Despite the context of contemporary post-heroic indifference, our intention is to re-analyze the concept of heroism, not in the modernist (totalizing and iconic), or in the post-modernist ...(de-heroizing and ironic) way, but in the optics of hermeneutic re-reading of the specific teachers’ stories from the Stalinist years of the totalitarian regime. In the contribution we bring a conceptual identification of features of the ethical-characterial understanding of “hero without a halo”, by which we want to break the simplistic dichotomy between heroic and everyday – we introduce a third concept – “a hero of everyday life”. We point out how the mythical-idealistic idea of heroism perverted to a collective ideology and how the reality of the communist totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia demanded heroes – heroes of everyday life. The aim of the research is to find the occurrence of the identifying features of the “everyday hero” in particular stories of three teachers from the times of socialist Czechoslovakia, with the help of narrative analysis.
This paper analyses the most important processes of Ukrainian culture development in early totalitarian period of 1920s. The fundamental approach for assessing this period was the fact that the ...formation of the totalitarian regime had the primary influence on the cultural in general and literary-art activities in particular and was transforming it in the way the regime saw the “cultural revolution”. The 1920s were marked as the period of the soviet policy against intellectuals. Same concerns the policy of “ukrainisation”, despite it caused the acceleration of the Ukrainian culture development, in its essence has not created a freedom of development and was a controlled by bolsheviks’ party process of the regime adaptation to the reality of national republics. Thus the analysis of a change in approaches to intellectuals and their role in society, which was living through the heavy transformations of forced character, is important aspect of totalitarian USRR regime development. The subject matter of this paper is the analysis of social and political conditions for the literary and artistic intellectuals in 1920s in motion and analysis of the connections with the political processes in USSR. Mass social oppression and social engineering are the aspects specific for the soviet regime. The issue of literary-art activities are analysed in three aspects: intellectuals in soviet ideology; state politics innovations against literary and artistic intellectuals in 1920s; general soviet approaches to conquering and controlling the Ukrainian literature and art representatives in the USSR. We have identified that social and political conditions had significant differences with the Russia and USSR in general. This was due to the fact that the national character of intellectuals was creating a tension between the center and republics. We explored the fact that the soviet policy against literary and artistic intellectuals had a non-linear character and had the peculiarities different to the general political processes.
The study deals with films made at the beginning of the 1960s by Jan Němec and Dušan Klein, then students at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), based on short stories by ...Arnošt Lustig from the books Démanty noci (Diamonds of the Night) and Ulice ztracených bratří (Street of Lost Brothers) — namely Sousto, Králíček and Ďábelská jízda na koloběžce (Mouthful, Little Guinea Pig and Devilish Ride on a Scooter). These student films represent not only the beginnings of the artistic careers of both directors and a search for the form of their future creative path, but are also a document of the gradual emancipation of artists from the power relations and the search for possibilities of an individual existence within the framework of the totalitarian regime. They attempted to create timeless images of humanity within history, images which have a negative form of fear, anxiety, solitude, pain and loss, but also at the same time the endurance of humanity, which — in accordance with the conception of the writer Arnošt Lustig — is expressed through a specific action and the preservation of hope.
From 1948 to 1989, former Czechoslovakia was ruled by the Communist Party that persecuted active citizens and political figures who organized under initiative Charter 77. During the 1970s and 1980s, ...Operation Asanace (meaning “cleansing”) took place as a systematic way to expel Charter 77 activists and other totalitarian regime adversaries from the communist country by implementing physical, psychological, and systemic abuse. This qualitative study explored the experiences of seven primary victims of Operation Asanace by conducting focus groups and analyzing the emerging themes. Results show that various changes in national identity, feelings of hopelessness, otherness and alienation were present, together with several losses and diverse reactions from individuals in their vicinity. Our study also highlights enduring traits of entrepreneurship and activism, resilience, adaptation to adversities, alongside evidence of post-traumatic growth, contributing to the body of knowledge regarding the psychological consequences of confronting an authoritarian regime.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The article examines the introduction of the theory of class struggle to the Ukrainian historical narrative (on the example of studies on the history of education) which evolved in the totalitarian ...conditions of the USSR. Class struggle was considered the essence of and the driving force behind history; therefore, the historical development of education was regarded as an area where the interests of progressive and reactionary classes were manifested. By relying on the theory of class struggle, scholars attempted to describe the national character of the development of education at various historical stages, which led to incorrect conclusions. Historians used the “progressive class” concept in studies on the development of education. In biographical research, historians examined the worldview, ideas and activities of education advocates based on their social class. Under the influence of the theory of class struggle, historians developed the concept of education as a tool for class struggle. Class theories led to the emergence of the myth that the ruling classes have no interest in educating the “working people”.
The main goal of this paper is to adequately understand the shifts produced after 1945 in Folklore Studies (Ethnology) in terms of research topics, methodologies, approaches, and scientific policies, ...in connection with the new political and ideological context. In particular it aims at discussing how, why and to what extent the Cluj Folklore Archive could be defined as a cultural institution playing an important role at the regional level whilst contributing to a correct socio-cultural understanding of Transylvania in relation to the other Romanian provinces. Content analysis will be the main methodology used, whereas the intricate connections and relationships among archives, memory, and territorial and cultural identities shown in the sources will support the process of understanding, deepening, and widening the researched topic.
The article elucidates the establishment of a new direction of ethnological research in the Republic of Moldova – “Ethnology of Sovietness”, which refers to the research of „Soviet culture” from an ...ethnological perspective. The very term Sovietness means the directed transformations of the Soviet tradition and culture created by the totalitarian communist system in the USSR. The article also reflects the fact that some researchers approach Soviet culture as a „specific traditional culture” and opt for safeguarding it, as is the case with all traditional cultures, while other researchers appreciate Soviet culture as repressive and exclusive, inauthentic, created on false utopian ideological principles, meant to build a new social and cultural community. In the author’s opinion, in a democratic society, the culture created in totalitarianism can no longer survive without being ideologically nurtured, and without being imposed by dictation. However, elements of Soviet culture are still perpetuated to this day. And, the mission of „Ethnology of Sovietness” is not to preserve a totalitarian culture, but to elucidate the guided transformations that have taken place, the mechanisms of influence on social and ethno-cultural identity, the invented Soviet tradition, everyday life, etc., in order to understand the authentic cultural values of today, which can develop the individual and communities based on the cultural matrix
Purpose of the article. On the basis of the research of the poetic work to analyze the life and creative heritage of the talented Ukrainian poet, prose writer, translator, literary critic, publicist, ...philosopher and human rights defender, Hero of Ukraine Vasyl Semenovych Stus (1938-1985). Methodology. Bibliographical and other general scientific methods are applied: historical and systematic approach to the topic, analysis of literary and critical, journalistic sources and synthesis of information. The specified method sprovide an opportunity to thoroughly investigate pedagogical and socio-political activities, to restore the memory of the Ukrainian literary traditions of the descendants, the name of Vasyl Semenovych Stus - a poet of the 20th century, a patriot of Ukraine. Scientific novelty. Based on the collected materials, the article outlines a circle of bibliographic documents that include information about the life path of Vasyl Stus, as well as provides an assessment of his work in the memoirs and critical articles of friends, like-minded people, representatives of the Ukrainian cultural movementof the 1960s. The history of the publication of biographical and bibliographic works about V. S. Stus is analyzed in detail, their content and informational content are considered. The significant contribution of V. Stus to the development of Ukrainian scientific and auxiliary bibliography is reflected, a complex of scientific and bibliographical sources, which are part of the funds of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, srepresented. Conclusions. Today, it is important to comprehensively research and preserve the valuable heritage of the outstanding poet-thinker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose creative legacy does not lose its relevance, but gives a new impetus to the scientific research of researchers, teachers, students, graduate students. Analysis and research of sources containing biographical and bibliographic, as wellas journalistic materials about the literary critic and publications about his life and creative activity, give reasons to talk about the need to prepare a new personal bibliographic index.
After the collapse of the Soviet State, an extremely active criticism of the social system that existed in our country for more than seventy years was carried out (and continues to be carried out), ...state and public security bodies and troops were obstructed. At the same time, most of the materials testifying to the negative role of these state structures relied on sources such as the memoirs of participants in the events, apparently due to the fact that for the most part these materials were classified and still inaccessible to the general public. At the same time, the study of history should be based on objective facts of the surrounding reality. In regard, the proposed article attempts to reveal some of the features of the activities of these structures and the impact on the state of work with personnel in this closed department on the basis of declassified archival documents of the State Archive of the Arkhangelsk region. This approach is based on the fact that a sufficiently large number of penitentiary and other departmental institutions of the NKVD-NKGB of the USSR were stationed in the territory under consideration during the time period we are studying, and this area can be conditionally considered typical from the point of view of assessing the overall situation in the department.
Philip Roth made no secret of his great admiration for the work of Franz Kafka, which ultimately brought him to Prague in the 1970s and fostered his interest in Czech culture. This contribution ...focuses on the reception of the personality and work of Franz Kafka in Philip Roth’s non-fiction writing. The first section focuses on Roth’s essential Kafkaesque essay ‘“I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting”; or Looking at Kafka’ from 1973, in which Roth combines an empathetic portrait of his favourite author with a counterfactual vision of Kafka’s life, in which the author of the Trial and the Castle did not die of tuberculosis and instead fled from the Holocaust to the United States, where he became Roth’s uncle. In the second section, based on Roth’s dialogue with Ivan Klíma from 1990, we document how Kafka serves Roth in his reflections on the position and role of the writer in society.
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