Rhetorical transformation in Estonian political discourse during World War II

Semiotica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (208) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Ventsel

AbstractThis article considers the transformations of political rhetoric in Estonian public discourse from the eve of World War II to the retreat of German troops from Estonia in August 1944. Thus, the period under analysis contains the 1940 coup d’état in June, Estonia’s “accession” or “acceptance” to the Soviet Union, and the German occupation of Estonia. The article will analyze how the Estonians’ political and cultural public identity was shaped in political speeches. The analysis will concentrate on the texts that employed the signs important for previous regimes to the introduction and consolidation of new (Soviet and National Socialist) ideological discourses. Using the methods of semiotics and discourse theory, the article will shed light on the metaphorical and metonymical principles of text and meaning construction in the context of power relations. The material of analysis consists of the speeches of the political elite from the 1938, 1939, and 1940 issues of Päevaleht; 1940–1941 issues of Rahva Hääl, and the 1941–1944 issues of Eesti Sõna, and finally, of articles that have been coordinated by the state (published in 1934–1940) in order represent the identity of the Estonian.

Author(s):  
Vēsma Lēvalde

The article is a cultural-historical study and a part of the project Uniting History, which aims to discover the multicultural aspect of performing art in pre-war Liepaja and summarize key facts about the history of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The study also seeks to identify the performing artists whose life was associated with Liepāja and who were repressed between 1941 and 1945, because of aggression by both the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany. Until now, the cultural life of this period in Liepāja has been studied in a fragmentary way, and materials are scattered in various archives. There are inaccurate and even contradictory testimonies of events of that time. The study marks both the cultural and historical situation of the 1920s and the 1930s in Liepāja and tracks the fates of several artists in the period between 1939 and 1945. On the eve of World War II, Liepāja has an active cultural life, especially in theatre and music. Liepāja City Drama and Opera is in operation staging both dramatic performances, operas, and ballet, employing an orchestra. The symphony orchestra also operated at the Liepāja Philharmonic, where musicians were recruited every season according to the principles of contemporary festival orchestras. Liepāja Folk Conservatory (music school) had also formed an orchestra of students and teachers. Guest concerts were held regularly. A characteristic feature of performing arts in Liepaja was its multicultural character – musicians of different nationalities with experience from different schools of the world were encountered there. World War II not only disrupted the balance in society, but it also had a very concrete and tragic impact on the fates of the people, including the performing artists. Many were killed, many repressed and placed in prisons and camps, and many went to exile to the West. Others were forced to either co-operate with the occupation forces or give up their identity and, consequently, their career as an artist. Nevertheless, some artists risked their lives to save others.


2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Elena Zubkova

To what extent was the Soviet state able to control (and oppose) the process of social exclusion and to what extent was Soviet society ready to integrate social outcasts? This article attempts to answer these questions by analyzing the phenomenon of begging in the Soviet Union between the 1940s and the 1960s. The article begins by studying the phenomenon of begging as a reaction to poverty, serving as a survival strategy for the lower social classes who were excluded from society due to poor standards of living. A brief historical overview of the campaign to combat begging in the the USSR from the Revolution of 1917 until the mid-1950s shows both the continuity and shifting perspectives of state reaction to this social problem. This article also analyzes begging, which was an important social phenomenon in the USSR after World War II, through the specific biographies of actual beggars. The article concludes with an examination of the public discourse on poverty in the 1950s and early 1960s, which reveals how both society and the state viewed the issue.


Author(s):  
Ihor Starenkyi ◽  
Yaryna Zaishliuk

The Communisation about change on toponymy map in Kamyanets’-Podil’s’ky during the 1920s – early ХХІ century. Within the first 20 years of Soviet rule, most microtoponyms that did not fit into the ideological system of the Communist Party were renamed – appeared the names of party and military leaders of the USSR, the ideologists of the communist movement. During the next 30 years, some of those objects were renamed again due to the unprecedented scale repressive movement and different kinds of executions of Soviet leaders. After World War II, Communisation toponymy held mainly by the new street names, instead of renaming existing ones. Since the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of dominance of the Communist Party ideology, starts the reverse process – decommunization. Primarilyold name was returned to the historic streets of Kamyanets’-Podil’s’kyin 1990 over 1992-1995. De-communization held by renaming streets of the new city, which bore the names of communist leaders. The new wave of decommunisation is associated with Revolution of dignity and the Law of Ukraine«On the condemnation of Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian propagation and ban their symbols». During this period, toponymic objects included in the list of those subject decommunization given new names. If the situation Kamyanets’-Podil’s’ky, streets and lanes provided the names of the dead patriots during the Revolution of dignity and Russian-Ukrainianwar in Eastern Ukraine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-702
Author(s):  
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet

In 1946, the entertainer and activist Paul Robeson pondered America's intentions in Iran. In what was to become one of the first major crises of the Cold War, Iran was fighting a Soviet aggressor that did not want to leave. Robeson posed the question, “Is our State Department concerned with protecting the rights of Iran and the welfare of the Iranian people, or is it concerned with protecting Anglo-American oil in that country and the Middle East in general?” This was a loaded question. The US was pressuring the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops after its occupation of the country during World War II. Robeson wondered why America cared so much about Soviet forces in Iranian territory, when it made no mention of Anglo-American troops “in countries far removed from the United States or Great Britain.” An editorial writer for a Black journal in St. Louis posed a different variant of the question: Why did the American secretary of state, James F. Byrnes, concern himself with elections in Iran, Arabia or Azerbaijan and yet not “interfere in his home state, South Carolina, which has not had a free election since Reconstruction?”


2020 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 142-151
Author(s):  
Uta G. Lagvilava ◽  

A few months after the fascist Germany’s attack on the USSR, under harsh wartime conditions, at the end of 1941 military industry of the Soviet Union began to produce such a quantity of military equipment that subsequently was providing not only replenishment of losses, but also improvement of technical equipment of the Red Army forces . Successful production of military equipment during World War II became one of the main factors in the victory over fascism. One of the unlit pages in affairs of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) is displacement and evacuation of a huge number of enterprises and people to the east, beyond the Urals, which were occupied by German troops at the beginning of the war in the summer of 1941. All this was done according to the plans developed with direct participation of NKVD, which united before the beginning and during the war departments now called the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, SVR, the Russian Guard, Ministry of Emergency Situations, FAPSI and several smaller ones. And all these NKVD structures during the war were headed by Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria.


1953 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-167
Author(s):  
S. Bernard

The advent of a new administration in the United States and the passage of seven years since the end of World War II make it appropriate to review the political situation which has developed in Europe during that period and to ask what choices now are open to the West in its relations with the Soviet Union.The end of World War II found Europe torn between conflicting conceptions of international politics and of the goals that its members should seek. The democratic powers, led by the United States, viewed the world in traditional, Western, terms. The major problem, as they saw it, was one of working out a moral and legal order to which all powers could subscribe, and in which they would live. Quite independently of the environment, they assumed that one political order was both more practicable and more desirable than some other, and that their policies should be directed toward its attainment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimia Zare ◽  
Habibollah Saeeidinia

Iran and Russia have common interests, especially in political terms, because of the common borders and territorial neighborhood. This has led to a specific sensitivity to how the two countries are approaching each other. Despite the importance of the two countries' relations, it is observed that in the history of the relations between Iran and Russia, various issues and issues have always been hindered by the close relations between the two countries. The beginning of Iran-Soviet relations during the Second Pahlavi era was accompanied by issues such as World War II and subsequent events. The relations between the two countries were influenced by the factors and system variables of the international system, such as the Cold War, the US-Soviet rivalry, the Second World War and the entry of the Allies into Iran, the deconstruction of the relations between the two post-Cold War superpowers, and so on.The main question of the current research is that the political relations between Iran and Russia influenced by the second Pahlavi period?To answer this question, the hypothesis was that Iran's political economic relations were fluctuating in the second Pahlavi era and influenced by the changing system theory of the international system with the Soviet Union. The findings suggest that various variables such as the structure of the international system and international events, including World War II, the arrival of controversial forces in Iran, the Cold War, the post-Cold War, the US and Soviet policies, and the variables such as the issue of oil Azerbaijan's autonomy, Tudeh's actions in Iran, the issue of fisheries and borders. Also, the policies adopted by Iranian politicians, including negative balance policy, positive nationalism and independent national policy, have affected Iran-Soviet relations. In a general conclusion, from 1320 (1942) to 1357 (1979), the relationship between Iran and Russia has been an upward trend towards peaceful coexistence. But expansion of further relations in the economic, technical and cultural fields has been political rather than political.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
Eleonóra Matkovits-Kretz

Abstract The German community in Hungary suffered many blows at the end of World War II and after it, on the basis of collective guilt. Immediately after the Red Army had marched in. gathering and deportation started into the camps of the Soviet Union, primarily into forced-labour camps in Donetsk, the Caucasus, and the Ural mountains. One third of them never returned. Those left behind had to face forced resettlement, the confiscation of their properties, and other ordeals. Their history was a taboo subject until the change of the political system in 1989. Not even until our days, by the 70th anniversary of the events, has their story reached a worthy place in national and international remembrance. International collaboration, the establishment of a research institute is needed to set to rights in history the story of the ordeal of the German community after World War II. for the present and future generations


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document