scholarly journals Juozas Zikaras: remarks

Menotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė

After celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Lithuania and turning back to the field of reflection of Lithuanian art, one can enjoy mature publications by art historians and the exposure of various stages and aspects of art life. However, one gap is noticeable: the creative heritage of individual artists is too little publicised and investigated. The article aims to activate the scientific dialogue on the prospects of research into activities of sculptor Juozas Zikaras (1881–1944), the Lithuanian art “signatory” and the main creator of visual-artistic signs of the young Lithuanian State. This is why the fragments of his biography so far unknown are raised. For example, in the summer of 1912, J. Zikaras created decorations for the performance “Duke of Pilėnai”; in 1923, he was ill for a long time and visited Italy; and in 1940, when he was nearly sixty, he entered the Riflemen’s Union witnessing the impending threat of the Soviet Union to his country. Most importantly, remarks are presented about the most notable catalogue about artist Juozas Zikaras up to the present time (prepared in 2009 by the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum as the main custodian of his creations, authors Miglė Banytė and Vaiva Laukaitienė). The list of sculptural works is completed, and the attributes, dates and history of some works are updated. An attempt is made to identify prominent individuals of the pre-war era in the sculptural portraits created by J. Zikaras: undoubtedly – Colonel Stepas Rusteika, supposedly – Jonas Bielinis, Jonas Yčas, Povilas Žadeikis or Petras Klimas. After all, an extensive gallery of sculptural images is not just a series of realised artistic orders but also an ideological expression of the sculptor’s position – the society should know and recognise its characters. The newly attributed works and the revised dates established in the historiography allow us to say: we need a closer look at the artistic inheritance of the sculptor and to check the facts that became axioms. A more in-depth study of J. Zikaras’ creation and the spreading of art image and cultural relations during the past century in general would benefit from the summary of data about the circulation of author’s works, replicas and the change of owners of his works. On the other hand, in order to open the artistic creation as a whole, it is necessary to supplement the catalogue of his works with the surviving ones (there are sculptures in Lithuania that are not included in the catalogue, and the situation with works that are taken abroad is not known at all) as well as works considered lost.

Author(s):  
Vladislav Strutynsky

By analyzing one of the most eventful periods of the modern history of Poland, the early 80s of the XX century, the author examines the dynamics of social and political conflict on the eve of the introduction of martial law, which determines the location of the leading political forces in these events in Poland, that were grouped around the Polish United Labor Party and the Independent trade union «Solidarity», their governing structures and grassroots organizations, highlighting the development of socio-political situation in the country before entering the martial law on the 13th of December and analyzing the relation of the leading countries to the events, especially the Soviet Union. Also, the author distinguishes causes that prevent to reach the compromise in the process of realization different programs, that were offered to public and designed by PUWP and «Solidarity» and were “aimed” to help Polish society to exit an unprecedented conflict. This article provides a comparative analysis of the different analytical meaningful reasons, offered by historians, political scientists, lawyers, and led to the imposition of martial law in the Republic of Poland. The author also analyses the legality of such actions by the state and some conclusions that were reached by scientists, investigating the internal dynamics of the conflict and the process of implementation of tasks, that Polish United Workers’ Party (which ruled at that time) tried to solve with martial law and «Solidarity» was used as self-determination in Polish society. Keywords: Martial law, Independent trade union «Solidarity», inter-factory strike committee, social-political conflict, Polish United Workers’ Party, the Warsaw Pact, the Military Council of National Salvation


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Ciscel

The politics of language identity have figured heavily in the history of the people of the Republic of Moldova. Indeed the region's status as a province of Russia, Romania, and then the Soviet Union over the past 200 years has consistently been justified and, at least partially, manipulated on the basis of language issues. At the center of these struggles over language and power has been the linguistic and cultural identity of the region's autochthonous ethnicity and current demographic majority, the Moldovans. In dispute is the degree to which these Moldovans are culturally, historically, and linguistically related to the other Moldovans and Romanians across the Prut River in Romania. Under imperial Russia from 1812 to 1918 and Soviet Russia from 1944 to 1991, a proto-Moldovan identity that eschewed connections to Romania and emphasized contact with Slavic peoples was promoted in the region. Meanwhile, experts from Romania and the West have regularly argued that the eastern Moldovans are indistinguishable, historically, culturally, and linguistically, from their Romanian cousins.


Author(s):  
Ulambayar Denzenlkham

This article discusses Mongolia’s 15 years of diplomatic efforts to join the United Nations, the main factors that influenced it, and the changing policies and positions of the Soviet Union, the Kuomintang of China, the United States, and other great powers. Although the Mongolian People’s Republic was able to join the United Nations in 1946, it was influenced by the Soviet Union’s communist position. Since 1946, Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese policy and position have been a major obstacle. The history of the Republic of China, which existed on the mainland between 1912 and 1949, was the history of the struggle for power between the warlords, the history of the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communists. In the nearly 40 years since the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, neither the warlords nor the Kuomintang have been able to exercise their sovereignty on the mainland, but they are keen to see Outer Mongolia as part of their territory. The Kuomintang was expelled from the mainland in 1949, shortly after 1946. During the Korean War, initiated by Kim Il-sung, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, Mongolia stood firmly behind North Korea, providing both moral and material support. It has not been mentioned anywhere that this resulted in Mongolia’s efforts at the UN being postponed for many years. When Communist China entered the Korean War, the Kuomintang, which fully supported the US-led UN military operation (peacekeeping), not only continuously provoked at the Security Council of the United Nations, but also presented false documents about the MPR - described as “a Chinese territory seized by the Soviet Union” - sending troops to North Korea.The United States, which has recognized the status quo of the Mongolian People’s Republic, has made it clear that it has played an important role in the country’s admission to the United Nations. Thus Mongolia’s attempt finally succeeded and it became the 101st state to join the United Nations. As a consequence, Mongolia’s independence has been approved by a recognize of Western powers and it began to emerge out of its isolation, participate in decision of global issues, and cooperate with the international community. However, not only did this opportunity not be fully exploited, but due to the Cold War, Mongolia became a hotbed of ideological competition between the socialist and capitalist systems at the United Nations, the speakers’ rostrum Nevetheless,Post-Cold War, a whole new era of cooperation between Mongolia and the United Nations began.


2021 ◽  
pp. 213-239
Author(s):  
Aleksander Głogowski

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MILITARY AND CIVIL UNDERGROUND IN THE VILNIUS REGION IN 1939-1941 The first years of the occupation of the Vilnius Region were an unusual period in terms of the history of the Polish Underground State and the Polish armed resistance movement. This area was occupied after September 17, 1939 by the Soviet Union, but part of it was transferred to the Republic of Lithuania, along with which it was re-incorporated into the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian occupation was a considerable challenge both for the Polish authorities in exile and for the inhabitants of the Vilnius Region. Meeting such a challenge required certain diplomatic talents (not to worsen the situation of Poles living in this area) as well as knowledge of the relations in the area, which was a problem for the Polish authorities in France, and especially in Great Britain. The Polish inhabitants of the Vilnius Region considered the legal status of their land to be illegal occupation, while the Lithuanians claimed that thanks to a new agreement with the USSR, the period of occupation of these lands by Poles ended. These opinions, together with the mutual resentments and stereotypes flourishing for nearly 20 years, made the peaceful coexistence of two nations difficult, or even impossible. The government of the Republic of Poland tried to prevent the attempts to start an anti-Lithuanian uprising, not wanting to provoke the other two occupiers into military intervention. To this stage, it sought an intermediate solution between the abandonment of any conspiracy (which carried the threat of forming armed groups beyond the control of the legal Polish authorities) and its development on a scale known, for example, from the German or Soviet occupation. The Vilnius Region was to become the personnel and organisational base for the latter. The dilemma was resolved without Polish participation at the time of the annexation of the Republic of Lithuania by the Soviets. Then the second period of the Soviet occupation began, characterised by much greater brutality than the first one, with mass arrests, executions and deportations. The policy of repression primarily affected the pre-war military staff and their families, who were the natural base for the resistance movement of the intelligentsia. Fortunately, this process ended at the time of the German aggression against the USSR. Those that survived the period of the “second Soviet invasion” could in the new conditions continue their underground activities and prepare for an armed uprising in the circumstances and in the manner indicated by the Home Army Headquarters and the Polish Government in London.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 963-971
Author(s):  
K. V. Yumatov ◽  
K. N. Sivina

The research featured the history of the interstate relations between Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey, its main stages and issues, as well as its dependence on various internal political changes and political figures. What began as an internal conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan during Perestroika in the Soviet Union grew into an interstate affair, which currently involves the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The author believes that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after the military conflict of 2020 is an important part in historical and political studies on the Azerbaijan – Turkey relations. Initially, Turkey took a pro-Azerbaijani position in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, its negative attitude to Armenia put it on the periphery of the peacekeeping process in the OSCE Minsk Group. Guided by the ideology of "one people, two countries", Turkey helped Azerbaijan to overcome the political and economic crisis in the 1990s, as well as to lobby its interests in the UN, the NATO, the OSCE, and the OIC. In 2020, Erdogan’s expansionist policy allowed Azerbaijan to regain most territories annexed by Armenia during the Karabakh war in the 1990s.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 178-196
Author(s):  
Sergey Dmitriev

Grace to the famous discovery of Piotr Kozlov’s expedition, a very rich collection of various Tangut books in a mausoleum in the dead city of Khara-Khoto was found in 1908, and almost all the texts in the Tangut language were then assembled in Saint-Petersburg. Because of this situation Russian Tangutology became one of the most important in the world very fast, and Russian specialists, especially Alexej Ivanov, did the first steps to understanding the Tangut language and history, which had for a very long time been hidden from humanity.This tradition persisted in the Soviet Union. Nikolaj Nevskij in 1929 returned to Russia from Japan, where he had stayed after 1917, mainly to continue his Tangut researches. But in 1937, during Stalin’s Purge, he was arrested and executed, Ivanov too. The line of tradition was broken for almost twenty years, and only the 1960s saw the rebirth of Russian Tangutology. The post-War generation did a gigantic work, raising Tangut Studies to a new level. Unfortunately, they almost had no students or successors.The dramatic history of Tangut Studies in Russia could be viewed like a real quinta essentia of the fate of Oriental Studies in Russia – but all the changes and tendencies are much more demonstrative of this example.Mongolian Journal of International Affairs Vol.19 2014: 178-196


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Regina Laukaitytė

The present article deals with the history of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania between 1944 and 1990, focusing mainly on the exceptional situation of Orthodoxy conditioned by the Soviet attempts to exploit it via internal policy in the republic. Consolidating the Stalinist regime in occupied Lithuania in 1944–1948, the government demanded Orthodox archbishops start ‘the struggle against reactionary Catholicism’, i.e., start a critique of its dogmas, to bring the whole faith into disrespect, etc. Nevertheless, even though it enjoyed state support the Orthodox Church was too weak to compete successfully with Catholicism which remained dominant in the country. Small in number, Russian-speaking, alien to Lithuanian society and culture and lacking intellectual potential, the Orthodox Church failed to cope with the task. Besides, strengthening the position of Orthodoxy was not acceptable to the leadership of Soviet Lithuania. Though subsequently not directly protected, but having already strengthened its structures, the Orthodox Church continued to enjoy its favourable political image as a religion ‘less harmful’ to the interests of the state than Catholicism. Accordingly, the consequences of the antireligious campaign, conducted in the entire Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, were minimal in the Lithuanian eparchy. Some of the reforms were not implemented here altogether. In Lithuania the attention of the Soviet regime was concentrated mainly on the struggle against Catholicism, and Orthodoxy for a long time remained outside the sphere of atheistic propaganda. As time went by the Orthodox eparchy was put into the shade entirely by the concern of the KGB and the commissioners about the growing underground of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Meanwhile the structure of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania suffered comparatively insignificantly (only four parish churches were closed). The Orthodox communities shrank mainly as a result of the rising secularization and urbanization of society. Only communities in the major towns retained their former vitality.


1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Heuser

With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have come to a turning point, perhaps the most important turning point, in the short but complex history of nuclear strategy. The Cold War is now history, albeit the sort of history that we will be living with for a long time yet. It is therefore time to review the policies and strategies of the Cold War in a historical perspective. In this essay, it is NATO's nuclear strategy during the Cold War that will be the subject of such a review.2


Author(s):  
Sergey V. Bobryshov

The publication provides a response to the recently published book –“In front of my comrades...”. A collection of documents and materials from the history of the children's movement, Young Pioneer organisation, supplemented by the memories of former Young Pioneers and counselors, reflections, assessments, proposals of scientists and modern researchers of the children's movement, as well as topical articles from the experience of coordinators, consultants, and counselors of the participants in the children's movement of the 21st century. The author isolates the conceptual idea of the collection, examines the content, analyses individual ideas of the authors, makes proposals on the purpose and use of the collection's materials. The publication is recommended for youth workers, teachers, teachers of higher and secondary educational institutions, training organisers of the children's movement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 130-143
Author(s):  
Niiaz Valiev ◽  
◽  
Vladimir Propp ◽  
Aleksandr Vandyshev ◽  
◽  
...  

The article is dedicated to the history of the Department of Mining Engineering establishment and development. The Department of Mining Arts used to be its original name. The department has been reformed several times over its centennial history. In 1931 the country was in urgent need in engineers with narrow specializations and the department was divided into 6 departments: sheet deposits development, ore mining, mine construction, mine aeration and work safety, mine transport, and industrial management. Each of the departments still exists making its contribution to high-skilled mining engineers training. The departments of sheet deposits development and ore mining were an exception, as soon as they amalgamated 78 years later to establish the Department of Mining Engineering in 2009. Over the entire period of its existence, the departments of mining art-mining engineering have trained more than 10 thousand mining engineers, including 52 thousand specialists for foreign countries. The graduates have been working successfully in all regions of the Soviet Union and still work for mining enterprises in Russia and abroad. There are 2 academicians, 18 Doctors of Science, more than 60 PhDs, 3 Lenin and State Prize laureates, 6 Heroes of Socialist Labour, 2 Deputy Ministers of the Government of the Russian Federation, local Government Chairmen, and Governors of the regions of the Russian Federation among the graduates of the department.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document