to the signing of the Czechoslovak-Soviet alliance agreement, but only in December 1943. From that moment on, ČSR was perceived on the Thames as a country in the Soviet sphere of influence and the structures of the Czechoslovak authorities in exile were considered to be infiltrated by communists – and therefore by Moscow. When withdrawing its opposition to the Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty, the British government simply drew pragmatic conclusions from the fact that the Red Army, as an ally in the war with Germany, was a fundamental factor in bringing about the defeat of the Third Reich and as such was needed by London, and from the belief that then the Soviets will occupy the Czechoslovak lands and in any case they will have a huge influence on the decision regarding them. This belief also largely determined the British activity towards the uprising in Slovakia in 1944 and Prague in 1945. It was considered that this was a ­Soviet zone of military responsibility and only occasionally any military activity was undertaken there, encountering reluctance from the Soviet side. The title of a voluntary vassal of the USSR permanently stuck to the Czechoslovak government in exile. This situation strengthened the FO's tendency to reduce interest in Czechoslovak affairs. Beneš's capitulation to the occupation and annexation of Transcarpathian Ruthenia to the USSR confirmed, in the eyes of the FO, the thesis that the Czechoslovak authorities were subordinated to Stalin's orders. This became fully visible after the ČSR authorities returned to the country via Moscow, where the government was reconstructed, giving most of the influence to the communists. Attempts to persuade the Americans to outdo Soviet troops in taking Prague, as well as hopes of maintaining British influence in post-war Czechoslovakia, turned out to be in vain.

Introduction. The NKVD’s “Polish Operation” of 1937–1938. Documents of a Stalinist Crime

25 May 2021 Maciej Wyrwa

Editorial note The materials used in the publication of the documents were collected during work on the publication of volumes of the The NKVD’s “Polish Operation” in Documents series, funded by the Polish National Science Centre, project number 2015/19/B/HS3/01823, for implementation of the research project “The NKVD’s Polish Operation 1937–1938. Victims, Documents”. Project leader: Sławomir Dębski. The authors would like to thank Sergei Prudovsky from the Russian Memorial Society for his role in acquiring and compiling the documents used in the text. We are publishing the documents, originally written in Russian, in an English translation. We have added footnotes explaining the necessary context, including key information on the individuals mentioned in the text and their functions at the time when the document was produced. Academic transcription has been used, in line with AREI’s editorial standards.  

Document: Operational Order No. 00485 of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Nikolai Yezhov, regarding initiation of the “Polish Operation" August 11 1937, Moscow

25 May 2021 Maciej Wyrwa

Document: Secret letter on fascist-rebel, espionage, sabotage, subversive, defeatist, and terrorist activities of Polish intelligence in the USSR. August 11 1937

25 May 2021 Maciej Wyrwa

History

From the editors. The NKVD’s “Polish Operation” of 1937–1938: the Story of One Family.

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

History

National as Postcolonial: the Narrative of the History of Ukraine as a Country Standing at the Gates of the European Union

25 May 2021 Tomasz Stryjek

International affairs

Book review: Ryszard Zięba, Poland’s Foreign and Security Policy: Problems of Compatibility with the Changing International Order (Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2020)

25 May 2021 Igor Gretskiy

History

From Editor in Chief

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

Interview with Hieronim Grala: Russian State Ideology Has Been Referring to a Selectively Treated Past Since Early Modernity

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

The Trubeckoj Massacre in Mscislau – Centuries Later

25 May 2021 Henadź Sahanovič

The article is devoted to an episode in the 1654–1667 war between Muscovy and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: the capture of Mscislaŭ by the Tsarist army, accompanied by the mass murder of its defenders and inhabitants. On the basis of published sources and literature on the subject, the author has tried to trace the functioning of the tragic events in the memory of the local population, as well as show how the Trubeckoj Massacre is represented in the historiography of Belarus and Russia. The author disagrees with the thesis of some Russian historians regarding the complete conformity of the massacre with the “laws of war” that were generally accepted in early modern Europe and believes that in Russian interpretations of the events one can see the desire to justify the Tsar’s policy and the unwillingness to admit inconvenient facts.

A Recognition Question of a Genocide: Russian Atrocities in the North Caucasus

25 May 2021 Cem Kumuk

Throughout history, violence has been an indispensable part of the Russian state tradition. Not only non-Russian subjects but also ethnic Russians have experienced their share of this tradition. In many cases, this tradition has turned into genocidal practices against non-Russian subjects. Due to the current political bottlenecks of the international community, this article focuses on the difficulties experienced in the recognition of these crimes against humanity and examines the genocidal practices of the Russian state in the North Caucasus, especially the Circassian Genocide in the 19th century. For more than two centuries, Russian state politics has been trying to erase the term “the Caucasus” as a geographical term in international public opinion and to make this region part of Southern Russia by cleansing or assimilating the indigenous North Caucasian nations. While the article focuses on the ‘velikorus’ (Great Russian) practices in the Tsarist and Soviet periods, it draws attention to the fact that there have been similar examples in the first thirty years of the so-called Russian federal state.

The Kishenev Pogrom of 1903 in the Russian Socio-Political Narrative

25 May 2021 Еkaterina Norkina

The article is devoted to the study of the Russian socio-political narrative regarding the tragedy in Kishinev in 1903. By “narrative” in this study, the author means, first of all, what was expressed in the press by the authorities, public figures, and correspondents whose publications were addressed to the Russian-speaking readership. Among the most frequently discussed topics are the search for the main culprit, the reasons for the pogroms, and the actions of the authorities. The main sources used are periodicals expressing the views of different political forces of the Russian Empire. The author concludes that the boundaries of ideological orientation were blurred in statements about the Kishinev tragedy. The conviction that the pogroms were organized and prepared in advance matured more and more among those who spoke publicly, but not all those who spoke out pointed to the authorities as the main organizer. The Russian socio-political narrative regarding the Kishinev tragedy was supplemented by a “Western” narrative: as a result, confidence in the government’s involvement in Russian society grew stronger.

The Bolshevik Expansion and Occupation of Ukraine (December 1917 – February 1918)

25 May 2021 Vladyslav Verstiuk

The article presents an overview of the background and course of the first of four Russian–Ukrainian wars during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921: the war unleashed by the Russian Bolsheviks in late 1917. The author shares the story of the Bolsheviks’ political manipulations which preceded the military invasion; he talks of the Bolsheviks’ public hypocrisy, which combined recognition of the right of nations to self-determination with unacceptable demands of Ukrainians. The Bolshevik strategy was to portray the attack on the Ukrainian People’s Republic as an internal Ukrainian conflict – the struggle of the “proletariat” against the “bourgeois Central Rada”. We examine the process of creating a puppet Soviet government of Ukraine, under the cover of which troops from Russia led the occupation of the republic. In addition, we emphasize the theme of “red terror” that was widely used by the Bolsheviks during the war. We draw attention to the similarity of approaches to warfare in contemporary Russia of today and a century ago.

“I Only Do It to Stay Alive”: Development of the Narrative of “Unification of the Western Lands of Ukraine and Belarus With the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet Republics” in Soviet Historical Propaganda

25 May 2021 Jan Szumski

“Impudent Provocation by Finnish Warmongers” – The Shelling of Mainila (1939) in the Context of Soviet / Russian Propaganda and Information Warfare

25 May 2021 Kati Parppei

Who are the Basilians?

25 May 2021 Ihor Skochylias

History Between the Drops. Book Review: Yaroslav Hrytsak, Podolaty mynule. Hlobalʹna istorija Ukrajiny, Kyjiv: Portal, 2021, 432 s.

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

Book Review: Leonid Tymošenko, Rusʹka relihijna kulʹtura Vilʹna. Kontekst doby. Oseredky. Literatura ta Knyžnistʹ. (XVІ – peša tretyna XVІІ st.): mononhrafija. Drohobyč: Kolo, 2020, 796 s.

25 May 2021 Henryk Litwin

History

From Editor. Overcoming Sovietness

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

Farewell to Imagined Post-Societness. Is It Still Justified to Use the Term ‘Post-Soviet’?

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

The Traditions of Ukrainian Democracy May Be Problematic, But Their Existence Is Undeniable: Interview with Prof. Serhii Plokhii

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

Pax-Sovietica? The Final End of Post-Sovietness

25 May 2021 Wojciech Konończuk

This article argues that use of the terms “post-Soviet states” or “post-Soviet region” does more to obscure than to explain anything. Although these terms have become anachronistic and misleading as they suggest a group of countries that still have much in common, they are still used because the area is traditionally and erroneously perceived as a certain whole with shared rules. The disintegration of this territory that has been visible since 1991 is no surprise but indicates a return to the situation before the Russian Empire’s expansion and colonization efforts. A process of restoration of historically great macroregions is taking place in the area: Eastern Europe, the Southern Caucasus, and Central Asia, each of which has a different cultural and civilizational identity, resulting in profound differences in their political and economic systems along with the pluralization of the influences of international actors. Despite Russian attempts to curb the territory’s political, economic, and social disintegration, it has proved unstoppable and is being accelerated by Russian policy. Moscow’s once hegemonic position in the region is becoming a thing of the past. Russia is no longer an attractive partner as it has become not a source of modernization, ideas, and technologies, but of problems and a threat to security and stability.

The Ricochet of Leninopad and the Second Wave of Desovietization of Lithuanian Public Space

25 May 2021 Rasa Čepaitienė

The article analyses the influence of the desovietization of Ukrainian public space (known as Leninopad), which started in 2014 as part of the “second wave” of the dismantling of Soviet monuments in Lithuania. Two well-known cases that have sparked the most debate among experts and the public are discussed in detail: the removal of the socialist-realist sculptures from the Green Bridge in Vilnius in 2015, and the removal of a monument to the writer Petras Cvirka in 2021. The conclusion is that in the post-Soviet and post-socialist region, in response to Russia’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, shifts in the politics of history have become a pretext not only for attempts to cleanse public spaces of the remnants of the Soviet symbolic landscape, but also for solving local political problems, or for the need for decommunization as a pretext for the economic development of vacant urban areas.

From State Terror to International Conflict. A place of memory: Katyn as a foreign policy tool of Putin’s Russia

25 May 2021 Tomas Sniegon

This text discusses the transformations of the Katyn memorial site near Smolensk in western Russia, where, in 1940, the mass murder of more than 4,000 Polish military officers who were prisoners of war occurred. After the Soviet Union’s admission of guilt in 1990, it seemed for two decades that Katyn could also serve as a place for mutual reconciliation between post-communist Poland and post-Soviet Russia. However, in the period of increasing tension between Russia and Poland after 2010, the monument in Katyn became an object of Russian–Polish confrontation. The author concludes that the Katyn memorial complex today illustrates the tendency to patriotize and detraumatize Soviet crimes, whereby the positive events of the Soviet era – especially the victory over Germany in World War II – are “Russified” and newly politically traumatized in parallel with the trivialization and marginalization of murder and crimes against human rights. The new form of memory in Katyn reflects an increasingly firmly dictated line from above that combines Russian nationalism, Orthodox faith, and a sentimental view of the period of Communist rule.

‘Eternal Russian-Ukrainian Friendship’ – A Case Study of How a Political Concept Was Memorialized and is Dememorialized

25 May 2021 Oleksandra Gaidai

The article touches on a concept that was in the very essence of imagining relations between Ukraine and Russia: “The Friendship of People.” The historical imagination had a tangible impact on Russian politics, and no political concept has ever been so damaging for Ukraine as this one. This concept undermined Ukraine’s subjectivity and led to the “rewriting” of Ukrainian history. Monuments dedicated to the “friendship” of these two peoples reveal the centrality of this notion in Soviet politics toward Ukraine. Notably, these monuments appeared only in Ukraine – there are none in Russia. The article analyses the erection of these monuments and how they have been dealt with since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine in 2014. It also shows how monumental art is used to foster specific interpretations of the past to define the present and future, and how this particular story of monuments and narratives has always been problematic in Ukraine. The article questions the homogeneity of Soviet political monumental heritage, presenting the complexity of monuments that depict national and Soviet narratives. These monuments and their interpretations should be discussed in the framework of a political campaign aimed at tying Ukraine to Russia. Therefore, the Ukrainian perspective on the notion of “friendship” and its memorialization is fundamental.

The Twentieth Century Colonialism within Ukrainian Academic and Public Discourse in the Era of Independence

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

The article analyses the notion post-, anti- colonialism in Ukrainian political and public discourse since 1991. The author focuses on the debate about coloniality and its reflections on Ukrainian political thought in ХХ century. The first part of the article devotes to the problems of applying postcolonial theories to the Ukrainian context and the specifics of the relationship between the Soviet Union’s center and the national republics that represented the periphery. The second part analyses the influence of the legacy of Ukrainian national communists on the notion of colonialism in contemporary Ukrainian historiography, while the third part focus on the processes of decolonization represented in public discourse. Finally, the author analyses how Euromaidan launched the politics of decommunization and how it affected the post-Soviet space.

How the Russian-Ukrainian War Broke Out – On the Backstage of International Politics From Jacub Kumoch Perspective. Source material edited by Łukasz Adamski.

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

This conversation between Igor Janke and Jakub Kumoch is an important source for research into the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian war and the role of Polish diplomacy in the winter and spring of 2022. After all, it is not often that direct participants in high-level international talks share their memories of key historical moments, along with many important details and observations, less than a year after the events themselves. This is what Jakub Kumoch does – and he does it in a colourful way. A Polish political scientist and diplomat who has served as Poland's ambassador to Switzerland, Turkey and other countries, Kumoch was State Secretary for International Affairs in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland from 2021 to 2023. During this time, he was in close contact with many governments, including those of Ukraine, the United States, France and Germany. In the form of a long chat between two friends, he shared his memories of this period with Igor Janke, a well-known Polish journalist. This conversation is also extremely interesting because it vividly illustrates the thinking in Polish government circles about the challenges to regional and global security associated with Russia's war against Ukraine and the future of Polish–Ukrainian relations, including the historical dialogue.  

Moldova is a Multifaceted State in Terms of National Identity: Interview with Alexandru Burian

25 May 2021 Yana Prymachenko

Alexandru Burian is a doctor of law, professor in the Department of International Law and External Economic Relations Law of Moldova State University, and pro-rector of the University of European Studies of Moldova. He is the author of more than 250 pieces of scholarly writing, including 6 monographs and 12 university textbooks in the fields of public international law, diplomatic and consular law, geopolitics, diplomatic protocol, and etiquette. In 1988–1990, he was a Senior Scientific Assistant in the International Department of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and Senior Researcher in the International Relations Department, Institute of Marxism–Leninism of the CPSU CC (Moscow). In 1990–1994, he was a Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. In 1993–1994, he was the Chairman of the Commission for International Relations, and the head of the Moldovan parliamentary delegation to PACE. In 1994–1995, he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova. Burian was the head of Moldovan government delegations in negotiations with Iran, Cuba, China, Romania, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Malta. In 1995–1997, he was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Moldova to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, and the Kingdom of Denmark. In 2002–2003, Burian was the Head of the Protocol Sector of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. In 2005–2009, he was the Director of the Institute of History, State and Law at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. 

We Are Aspiring Republicans: Interview with Sergey Tsyplyaev

25 May 2021 Igor Gretskiy

History of Ukrainian Nationalism Through the Eyes of a Czeсh Historian

25 May 2021 Oleksandr Zaitsev

An Incomplete Synthesis

25 May 2021 Andrzej Grajewski

Anti-Polish World War II Narratives in the Russian Internet Media Space: a Case Study of the period December 2019 to April 2020

25 May 2021 Veranika Laputska

The Clash of the Soviet-Russian and Nationalist Narrations of the Past

25 May 2021 Šarūnas Liekis

National master narrative: vicissitudes of method

25 May 2021 Georgiy Kasianov

Histories of Nations and Borders: Critical Reflections Timothy Baycroft

25 May 2021 Timothy Baycroft

Russia and the US in the Mirrors of Academic Research

25 May 2021 Ivan Kurilla

The article offers a comparative analysis of Russian and American scholarship on each other states and society. The author overviews the study of US history in Russia, the study of Russian history in the US, the study of the history of Russian–American relations, and the discourse of each country on the contemporary political reality in the other. Both Russian and the US research agendas demonstrated some degree of dependence of the other country’s policies, they were engaged in a limited dialogue, but most heavily they were influenced by domestic politics. The author claims also that the image of Russia in the United States and the image of America in Russia play important roles in the home debates making it difficult to separate foreign policy from domestic disputes. Such a vantage point calls for the use of the social constructivist approach to the study of the US – Russian relations with its heavier focus on identity construction and nation-building. Key words: US – Russian relations, US History, Russian History, Study of the Other, Enemy Studies, Area Studies, Constructivism in IR

The irresistible appeal of playing on a global chessboard

25 May 2021 Ernest Wyciszkiewicz

International relations suffer from a plethora of pseudo-theoretical approaches. Some of these approaches claim the right not only to explain but also to shape the international reality. These will quite often become instrumental in the legitimization of a given state’s policies. Nuances, caveats, and an awareness of limitations give way to simplicity, unambiguity and self-confidence. The aim of this article is to critically deconstruct certain ways of thinking about inter-state relations and international policy that are usually attributed to advocates of geopolitics and naïve realism. What makes vague but attractive geopolitical jargon, belief in determinism, enchantment with maps and admiration for the ‘concert of powers’ so popular, and what consequences might the adoption of geopolitical assumptions have for contemporary political practice? The popular mono-causal approaches that are full of hasty but firm generalizations about the laws of history have the upper hand over pluralist ones that look for a multitude of usually inconclusive explanations. The reason for this might not simply be analytical laziness; the fact is that the aforementioned popular, simplistic, even trivial observations dressed in quasi-scientific costume serve as a convenient source of legitimacy for revisionist leaders who wish to be seen as defenders of the status quo. Keywords: geopolitics, determinism, concert of powers, maps, legitimization

How to avoid the genocide trap Genocide as a concept in historiography and social sciences

25 May 2021 Klaus Bachmann

This article argues that instead of using inconsistent and often tautological ad hoc definitions from social sciences and the humanities, the legal notion of genocide as it emerges from the Genocide Convention and the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals should also be applied to historical atrocities. This helps to prevent the inflationary use of the term ‘genocide’, whose inevitable consequence is that this term is voided of any meaning. Using instead the legal concept makes it possible to disentangle genocidal from non-genocidal violence and to prevent this notion from becoming obsolete. Three examples from German colonial history in Africa illustrate the need for such an approach. Key words: genocide, war crimes, German, Africa, Schutztruppen, colonial, international criminal tribunals

‘It is terrible that we have such a low level of historical knowledge’: Interview with Sergey Mironenko

25 May 2021 admin a

Biographical note Sergey Mironenko, Head of Research of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). Historian, PhD in Historical Sciences, Professor, Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Director of GARF since May 1992. Head of Research at GARF since March 2016. A Panel Member of the Federal Archival Agency of Russia. Head of the 19th to early 20th century Russian History Department at the Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Member of the editorial boards of the journals ‘Istoricheskiy Arkhiv’ (History Archive), ‘Rodina’ (Motherland), and ‘Voyenno-Istoricheskiy Zhurnal’ (Military Historical Journal).[1]   [1] Quoted from the GARF website: Mironenko Sergej Vladimirovič Naučnyj rukovoditelʹ Gosudarstvennogo archiva Rossijskoj Federacii < https://statearchive.ru/446> [accessed September 28, 2021]  
History

Why AREI

25 May 2021 Łukasz Adamski

Veritas est adequatio rei et intellectus – this is how St Thomas formulated the definition of truth in his treatise ‘De Veritate’. Truth is the correspondence between a thing and a judgment, or, to explain it in another way, the correspondence between our judgment and the actual state of affairs. This so-called correspondence definition, which goes back to Aristotle, has formed the basis of Europeans’ thinking about the world for centuries, from ancient times onwards, and has inspired them to discover ways of approaching the truth. What is more, it is still shared by a considerable number of philosophers as well as by the overwhelming part of humanity, which usually intuitively takes for granted the existence of the truth as well as untruth or lies. This is the foundation on which European civilisation has grown. St. Thomas’s definition has, of course, important epistemological implications: it assumes that truth as such objectively exists; it is not merely a product of human minds or our senses; it is not dependent on subjective factors such as cultural conditions or the existence of a social consensus as to what that truth is. Aquinas’ adequatio ret et intellectus is a denial of Pilate’s doubt: quod est veritas.

Marek Kornat, Mariusz Wołos. Józef Beck. Biografia. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2020.

25 May 2021 Dušan Segeš

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