scholarly journals Genesis of the Second World War in Contemporary Polish Historical and Political Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 106 (6) ◽  
pp. 178-189
Author(s):  
Artem Barynkin ◽  
◽  
Nikolay Mezhevich ◽  

The Second World War has undoubtedly left a deep scar on the historical memory of the Polish people. The hardest ordeal for the Polish Republic was the military confrontation with Nazi Germany, which resulted in the loss of statehood and the horrors of the German occupation regime. As a result of World War II, Poland lost almost 40% of its national wealth and about 6 million of its people. The issue of political interpretations of historical events in contemporary Polish historical and political discourse is of particular importance. Reflected in educational literature, it is no less important than the positions set out in academic journals. Yesterday's schoolboy and student today is a minister's assistant and an officer, tomorrow a minister and a general. At the same time, there is no certainty that they will again turn to systemic education. One should also take into account the current status of the Polish Republic, its fundamental economic achievements and the apparent desire for an independent line in the European Union. All this makes the dialogue actual even in the current extremely difficult conditions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Timofeev

The article considers the perception of World War II in modern Serbian society. Despite the stability of Serbian-Russian shared historical memory, the attitudes of both countries towards World wars differ. There is a huge contrast in the perception of the First and Second World War in Russian and Serbian societies. For the Serbs the events of World War II are obscured by the memories of the Civil War, which broke out in the country immediately after the occupation in 1941 and continued several years after 1945. Over 70% of Yugoslavs killed during the Second World War were slaughtered by the citizens of former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The terror unleashed by Tito in the first postwar decade in 1944-1954 was proportionally bloodier than Stalin repressions in the postwar USSR. The number of emigrants from Yugoslavia after the establishment of the Tito's dictatorship was proportionally equal to the number of refugees from Russia after the Civil War (1,5-2% of prewar population). In the post-war years, open manipulations with the obvious facts of World War II took place in Tito's Yugoslavia. In the 1990s the memories repressed during the communist years were set free and publicly debated. After the fall of the one-party system the memory of World War II was devalued. The memory of the Russian-Serbian military fraternity forged during the World War II began to revive in Serbia due to the foreign policy changes in 2008. In October 2008 the President of Russia paid a visit to Serbia which began the process of (re) construction of World War II in Serbian historical memory. According to the public opinion surveys, a positive attitude towards Russia and Russians in Serbia strengthens the memories on general resistance to Nazism with memories of fratricide during the civil conflict events of 1941-1945 still dominating in Serbian society.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-84
Author(s):  
Susan Corbesero

AbstractDuring the troublous post-war and post-Soviet periods, the iconography of Stalin has served as a powerful interpreter of the past. Since World War II, portraits and attendant mass reproductions of the notorious Soviet leader have conveyed a historical memory that fused the triumphalist mythology of the Second World War and the cult of Stalin. Appropriated for political, national, nostalgic and commercial purposes, these iconic vehicles have functioned as integral “vectors of memory” in times of political change. In that vein, this article traces the remarkably dynamic and influential life of Aleksandr Laktionov's Portrait of I. V. Stalin (1949) in order to illuminate how its meaning and use, past and present, reflects and refracts the political landscape that deploys it.


2020 ◽  
pp. 87-101
Author(s):  
Efim. I. Pivovar ◽  
◽  
Alexander S. Levchenkov ◽  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  
◽  
...  

This article is devoted to the coverage of a number of major historical and educational projects implemented in recent years by the Russian archivists in the context of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War of 1939-1945. Having analyzed the activities of the leading national archives in this area, including their use of modern information technologies and Internet resources, the authors link these projects with discourse of world politics and historiography on the most important factors and causes that resulted in the outbreak of World War II. In connection with heated discussions and disputes on the prerequisites and causes of the Second World War that are escalating among politicians and historians of various countries on the eve of its 80th anniversary, the Russian historians and archivists have done a tremendous job in preparing thematic historical and documentary exhibitions devoted to the most significant (from historical point of view) events that directly affected international relations in the pre-war months. Complex of audiovisual sources, which has been reviewed in this article as a part of historical and documentary exhibitions complex, confirms that it was a complex of factors and events associated with the collapse of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations that led to the outbreak of World War II; but, most of all, the policy of pandering to the aggressive revanchist aspirations of Nazi Germany by the major European powers and concern of the European allies of the USSR for strengthening of its position in international affairs. Introduction of new sources and expansion of documentary base available to general public by means of exhibitions and permanent Internet projects plays a huge role in historical and educational work in general, and in counteraction of falsification of history and of dividing the historical memory of the peoples of the former USSR and the allies of World War II in particular. Finally, it contributes to the consolidation of efforts of the national professional community of historians and archivists and to propagation of dialogue of Russian historians and archivists with their colleagues from near and far abroad.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
Dilorom Bobojonova ◽  

In this article, the author highlights the worthy contribution of the people of Uzbekistan, along with other peoples, to the victory over fascism in World War II in a historical aspect. This approach to this issue will serve as additional material to previously published works in international scientific circles


Author(s):  
Pedro Iacobelli Delpiano

ResumenLa literatura sobre la historia internacional de Chile durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial ha centrado el debate en torno al juego de presiones ejercidas por los Estados Unidos hacia los gobiernos radicales de Jerónimo Méndez Arancibia y Juan Antonio Ríos Morales para conseguir que Chile se sumara a la política continental contra las fuerzas del Eje. La neutralidad chilena fue interpretada como una actitud traicionera por los estadounidenses y en un triunfo por los países del Eje durante 1941 a 1943. Este artículo introduce el debate y busca presentar las posibilidades historiográficas al incluir a Japón, tanto como actor relevante en la política chilena como receptor de la “neutralidad” chilena en el periodo.Palabras clave: Chile, Japón, Segunda Guerra Mundial, Estados Unidos, historiografíaThe Chilean “Neutrality” in World War II (1939-1943): A historiographical analysis focused on the literature of the diplomatic relations between Chile and JapanAbstractThe literature about Chile´s international history during World War II has heavily laid on the power dynamics between the US and the Chilean radical governments of vice-president (interim) Jerónimo Méndez Arancibia and president Juan Antonio Rios Morales. Since the Roosevelt administration sought to secure the rupture of diplomatic relations between Chile and the Axis powers, Santiago´s refusal to break relations was understood as treason by the US and as a diplomatic success by the Axis powers during 1941-1943.This paper delves into the historiographical possibilities in including Japan, either as a relevant actor in the Chilean politics and as receptor of the newsabout Chile´s neutrality.Keywords: Chile, Japan, Second World War, United States, historiographyA “neutralidade” chilena na segunda guerra mundial(1939-1943): uma análise historiográfica, com ênfase naliteratura sobre as relações Chile-JapãoResumoA literatura sobre a história internacional do Chile durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial tem-se centrado no debate em torno ao jogo de pressões exercidas pelos Estados Unidos aos governos radicais de Jerónimo Méndez Arancibia e Juan Antonio Rios Morales, para conseguir que o Chile pudesse se somar a política continental contra as forças do Eixo. A neutralidade chilena foi interpretada como uma atitude traiçoeira pelos norte-americanos e uma vitória para os países do Eixo durante 1941 a 1943. Este artigo introduz o debate e procura a presentar as possibilidades historiográficas ao incluir ao Japão, tanto como um ator relevante na política chilena como o destinatário da “neutralidade” chilena no período.Palavras-chave: Chile, Japão, Segunda Guerra Mundial, Estados Unidos, historiografia


Res Publica ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 361-380
Author(s):  
Paul Magnette

This paper examines the evolving ideological content of the concept of citizenship and particularly the challenges it faces as a consequence of the building of the European Union. From an epistemological point of view it is first argued that citizenship may be described as a dual concept: it is both a legal institution composed of the rights of the citizen as they are fixed at a certain moment of its history, and a normative ideal which embodies their political aspirations. As a result of this dual nature, citizenship is an essentially dynamicnotion, which is permanently evolving between a state of balance and change.  The history of this concept in contemporary political thought shows that, from the end of the second World War it had raised a synthesis of democratic, liberal and socialist values on the one hand, and that it was historically and logically bound to the Nation-State on the other hand. This double synthesis now seems to be contested, as the themes of the "crisis of the Nation State" and"crisis of the Welfare state" do indicate. The last part of this paper grapples with recent theoretical proposals of new forms of european citizenship, and argues that the concept of citizenship could be renovated and take its challenges into consideration by insisting on the duties and the procedures it contains.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
Thomas Klikauer ◽  
Norman Simms ◽  
Helge F. Jani ◽  
Bob Beatty ◽  
Nicholas Lokker

Jay Julian Rosellini, The German New Right: AfD, PEGIDA and the Re-imagining of National Identity (London: C. Hurst, 2019).Simon Bulmer and William E. Paterson, Germany and the European Union: Europe’s Reluctant Hegemon? (London: Red Globe Press, 2019).Susan Neiman, Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019).Stephan Jaeger, The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Narrative, Memory, and Experience to Experientiality (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020).Robert M. Jarvis, Gambling under the Swastika: Casinos, Horse Racing, Lotteries, and Other Forms of Betting in Nazi Germany (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2019).


2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. H. Adler

Michèle and Jean-Paul Cointet, eds., Dictionnaire historique de la France sous l'Occupation (Paris: Tallandier, 2000), 732pp., FF 290, ISBN 2-235-02234-0. Hanna Diamond, Women and the Second World War in France 1939–1948: Choices and Constraints (Harlow: Longman, 1999), 231pp., £45.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb), ISBN 0-582-29909-8. Sarah Fishman, Laura Lee Downs, Ioannis Sinanoglou, Leonard V. Smith, Robert Zaretsky, eds., France at War: Vichy and the Historians (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2000), 336pp., £45.00, ISBN 1-859-73299-2. Bertram M. Gordon, ed., Historical Dictionary of World War II France: The Occupation, Vichy, and the Resistance, 1938–1946 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998), 433pp., £73.95, ISBN 0-313-29421-6. Miranda Pollard, Reign of Virtue: Mobilizing Gender in Vichy France (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 285pp., £31.50 (hb), £14.00 (pb), ISBN 0-226-67349-9 and 0-226-67350-2. Lynne Taylor, Between Resistance and Collaboration: Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940–45 (Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), 195pp., £40.00, ISBN 0-333-73640-0.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Praczyk

Strategies of the Familiarization of Things in Polish Regained Territories with the Special Attention to the Private Space This article discusses the presence of things and their modes of functioning in the private and, to some extent, also public spaces of the Recovered Territories in Poland after the Second World War. In this article, things are perceived as active agents, crucial for developing many different social relations that have to be created anew in the unknown cultural and material environment. New things that people come across are also treated here as objects that can reveal traumatic tensions caused by the necessity of the existence in the unfamiliar space that was left behind by the war enemies. This new private space that the Polish people have to live in needs to be domesticated and treated as a part of the everyday life. Strategies that are used to familiarize the former German cultural heritage are the main focus of this article.Cтратегии освaивания вещей на воссоединённых землях Польши особенно в личном пространствеВ этой ста­тье представлена проблема присудствия вещей и способа их функционирования особенно в личном пространстве на воссоединённых землях Польши после второй мировой войны. Bещи выступают здесь как активные актёры многих разнообразных общественных соотношений, которые надо создать заново в незнакомой материальной и культурнoй среде. Oдновременно новонайденные предметы могут вызывать травматические реакции у переселенцев, которые возникают как результат необходимости жизни в домах покиданных врагом. Это новое про­странство должно быть освоенное новыми жителями. Metoды ведущие к этой цели являются темой представленного здесь анализa.


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