scholarly journals Soviet-Era Civic Monuments in the Cultural Landscape of Kaliningrad

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
И.О. Дементьев
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Stagnation Period

В исследовании проанализированы обстоятельства появления монументальных гражданских памятников в советском Калининграде (1946—1991 гг.), определена их роль в культурном ландшафте города. Основными источниками послужили архивные документы и публикации в периодической печати. После краткого обзора послевоенной судьбы памятников Кёнигсберга автор описывает обстоятельства появления (и в ряде случаев исчезновения) памятников советским политическим деятелям (И.В. Сталину, 1953—1962; В.И. Ленину, 1958; М.И. Калинину, 1959), других памятных знаков. Особое внимание уделено коммеморации немецких деятелей, в особенности Э. Тельмана (бюст сооружен в 1956 г., новый бюст установлен в 1977 г.) и Ф. Шиллера, чей памятник 1910 г. стал важным объектом городского ландшафта после Второй мировой войны. Автор приходит к выводу, что история монументальной гражданской скульптуры советского Калининграда наглядно демонстрирует своеобразие советской политики памяти в бывшем немецком городе. The article explores the circumstances of the emergence of civic monuments and their role in the cultural landscape of Kaliningrad during the Soviet period (1946–1991). The research was carried out within the framework of memory studies and also used the traditional historical methods of a narrative research approach and comparative analysis. The source base of the article includes normative acts and administrative documents of the authorities, documents of non-governmental organisations, mass-media materials, and egodocuments. Monuments to German politicians remained in Königsberg after World War II, but most of them were destroyed in the first post-war years. The authorities considered the installation of monuments to Soviet politicians to be an important ideological task (Stalin, 1953, moved to another place in 1958, dismantled in 1962; Lenin, 1958; Kalinin, 1959). The article describes the circumstances of the construction of these monuments and other ones (“Mother Russia”, 1974). The former German city also commemorated the prominent figures in German history, above all those who belonged to the revolutionary tradition: the article describes the installation of the busts of Karl Marx (1961) and Ernst Thälmann (1956; 1977). Special attention is payed to the monument to Friedrich Schiller (1910), which became an important object in the urban landscape. The case of Schiller as of a “progressive German” allowed the Soviet authorities to elaborate a complex approach to the commemoration of figures of foreign cultures in the absence of similar symbols of Russian (Soviet) culture. For citizens, this monument became an important part of local iconography, facilitating the later rehabilitation of pre-war heritage. The author concludes that the history of the monumental civic sculpture of Soviet Kaliningrad reveals the paradoxical character of the Soviet politics of memory: figures unrelated to the city’s history were commemorated (except Thälmann); the only monument to a cultural figure was the statue of the German writer Schiller; the fight against German heritage was not effective enough because it did not offer an alternative commemoration (in relation to representatives of other ethnic cultures—Lithuanians or Old Prussians). It is also important that, during the Soviet era, the erection of monuments was the prerogative of the authorities, and, although public initiatives took place at the late stagnation period, the opportunities for their implementation arose only during Perestroika. The history of civic monumental sculpture in Kaliningrad allows us to expand our understanding of the contradictions of the Soviet politics of memory.

scholarly journals The Memory Policy of the Second World War in the Post-Yugoslav Republics: Symbolic and Commemorative Aspects

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-674
Author(s):  
Ilya A. Pomiguev ◽  
Eldar R. Salakhetdinov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The State ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
World War ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Ideological Attitudes ◽  
Second World

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.

Charles de Gaulle and European Community

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 70-81
Author(s):  
David Ramiro Troitino ◽  
Tanel Kerikmae ◽  
Olga Shumilo
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
European Community ◽  
World War ◽  
Charles De Gaulle ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
Post War ◽  
De Gaulle

This article highlights the role of Charles de Gaulle in the history of united post-war Europe, his approaches to the internal and foreign French policies, also vetoing the membership of the United Kingdom in the European Community. The authors describe the emergence of De Gaulle as a politician, his uneasy relationship with Roosevelt and Churchill during World War II, also the roots of developing a “nationalistic” approach to regional policy after the end of the war. The article also considers the emergence of the Common Agricultural Policy (hereinafter - CAP), one of Charles de Gaulle’s biggest achievements in foreign policy, and the reasons for the Fouchet Plan defeat.

Internationalising Arts, Gaining Visibility: Internationalisation of the National Art Gallery through the Promulgation of the Malayan Identity and Commonwealth Ideals

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Sarena Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Art Gallery ◽  
Exhibition History ◽  
International Visibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Institute ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
Post War ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Different Sources

Abstract The early history of the Malaysian National Art Gallery has been thoroughly elucidated through many different sources but its role as promoter of Malaysia’s art in the first ten years of its early formation have never been critically examined. This paper will trace the transnational relationship of the National Art Gallery through its exhibitions co-organised with the Commonwealth Institute in London within the larger context of the post-World War II period and the British decolonisation in Malaya. This paper will situate and contextualise its research on Malaya’s early exhibition history on multiculturalism and the Malayan identity framework, and later draw the link and connection between the Commonwealth Institute and the context of its establishment in Britain and the establishment of the National Art Gallery in Malaya. Subsequently, this paper will trace and demonstrate the importance of these early exhibitions to be understood in the larger context of (a) the need to exert international visibility during the period of Confrontation and (b) the exhibition as a platform that mooted the Malayan identity that aligns with the core values and principles of the Commonwealth. As such, this paper demonstrates that the transnational relations between the National Art Gallery and the Commonwealth Institute in the realm of Malaysia’s exhibition history must be analysed in tandem with the issues that are faced by a new British Commonwealth country, i.e., Malaysia during the immediate post-war period.

Hope, Despair, and Justice in Postwar European Culture: Bicycle Thieves, The Plague, and The Man Outside as Case Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-82
Author(s):  
Amir Engel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
European Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Emotional Disposition ◽  
Do So

Abstract While there is growing interest in the postwar era, the cultural characteristics of the period after World War II and the period’s historical scope are still largely underdetermined. The purpose of this article is to offer a more nuanced use of the term postwar and insights into the cultural landscape of this enormously significant moment in the history of the West. To do so, it examines three major works of what is termed here the immediate postwar. These works are fundamentally dissimilar and yet, it is argued, share an emotional disposition. As shown, all three works exhibit a complex dialectical coupling of horror and anticipation. In other words, this article demonstrates that the cultural production of the postwar period (in the exact sense of the term) is characterized, on the one hand, by a sincere depiction of suffering and depravity but, on the other, by an intense engagement with questions about the moral and social future.

scholarly journals W kręgu badań nad dziejami emigracyjnego parlamentaryzmu Recenzja publikacji: Depozyt Niepodległości. Rada Narodowa Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie (1939–1991), red. Zbigniew Girzyński, Paweł Ziętara

2020 ◽  
Vol 5(160) ◽  
pp. 221-228
Author(s):  
Paweł Gotowiecki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Council ◽  
World War ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Post War

The reviewed publication contains post-conference materials, presented during the conference held in 2016 in Warsaw, entitled “The Deposit of Independence. National Council of the Republic of Poland in Exile (1939–1991)”. The volume consists of 18 articles, published in chronological and topical order, devoted to the selected issues of the history of the Polish parliamentarianism in exile during World War II and in the post-war period. The authors of the articles discussed various aspects of the activities of the National Council of the Republic of Poland in Exile, such as the participation of national minorities in the work of the quasi-parliament, biographies of the chosen parliamentarians, or the selected elements of “parliamentary practices”. This publication is not a synthesis but it supplements and develops the current state of research on the activities of the Polish quasi-parliamentary institutions in exile.

scholarly journals Kina na Dolnym Śląsku: rekonesans historyczny

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (35) ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
Andrzej Dębski Andrzej Dębski
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The Internet ◽  
World War ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Database ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Mass Entertainment ◽  
Lower Silesia

The highest level of cinema attendance in Lower Silesia after World War II was recorded in 1957. It was higher than before the war and lower than during the war. In the years that followed it steadily declined, influenced by global processes, especially the popularity of television. This leads us to reflect on the continuity of historical and film processes, and to look at the period from the 1920s to the 1960s as the ‘classical’ period in the history of cinema, when it was the main branch of mass entertainment. The examples of three Lower Silesian cities of different size classes (Wroclaw, Jelenia Gora, Strzelin) show how before World War II the development from ‘the store cinema [or the kintopp] to the cinema palace’ proceeded. Attention is also drawn to the issue of the destruction of cinematic infrastructure and its post-war reconstruction. In 1958 the press commented that ‘if someone produced a map with the towns marked in which cinemas were located, the number would increase as one moved westwards’. This was due to Polish (post-war) and German (pre-war) cinema building. The discussion closes with a description of the Internet Historical Database of Cinemas in Lower Silesia, which collects data on cinemas that once operated or are now operating in the region.

scholarly journals Vasiljevic’s collections of folk melodies: A Serbian musical treasure

Muzikologija ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 171-198
Author(s):  
Sanja Radinovic
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Worker ◽  
Great Productivity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Full Sense ◽  
Available Technology ◽  
Post War

Miodrag A. Vasiljevic (1903-1963) was given a unique opportunity to span two great developmental stages in the history of Serbian ethnomusicology, occurring in the middle of the 20th century. The first of them was between the two World Wars, the stage in which Serbian musical folklore became Vasiljevic?s life passion and in which he accomplished his early professional achievements. In the next stage, which started after World War II, he reached the zenith of his creation in slightly less than twenty years, setting new standards of the discipline, and providing fundamental directions for his successors, thereby immeasurably enlarging the corpus of collected material. Due all of these revolutionary innovations from the post-war period, Vasiljevic is rightly considered to be not only the founder of modern Serbian ethnomusicology, but also the first person in Serbia worthy of being called an ethnomusicologist in the full sense of the word. Of the numerous results by which Vasiljevic permanently indebted his people, the most pronounced does not belong to the category of pioneering endeavours, but is manifested in his melographic opus - an achievement which even today has not been surpassed in Serbia in terms of its span, scope and value. Such great productivity in recording resulted from the fact that Vasiljevic had been devoted to melography from his childhood, and most intensely from 1932 to the end of his life. The exact number of examples which Vasiljevic transcribed directly in the field before 1951 and those which he recorded on a tape-recorder after that time is still unknown, since many of them are still unavailable to the public, but it can be assumed that there are several thousand melodies in total. Among them are 3,198 which have already been published. That precious corpus of Vasiljevic?s available material is contained in twelve collections (the largest number ever regarding any collector in Serbia so far), issued from 1950 to 2009. The first four collections offer comprehensive material from Kosmet, Sandzak, Macedonia and the region of Leskovac, and they were edited by Vasiljevic himself during the last ten years of his life or so. Posthumous publications were devoted to Montenegro, Vojvodina, Resava and various parts of central Serbia, as well as to the repertoires of the famous singer Hamdija Sahinpasic (1914/16-2003) from Sandzak, and gypsy female singer Malika Jeminovic Kostana (1872?-1945) from the vicinity of Vranje. Until now there have still not been any comprehensive studies on Vasiljevic?s ethnomusicological activity, although there are valuable articles. In these, Vasiljevic?s melographic contribution is usually emphasised much more than his scientific one, which is much more modest in its scope. Since the existing writings mostly deal with collections published during his life, this paper results from the intention to give a complete picture of the material, so all Vasiljevic?s collections were critically considered according to the chronology of their publication. Each of the publications emerged to witness to both Vasiljevic as a field worker and to some of the important stages of his own ethnomusicological development. The last part of the text focuses on the fact that a decline in production of ethnomusicological collection publications has been evident in Serbia over the last few decades. Nowadays, this negative trend is conditioned by two key reasons. One is the perfected and easily available technology of digital audio recording and the copying of sound recordings. The second is reflected in the general developmental orientation of the discipline.

scholarly journals The Lviv Train Station Restaurant as a Soviet Enterprise, 1944-1980

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andriy Zayarnyuk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic System ◽  
System Organization ◽  
Organization Structure ◽  
World War ◽  
Train Station ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

This article is a micro-history of a restaurant in post- World War II Lviv, the largest city of Western Ukraine. Offering a case study of one public dining enterprise this paper explores changes in the post-war Soviet public dining; demonstrates how that enterprise’s institutional structure mediated economic demands, ideological directives, and social conflicts. It argues that the Soviet enterprise should be seen as a nexus between economic system, organization structure of the Soviet state, and everyday lives of Soviet people. The article helps to understand Soviet consumerist practices in the sphere of public dining by looking into complex, hierarchical organizations enabling them.

scholarly journals Polish books production in exile in the years 19391950: statistical and geographical perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 273-289
Author(s):  
Oskar Stanisław Czarnik
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
World War ◽  
Polish People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War

The subject of this article is an overview of Polish publishing in the exile during the World War II and first post-war years. The literary activity was mostly linked to the cultural tradition of the Second Polish Republic. The author describes this phenomenon quantitatively and presents the number of books published in the respective years. He also tries to explain which external factors, not only political and military, but also financial and organizational, affected publications of Polish books around the world. The subject of the debate is also geography of the Polish publishing. It is connected with a long term migration of different groups of people living in exile. The author not only points out the areas where Polish editorial activity was just temporary, but also the areas where it was long-lasting. The book output was a great assistance to Polish people living in diasporas, as well as to readers living in Poland. The following text is an excerpt of the book which is currently being prepared by the author. The book is devoted to the history of Polish publishing in exile.

scholarly journals The Contemporaneity of ‘Counter-Enlightenment’. From the French Revolution to German Post-War Sociology

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 940-970
Author(s):  
Sonja Asal
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Before And After ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
German Sociology ◽  
The French Revolution

While resistance to Enlightenment thought occurring in the eighteenth century is often framed by the concept of ‘Counter-Enlightenment’, the term itself was not introduced before the twentieth century. The article first reconstructs the anti-Enlightenment polemic before and after the French Revolution to highlight that while the notion of Counter- Enlightenment is appropriate for the identification of hitherto unexplored strands of thought, in view of a broader and more differentiated approach to the intellectual history of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it does not allow for a substantial definition. Subsequently, the article examines the history of the concept in French, English and German linguistic contexts, the German sociology of the interwar period and discussions about the legacy of the Enlightenment after World War II, to retrace how the different iterations have to be understood as a key for the self-reflection of modern societies throughout the twentieth century.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document