Conquering the Balkans, Act 2

2021 ◽  
pp. 191-194
Author(s):  
William Klinger ◽  
Denis Kuljiš

This chapter discusses Marshal Tito's plan to take the whole of the Balkans, which failed before it even started to materialize due to the disintegration of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). It details how the KKE survived the repression carried out by dictator Ioannis Metaxas between 1936 and 1941 and fell apart completely in 1940, when Italy invaded Greece from Albanian soil. It also describes the faction of the Bulgarians that became dominant in the KKE when the German armies entered Greece after having overrun Yugoslavia in their Balkan onslaught. The chapter discusses how the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact secured the position of the Bulgarian communists as collaborationists. It mentions Metodij Šatorov, a man installed into the Communist Party of Yugoslavia leadership for Macedonia by Georgi Dimitrov that detached the Skopje-based Regional Committee from the CPY and attached it to the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Author(s):  
Fatmir Shehu

This paper examines the influence of Islam on Albanian culture. The Islamization process of the Albanian culture was very crucial for the Albanians themselves as it gave them a new identity, which they lacked since their settlement on the Adriatic shores. According to history, Albanians, the biggest Muslim nation dwelling in the Balkans, South-East of Europe, are believed to be the descendents of the ancient Illyrians, who settled in Europe around 2500 years ago. They lived a social life based on tribalism, where every tribe had established its own cultural system and way of life. Thus, their cultural differences disallowed them to unite. Such situation did not change, even when Christianity was introduced to them. Because, Christianity came to Albania through two great dominations: Christian Catholics of Vatican (the Northern part of Albanian) and Christian Orthodox of Greece (the Southern part of Albania). The continuous religious and political suppression faced by the Albanians from their Byzantine and Latin masters enabled them to be the first people of the Balkans, who welcomed openheartedly the Ottoman Muslims and embraced Islam as their new way of life in the 15th century. The study focuses on the following issues: (1) Historical background of Albania and Albanians; (2) The genesis of Albanian culture; and (3) The process of integration between Islamic culture and Albanian culture. This research attempts to provide important findings, which will be very helpful to the Muslims and others.


Author(s):  
Alla Kondrasheva ◽  
Stavris Parastatov

The high significance of the Balkan geopolitical knot was clearly expressed in the bipolar era when the main frontier between the two warring blocks passed through the Balkans. Due to the secret ‘Percentages Agreement’ between Great Britain and the USSR in 1944, the Balkans were divided into spheres of influence of the two great powers. Subsequently, London ceded the role of the main source of Western influence in the region to Washington.Of particular interest are the cases of Greece and Bulgaria as border countries that found themselves in different ‘worlds’ and, given the geostrategic importance of their territories, which were the main ideological instruments and conductors of ideas in the Cold war of the hegemons that stood behind. The Truman Doctrine in 1947 and NATO membership in 1952 strengthened and institutionalized Western influence in Greece. Westernization of Greek society in the form of liberalization and democratiza-tion of social relations and consequently its political system proceeded rapidly with a relatively short interval of the military dictatorship.Greece was assigned the role of a model for the rapid and successful develop-ment of a western country, a bridgehead for the dissemination of anti–communist ide-as in other countries of the Balkan region, primarily Bulgaria. Besides, due to the establishment of a strict pro–Soviet regime in Sofia, the westernization of Bulgarian society was carried out including through intelligence agencies, and after a certain thaw in relations through economic cooperation.


Author(s):  
Evgeniya V. Sartikova ◽  

The article discusses the main trends in the rotation of the executive (the first) secretaries of the Kalmyk regional party committee in 1921–1943. The study is based on the documents from the fund of the Kalmyk regional committee of the USSR Communist Party kept at the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia. The principles of objectivism and historicism were used for the analysis of the archive materials that allowed to examine the problem in its relation to the existing specific historical circumstances. The goal of the article is to investigate the body of the first secretaries of the Russian Communist Party — All-Russia Communist Party in Kalmykia. The use of the common in the historical research methods (the broadside examination of the archive sources, historical description, chronological method) allowed to investigate the historical phenomena in the close relation to the historical situation. The author concludes that the specific feature of the rotation of the first secretaries of the Kalmyk regional party committee was the appointment of people from other regions of the country to this position. Mainly these were formal representatives, supervisors recommended by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party — All-Russia Communist Party for the positions of the first or second secretaries of the regional party committee. The analysis of the characteristics of the body of the first secretaries of the Kalmyk regional party in the given time period showed that all these people were from poor peasant families, without high education but with sufficient party service record who combined party and soviet activities.


1994 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 217-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bouzek

This article brings a reassessment of the survey of relations published in the author's 1985 book. The discrepancy in chronology seems now to be much nearer to a solution: more material evidence is known from the frontier area and from the Balkans in general, thus enlarging the documentation of the extent of Mycenaean influence in the north, and also clarifying the situation in Late Mycenaean times, when various northern influences were felt in Mycenaean Greece. The crisis at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age was connected with an influx of new populations, though substantial local traditions were also retained. The joint efforts of tradition and innovation prepared the further development of Greece.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostis Karpozilos

In the fall of 1949, after the end of the Greek Civil War, the bulk of the defeated Greek Communist (KKE) fighters were covertly transported from Albania to Soviet Uzbekistan. This article addresses the covert relocation project, organized by the Soviet Communist Party, and the social engineering program intended to create a prototype Greek People’s Democracy in Tashkent. Drawing on Soviet and Greek Communist Party records, the article raises three major issues: first, the contingencies of postwar transition in the Balkans and the precarious status of the Albanian regime; second, the international Communist response to the military defeat of the KKE in 1949 and the competing visions of the Greek, Soviet, and Albanian parties regarding the future of the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG); third, the intentions of the KKE to establish military bases in Albania and the party’s ensuing effort to transform the agrarian fighters of the DAG into revolutionary cadres for a future victorious repatriation in Greece. Drawing these elements together, the article elucidates the relocation operation of 1949, positions the Greek political refugee experience within the postwar “battle of refugees,” and challenges the widespread historiographical assumption that the KKE immediately abandoned the prospect of a renewed armed confrontation.


Author(s):  
S. V. Lazovskaya ◽  
I. Y. Zakharova

In article the organization of the guerrilla movement in Kuban from 1942 to 1943 is considered. The beginning of laying of food bases in November, 1941 is proved. During formation of the guerrilla movement in the territory of the region various resolutions of regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) mobilizing separate guerrilla groups in the uniform movement developed in Kuban during the German occupation are provided. At the beginning of occupation of Kuban have been created the Southern headquarters of the guerrilla movement (in August, 1942) and regional headquarters of the guerrilla movement (September, 1942). Decisions of headquarters have brought to the attention guerrilla groups the following resolutions: the disorganization of the back of the opponent which is expressed in a look destruction of lines of communication of the opponent, attack on headquarters and other army institutions, destruction of communication lines, notification of parts of Red Army about an arrangement, number and advance of troops of the opponent Shortcomings of the organization of the guerrilla movement at the initial stage of fight against Germans who consisted in the following come to light: lack of vnutriotryadny discipline and organization of life of guerrillas, absence of catering services, organization of investigation, existence in groups of families with children, lack of training of fighters of guerrilla groups. Further the numerous diversionary actions directed against the German invaders are considered (feats of groups as a part of bushes, and also feats of certain guerrillas).


Author(s):  
Stavros K. Frangos

From 1940 onwards, Greek American Dino Pappas passionately collected ethnic commercial records and in so doing, acquired encyclopedic knowledge about the complex musical traditions of Greece, the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, and the eastern Mediterranean. With over 10,000 78 rpm records (and other musical formats), he amassed what many believed to have been the largest such collection of its. During the last three decades of his life, Pappas’s role transformed from record collector and music aficionado to public speaker, record producer, and, musical authority.


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