Claiming the Countryside: Ekistics, Socio-Political Conflicts, and Emerging Cold-War Geopolitics During Greek Reconstruction

Totalitarianism is problably the most ambivalent political idea of the 20th century: it stands for the most negative experience with politics, it was used as polemical weapon within the major political conflicts of the epoch, and it attracted as many ingenious political thinkers in order to clarify totalitarianism as a scientific concept. The essay is only a sketch and tries to reconstruct the variations of the concept throughout five stages: its origins in Mussolini’s Italy, the pluralistic formation in the 1930/40s, the canonization during the cold war, its diminuation in the 1960/70s, and the comeback after 1989. The author argues that it is exactly the multiplicity or even then controversial character of the concept which makes it so significant for the ruptured history of the 20th century.

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How post-imperial democracies die: A comparison of Weimar Germany and post-Soviet Russia

Communist and Post-Communist Studies ◽

10.1016/j.postcomstud.2019.05.003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 105-115

Author(s):

Steffen Kailitz ◽

Andreas Umland

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

World War I ◽

Great Powers ◽

World War ◽

Weimar Germany ◽

Political Conflicts ◽

The Status ◽

Soviet Russia ◽

The Cold War ◽

Socioeconomic Crisis

While socioeconomic crisis — like in Germany after World War I and in Russia after the Cold War — is a necessary precondition for democratic erosion resulting in a breakdown of democracy, it is not a sufficient condition. We identify, in the cases of Weimar Germany and post-Soviet Russia, a post-imperial syndrome that includes nationalist irredentism and an ambition to return to the status quo ante of a “great power” as a main reason why democratization faces specific and enormous challenges for former “great powers.” A slide back to authoritarianism in post-imperial democracies takes a high toll. It is facilitated by international political conflicts, including annexation and wars, with new neighbouring states that harbor territories perceived as external national homelands like the Sudetenland or Crimea.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780190200671.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Weijie Song

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Identities ◽

Collective Consciousness ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Late Imperial ◽

Political Conflicts ◽

Imperial Capital ◽

The Cold War ◽

Literary Topography

This chapter contextualizes and theoreticizes the literary topography of space and emotion, the (de)formation of modern subjectivity, individual desire and collective consciousness, political conflicts and historical violence, as well as nationalist sentiments and cultural memories centering around Beijing, the ancient capital and modern city, which has framed the material infrastructures, human conditions, mental images, political regimes, cultural identities, and literary imaginations from the late Imperial and Republican periods to the Cold War era and after. I consider five modes of creating a city-text that fashion Beijing: (1) a warped hometown, (2) a city of snapshots and manners, (3) an aesthetic city, (4) an imperial capital in comparative and cross-cultural perspective, and (5) a displaced and relocated city on the Sinophone and diasporic postmemory. Each method of imagining Beijing provides a unique entry point into the nexus of urban settings, archives of emotions, and strategies of literary mappings in Beijing’s journey from imperial capital to socialist city.

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