scholarly journals Freedom of Speech under Militant Democracy: The History of Struggle against Separatism and Communism in Ukraine

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Yurii Barabash ◽  
Hryhorii Berchenko
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Active Process ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract The article is devoted to the experience of the application of a concept of militant democracy in modern Ukraine. This concept is relevant due to the prolonged domination of the communist totalitarian regime until 1991, and also in view of the encroachment on the principle of territorial integrity in 2014. It is argued that Ukraine, formally consolidating separate instruments of militant democracy at the level of the Constitution of Ukraine, almost did not apply such instruments until 2014. The active process of decommunization started in 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity; it was realised, in particular, in the declaration of lustration, as well as the banning of the two communist parties, but the most influential Communist Party remains officially not banned up till now. Also, the two parties, accused of infringement on territorial integrity, were banned in 2014. The issue of differentiation between aggressive words and aggressive actions of parties is analysed. It is argued that representatives of the parties, who during the twenty years of Ukrainian independence openly denied one of the key values of the constitutional order of Ukraine, its territorial integrity, became active participants of the temporary occupation.

Vanguard of the Revolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. James McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

This book is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. The book argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. It shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings. The book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand world communism and the captivating idea that gave it life.

Glasnost in the Mailroom: The Soviet Subject in Gorbachev’s Perestroika, 1985–1988

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Courtney Doucette
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
Liberal Concept ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Abstract This article examines letters on glasnost sent to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1987 and compiled by the Central Committee’s Letter Department in a booklet for the Politburo in 1988. Contextualized by other sources from the archive of this Letter Department and others, these sources begin to illuminate how the Central Committee’s Letter Department functioned and how it evolved during Perestroika. These letters also allow us to begin to incorporate more ordinary citizens’ conceptions of glasnost into the history of this concept. These sources show at least four definitions of glasnost that circulated in the first years of reform. None of these definitions coincided with the liberal concept of “freedom of speech”. The conversation about glasnost in these letters challenges the common liberal teleology of studies of Perestroika, highlighting the distinctly Soviet nature of those who wrote letters and the concepts they wrote about.

Left-wing spectrum of the Czechoslovak political opposition in search of new solutions. The late 1980s to early 1990s

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Emil Vorachek ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Transformational Model ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The Revolution

The chapter is devoted to the history of the formation and activity of left-wing organizations in the Czechoslovak political opposition from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Those organizations were made up of diverse ideological currents from both inside and outside the ranks of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (СPCz). Attempts to develop alternative scenarios of social, political, and socio-economic changes in the country are examined. The left-wing had difficulties adaptating to the changing conditions provided by the leader of the revolution - the Civil Forum - towards the liberal transformational model. In general, during the period examined in the chapter, the forces of the left, for various reasons, failed to realize their vision for future development.

Rehabilitating a Mythology: The Ukrainian SSR’s Foundational Myth After Stalin

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-378
Author(s):  
Markian Dobczansky
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Early History ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractThis article looks at the rehabilitation of the early history of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Ukrainian SSR during the Thaw. It argues that the post-Stalin political moment offered the Ukrainian Party and academic establishments the opportunity to revalorize their republic’s founding narrative. In order to popularize this narrative, they produced publications on the revolution in Ukraine and early party history, rehabilitated Ukrainian Communists from the 1920s who had fallen victim to repressions, and constructed a set of monuments that embodied the new historical paradigm. These efforts aimed to de-Stalinize the country’s history as well as promote a Soviet Ukrainian patriotism that would make Ukrainians feel more integrated into the Soviet whole. Based on archival research, newspapers, and memoirs, the article suggests that rehabilitating this narrative was a strategy for the legitimization of the party within Ukraine.

The Rise of the Marketplace

2020 ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Rodney A. Smolla
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fundamental Shift ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter looks into the order and morality theory as it gave way to the marketplace as the dominant constitutional position in 2017. It references the story of the evolution of US constitutional law in order to explain the fundamental shift in the American constitutional doctrines of freedom of speech. It also discusses the history of American constitutional law through three broad historical epochs. The “founding epoch” did not accomplish much in the way of exposition of civil rights or civil liberties, while the “middle epoch” was marked by outright hostility to civil rights and civil liberties. The “modern epoch” includes the revolution of withdrawing from the treatment of capitalism as a constitutional value.

scholarly journals On the Task of Creating a Financial History of the CPSU

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 116-135
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Financial History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

The article poses the task of creating a financial history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The Communist Party existed from 1898 to 1991. Though communists declared commitment to Marxism, which acknowledged the precedence of material factors over ideology and policy, the role of finances in the party’s history received little attention. After 1991, the situation in this field remained practically the same. The lack of scientific history generates mythology. The author demonstrates that one of such myths is the concept that the revolution of 1917 was a success thanks to the Bolsheviks having “German money”. The article analyzes the issue of Germany financing the Bolsheviks from the banking point of view. The existing hypotheses of how exactly the Bolsheviks were receiving money are considered. The main “anti-Bolshevik” version implies that finances were being transferred to the Bolsheviks under the guise of operations of an import/export firm, whose representative in Russia was Evgeniya Sumenson. The author investigates three cases which are of prime importance for all these hypotheses: Alexander Parvus’s money, the telegrams intercepted by the French counterintelligence, and the so-called “Sisson Documents”. Based on the analysis of the works of Russian and foreign historians and also on the published archive materials, the author concludes that all the documents currently available do not support the “anti-Bolshevik” version. Moreover, they prove that money movement was backwards: the proceeds from the sales of goods imported into Russia were transferred to Europe. Operations carried out by Sumeson were of a purely commercial nature and were quite in line with the banking practice of that period. The true financial history of the Bolsheviks and the CPSU as a whole is yet to be written. One of such successful investigations is John Biggart’s article on the Nikolai P. Shmit bequest.

The Komsomols—A Study of Youth under Dictatorship

1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Fainsod
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Stability ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Conscious Attention ◽  
The Revolution

One of the most striking characteristics of modern totalitarianism is the conscious attention which it devotes to the organization and indoctrination of youth. The Soviet dictatorship is unique in having set the pattern of such activity; it has carried it on at a level of intensity and over a span of time unmatched by its now defunct Fascist and Nazi rivals. A third of a century has passed since the Bolsheviks rode to power in 1917; the membership of the Communist Party is today overwhelmingly composed of a generation which not only came of age since the Revolution but which also largely served its apprenticeship in the Young Pioneers and Komsomols. And waiting at the threshold of power is a new generation of approximately 10,000,000 Komsomols and 13,000,000 Pioneers, from whose ranks the Communist élite of the future is to be recruited.What has been the history of this effort to assimilate and discipline the new generations? What manner of training are they receiving? What values does the present leadership seek to implant in them? What motives operate to induce affiliation with the Komsomols? How is the Komsomol organized? What are the activities of its membership? How are the oncoming waves of Soviet youth relating themselves to the society which has produced them? To what extent are they deeply loyal to the present régime? Is there evidence of disaffection among them, and if so, does this disaffection present any important threat to the stability of the régime itself?

ABCs of the Revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-291
Author(s):  
Egor A. Yesyunin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Development History ◽  
The People ◽  
Red Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Revolution

The article is devoted to the satirical agitation ABCs that appeared during the Civil War, which have never previously been identified by researchers as a separate type of agitation art. The ABCs, which used to have the narrow purpose of teaching children to read and write before, became a form of agitation art in the hands of artists and writers. This was facilitated by the fact that ABCs, in contrast to primers, are less loaded with educational material and, accordingly, they have more space for illustrations. The article presents the development history of the agitation ABCs, focusing in detail on four of them: V.V. Mayakovsky’s “Soviet ABC”, D.S. Moor’s “Red Army Soldier’s ABC”, A.I. Strakhov’s “ABC of the Revolution”, and M.M. Cheremnykh’s “Anti-Religious ABC”. There is also briefly considered “Our ABC”: the “TASS Posters” created by various artists during the Second World War. The article highlights the special significance of V.V. Mayakovsky’s first agitation ABC, which later became a reference point for many artists. The authors of the first satirical ABCs of the Civil War period consciously used the traditional form of popular prints, as well as ditties and sayings, in order to create images close to the people. The article focuses on the iconographic connections between the ABCs and posters in the works of D.S. Moor and M.M. Cheremnykh, who transferred their solutions from the posters to the ABCs.

‘The greatest irregular’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Scurr
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Thomas Carlyle ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dramatic Narrative ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

Thomas Carlyle claimed that his history of the French Revolution was ‘a wild savage book, itself a kind of French Revolution …’. This chapter considers his stylistic approaches to creating the illusion of immediacy: his presentation of seemingly unmediated fact through the transformation of memoir and other kinds of historical record into a compelling dramatic narrative. Closely examining the ways in which he worked biographical anecdote into the fabric of his text raises questions about Carlyle’s wider historical purposes. Pressing the question of what it means to think through style, or to distinguish expressive emotive writing from abstract understanding, is an opportunity to reconsider Carlyle’s relation to his predecessors and contemporaries writing on the Revolution in English.

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