scholarly journals Problems of Foreign Policy Choice of the State Center of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1939–1940

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
Vasyl Yablonskyi

The Second World War was viewed by Ukrainians abroad and in Ukraine as a potential chance to restore Ukraine’s independence. At the beginning of the war, the main political forces of the Ukrainian emigration interfered in a state of mutual confrontation. Each of them tried to attract international contacts for support. The article examines the process of finding foreign policy allies by the State Center of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile at the first stage of World War II (1939–1940). The main attention is paid to the political processes in this part of the Ukrainian emigration, the disunity and the presence of three governing centers (in France, Czechoslovakia and Poland) and the foreign policy orientations of the emigration government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. For the first time, the document”Letters from the leading circles of the UPR” is published, which attempts to justify the need for a foreign policy alliance with Germany and criticizes the “francophilism” of some figures of the State Center of the UPR in Europe and America. The hypothetical circle of emigration politicians who could be the authors of these documents and their addressees is outlined. Attention is drawn to the fact that the conclusion of foreign policy agreements with Germany in the interwar period was a well-established practice for many countries at that time (France, England, the USSR, etc.). The reasons for the disinterest of the main players in world politics at this stage in the restoration of Ukraine’s independence are emphasized. As the government’s emigration status and military actions did not help preserve the archives, documents belonging to this period of Ukrainian history and diplomacy have come down to us in limited numbers. Publication and analysis of documents of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile, which relate to the foreign policy concepts of the Ukrainian emigration government, allow to more fully reveal the vision of ways to restore Ukraine’s independence after its territories were part of the USSR, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

Author(s):  
I. I. Belousov

After the Second World War 70 years have passed. Essentially already gone a generation of people for whom it was not a story, and the nationwide disaster and personal experience. And let time more and more we move away from the victory of 1945, the value and results of the war are enormous for the future of the modern world. Memory of the Great Victory presents to all of us now living, special requirements, the main of which consists in the fact that based on the analysis draw the necessary lessons from the past, draw the right conclusions for the safety of modern Russia. Over the years, the world has changed considerably. On the stage of world politics, a host of new independent states. There are new centers of economic development, and hence the new poles of power. Meanwhile, the events of recent months show that the main results of the Victory have not lost their importance today. This is best spoken of their incessant attempts to challenge by distorting the main points of the war and its lessons. And, obviously, it is no accident the day before and during the celebration of 70th anniversary of Victory wishing her to steal the peoples of Russia have been particularly active, as they claim - stiff and awkward. For domestic historiography it is not something unexpected. On the socio-political, military and economic results of the Second World War written many works, but probably in the light of the development of military-political processes in the world of individual instructive lesson it is important not to forget.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Elena Yu. Guskova

The article is devoted to the analysis of interethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the 1940s and 1960s. The article is based on materials from the archives of BiH, Croatia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. The documents show the state of affairs in the Republic – both in the economy and in ideology. In one or another way, all of them reflect the level of tension in the interethnic relations. For the first time, the article presents the discussion on interethnic relations, on the new phenomenon in multinational Yugoslavia – the emergence of a new people in BiH under the name of “Muslim”. The term “Muslims” is used to define the ethnic identity of Bosniaks in the territory of BiH starting from the 1961 census.


Author(s):  
Alexander Sukhodolov ◽  
Tuvd Dorj ◽  
Yuriy Kuzmin ◽  
Mikhail Rachkov

For the first time in Russian historiography, the article draws attention to the connection of the War of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939. For a long time, historical science considered these two major events in the history of the USSR and history of the world individually, without their historic relationship. The authors made an attempt to provide evidence of this relationship, showing the role that surrounding and defeating the Japanese army at Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 and signing in Moscow of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact played in the history of the world. The study analyzes the foreign policy of the USSR in Europe, the reasons for the failure in the conclusion of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet military union in 1939 and the circumstances of the Pact. It shows the interrelation between the defeat of the Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol and the need for the Soviet-German treaty. The authors describe the historic consequences of the conclusion of the pact for the further development of the Japanese-German relations and the course of the Second World War. They also present the characteristics of the views of these historical events in the Russian historiography.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-241
Author(s):  
Michael A. Hennessy

Abstract Twice before the Second World War the Canadian merchant marine had collapsed in the face of competing conceptions of empire and commercial interest. Though once home to a thriving merchant fleet, the passing of the age of sail marked Canada's decline as a maritime nation. Most of the surviving merchant fleet sailed under British registry, employing British crews and officers. During the Second World War, Canada rebuilt its merchant marine. As the war drew to a close, the state, labour and enterprise supported the framing of a Canadian maritime policy to preserve the merchant shipping capacity developed during the war. The fleet's ambiguous origins, conflicting national trade policy, the absence of a laissez-faire international shipping market, the rise of cold-war tensions and the very peculiar problems of trade to the sterling bloc savaged post-war efforts to maintain the fleet. The timing and nature of the collapse were particularly Canadian. Barriers to currency convertibility, carriage restrictions, and high labour and production costs, proved formidable obstacles which representatives of the Canadian state were very largely powerless to overcome. In combination, these elements, rather than some invisible hand, explain why Canadian ship owners led the way in abandoning their national flag and why the state helped them. Sole attribution for the death of the merchant marine should no longer fall to unfavourable labour costs or union activism.


Slavic Review ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 606-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Exeler

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the search for alleged traitors took place in each country that had been under foreign occupation. The most active country in this regard was the Soviet Union. This article analyzes how the Soviet authorities dealt with people who had lived in German-occupied territory during the war. It discusses divergent understandings of guilt, and examines means of punishment, retribution and justice. I argue that inconsistencies in Moscow’s politics of retribution, apart from reflecting tensions between ideology and pragmatism, resulted from contradictions within ideology, namely the belief that the war had uncovered mass enemies in hiding, and the belief that it had been won with the mass support of the Soviet population. The state that emerged from the war, then, was both powerful and insecure, able to quickly reassert its authority in formerly German-occupied areas, but also deeply ambivalent about its politics of retribution.


1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Louw

Two institutions were created in South Africa during the Second World War, which significantly influenced the development of South African psychology. These were the Personnel Research Section of the Leather Industries Research Institute, and the Aptitude Tests Section of the South African Air Force. It is argued that this formed a significant advance in the professionalization of psychology in this country, as it institutionalized psychology as a discipline outside the universities for the first time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-674
Author(s):  
Ilya A. Pomiguev ◽  
Eldar R. Salakhetdinov

The paper analyses the politics of memory of the World War II (WWII) in socialist Yugoslavia and compares the corresponding commemorative practices in the post-Yugoslav republics. The focus is on the design of holidays and memorial dates that reflect the symbolic and valuable attitudes of society, as well as the trajectory of nation-building. The formation of the state metanarrative in post-war Yugoslavia was closely related to the monopolisation of the leadership roles of the national liberation war by the communists, who united the six South Slavic nations in their struggle against the Nazi invaders. The state holidays and memorial days were derived from the history of resistance to foreign occupiers and internal enemies in order to legitimise and strengthen the triumph of the new socialist order. Alternative Yugoslavian non-communist movements, especially the Ustash and Chetniks who were potentially capable of competing in the symbolic field, were declared class enemies, reactionary elements, and quislings. As the processes of disintegration increased in socialist Yugoslavia, there were several attempts to revise its ideological attitudes and symbolic heritage of WWII. Nevertheless, as the study shows these attempts became, rather, a marginal phenomenon, and most post-Yugoslav states retained the commemorative, albeit de-ideologised, practices of the previous period.


Rusin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136-158
Author(s):  
A.I. Kudriachenko ◽  

The author emphasizes that the growing national self-identification and selfawareness of the Ukrainians, the political balance of powers at the turn of 1938– 1939 in Czechoslovakia and the international arena were significant factors in the state aspirations of the residents of the Transcarpathian region. At the same time, the processes of autonomization, formation, and liquidation of Carpatho-Ukraine were determined not only by its socio-economic position, but also by the latent diplomatic and geopolitical confrontation. The establishment of Carpatho-Ukraine was associated with the military confrontation and, for the first time, was accompanied not only by a number of military operations, but also by the massive heroism of its defenders, who opposed the invaders. According to the current definitions, all this constituted the hybrid war, which became the harbinger and real percursor of the Second World War.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-130
Author(s):  
V. A. Veselov

In recent years, the history of World War II has transformed into a battlefield in its own right in the ‘war of memory’. Besides the clear fact that the current attempts to revise the results of this war reflect the contemporary international tensions, yet another factor should be noted. The ‘shadow’ of the Second World War appears to be very long. It manifests itself not only in the contemporary system of international relations, but also in the fact that we still view the world around through the prism of concepts that appeared during the state of war and still bear its mark. Particularly, the concept of national security. This paper examines the emergence and development of this concept in the United States. The author notes that although the concept of national security existed throughout the 20th century, before World War II it was identified primarily with the defense of the state. The paper examines how lessons of the Second World War led to a rethinking of this concept, and how approaches to national security evolved during the war and immediately after it. Special attention is given to discussions that preceded the adoption of the National Security Act of 1947, as well as to its initial results. The author demonstrates that the national security concept was based on a fundamental recognition of the existence of a special state between peace and war. For successful functioning within this state, the government needs to rely on a wide range of tools of both economic and military-political and ideological nature. Based on the lessons from the war, national security was viewed as an ‘overarching structure’, aimed not only at integrating various components of the state’s policy, but also at eliminating any contradictions that may arise between them. On the other hand, the author emphasizes that from the very beginning the national security concept had a pronounced proactive, offensive and expansionist character. Being considered as an antipode to the concept of collective security, this concept reflected the will of the US elites not only to get integrated in the existing system of international relations, but to create a new one, which would be based on the American values and would ensure the stable functioning of the US economy. The author concludes that it is precisely the multidimensionality of the national security concept caused by the multidimensional nature of the challenges of World War II that explains its continued relevance for the study of world politics.


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