National Minorities Under Communism: The Case of Czechoslovakia

1988 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Kalvoda

After its establishment in 1918–1919, Czechoslovakia was a multinational state and some of its minorities protested against their being included into it. The nationality problem was related to the collapse of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1938 and the loss of some of its territories to Germany, Poland, and Hungary. It may be pointed out that the 1920 Constitution did not recognize a separate Slovak national identity and that the Czechs and Slovaks were termed “Czechoslovaks.” The post-Munich Second Republic recognized a separate Slovak nationality; however, the state came to its end in March 1939. In 1945, after its reestablishment as a national state of the Czechs and Slovaks, the country's government attempted to liquidate the national minorities' problem in a drastic manner by transfer (expulsion) of Germans and Hungarians.

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-55
Author(s):  
Svetlana Stamenova

The article aims to show that as a result of globalization and NEO-liberal form of governance and ideology, the state was weakened through a complex system of economic, financial, technological and social relations on a global scale. The withdrawal of the state from regulative functions on its territory is a refusal of the state for ideological mobilization of its populace based on nationalism and national identity. During the decline of national identity, the national state moves its role from imposing of cultural and national homogeneity, a characteristic of the earlier stage of nation-state building, to supporting cultural diversity. Crisis of democracy and emergence of post-democracy are considered and the question about possibility of having democracy beyond the nation-state borders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-743
Author(s):  
Przemysław Olstowski

Separatism, regionalism and unification in the Second Republic of Poland (1918–1939): Problems of the state and society’s integration after the regaining of independence The rebuilding of an independent Polish state after the First World War meant, above all, the urgent necessity of unification of three formerly partitioned lands, especially in context of law, economy and administration. This integration process in the Second Republic as a whole, although long and difficult, was successful. Real problems for the state authorities were separatist tendencies and regional antagonisms. The consequences of more than a hundred years of functioning of three partitioned lands within the Prussian (German), Austrian and Russian states resulted in both national and cultural heterogeneity. Interwar Poland was inhabited by a nationally and ethnically diverse population of various faiths. Germans in former Prussian Poland and in Polish part of Upper Silesia had hopes of rejoining the Reich. Ukrainians in south-eastern districts of Poland wanted to win provincial autonomy and –in the future –their own independent state. Moreover, the social and economic consequences of First World War in different regions of Poland, and the reality of the reborn Polish state, created the ground for conflicts, disappointments, and for regional antagonisms, sometimes even evoking separatist moods, especially in the western provinces. The conundrum of national minorities remained unresolved to the end of the Second Polish Republic in 1939. The question of social and national awareness of members of ethnic groups within the Polish society (Kashubians, Silesians, Masurians), like antagonisms between inhabitants of formerly partitioned lands, was a part of the nation-creating process and integration of the country. The gradual unification of different regional populations within the all-Polish social, cultural, political and economic life in the interwar period was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-102
Author(s):  
Y. Kumar ◽  
◽  
B. Baktybayev ◽  

Two large conflicts arose between representatives of Uighurs and Kazakhs in 2006 and between Kurds and Kazakhs in 2007 within the Republic of Kazakhstan. Official authorities did not want to consider these conflicts as inter-ethnic conflicts in order not to propagate further ethnic escalations and clashes. One of the few reasons were due to the fact that the state did not want to worsen its international image as a peaceful and multi-national state as it has proclaimed to be so, where representatives of around 130 nationalities live in peace and harmony together.


Author(s):  
R. B. Puyda

Features of Ukrainian national-cultural life as a part of the Second Polish Republic (1919–1939) on the example of Stanislaviv district are considered in this article. The basic aspects of the state policy of the Polish authorities concerning national minorities, particularly, in education, are described. The main goal of this policy was assimilation of the local population through displacement of Ukrainian language from the most important sectors of public life.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ringo Ringvee

The article focuses on the relations between the state , mainstream religions and new religious movements in Estonia from the early 1990s until today. Estonia has been known as one of highly secular and religiously liberal countries. During the last twenty years Estonian religious scene has become considerably more pluralist, and there are many different religious traditions represented in Estonia. The governmental attitude toward new religious movements has been rather neutral, and the practice of multi-tier recognition of religious associations has not been introduced. As Estonia has been following neoliberal governance also in the field of religion, the idea that the religious market should regulate itself has been considered valid. Despite of the occasional conflicts between the parties in the early 1990s when the religious market was created the tensions did decrease in the following years. The article argues that one of the fundamental reasons for the liberal attitude towards different religious associations by the state and neutral coexistence of different traditions in society is that Estonian national identity does not overlap with any particular religious identity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 149-155
Author(s):  
Alexey B. Panchenko

Yu. F. Samarin’s works are traditionally viewed through the prism of his affiliation with Slavophilism. His view of the state is opposed to the idea of the complex empire based on unequal interaction of the central power with the elite of national districts. At the same time it was important for Samarin to see the nation not as an ethnocultural community, but as classless community of equal citizens, who were in identical position in the face of the emperor. Samarin’s attitude to religion and nationality had pragmatic character and were understood as means for the creation of the uniform communicative space inside the state. This position for the most part conformed with the framework of the national state basic model, however there still existed one fundamental difference. Samarin considered not an individual, but the rural community that owned the land, to be the basic unit of the national state. As the result the model of national state was viewed as the synthesis of modernistic (classlessness, pragmatism, equality) and archaic (communality) features.


MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Gisela K. Cánepa

Nation branding plays a central role within neoliberal governmentality, operating as a technology of power in the configuration of emerging cultural and political formations such as national identity, citizenship and the state. The discussion of the advertising spot Perú, Nebraska  released as part of the Nation Branding campaign Marca Perú  in May of 2011, constitutes a great opportunity to: (i) argue about the way in which audiovisual advertisement products, designed as performative devises, operate as technologies of power; and (ii) problematize the terms in which it founds a new social contract for the Peruvian multicultural national community. This analysis will allow me to approach neoliberalism as a cultural regime in order to discuss the ideological nature of the uncontested celebratory discourse that has emerged in Perú and which explains the economic growth of the last decades as the outcome of a national entrepreneurial spirit that would be distinctive of Peruvian cultural identity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Fiktus

At the end of World War I, in many European countries women won the active and passive right to vote. Poland was one of the first countries, where women were allowed to participate in political life. Already at the time of establishing the Legislative Sejm (1919) the first women-MPs took their seats in Parliament. Similarly, the situation presented itself in the case of the Senate. During its first session (1922) women participated in the works of the upper chamber. The purpose of this paper is to present the participation of women in the legislative work of the Senate in various terms of office. The participation of women in the legislative work of Parliament was characterized by their involvement in issues concerning education or social services, while avoiding participation in the legislative work or that dealing with political matters. The situation presented itself differently as regards women’s involvement in the work of the Senate. A good example here was the activity of Dorota Kałuszyńska, who – during the work on the so called April Constitution of 1935 – not only participated in it very actively, but also ruthlessly attacked the then ruling camp. Another very interesting episode related to activities of women in the Senate was an informal covenant during the work on the bill to limit the sale, administration and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Belonging to different political groups: the said D. Kłuszyńska as a representative of the Polish Socialist Party, Helena Kisielewska from the Bloc of National Minorities and Hanna Hubicka of BBWR [the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government] unanimously criticized the regulations in force, which – in their opinion – did not fulfill their role when it came to anti-alcohol protection. The participation of women as far as their number was concerned was indeed small, but the Senate (like Parliament) of the Second Republic functioned in the period when women had just begun their activity on the legislative forum. Undoubtedly, it was a very interesting period, in which women had the benefit in the form of gaining their parliamentary experience. For example, it gave rise to subsequent activities of Dorota Kłuszyńska, who actively participated in the legislative works of the Sejm in the years 1947–1952, dealing with social issues or family.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
pp. 66-78
Author(s):  
Nurul Fadilah

The ideology of Pancasila as a way of life, the basis of the state, and national identity has a various challenge from time to time so that the existence of Pancasila as an Ideology must be maintained, especially in industrial revolution 4.0. The research method used is a qualitative approach by doing study of literature. In data collection the writer used documentation while in techniques data analysis used content analysis, inductive and descriptive. Results of the research about challenges and strengthening of the Pancasila Ideology in facing the era of the industrial revolution 4.0 are: (1)  grounding Pancasila, (2) increasing professional human resources based on Pancasila’s values, (3) maintaining the existence of Pancasila as the State Ideology.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lawrence Schrad

“Tell a man today to go and build a state,” Samuel Finer once stated, “and he will try to establish a definite and defensible boundary and compel those who live inside it to obey him.” While at best an oversimplification, Finer's insight illuminates an interesting aspect of state-society relations. Who is it that builds the state? How and where do they establish territorial boundaries, and how are those who live within that territory compelled to obey? Generally speaking, these are the questions that will be addressed here. Of more immediate concern is the fate of peoples located in regions where arbitrary land boundaries fall. Are they made loyal to the state through coercion or by their own compulsions? More importantly, how are their identities shaped by the efforts of the state to differentiate them from their compatriots on the other side of the borders? How is the shift from ethnic to national identities undertaken? A parallel elaboration of the national histories of the populations of Karelia and Moldova will shed light on these questions. The histories of each group are marked by a myriad of attempts to differentiate the identity of each ethnic community from their compatriots beyond the state's borders. The results of such overt, state-initiated efforts to differentiate borderland populations by encouraging a national identity at the expense of the ethnic, has ranged from the mundane to the tragic—from uneventful assimilation to persecution and even genocide. As an illustration of the range of possibilities and processes, I maintain that the tragedies of Karelia and Moldova are not exceptional, but rather are a consequence of their geographical straddling of arbitrary borders, and the need for the state to promote a distinctive national identity for these populations to differentiate them socially from their compatriots beyond the frontier.


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