Fighting Religious Persecution behind the Iron Curtain

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-123
Author(s):  
Lauren Frances Turek
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Network Building

This chapter examines evangelical interest groups on behalf of persecuted Soviet Pentecostals and Baptists during the Reagan administration. It shows how evangelicals combined human rights activism at home with focused network building in the Soviet bloc in order to support their suffering brethren and lay the foundation for expanded evangelistic opportunities in the communist world. It also describes the evangelical organizations and missionary groups that ensured the postcommunist states would guarantee religious liberty for their citizens and allow foreigners to evangelize as the Soviet Union began to collapse during the Bush administration. The chapter discusses how effective were Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favoured regimes and to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that persecuted Christians and stifled evangelism. It also investigates why U.S. evangelicals lend support to repressive authoritarian regimes in the name of human rights.

The Human Rights of Foreign Labor

Worldview ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Steven Charnovitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Labor ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Press ◽  
Developed World ◽  
New Criteria

Little noticed by the press. United States trade policy is undergoing significant changes aimed at promoting the rights of workers in foreign countries—changes achieved through the use of both a carrot and a stick. The carrot, now being offered to the less-developed world, is dutyfree access to the U.S. market for qualifying products exported by countries that meet certain new criteria on bbor. The stick is a ban on imports made by forced labor— something the Reagan administration is under increasing pressure to invoke against the Soviet Union. While it is too early to gauge the success of such attempts at exercising economic leverage, they may yet become a milestone in the march of human rights.

Bonn's Ostpolitik at the Crossroads?

1983 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-262
Author(s):  
Jyotirmoy Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Leadership Changes ◽  
The Cold War

In September 1982 the Social and Free Democratic coalition1 collapsed after thirteen years' rule; the conservative Union parties coalesced with the Free Democrats to return to power in Bonn. Two months later Brezhnev died in Moscow amidst an ongoing new Cold War with the Reagan Administration. His successor, as the Chief of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), turned out to be the former KGB chief, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov. With time running out for NATO's deployment of new missiles in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and other West European states, and a significant conservative victory in the United Kingdom elections in June 1983, elements of uncertainty in the crucial relations between Bonn and Moscow may have increased. Between 1969 and 1982 the (SPD) had managed to reverse the (CDU's) twenty years of hardline approach to the Soviet bloc. Despite irritations, Bonn under SPD-led governments managed to keep its ostpolitik on an even keel. Central European detente seemed to have survived the collapse of the larger, superpower rapprochement. The critical question in mid-1983, following the conservative election victories in Bonn and London and against the background of significant US-USSR rivalry, is whether the latter rivalry would also suck into its vortex relative peace in Central Europe. Should that happen, the Cold War would return to Europe, reinforce the anomalies emanating from a divided Germany as well as the superpower adversary relationship in turn. In this context the present article will, first, take a retrospective look at ostpolitik, its causes and achievements, then explore Bonn's relations with Moscow as they evolved while the SPD was in power and, finally analyze the implications of the leadership changes in Bonn and Moscow for the future of ostpolitik.

scholarly journals ‘Pearl Harbor without Bombs’: A Critical Geopolitics of the US—Japan ‘FSX’ Debate

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 975-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Ó Tuathail
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
World Order ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of

In the spring of 1989 a proposed fighter-aircraft codevelopment and coproduction deal between General Dynamics and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry presented the Bush administration with its first foreign policy crisis. The deal to construct a modified version of General Dynamic's F-16 called the FSX (fighter support experimental) for the Japanese government with use of US technology was first approved by the Reagan administration and subsequently revised and supported by the Bush administration. The submission of the deal to Congress for approval by the Bush administration on 1 May 1989 provided the occasion for a sustained and wide-ranging debate within the US political system over the role of the USA in a changing world order. For many the question of the FSX fighter was symbolic of a series of larger issues which confronted the USA. Could the USA continue to conceptualize national security in geopolitical terms when its leading ally was also its leading competitor in world markets? Was the most significant threat to the USA from an East-West struggle with the Soviet Union, or with Japan? This paper is a critical geopolitics of the FSX debate in which the conflicting geographical scripts of Japan as both ally and threat are investigated. The debate provides a window into a larger struggle within the USA between an emergent geo-economic definition of national security and an increasingly materially unsustainable geopolitical vision of the US role in the world.

scholarly journals A Case of “New Soviet Internationalism”: Relations between the USSR and Chile's Christian Democratic Government, 1964–1970

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-25
Author(s):  
Rafael Pedemonte
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Relations

After Iosif Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union emerged from its isolation and began to show an interest in traditionally marginalized foreign societies. As the example of the Chilean-Soviet rapprochement under Eduardo Frei's administration (1964–1970) shows, Soviet leaders viewed state-to-state relations with “progressive” Latin American regimes as an appropriate means of undermining U.S. influence in the region without risking an armed confrontation with “imperialism.” The reformist project of the Chilean Christian Democratic government, which included a diplomatic opening to the Soviet bloc, provided a testing ground for the suitability of Moscow's new global approach. The surge of cultural and political exchanges indicate that the Soviet authorities were keenly interested in the Chilean experience. In addition, the considerable growth of travel and official missions beyond the Iron Curtain also demonstrates that Santiago wished to benefit by diversifying its international partners.

scholarly journals The antiseptic Miramistin: a review of its comparative in vitro and clinical activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Osmanov ◽  
Zara Farooq ◽  
Malcolm D Richardson ◽  
David W Denning
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Clinical Activity ◽  
Good Tolerability ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Low Toxicity

ABSTRACT Miramistin is a topical antiseptic with broad antimicrobial action, including activity against biofilms and a clinical profile showing good tolerability. Miramistin was developed within a framework of the Soviet Union Cold War Space Program. It is available for clinical use in several prior Soviet bloc countries, but barely known outside of these countries and there is almost no mention of miramistin in the English literature. However, considering emerging antimicrobial resistance, the significant potential of miramistin justifies its re-evaluation for use in other geographical areas and conditions. The review consists of two parts: (i) a review of the existing literature on miramistin in English, Russian and Ukrainian languages; (ii) a summary of most commonly used antiseptics as comparators of miramistin. The oral LD50 was 1200 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg and 100 g/L in rats, mice and fish, respectively. Based on the results of the review, we suggest possible applications of miramistin and potential benefits over currently used agents. Miramistin offers a novel, low toxicity antiseptic with many potential clinical uses that need better study which could address some of the negative impact of antimicrobial, antiseptic and disinfectant resistance.

Lukewarm Neutrality in a Cold War? The Case of Austria

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwin A. Schmidl
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Other Orientation ◽  
Over Time

Geographically, Austria's position during the Cold War differed significantly from that of Switzerland or Sweden, let alone Ireland. Austria, like Finland, was situated along the Iron Curtain. In 1945, Austria was divided between East and West, and the Soviet Union hoped that the Austrian Communists could quickly gain power by largely democratic means. This effort failed, however, when the Communists lost decisively in the November 1945 elections. Over the next decade, Austria remained under Soviet and Western military occupation. The formal adoption of a neutral status for Austria in May 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty was signed, was a compromise needed to ensure the departure of Soviet forces from Austria. Although some other orientation might have been preferred, neutrality over time became firmly engrained in Austria's collective identity.

Revisiting the 1954 Coup in Guatemala: The Soviet Union, the United Nations, and “Hemispheric Solidarity”

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Denise Getchell
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Good Neighbor ◽  
The Cold War

This article reevaluates the U.S.-backed coup in 1954 that overthrew Guatemala's democratically elected president, Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. The coup is generally portrayed as the opening shot of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere and a watershed moment for U.S.–Latin American relations, when the United States supplanted its Good Neighbor Policy with a hardline anti-Communist approach. Despite the extensive literature on the coup, the Soviet Union's perspectives on the matter have received scant discussion. Using Soviet-bloc and United Nations (UN) archival sources, this article shows that Latin American Communists and Soviet sympathizers were hugely influential in shaping Moscow's perceptions of hemispheric relations. Although regional Communists petitioned the Soviet Union to provide support to Árbenz, officials in Moscow were unwilling to prop up what they considered a “bourgeois-democratic” revolution tottering under the weight of U.S. military pressure. Soviet leaders were, however, keen to use their position on the UN Security Council to challenge the authority of the Organization of American States and undermine U.S. conceptions of “hemispheric solidarity.” The coup, moreover, revealed the force of anti-U.S. nationalism in Latin America during a period in which Soviet foreign policy was in flux and the Cold War was becoming globalized.

scholarly journals Saving Ghana's Revolution: The Demise of Kwame Nkrumah and the Evolution of Soviet Policy in Africa, 1966–1972

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-25
Author(s):  
Natalia Telepneva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Intelligence Service

On 24 February 1966, Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown in a coup d’état. The coup rekindled a debate within the Soviet bloc about the prospects of socialism in Africa and about the appropriateness of certain policies. Soviet officials concluded that they would have to focus on establishing close relations with the armies and internal security forces of African countries. This article explores how Nkrumah's loyalists in exile and their sympathizers in Ghana attempted to launch a leftwing counter-coup in Accra in 1968 and the involvement of Warsaw Pact countries—notably the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia—in those events. The article sheds new light on “Operation ALEX,” a botched attempt by the Czechoslovak intelligence service to support Nkrumah loyalists in their plans for a countercoup. The article reexamines the late 1960s as an important period for the militarization of the Cold War in Africa and highlights the crucial role that African politicians themselves played in this process.

scholarly journals Uriel Weinreich’s “Languages in Contact” in the Soviet Union: Treading a Dangerous Ground

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (45) ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
Oleksandra Litvinyak
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Russian Translation ◽  
Editorial Policy ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Limited Access ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
Financial Feasibility ◽  
The Soviet Union

 In a democratic society with a market economy, editorial policy is often a matter of financial feasibility rather than anything else. Meanwhile, totalitarian societies approach it from a different angle, frequently putting political considerations in the centre. Living behind the Iron Curtain, Soviet scholars had very limited access to Western publications – very few of them were translated into the languages of Soviet republics. What is more, research shows that they were subject to censorship, just like literary works. Besides, the work of a translator, being invisible to the majority of readers, could be quite dangerous and ruin one’s scholarly career. Thus, a scholar embarking on a translation journey to acquaint their colleagues with the best samples of world research had to be very considerate. Such was the case of the Russian translation of Uriel Weinreich’s seminal book Languages in Contact done by the Ukrainian linguist, translator, lexicographer, and educator Yuriy Zhluktenko. The present paper explores the matter of censorship and self-censorship in this translation and its paratexts.

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