A Populist President Tests El Salvador’s Democracy

In June 2019, Nayib Bukele, a former mayor affiliated with the former guerrilla movement FMLN, became president of El Salvador at the head of a new party allied with a splinter faction of the right-wing ARENA party. Capitalizing on the corruption scandals that tainted the two major parties, the youthful businessman rode to victory on an anti-sleaze platform. He has made Twitter his government’s main communications platform, using symbolic politics to achieve high public approval ratings. But the president spurns openness and transparency in government, is hostile to the media, and openly defies the legislature and the judiciary, putting democracy at risk.

Społeczno-kulturowe zaplecze ideologii socjalizmu w Czarnogórze

W artykule omawia się w perspektywie chronologicznej i problemowej podstawowe przyczyny skutecznej adaptacji idei socjalistycznych w Czarnogórze w XX wieku. Obok źródeł myśli serbskiej, rosyjskiej i niemieckiej ważną rolę odegrał tu miejscowy paradygmat etyki heroicznej, kolektywizmu i egalitaryzmu, a także warunki ekonomiczne, związki polityczne z Rosją oraz słabość tradycji feudalnej i mieszczańskiej. Przedstawione przykłady ilustrują różne warianty rozumienia socjalizmu: jako postpatriarchalnego solidaryzmu, rewolucjonizmu etycznego, komunizmu utopijnego i antybiurokratyzmu. Elementy tych koncepcji dostrzegalne są zarówno w ich pierwszych czarnogórskich manifestacjach z lat 1905-1920, działalności międzywojennej KPJ, jak i w rewolucyjnym dyskursie antyfaszystowskiego ruchu partyzanckiego. Podobnie oryginalna geneza społeczno-kulturowa cechuje dokumentację zjawiska z okresów sporu z Międzynarodówką Komunistyczną (od 1948, w tym wypowiedzi Milovana Đilasa), budowy ustroju socjalizmu samorządowego i wydarzeń z lat 1987-1989. Socio-Cultural Basis of the Ideology of Socialism in Montenegro The paper discusses, in the chronological and problematic perspective, the essential reasons for the effective adaptation of socialist ideas in Montenegro in 20th century. Apart from sources of Serbian, Russian and German thought, it was local heroic ethics, collectivism and egalitarianism paradigm, economic conditions, political relations with Russia, and also instability of feudal and bourgeois tradition that were crucial to this reception. The examples presented here illustrate various variants of the understanding of socialism: as post-patriarchal solidarism, ethical revolutionarism, utopian communism and anti-bureaucraticism. The elements of these conceptions can be noticed in their first Montenegrin manifestations of 1905-1920, the activity of the interwar YCP as well as in the revolutionary discourse of the antifascist guerrilla movement. Similarly original socio-cultural origin characterises the documentation of the depicted phenomenon in the periods of dispute with Communist International (from 1948, including Milovan Djilas statements), construction of the self-government socialism system and events of 1987-1989.

From Earthquake to ‘Red Maquis’, September 1954 to June 1956

The chapter examines how the Communist Party, following the decision of June 1955 to organize the paramilitary Combattants de la libération (CDL), established a short-lived guerrilla, the so-called ‘Red Maquis’, in the Chelif region. The clandestine structure had begun to take root as a consequence of the massive earthquake of September 1954, centred on Orleansville, that exposed the long-term failure of the colonial state to develop the rural economy. The communists rapidly created the Fédération des sinistrés that established a network of peasant cells that soon became the base of the Red Maquis. While the communists were successful in creating a guerrilla base centred on Medjadja, the main group inserted by Laban and Maillot in the Beni Boudouane was rapidly located and destroyed by the army, assisted by the bachaga Boualam. The catastrophic failure of the Red Maquis highlighted the failure of the Algiers-based central committee to prepare the ground for a guerrilla movement. However, several key participants escaped the military encirclement and were soon absorbed into the FLN on the dissolution of the CDL in July 1956.

The Communist Party and Peasant Mobilization, c.1932–48

The Algerian Communist Party (PCA) played a particularly important role in the anti-colonial movement in the Chelif region, a prominence that explains why it was chosen as the primary base for the ‘Red Maquis’ guerrilla force in 1956. Chapter 7 looks at the way in which the PCA, dominated by the French Communist Party, initially opposed nationalism and followed the orthodox Marxist doctrine that the peasantry could not constitute a revolutionary class, a vanguard role that could only be assumed by an industrial or urban proletariat. In the Chelif region the veteran communist and trade union leader Mohamed Marouf reflected this position and focused propaganda work on the farm labourers of the plain while neglecting the mountain peasants that were seen as a form of seasonal, blackleg labour. However, from 1932 onwards a minority movement began to emerge in the PCA that was favourable to a peasant-based strategy, and in 1944 this led to the creation of the Syndicat des petits cultivateurs (SPC). The peasant-based movement that developed in the Aurès, Tlemçen, and Chelif mountains during the late 1940s and prepared the ground for a later guerrilla movement.

The Battle for the douars and the djemâa Elections of 1947

The nationalist mobilization of peasants in the Chelif market centres (Chapter 8) went in parallel with the first steps to extend anti-colonial organization directly into the mountainous interior and to form peasant-led cells. Contestation centred, in particular, on the election of the djemâas which allowed delegates to be elected on party lists, a political counter-weight to the caids and commune mixte apparatus. A number of case-studies of such direct penetration into the interior are investigated for the douars north and south of Duperré, to the east of Ténès, and near Cherchell, to track the process of radicalization, and the preparation of rural networks that later became the basis of the early guerrilla movement. The 1947 election marked an important watershed since the unexpected success of the communist and Messalist advance among the peasantry met with a ferocious response from the new governor Naegelin in early 1948, and a wave of police repression, arrests, electoral fraud, and annulling of electoral gains. This ensured the continuation of the moribund commune mixte system, with fatal long-term consequences for the intelligence state, while both communists and nationalists abandoned a peaceful route to independence by preparing for armed insurrection.

Military Resistance to the Brazilian Coup: The Fight of Officers and Soldiers against Authoritarian Rule, 1964–67

ABSTRACTThis article traces resistance among members of the armed forces who opposed the military dictatorship in Brazil during the first four years of the regime, 1964–67. I show that despite scholars’ efforts to depict the 1964 coup as a project supported by the armed forces as a strategic and ideological unit, there were battle lines within those forces along which hard-liners and moderate interventionists battled for government control. There were, in fact, hundreds of officers and soldiers who opposed the coup and organized against it. To contain resistance efforts inside the armed forces, the generals who orchestrated the coup labeled opponents to intervention as communists and expelled them from the institution, in many cases under considerable duress. This article discusses the first opposition efforts of officers and soldiers, particularly the Nationalist Armed Resistance (RAN) and the Caparaó Guerrilla Movement. Members of the military who were opposed to the coup shared an anti-interventionism and nationalism that united them against the regime. After 1964, their efforts to oppose military interventionism, previously carried out inside the military barracks, became the fight of all its opponents, members of the armed forces and civilians alike.

IN MEMORY OF THE LEGENDARY COUNTRYMAN DAYAN MURZIN

In our country, 2020 has been declared the Year of Memory and Glory by a decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. More than 25 million citizens of our country gave their lives for the Victory. The Republic of Bashkortostan made a significant contribution to the victory over fascist Germany. The names of such heroes of the Great Patriotic War as Minigali Shaimuratov, Musa Gareev, Tagir Kusimov, Dayan Murzin, Alexander Matrosov and Minigali Gubaidullin became known outside the republic and country. The article is devoted to the combat path of Dayan Bayanovich Murzin, who was an active participant in the guerrilla movement and the Resistance Movement in Czechoslovakia, the hero of Czechoslovakia. The assistance of the Red Army to the Slovak popular uprising is examined, the role of the Soviet Union in the organization of the Resistance Movement in Eastern Europe is shown.

The first raid of N. Makhno`s Peasant Army to Starobilsk region and its consequences in September 1920

The article considers the course and results of N. Makhno`s Peasant Insurgent Army raid to Starobilsk region in 1920. The author states, that the military activities of N. Makhno, in the then Starobilsk district of Kharkiv province in 1920, are the least covered in the works of Ukrainian and foreign historians among the aspects of the research the Makhnovist movement in 1917–1921. The importance of studying is that exactly in this region N. Makhno had made a number of significant strategic decisions that influenced the future fate of the peasant guerrilla movement. Additionally, in Starobilsk, on October 2 1920, N. Makhno signed an agreement with the Bolsheviks on a joint campaign in the Crimea, where were units of the White Army at the same time that led by General P. Wrangel. Prehistory review of these events is the object of studying in this article. The research presented in the article founded largely on the analysis of published documentary materials and historical works of Ukrainian representatives and foreign historiography. As a result of the research, the author concludes, that N. Makhno`s acceptance of Starobilsk in September 1920 was not related to the solution of core strategic problems. That was apparently due to necessity of the rest and reformed the army after the battles in the Izium region. The seizure of the locality was also owing to the desire to clear the rear of the Insurgent Army from the Bolshevik forces before the decisive attack on Luhansk, where the ataman hoped to replenish ammunition. Concomitantly, there were spontaneous requisitions of Soviet institutions property, warehouses and enterprises located here carried out in the city. The important factor similarly was considered the seizure of Starobilsk contributed to the consolidation of previously disparate local pro-Makhnovist detachments.

Partisan movement in areas outside the partisan territories Smolensk region during the Great Patriotic War

The article provides the analysis of the characteristics of the guerrilla movement on the territory of the Smolensk region (within the borders of 1939) outside the large partisan territories. One of the many factors that influenced the organization and range of activity of the guerrilla movement was the activity of the party and Soviet district leaders.

Leaflets and appeals of the central committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus to the Soviet citizens in German-occupied Belarus

The analysis of the content of the appeal leaflets was to show what the Soviet leadership set for the people responsible for propaganda. The image of the enemy presented to the Belarusian society convinced them to uncompromising fight. The propaganda also left no doubt that any work strengthening the occupants’ potential was a betrayal of the Soviet homeland. It reminded that the loyalty of the inhabitants of occupied Belarus should be shown only to the Soviet authorities. The one more goal of the research was to show the effects of propaganda work. They were clearly visible. This was manifested by a powerful guerrilla movement on the territory of the republic and a small, compared to neighboring republics Lithuania and Ukraine, implementation of imposed standards for the supply of labor to Germany and food contingents.