A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Issue 2020, 2-3 Download.
Lithuanian politician and ex-President Algirdas Brazauskas was a Communist leader, who became a reformer of considerable prominence, a Western-style social democrat, and finally a statesman, European-style. Here is an interview with this pragmatic leader, only shortly before he died in cancer in June 2010.
In this interview professor Birgitta Almgren discusses her study on Nazi-German infiltration in Sweden and the offshoots, in Cold War Sweden, of the GDR’s policies. She is now requesting that the Swedish law courts make it possible for her to continue her research by granting her access to the so-called Rosenholz files. In a comment professor Åmark argues for a release of the Stasi-material.
To be tolerated is to be disliked. Minorities are oppressed and persecuted to a degree that is difficult to absorb, says David Gaunt. Within the affected group, it takes several generations to dare to talk about genocide.
Joachim Gauck was 50 years old when he first voted in a free, democratic election in the GDR. A conversation about power and powerlessness, culpability, and reconciliation. The opposite of Communism is individualism, he states.
István Rév opens the door to the Open Society Archives for a discussion about bloodshed as a poor gauge of a revolution, about honesty and decency as rare commodities, and about populism and utopianism.
Conor O'Dwyer, professor of political science, talks about a backlash at the political level also. Sexual minorities in Poland and Latvia have had their rights restricted following EU accession.
Cultural historian Karl Schlögel reflects on what sort of components create a geographic space. Interpretations of what took place and what is taking place always occur in a spatial context.
Historian Mats Fridlund says that the technological and scientific development of weapons has influenced the choice of method and the type of people who have become perpetrators. When the revolver became smaller and lighter, female terrorists became more common.
The historian Marta Reuter conducts research on how concepts are created and filled with meaning. NGOs are thought to stand for democratic values, but the Hell’s Angels are also elements of civil society.
The Polish sociologist Piotr Sztompka explains how he became fascinated by the laws and theories governing the behavior of individuals and the dynamics of society. Soon, his work on social existence, which examines the macro level, will be published.
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.
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