Remembering Katyn

Remembering Katyn PDF Author: Alexander Etkind
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 074566296X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
Katyn– the Soviet massacre of over 21,000 Polish prisoners in 1940 – has come to be remembered as Stalin’s emblematic mass murder, an event obscured by one of the most extensive cover-ups in history. Yet paradoxically, a majority of its victims perished far from the forest in western Russia that gives the tragedy its name. Their remains lie buried in killing fields throughout Russia, Ukraine and, most likely, Belarus. Today their ghosts haunt the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe. This book traces the legacy of Katyn through the interconnected memory cultures of seven countries: Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. It explores the meaning of Katyn as site and symbol, event and idea, fact and crypt. It shows how Katyn both incites nationalist sentiments in Eastern Europe and fosters an emerging cosmopolitan memory of Soviet terror. It also examines the strange impact of the 2010 plane crash that claimed the lives of Poland’s leaders en route to Katyn. Drawing on novels and films, debates and controversies, this book makes the case for a transnational study of cultural memory and navigates a contested past in a region that will define Europe’s future.

Remembering Katyn

Remembering Katyn PDF Author: Alexander Etkind
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 074566296X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121

Get Book Here

Book Description
Katyn– the Soviet massacre of over 21,000 Polish prisoners in 1940 – has come to be remembered as Stalin’s emblematic mass murder, an event obscured by one of the most extensive cover-ups in history. Yet paradoxically, a majority of its victims perished far from the forest in western Russia that gives the tragedy its name. Their remains lie buried in killing fields throughout Russia, Ukraine and, most likely, Belarus. Today their ghosts haunt the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe. This book traces the legacy of Katyn through the interconnected memory cultures of seven countries: Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. It explores the meaning of Katyn as site and symbol, event and idea, fact and crypt. It shows how Katyn both incites nationalist sentiments in Eastern Europe and fosters an emerging cosmopolitan memory of Soviet terror. It also examines the strange impact of the 2010 plane crash that claimed the lives of Poland’s leaders en route to Katyn. Drawing on novels and films, debates and controversies, this book makes the case for a transnational study of cultural memory and navigates a contested past in a region that will define Europe’s future.

Reagan, In His Own Hand

Reagan, In His Own Hand PDF Author: Ronald Reagan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780743219389
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
During the eight years that Ronald Reagan served as president of the United States, a period of sustained economic prosperity and increased American power on the world stage, many of his advisers claimed authorship of the ideas that comprised 'the Reagan revolution.' The press, in turn, lent credence to the idea that President Reagan was merely a skilled communicator of those ideas, the consummate actor, not the director or producer. Few people realised that Reagan had left a paper trail of original writings that make clear he was the intellectual powerhouse behind his administration's landmark policies. Hidden in archives for more than twenty years, Reagan's pre-presidential writings reveal an active mind wrestling with the problems of a sluggish economy, social pathologies, welfare, reform and the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. Selected and annotated by three leading scholars, two of whom were among Reagan's principal domestic-policy advisers, these writings unlock the puzzle of the man so many historians have tried to comprehend, with so little success. A publishing landmark, REAGAN, IN HIS OWN HAND will redefine the way we think about American history of the past quarter-century, and about the fortieth American president.

Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski

Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski PDF Author: Eric Karpeles
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681372851
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
A compelling biography of the Polish painter and writer Józef Czapski that takes readers to Paris in the Roaring Twenties, to the front lines during WWII, and into the late 20th-century art world. Józef Czapski (1896–1993) lived many lives during his ninety-six years. He was a student in Saint Petersburg during the Russian Revolution and a painter in Paris in the roaring twenties. As a Polish reserve officer fighting against the invading Nazis in the opening weeks of the Second World War, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets. For reasons unknown to this day, he was one of the very few excluded from Stalin’s sanctioned massacres of Polish officers. He never returned to Poland after the war, but worked tirelessly in Paris to keep alive awareness of the plight of his homeland, overrun by totalitarian powers. Czapski was a towering public figure, but painting gave meaning to his life. Eric Karpeles, also a painter, reveals Czapski’s full complexity, pulling together all the threads of this remarkable life.

Traumatic Memories of the Second World War and After

Traumatic Memories of the Second World War and After PDF Author: Peter Leese
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319334700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This collection investigates the social and cultural history of trauma to offer a comparative analysis of its individual, communal, and political effects in the twentieth century. Particular attention is given to witness testimony, to procedures of personal memory and collective commemoration, and to visual sources as they illuminate the changing historical nature of trauma. The essays draw on diverse methodologies, including oral history, and use varied sources such as literature, film and the broadcast media. The contributions discuss imaginative, communal and political responses, as well as the ways in which the later welfare of traumatized individuals is shaped by medical, military, and civilian institutions. Incorporating innovative methodologies and offering a thorough evaluation of current research, the book shows new directions in historical trauma studies.

The Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe between Conflict and Reconciliation

The Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe between Conflict and Reconciliation PDF Author: Lily Gardner Feldman
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647560332
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
This volume examines the role of identity formation and stages of sequencing of the steps of reconciliation – which is an enduring rather than ad an ad hoc phenomenon. RIPAR 4 asks for both the challenges to it from the domestic and international systems and the actors involved, as well as for the role of »history,« »memory« and »remembrance« either as catalysts for or obstacles to reconciliation. The analyzing of the connection among the past, the present and the future in actual or prospective reconciliation embraces all these topics and questions.Influenced by the crisis in the former Sovjet Union following the March 2014 Russian annexation/integration of Crimea and the movement of Russian soldiers into Eastern Ukraine to aid Ukrainian separatists the essays in this volume were written in 2015. »Reconciliation« is a frequently ill-defined term. As an aspiration in this volume it encompasses three senses: an incipient, thin and minimal form amounting to passive, peaceful coexistence after enmity; a more elaborate, intermediate and engaged form that is captured by the term rapprochement; and a thick or fuller form denoting active friendship, empathy, trust, magnanimity and, ultimately, amity. Beyond the definitional goal, the volume addresses ten themes. Firstly, reconciliation is being questioned as a process and/ or a terminal condition. A view is made on the requirements for the transition from conflict to a reconciliatory process, and the obstacles to beginning a process of reconciliation. Its »soft« and »hard« expressions inter alia in emotional and political dimensions are also subject of the author's interest. The observations about conflict and cooperation offered in this volume wish to add significantly to the burgeoning literature of reconciliation. These essays demonstrate that we need a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives to grapple with conflict and to promote reconciliation.

Life and Death in Captivity

Life and Death in Captivity PDF Author: Geoffrey P. R. Wallace
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801455731
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Why are prisoners horribly abused in some wars but humanely cared for in others? In Life and Death in Captivity, Geoffrey P. R. Wallace explores the profound differences in the ways captives are treated during armed conflict. Wallace focuses on the dual role played by regime type and the nature of the conflict in determining whether captor states opt for brutality or mercy. Integrating original data on prisoner treatment during the last century of interstate warfare with in-depth historical cases, Wallace demonstrates how domestic constraints and external incentives shape the fate of captured enemy combatants. Both Russia and Japan, for example, treated prisoners very differently in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5 and in World War II; the behavior of any given country is liable to vary from conflict to conflict and even within the same war.Democracies may be more likely to treat their captives humanely, yet this benevolence is rooted less in liberal norms of nonviolence than in concerns over public accountability. When such concerns are weak or absent, democracies are equally capable of brutal conduct toward captives. In conflicts that devolve into protracted fighting, belligerents may inflict violence against captives as part of a strategy of exploitation and to coerce the adversary into submission. When territory is at stake, prisoners are further at risk of cruel treatment as their captors seek to permanently remove the most threatening sources of opposition within newly conquered lands. By combining a rigorous strategic approach with a wide-ranging body of evidence, Wallace offers a vital contribution to the study of political violence and wartime conduct.

Museums of Communism

Museums of Communism PDF Author: Stephen M. Norris
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253050316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
How did communities come to terms with the collapse of communism? In order to guide the wider narrative, many former communist countries constructed museums dedicated to chronicling their experiences. Museums of Communism explores the complicated intersection of history, commemoration, and victimization made evident in these museums constructed after 1991. While contributors from a diverse range of fields explore various museums and include nearly 90 photographs, a common denominator emerges: rather than focusing on artifacts and historical documents, these museums often privilege memories and stories. In doing so, the museums shift attention from experiences of guilt or collaboration to narratives of shared victimization under communist rule. As editor Stephen M. Norris demonstrates, these museums are often problematic at best and revisionist at worst. From occupation museums in the Baltic States to memorial museums in Ukraine, former secret police prisons in Romania, and nostalgic museums of everyday life in Russia, the sites considered offer new ways of understanding the challenges of separating memory and myth.

Cross Purposes

Cross Purposes PDF Author: Magdalena Waligórska
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009230956
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
No other symbol is as omnipresent in Poland as the cross. This multilayered and contradictory icon features prominently in public spaces and state institutions. It is anchored in the country's visual history, inspires protest culture, and dominates urban and rural landscapes. The cross recalls Poland's historic struggles for independence and anti-Communist dissent, but it also encapsulates the country's current position in Europe as a self-avowed bulwark of Christianity and a champion of conservative values. It is both a national symbol - defining the boundaries of Polishness in opposition to a changing constellation of the country's Others - and a key object of contestation in the creative arts and political culture. Despite its long history, the cross has never been systematically studied as a political symbol in its capacity to mobilize for action and solidify power structures. Cross Purposes is the first cultural history of the cross in modern Poland, deconstructing this key symbol and exploring how it has been deployed in different political battles.

Here All Is Poland

Here All Is Poland PDF Author: Petro Andreas Nungovitch
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498569137
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
On 10 April 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczyński and First Lady Maria Kaczyńska were killed in an airplane crash outside the city of Smolensk in western Russia, where they were flying to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet massacre of over twenty-one thousand Polish prisoners during the Second World War. Eight days later, the president and his wife were laid to rest beneath the Krakow Cathedral on Wawel Hill, an ancient necropolis of Polish kings and queens and the most prestigious burial site in all of Poland, where only six other meritorious, non-royal national figures have been enshrined since the demise of the Polish monarchy in the late eighteenth century. The decision to bury Lech and Maria Kaczyński in Poland’s highest national pantheon sparked an emotional debate about its symbolic appropriateness and underscored the question of how such burial decisions are actually made. It also raised a whole host of questions about the historical significance and pantheonic function of Wawel—the “bedrock of sacred memory for the Polish nation,” as Stanisław Staszic put it in the early nineteenth century—in modern Polish consciousness. Until now, these questions have received surprisingly little attention beyond Polish historians of Krakow. Here All Is Poland excavates and builds upon the extant scholarly discourse of Wawel to plot the evolution of a pantheonic funeral tradition over two hundred years, thus providing a context and a clue for interpreting the historical significance of the 2010 burial.

Global Iconoclasm: Contesting “Official” Mnemonic Landscapes

Global Iconoclasm: Contesting “Official” Mnemonic Landscapes PDF Author: Michael Ripmeester
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3658436913
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description