Teaching Literature in a Post-Dictatorship Country

Albanian literature curricula in a high school system has incorporated in a few years a lot of concepts, authors and methodology pretending in absorbed and integration of knowledge worldwide on literature teaching process and environment. Analyzing the academic process of constructing the base and the theoretical axis of the teachers, which actually are teaching literature can be noticed easily that a large number of them in their last ten years of their professional carrier has nothing to do with it. Their studies in university stage was only ideologized and focused on socialist realism. The university’s curriculum was strictly handicapped and based on the communist ideology on “creating the new people- the communist one”, as the literature itself, and every art form was “shaped” as it. Being such a teacher nowadays in Albania you have to face a challenge: You feel prejudged by your “experienced” colleges, who has not accepted and never “known” really the perspective of reading a fiction text as a “open text”. You felt yourself “trapped” in textbooks, their sources and their perspective is limited on their authors theoretical backgrounds. Having a parenting and student tradition, mentality as their academic success is based only on “the book” (even if in Albania we have more than 10 years practicing “altertext”-as a possibility of performing the subject program through the book chosen by teachers between three or four possibilities) makes it difficult to provide an “open” experience on learning through a based bibliography. The academic coordinators in pre-university system, aren’t always ready for the teacher who want to realize the teaching process leaded by the ideas of globalization, open minded individual, constructive perspective of the personality of the student, on national history and tradition versus “the other”.

The Third Path into the Twilight? Corruption in Socialist Yugoslavia

Corruption in socialist Yugoslavia was a specific phenomenon when compared to the inter-war period or to post-socialism. In contrast to liberalism, communist ideology did not support an understanding of corruption as a problem of its own but tended to see political and material “deviations” as originating from the same root – i. e., from a lack of political morale. The League of Communists failed to live up to its role as an educator of society, since it was trapped between declarative moral rigorism and the fact that material need and greed could be satisfied best by becoming a party member.

THE MANAGEMENT OF AGITATION AND PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN IZMAIL REGION UkrSSR IN 1944–1945

The work aims to study the formation of a system of ideological influence on the Izmail region’s population in 1944–1945. Based on archival sources and materials of the regional press, the tasks of agitation and propaganda activities, the general forms and methods used by the Communist Party to spread ideology among the population of the annexed region were revealed. The author paid particular attention to determining the role of the regional party leadership in managing and conducting agitation and propaganda. The methodology. The study is based on the principles of historicism, scientificity, objectivity, systematics, specificity, and reliance on historical sources. With the aid of the historical-typological method, it was possible to determine the main tasks, forms, and methods of agitation and propaganda. The historical-comparative method opens the way to reveal the peculiarities of ideological work with various categories of the citizens and to determine the specific features of the Communist Party’s agitation and propaganda activities in the Izmail region. The application of historical-systemic and historical-genetic methods contributed to the consideration of various measures to ideologize the population in co-relation, to identify the causal links between the methods and results of propaganda policy. The scientific novelty. For the first time, a comprehensive analysis of agitation and propaganda activities in the Izmail region after the territory was returned to the USSR has been carried out. The conclusions. The analysis of the party documentation of the Izmail regional committee of the Communist Party gives reason to assume that immediately after the region returned to the USSR, the Soviet leadership launched active information and propaganda activities among the population. During 1944–1945, a network of agitation teams, groups of lecturers and speakers was formed to spread communist ideology among various segments of the population, a system of party propaganda bodies was created, events to celebrate new Soviet holidays were organized, and radio broadcasting and adaptation for the cinema were organized. The media, cultural and educational institutions, Komsomol organizations, and pioneers played a significant role in propaganda activities. Propaganda and agitation departments established at the region, city, and district committees of the Communist Party were constantly monitoring the ideological activity progress.

New life of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia: towards the “Soviet person” (late 1920s)

In the 1920s, throughout the USSR, there were well-known processes of unification of a heterogeneous social structure, ultimately designed to create a unified Soviet society. The attitude of the Old Believers of Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Chita District of the Far Eastern Territory to what was happening during this period became one of the most problematic in terms of the introduction of Communist principles. This was recognised by almost all local Party officials and cultural workers. Formally reproducing the structures of Soviet political and economic institutions, adopting technical innovations and the specifics of the "cultural revolution" in their lives – in reality, the Semeiskie Old Believers often did not seek to change their views on the world, religious identity for the sake of forming the Soviet type of personality. The purpose of the work is to analyse the relationship between the authorities and the Old Believers, as well as the everyday perception of the Communist ideology by the latter. Hence, the main problem can be considered the identification of the reaction of the Semeiskie (including the Communists) to the intensified in their community anti-religious propaganda by the late 1920s – the main condition for changing the paradigm of the worldview. Another problem is to research the ideological (educational) aspect of the new way of life and people's attitudes towards it. As a brief conclusion it should be noted that the process of the formation of the Soviet type of personality in the Old Believers’ environment of Transbaikalia by the early 1930s had a formal character of development: the ideologisation of the population with atheistic propaganda were not tied in the minds of people as an indispensable prerequisite for their new cultural life.

Kardynał Stefan Wyszyński w obronie praw narodu

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Defense of the Rights of the Nation The impulse to refer to the personal exemplar of Primate Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński and his teachings about the nation and family are the tendencies of moral relativism present in social life, resulting from the belief that only effectiveness and practical usefulness determine what is true and what is good. Seeing in this the threat of a return to „the only right and true doctrine”, which in truth is no longer the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, but destructive views opposing national culture, I consider it justified to recall one of the most outstanding Poles of the 20th century, for whom the good of Poland and Poles were the primary defense of human rights and the right of the nation to independence and justice. He tried to bring to light those values inherent in the nation that could effectively resist these growing threats. These defenses were cited as particularly valuable for the life of the nation and the Church in a totalitarian state that is striving to objectify and incapacitate the individual. However, faith combined with the morality of the Nation formed by the Church contributed to the maintenance of national unity and allowed it to survive in the conditions of communist restrictions. In order to release the Nation from the supremacy of communist ideology, the Primate of the Millennium did not hesitate to confront this system. Even his arrest and imprisonment did not discourage him from serving God and the Homeland. His nobility of heart, bravery of spirit and determination to defend the rights of the nation made him a hero who will not be forgotten!

Ideological Imperative of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in Activity of Universities in Slovakia (1948–1953)

The paper on the base of archive materials, published documents and scientific literature analyzes situation that occurred at Slovak universities after Communist coup in February 1948, with a focus on ideological pressure of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in this segment of society. The paper documents means that Communist Party of Czechoslovakia used to transform educational process and other activities in such a way that universities became subservient to communist ideology – the Marxism-Leninism. The paper is devoting attention to setting-up the Marxism-Leninism as the self-standing topic into academic program of universities.

Educating the New Soviet Man: Propagated Image and Hidden Resistance in Soviet Latvia

The New Soviet Man has been studied primarily from the perspective of its creators, propagators of Communist ideology, while the recipients of the New Soviet Man project and its immediate end users, namely pupils and teachers were largely ignored. Hence, the present research, while capturing and utilizing the experience of Soviet Latvia from 1945 to 1985, sets the research questions as to how the image of the New Soviet Man was presented and introduced at schools and how the concept of the New Soviet Man was perceived and utilised by the “objects” of this state contract – teachers and pupils. The research corpus includes 26 textbooks, 265 school photos and 367 student profile records. For the research purposes, four discursive domains of the New Soviet Man project were identified, namely, socio-biological discourse (gender, body, sexuality and health); social discourse (social class); spatial discourse (nationality) and discourse of individuality (personality, character traits). Given that the dictatorship unavoidably engenders the conflict of interests and resistance, the research corpus allowed to detect some tiny openings for the oppressed to express their views, some elements of pupils’ and teachers’ subtle resistance to the creation of the New Soviet Man, by using horizontal solidarity, avoidance, and slipping into the Grey Zone.

An Intellectual on a Mission: Abdullah Jalal Fatah, his dissertation on Kurdish culture (1978) and heritage making inspired by Józef Chałasiński and Polish academia

The paper presents a previously unknown doctoral dissertation prepared in the 1970s in Polish by Abdullah Jalal Fatah under the guidance of Polish sociologist Józef Chałasiński. The thesis, entitled ‘Development and Dissemination of the Kurdish Culture in Iraq’, bears the mark of communist ideology but also of Polish heritagisation, in which culture and intellectuals became an important driving force in the process of nation-building and in seeking international recognition. Following David C. Harvey’s definition of heritage, and focusing primarily on its intangible aspects, we suggest that Fatah’s thesis can be read today as an interesting document of Kurdish heritage-making inspired by Polish experience and academic tradition. Abstract in Kurmanji Rewşenbîrekî bi peywir: Evdila Celal Fetah, teza wî ya li ser çanda kurdî (1978) û mîratsazkirina bi îlhama Yuzêf Xalasînskî û akademisyenên polonî Ev nivîsar tezeke doktorayê ya nenas pêşkêşî xwendevanan dike ku di salên 1970î de, ji hêla Evdila Celal Fetah ve û bi çavdêriya civaknasê polonî Yuzêf Xalasînskî, bi polonî hat nivîsandin. Di bin navê ‘Pêşketin û belavbûna çanda kurdî li Iraqê’ de, ev tez nîşanên bandora îdeolojiya komunîst di xwe de vedihewîne, digel mîratsaziya polonî ya ku çand û rewşenbîr tê de rola hêzeke çalakger û bingehîn dileyizin di pêvajoya netewesazkirin û pesenda navneteweyî de. Li gorî pênaseya mîratê ya David C. Harvey, ku bi taybetî li ser aliyên wê yên neguherbar radiweste, em pêşniyazî vê yekê dikin ku teza Fetah wek belgeyeke balkêş a mîratsazkirina kurdî bi îlhama tecrube û adeta akademîk ên polonî bê xwendin. Abstract in Sorani Rewşenbîrêk be peyamêkewe: ‘Ebdullah Celal Fetah, doktoranamekey le ser keltûrî kurdî (1978) û kelepûrsazî le jêr karîgerî Yuzêf Xallasînskî û ekadimyay pollend de Em nûsîne basî le doktoraname nenasrawekey ‘Ebdullah Celal Fetah dekat ke le sallekanî 1970 da be zimanî pollendî û be serpereştî komellnasî pollendî Yuzêf Xalasînskî bû. Nawnîşanî doktoranameke, ‘Geşesendin û bellawbûney keltûrî kurdî le ‘Êraq’, karîgerî aydyolojyay komînîzim û kelepûrî pollendî le ser diyar e. Têda keltûr û roşnbîran bûn be hêzêkî cullêner bo prosey nîştîmansazî û danpyananî nêwdewlletî. Bepişbestin be pênasey kelepûrî Devîd Harvî we be giringîdan be layene bercestenekrawekanî, pişnyardekeyn ke doktoranamekey nawbraw le êsta da babetêkî benirx debêt leser kelepûrsazî le jêr karîgerî ezmûnî ekadîmyay Pollenda de. Abstract in Zazaki Roşnvîrêko bimîsyon: Ebdullah Celal Fatah, bi îlhamê Józef Chałasińskî akademîsyenanê Polonya tezê ey ê doktora derheqê kulturê kurdan (1978) û mîrasviraştoxîye de No nuşte tezê doktora ke verê cû nêamebî zanayene û 1970an de binê rayberîya sosyologê polonî Józef Chałasińskî de hetê Ebdullah Celal Fatahî ra bi ziwanê polonkî ameyo nuştene, ey pêşkêş keno. Tezê bi sernuşteyê “Îraq de Averşîyayîş û Vilabîyayîşê Kulturê Kurdan” hem wayîrê nîşanê îdeolojîya komunîstan o hem kî yê mîrassazîya polonan o ke tede kultur û roşnîvîrî benê hêzê averşîyayîşî yo muhîm seba prosesê neteweviraştişî û girewtişê tesdiqê mîyanneteweyî. Goreyê tarîfê mîrasî yê Davîd C. Harveyî û bi giranîya hetanê ci yê nemadîyan ser o, ma pêşnîyaz kenîme ke tezê Fatahî yo ke hetê tecrube û edetanê akedemîsyananê polonan ra îlham girewto, ewro sey belgeyê mîrasviraştoxîya kurdan o balkêş bêro wendene.

The Poetry and Prose, as Well as the Impact of Communist Ideology in the Albanian Literature of the ’80

Albanian literature has come a long way through the many historical events it has passed and managed to survive. One of the harshest periods for Albanian literature, has not come as a consequence of external invasion, but from within. The communist dictatorship in Albania, which started in the remains of the Second World War, and lasted up until 1991, besides controlling the politics, foreign relationships, economy and social structures, used art and in particular literature as a weapon to demolish free thought and enforce its ideology through the canonized structures and cliches, such as the martyrdom. This led the Albanian authors to find new ways hidden inside literary figures, which they mastered, to spread their message and express their true thoughts and feelings beyond the censorship, and trained the readers to read through and understand the intentions of the authors.