Soviet Union (History)

On February 16, 1921, when the Bolsheviks had not yet fully occupied Democtatic Republic of  Georgia, the Georgian Revolutionary Committee declared Georgia a Socialist Soviet Republic and announced that “the brotherly nations of Adjara, Abkhazia, and Ossetia will determine their own fate”. Based on this, on March 26, the Abkhaz Revolutionary Committee addressed a letter to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR and the Nationalities Commissar I. Stalin, stating that Abkhazia should be declared an independent Socialist Soviet Republic and join the RSFSR. On March 28, in Batumi, a meeting of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) and the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party, along with Bolshevik representatives from Adjara and Abkhazia, was held. The meeting discussed the issue “regarding the structure of Soviet power and the Communist Party in Abkhazia” and decided that “until the Congress of Soviet Councils in Abkhazia, the issue of federation with the RSFSR or the Georgian SSR remains open, and Abkhazia is declared a Socialist Republic. The party organization will carry the name of the RCP(b)’s Caucasian Bureau in Abkhazia and will operate in accordance with the directives of the RCP(b) Central Committee’s Caucasian Bureau. The decrees of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee should serve as material for the Abkhaz Revolutionary Committee to ensure there is no contradiction between the actions of both revolutionary committees”. The practice of Soviet state-building at that time did not consider granting the status of a republic unless the population of the territorial unit exceeded one million. The population of Abkhazia at that time was about 200,000, and Abkhaz people made up only 17% of the population, but the Caucasian Bureau’s decision at the Batumi meeting satisfied the demand of the Abkhaz Bolsheviks. This idea was supported by the representative of the RSFSR in Georgia in 1920-1921, Major-General Pavel Sytin (1870-1938). Moreover, he also demanded a similar resolution for Samegrelo. In the General’s opinion, this would make it easier for the RSFSR to control the disintegrated Georgia.

As a result, on March 31, a formally “independent” state formation, the Abkhazian Socialist Soviet Republic (Abkh. SSR), was proclaimed in the northwestern part of Georgia occupied by Soviet troops, just outside Tbilisi. On May 21, the Georgian Revolutionary Committee recognized this fact. Our Abkhaz colleagues consider this to have been the “restoration” of Abkhazia’s “statehood”.

However, in reality, this was not the case. The Abkhaz SSR actually represented a fictitious “statehood,” which even the officials of the then Soviet establishment in Sokhumi (N. Lakoba, E. Eshba) did not take seriously and regarded as a temporary phenomenon[1]. Moreover, although Abkhaz historians (O. Bgazhba, S. Lakoba) considered Abkhazia’s “independence” to be a result of V. Lenin’s actions, it seems that Lenin had a radically different view on the matter compared to the Abkhaz historians. On July 23, 1921, at a meeting of responsible workers of Abkhazia, N. Lakoba himself spoke about the impossibility of Abkhazia’s annexation to Russia and the necessity of close ties with Georgia, considering the ethnographic and historical conditions. Interestingly, on November 24, 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the RCP(b) transferred Abkhazia’s authority to the Georgian Communist Party, which was legally formalized in January 1922.

Everyone knew well that the Abkhaz “SSR” could not exist independently. Its political and economic potential was not sufficient to solve this task successfully. Therefore, it is clear that the approval of the governing officials of the Abkhaz SSR’s party and state structures took place in Tbilisi. Economic issues were also managed from there. In order to correct this absurd situation, and to maintain Abkhazia as an “independent” Soviet republic for some time, a compromise decision was made: on December 16, 1921, Tbilisi and Sokhumi signed an alliance agreement. In this way, Abkhazia soon joined the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR).

Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks carried out their own administrative reforms in the South Caucasus (the creation of “Socialist Soviet Republics”), the Kremlin did not seriously regard the “independent” status of Abkhazia. An example of this is the words of Soviet military and political figure M. I. Lisovskiy (1887-1938), who was the responsible secretary of the Chelyabinsk Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) in 1922-1923, at the X Congress of the All-Russian Soviet of Soviets (December 23-27, 1922), where he mentioned the three Soviet republics of Transcaucasia and then referred to Abkhazia as a “republic-like” entity. Interestingly, this “Soviet Republic” was rightfully referred to as an “Autonomous Republic” in the first USSR Constitution.

Kopš 1950. gadu otrās puses ateistiskās pasaules ainas propaganda kļuva par vienu no galvenajiem instrumentiem Latvijas sovetizācijas procesā. 1959. gadā Daugavpils Pedagoģiskajā institūtā tika dibināts karojošo ateistu klubs (turpmāk – Klubs), kura mērķis bija sagatavot aktīvus ateisma propagandistus, kuri strādātu ar bērniem, jauniešiem un pieaugušajiem. Klubs kļuva par pievilcīgu vietu, kurā piedāvāja studentiem iesaistīties dažādās publiskās aktivitātēs: lekcijas, diskusijas, izrādes, sacensības u. c. Padomju Latvijas periodiskie izdevumi apraksta Klubu kā veiksmīga mērķtiecīgas propagandas centra piemēru ar augstu efektivitāti, kurš kļuva populārs Latvijas un citu padomju republiku izglītības iestāžu vidū. Kluba vadītāji iedomājās sevi par karavīriem, kuri cīnījās pret “reliģiskiem aizspriedumiem”, izmantojot loģiskus argumentus un zinātnes sasniegumus, kā arī pasargājot jaunākās paaudzes no reliģiskās prakses. Pakāpeniski Klubs kļuva par izklaidējošo, nevis propagandiska rakstura biedrību.

This presentation examines the role of history in the understanding and interpretation of international legal norms through the example of twentieth-century disarmament projects.

Focusing on negotiations conducted between the United States and the Soviet Union between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the paper explores how historical analysis helps illuminate the institutional and political foundations of international legal orders. While contemporary analyses often explain the failure of general and complete disarmament through the persistence of state sovereignty and power politics, this research argues that the collapse of these projects also resulted from the absence of institutional mechanisms capable of guaranteeing mutual trust between political actors.

By retracing the chronology of major diplomatic negotiations, disarmament plans and United Nations initiatives during the Cold War, this presentation highlights the central role played by verification, control and institutional legitimacy in the construction of international security frameworks.

More broadly, the paper reflects on the relationship between legal history, international law and security studies, and examines how historical inquiry contributes to a deeper understanding of contemporary debates surrounding collective security and disarmament governance.

This article attempts to examine and summarize interpretations
of the formation of the Soviet Union in Anglo-American Soviet studies, and to trace the evolution of scholarly approaches and concepts that emerged within this tradition of historiography during the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. The scholarly output of historians in Soviet studies (representing the classical «totalitarian» school, revisionist, and post-Soviet schools) is analyzed in terms of their conceptual representativeness and significance for the formation of relevant intellectual discourse. It has been noted that in the 1950s and 1960s, academic research was dominated by a narrative in which Sovietologists interpreted the formation of the USSR as the result of Bolshevik military expansion, which served as a tool for reestablishing control over the post-imperial space. Within this paradigm, the process of the Soviet Union’s consolidation was viewed as the restoration of the Russian Empire, albeit with a Marxist-Leninist ideology. In fact, the legal formalization of the new union was an external fiction that did not grant real sovereignty to the Soviet republics. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a significant shift in the academic focus regarding the interpretation of the events of 1922. In the revisionist model, the emergence of the USSR was presented as a complex, multifaceted process involving both the Bolshevik leadership and the national republics. The formation of the Soviet Union was portrayed as a social compromise and an attempt to build a rational system of governance on the former territories of the Romanov state. It has been noted that, within the framework of post-Soviet studies, the formation of the USSR is viewed as a neo-imperial structure that facilitated the creation of nations and national elites through a series of preferences and privileges (the policy of «indigenization»). This laid the foundation for republican sovereignty, which manifested itself during «perestroika» and led to the collapse of the USSR.
Keywords: USSR, Soviet Union, Soviet studies, Anglo-American Soviet
scholars, historiography, the «totalitarian» school, revisionism, post-Soviet
studies.

Mikhail Pervukhin's Pugachev the Victor (1924) is an early example of Russian alternate history, building on the narrative strategies first explored in his earlier novel The Second Life of Napoleon (1917). This article examines the historical, cultural, and literary circumstances that led Pervukhin to experiment with counterfactual narratives, focusing on his treatment of the Pugachev Rebellion and its comparison with the highly complex events of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Drawing on Tolstoy's philosophy of history and employing techniques later identified by Bakhtin as the adventure chronotope, Pervukhin crafts a narrative in which Russia itself emerges as a central protagonist, while individual wills intersect chaotically to shape historical outcomes. The analysis highlights his careful structuring of spatio-temporal settings to link counterfactual past with actual present, enabling authorial insights into the future and reinforcing the perceived inevitability of the nation's historical trajectory.

Examining the history of Soviet museums in the 1920s and 1930s, this book engages with the core problem of interwar museology: adequately representing the historical development of art to create a plausible and coherent version of its evolution. The book critically analyzes the evolution of museology and art history during a period recognized as a crisis point for museums, characterized by the ascent of the modernist museum and the decline of previous museum representation forms such as universal collections and period rooms. Building on the concept of museums as agents of cultural diplomacy and soft power, the book considers museums as spaces where negotiations, often unsuccessful, occur among various stakeholders: museum practitioners, authorities, private collectors, auction houses, and the public. The challenge of handling millions of nationalized objects since the 1917 Revolution posed a particularly complex issue for Socialist museums, necessitating accumulation, distribution, and display. It also proposes a historical account of the establishment of Soviet art departments in the mid-1930s, serving as showcases for Socialist Realism. This composition was subsequently replicated across the country and throughout the Communist bloc.

This article analyzes the experience of the Karakalpak State Museum of Arts named after I.V. Savitsky in studying the audience in the given period from 2009 to 2013. The study includes the classification of visitors into various categories, as well as a comparative analysis of the dynamics of their numbers in the specified time interval, with an emphasis on the factors contributing to both an increase and a decrease in attendance. The author proposes to resume the practice of studying visitors, emphasizing its importance for museum specialists in the context of developing educational programs and launching strategic plans for the development of the museum.

Məqalədə əməyin səmərəliliyinə təsir edən amillərin əhəmiyyəti araşdırılır
kənd təsərrüfatındakı resurslar. Səmərəlilik üçün ən vacib resurslardan biridir
kənd təsərrüfatının inkişafı işləmək istəyən ixtisaslı kadrların mövcudluğudur
kənd yerlərində. Əmək resurslarının təmin edilməsi şəraitdə tam fəaliyyət göstərməyə imkan verir
xarici və daxili mühitin.
Tədqiqatın əsas məqsədi əməyin istifadəsinin xüsusiyyətlərini müəyyən etməkdir.
kənd təsərrüfatında iqtisadiyyatın digər sahələrindən fərqli olan resurslar və
ona təsir edən amilləri qiymətləndirin. Bütün bunları nəzərə alaraq, əsas xüsusiyyətləri
Kənd təsərrüfatında əmək ehtiyatlarından istifadənin səmərəliliyinə təsir edən amillər bunlardır
əsərdə təhlil edilmişdir.
Beləliklə, bizim fikrimizcə, kənd təsərrüfatında əmək resurslarından istifadənin spesifik xüsusiyyəti
və emal sənayesi uyğunsuzluqdan qaynaqlanan kifayət qədər yüksək mövsümilikdir
istehsal dövrü ilə iş dövrü arasında.

A review of documentation released in 2019 from the Raoul Wallenberg case file in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows growing indications that Swedish and Russian officials agreed to withhold information from the general public and researchers at key moments during the official inquiry of Wallenberg's fate (1991-2000)

Base teorica: il materialismo storico marxista.
Fondamento della dottrina sono i principi del materialismo storico e del comunismo critico di Marx ed Engels enunciati nel Manifesto dei Comunisti, nel Capitale e nelle altre opere fondamentali di essi, base della costituzione della Internazionale Comunista nel 1919, di quella del Partito Comunista d’Italia nel 1921, e contenuti nei punti del programma del Partito pubblicato in "Battaglia Comunista", n.1 del 1951, e ripubblicato più volte in "Programma Comunista".

Base teorica: il materialismo storico marxista. Fondamento della dottrina sono i principi del materialismo storico e del comunismo critico di Marx ed Engels enunciati nel Manifesto dei Comunisti, nel Capitale e nelle altre opere fondamentali di essi, base della costituzione della Internazionale Comunista nel 1919, di quella del Partito Comunista d'Italia nel 1921, e contenuti nei punti del programma del Partito pubblicato in "Battaglia Comunista", n.1 del 1951, e ripubblicato più volte in "Programma Comunista". Si riporta qui il testo del programma: Il Partito Comunista Internazionale e costituito sulla base dei seguenti principi stabiliti a Livorno nel 1921 alla fondazione del Partito Comunista d'Italia (Sezione della Internazionale Comunista). 1. -Nell'attuale regime sociale capitalistico si sviluppa un sempre crescente contrasto tra le forze produttive e i rapporti di produzione, dando luogo all'antitesi di interessi ed alla lotta di classe fra proletariato e borghesia dominante. 2. -Gli odierni rapporti di produzione sono protetti dal potere dello Stato borghese che, qualunque sia la forma del sistema rappresentativo e l'impiego della democrazia elettiva, costituisce l'organo per la difesa degli interessi della classe capitalistica. 3. -Il proletariato non può infrangere ne modificare il sistema dei rapporti capitalistici di produzione da cui deriva il suo sfruttamento senza l'abbattimento violento del potere borghese. Il partito ha il compito di diffondere nelle masse la teoria rivoluzionaria, di organizzare i mezzi materiali d'azione, di dirigere nello svolgimento della lotta la classe lavoratrice assicurando la continuità storica e l'unità internazionale del movimento. 5. -Dopo l'abbattimento del potere capitalistico il proletariato non potrà organizzarsi in classe dominante che con la distruzione del vecchio apparato statale e la instaurazione della propria dittatura, ossia escludendo da ogni diritto e funzione politica la classe borghese e i suoi individui finché socialmente sopravvivono, e basando gli organi del nuovo regime sulla sola classe produttiva. Il partito comunista, la cui caratteristica programmatica

Рассматривается история комитетов помощи заключенным и освобожденным – органов послетю-
ремной реабилитации, организованных в рамках раннесоветской тюремной реформы в 1920-е гг. Комитеты
создавались на губернском уровне и возглавлялись центральным офисом при Главном управлении местами
заключения НКВД РСФСР. Функции этих органов включали как финансовую поддержку освобожденных, так
и организацию производств с их трудоустройством. Изучение деятельности местных комитетов демонстрирует
различные сценарии: если в некоторых случаях комитеты были достаточно успешны (Ленинград, Москва, Сара-
тов и др.), большинство губернских комитетов, при отсутствии регулярного государственного финансирования,
оказалось неспособным организовать помощь освобожденным.

As one of the leading scholars in the field of Russian environmental history, Prof. Evgeniy Gololobov of Surgut State Pedagogical University in Russia has devoted nearly three decades to environmental history. He primarily focuses on North Asian environmental history, and with particular emphasis on Siberia and the Arctic. He introduced the concept of “three hundred years of unrestrained exploitation” in Northern Asia, arguing that natural resources played a central role in the region's historical development, and the notions of “conquering nature” and “Eurocentrism” drove landscape changes and ecological transformations in Northern Asia. This view garnered significant attention. Review articles published in English and Russian-language journals, such as Environment and History and Environmental History, offer high praise, stating that his work “is a welcome contribution to environmental history both because of the novelty of the focus and the thoroughness of the research effort”. Commissioned by Journal of Poyang Lake, Ziheng Zhao from Northeast Asian Studies College at Jilin University conducted an academic interview with Prof. Evgeniy Gololobov. Their conversation engaged in an in-depth dialogue centered around three core issues: Russian environmental history, North Asian environmental history, and the relationship between environmental history research and social realities. Their conversation included prof. Evgeniy Gololobov's ecological view of history, the current state, challenges, and promising directions for future research in Russian and North Asian environmental history. Prof. Evgeniy Gololobov also explained how eco-historians in Russia view China’s global initiatives, such as “ecological civilization” and the “community with a shared future for mankind” in recent years.

Обзор подготовленного Госкомстатом СССР статистического сборника «Население СССР. 1987» (М.: Финансы и статистика, 1988), который после снятия цензурных ограничений впервые содержал подробные демографические данные по всей стране и союзным республикам, включающие важнейшие структурные характеристики населения и детальные показатели рождаемости, смертности, брачности и разводимости, миграции.

gadā Klaipēdas apgabals atradās Lietuvas sastāvā, taču starptautiski tas noteikti veidoja vienu no jūtīgākajiem jautājumiem Baltijas reģionā un Versaļas-Rīgas politiskajā sistēmā kopumā. Klaipēdas apgabala teritorija viduslaikos tika pievienota Prūsijai, taču iedzīvotāji saglabāja lietuviešu valodu un kultūru, kaut arī piederēja luterticībai un pakāpeniski vāciskojās. 19. gadsimta otrajā pusē lietuviešu teritorijas Prūsijā pat kļuva par vienu no galvenajiem nacionālās atmodas centriem. Pēc Pirmā pasaules kara uzvarētājvalstis atdalīja Klaipēdas ostu un apgabalu no Vācijas, uz laiku nododot to Tautu Savienības pārziņā, un pilsētā tika izvietots Francijas armijas bataljons. Taču 1923. gada janvārī Lietuvas valdība organizēja apgabala vardarbīgu pārņemšanu, maskējot to kā iedzīvotāju sacelšanos. 1924. gadā Tautu Savienība akceptēja apgabala iekļaušanu Lietuvas Republikā ar plašām autonomijas tiesībām, ieskaitot savu parlamentu Seimeli jeb landtāgu, kurš izveidoja izpildvaru -direktoriju. Vienlaikus apgabalu pārraudzīja Lietuvas valdības gubernators ar tiesībām atcelt Seimeļa lēmumus. 20. gadsimta 30. gados starp iedzīvotājiem popularitāti guva vācu nacionālsociālisma idejas un, pastiprinoties nesaskaņām ar Lietuvas varas iestādēm, pieauga arī pretrunas Lietuvas un Vācijas attiecībās jautājumā par Klaipēdu. LATVIJAS VĒSTURES INSTITŪTA ŽURNĀLS 2 (124) 2025 valsts vadītājs Ādolfs Hitlers. Klaipēdas apgabals kļuva par Gumbinenas apriņķa sastāvdaļu Vācijā. 2 Klaipēdas un apgabala piederības statuss Latvijas valdības interesi izraisīja jau kopš neatkarības sākuma. Sevišķi aktuāls jautājums kļuva 1923. gadā, kad lietuvieši ieņēma šo apgabalu, nostādot Tautu Savienību fakta priekšā. 3 Zināmu interesi Latvijas sabiedrībā izraisīja arī kursenieku -latviešiem valodas ziņā tuvo vietējo iedzīvotāju grupas valsts piederības un kultūras saglabāšanas jautājums. 4 20. gadsimta 30. gados Latvijas puse ar bažām vēroja vienu no galvenajām Lietuvas iekšējām un ārējām problēmām, ko izraisīja Klaipēdas stāvoklis. 1934. gadā noslēgtajā Baltijas valstu līgumā par sadarbību, t. s. Baltijas Antantes līgumā, pēc Latvijas un Igaunijas pušu prasības bija iekļauts nosacījums, ka abu minēto valstu pienākums nav Lietuvas "specifisko problēmu" -Viļņas un Klaipēdas jautājumu risināšana. Latvijas historiogrāfijā līdz šim jautājums skarts vien vispārīgi. Kā zināms, padziļinātu krīzi Centrālajā Eiropā aizsāka Čehoslovākijas norises 1938. gada rudenī -1939. gada martā, tām noslēdzoties ar šīs valsts pilnīgu iznīcināšanu. Uz šī fona nedēļu vēlāk sekojošā Klaipēdas apgabala aneksija palika nedaudz ēnā, kaut arī tas bija izteikts Vācijas agresijas solis; turklāt Latvijas redzējumā šim notikumam tika pievērsta īpaši nozīme, jo pietuvinājās Vācijasviena no iespējamajiem valsts neatkarības draudiem -robeža Latvijas teritorijai. Baltijas valstu vienotības trūkumu 1939. gada rudenī -1940. gada vasarā izgaismoja Klaipēdas krīze un apgabala aneksija, kurai šādā griezumā līdz šim Latvijas 2 in published reports. Overall, one can agree with the conclusion that the reaction in Latvia and Estonia to the annexation of Klaipėda confirmed that the "Baltic Entente" existed only "on paper".

In the introduction to South Africa and the Communist International: A Documentary History (hereafter SACI), Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova, Valentin Gorodnov and Sheridan Johns remark that the Communist International (the Comintern) 'may seem to belong to a very distant era'. It was nevertheless, they continue -assuming that we accept that communism was itself a noteworthy phenomenon -'without doubt one of the most important global organisations ever to have existed ' [Vol. 1, p. 1]. This is a large claim, and presumably underpins the short historical account of Comintern activity in South Africa in the rest of the introduction. It also belongs to a class of claims about Soviet and communist history that has come under increasingly critical scrutiny in recent years. As Neal Ascherson has observed, it is not so long since it seemed incontrovertible that the most significant event in the 20th century was the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. Now it is highly controvertible. Thirteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the view is current that the Revolution achieved almost nothing of its original intentions. 1 Ascherson goes on to argue that the revolution and its consequences are nowadays often assessed on an uncomplicated humanitarian scale that leads ineluctably to the conclusion that the implicit political bargain involved -suffering now for the sake of an improvement for future generations -is morally unacceptable. But he cautions that 'to see Soviet history merely as inherited homicide is an excuse for not thinking about it '. 2

Сегодня, 17 мая 2026 года, люди в Москве прощаются с Ниной Михайловной Литвиновой. Перед тем, как выброситься из окна 12 мая, Литвинова оставила записку, в которой были слова, обращенные к близким и друзьям: «Я всех вас люблю и думаю о вас. Но я должна уйти, мне жить невыносимо. С тех пор как Путин напал на Украину и убивает невинных людей, а у нас бесконечно сажает в тюрьмы тысячи людей, которые мучаются и погибают там за то, что они, как и я, против войны и против убийств. Я ничем не могу им помочь. Женя Беркович, Светлана Петрийчук, Карина Цуркан и тысячи других за решёткой страдают и умирают. Я пыталась им помочь, но мои силы кончились, и я день и ночь мучаюсь от бессилия. Мне стыдно, но я сдалась. Пожалуйста, простите меня».

Tanto l'avvento di forme di dittatura del capitale, quanto il dissolversi del movimento comunista internazionale, quanto la compiuta degenerazione della rivoluzione russa non sono "sorprese della storia" per spiegare le quali la linea teorica classica del marxismo vada modificata.

Kızıl Kürdistan'ın anatomisi veya bu tanımlamanın terminolojik kökeni merak uyandırmaya devam ediyor. Sovyet yöneticilerinin bu tanıma ilişkin tutumu ise ilgi çekiyor. Son dönemde Kızıl Kürdistan hakkında incelemelerini derinleştiren ve dikkat çekici belgelere ulaşan Dr. İsmet Konak, bu kez iki Rusça belge ile döneme ışık tutuyor.

Рецензия за монографията на Валентин Гешев История на българския език: езикова структура, книжовна традиция, степен на обособеност. Факултет по славянски филологии и УИ Св. Климент Охридски. София. 2022 г. ISBN 978-619-7433-60-9 (мека подвързия); ISBN 978-619-7433-61-6 (PDF), 774 страници

This article examines the confrontation between two jurists from the Central and Eastern European region, Raphael Lemkin and Andrey Vyshinsky, from the 1930s to the 1950s, revealing how their competing visions shaped the international response to genocide. It highlights how Lemkin's anti-imperialist and anti-totalitarian concept of genocide, rooted in the region's tragic history, was ultimately redefined by the post-World War II superpowers, with the USSR, under Vyshinsky's considerable influence, playing a pivotal role in this process. It argues that the ideological patterns of legal reasoning rooted in the thought of Lemkin and Vyshinsky continue to resonate within contemporary legal discourse surrounding the Russian Federation's current practices. This is particularly evident in efforts to rehabilitate Soviet imperialism and promote the ideology of Russkiy Mir ("Russian World"), as manifested in Russia's neo-imperial policies in the occupied Ukrainian territories, including the forcible transfer of children. Lemkin and Vyshinsky thus emerge as enduring symbols of divergent trajectories in law and politics.

O presente artigo procura tecer contribuições para a teoria da escuta e da hospitalidade. A partir da obra de Svetlana Aleksiévitch, busca-se analisar a sua postura em relação aos testemunhos e a inscrição da escuta enquanto elemento linguístico de hospitalidade e acolhimento em relação ao trauma. Para tanto, procuramos dialogar com a teoria do reconhecimento de Judith Butler, a hospitalidade de Derrida e a teoria das imagens de Didi-Huberman. Assim, foi analisado um pouco do seu processo de escrita imagética, enquanto produtora de discursos sensíveis de alteridade a partir de violências extremas. Os recursos imagéticos, enquanto atos de inscrição do sensível na linguagem, foram vinculados à narrativa traumática, e buscam trabalhar as potencialidades da autora no que diz respeito à escrita.Palavras-chave: Svetlana Aleksiévitch; hospitalidade; trauma; escrita visual; catástrofe

This is a creative writing example from my novel called "Russian Doll House".

Plot:
In Moscow, the face of daybreak appears over Red Square, a historical landmark that captures a history of Tsar Royal Families, workers and peasant’s communist revolutions, Joseph Stalin’s totalitarianism, Red Army parades under the Great Patriotic Hammer and Sickle, and the first handshake between the youth of Russia and the face of American capitalism, President Ronald Reagan. It’s the 1990s, privatization is here to stay, Bill Clinton is now the President of the United States, the Former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has left the Moscow Kremlin, President Boris Yeltsin who is now residing behind Russia’s neoliberal reformism. As a result, Red Square home to Saint Basil's Cathedral, and Lenin’s Mausoleum is now swarming with American tourists, and trust fund-rich kids of Russian billionaires who are now driving behind the wheel of imported luxury cars ranging from Jaguars, Rolls-Royce, to Land Rover while listening to deep progressive techno-music and Handel. This is far removed from driving around the Easten bloc Trabant. As a result, after the fall of the Berlin Wall the Russian economic landscape had vividly transformed from: nightclubs, supermodels walking the catwalk, sportscar showrooms, tourist trap shops, and property development firms building high-rise apartments overlooking Gorky Park. Superyachts are now stretched across the Bering Sea and as far as the Mediterranean. The Upper Trading Rows has also contributed to a new merchant class selling sporting goods, Russian Mother’s Ruin, video games, VHS tapes, jeans, and imported khakis from the United States now sold under Shukhov’s roof. The Moscow skyline reflecting across the Moskva Rivera now mirrors that of Times Square. The Metro is filled with young professionals such as stockbrokers and accountants traveling to office blocks located east of the Third Ring Road as they arrive at Delovoy Tsentr station wearing Italian made suits. The Bratva has also emerged after making their ill-gotten gains in secretly rigged privatisation auctions and loans for shares schemes that were located in remote Serbian airport hangars, and textile factories and steelworks in located Norilsk that had hosted the auctioning-off of Soviet Union industry at wholesale prices. The Yeltsin administration is laced with state corruption influenced by the rise of the oligarchs that have run rampant throughout the Kremlin. We follow the story of Ivan Popov, a former Stasi intelligence officer who was posted in East Berlin and also climbed the ranks of the Committee for State Security (KGB) during the Soviet Union era. He was also a former Marxist-Leninist ideologue that formerly to slept with books like Das Kapital, and The Grundrisse that rested next to his bedside in a small one-bedroom apartment located in Rummelsburg, Lichtenberg 1 zone Ortslage. Now, Popov has politically swinged to the far-right and is ashamed of the new Russia due to its rocky 1990s transition from a centrally planned socialist economy to a wild west Homo economicus environment. Popov a man of law and order, also hypocritically rubs shoulders with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), and organised crime factions like the Solntsevo District Brotherhood (SDB), and their rivals the Petrovka Street Mafia (PSM), that both made their money from the black market that shadowed  perestroika “restructuring” and glasnost policymaking.   


Prologue:
Prologue: East Berlin 1984
At the crack of midnight, Checkpoint Charlie, East Berlin, 1984, the view of the American flag a symbol of freedom, and independence is raised across the allied controlled border. On the other side two Ministry for State Security sit patiently inside a 1971 Tatra 2-603, they are both watching for spies crossing the Western C border into German Democratic Republic (GDR) controlled territory. A highly decorated ‘Stasi’ intelligence officer decides to light a Camel brand cigarette that reveals instant outlines of his facial features in the darkness. His features are youthful, pale, and slightly looking Scandinavian at first sight. The much older intelligence officer hunched over the driver’s wheel turns to his comrade in law enforcement and declares: “We had better identify this American spy crossing the Checkpoint C border and fast or it’s the Aleutian Islands for both of us comrade, I don’t want to be stationed in Serbia, or worse, patrolling an Arctic Sea factory ship for NATO, and American intelligence, not at my age comrade.” Without warning, the surveillance cars inbuilt police radio system then signals an all-points bulletin over the air: “Comrades we have received an urgent message that the American spy is wearing a Deutsche Volkspolizei uniform, carrying important documents, fair-haired, 6 foot 5, armed and extremely dangerous, approach with caution, over.” The Scandinavian looking young officer then put’s out his half-burnt cigarette and picks up the radio receiver: “This is comrade Popov, where did you see the American infiltrator last? Over!” Two-minutes go by until the radio receives the call: “The American was spotted in Friedrichsfelde, East Berlin, near the entrance of the Tierpark Berlin, with another unidentified suspect wearing a beige trench coat and a flat cap, possibly hostile, over and out.”
The Tatra-2 603,  a Stasi trademark intelligence vehicle, then races into the night with the headlights reflecting on the tarmacadam of East Berlin Soviet-occupied streets and beaming into the dark alleys and the Mietskasernes of Mitte, where human night creatures’ dwell from roaming vagrants, skinhead street gangs, and nocturnal sex workers all hide their incriminated faces from the prying eyes of the Stasi state. “Look at all these subhuman types, we have a long night ahead of us comrade.” Expressed the older intelligence officer with disgust. They both pass the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum located on Museum Island. “Ah, look at that comrade, a thing of ancient beauty, better times back then, comrade – no street vermin, no crime, I personally like the Trecento room myself.” “Do you remember the steam train that formerly ran pass the Bode?” Popov rolls down the window and begins to light another cigarette: “Keep your eyes on the road, comrade; we don’t have time to go sightseeing.” The old Stasi officer ignores Popov’s disinterest with East, Berlin’s ancient tourism: “You should take the wife sometime, comrade. I heard a rumour that the Byzantine collection at the Bode is rather impressive, comrade.” You did study a BA in ancient history and law at Humbolt University of Berlin, didn’t you?” The two intelligence officers finally reach Tierpark Berlin and park their surveillance vehicle outside the front entrance at 11:30. The atmosphere is filled with tense and foreboding emotions as they both overhear the echoing sounds of striped hyenas and Sri Lankan elephants being rudely awoken at the hour of darkness.

The year 1992 ended on a frigid note in the South Caucasus. After a year of intense fighting in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas, Armenia and Azerbaijan were in dire straits. "Armenians Face Winter of Death," announced a headline in the British newspaper The Guardian. Throughout Armenia, electricity was scarce, unemployment widespread, and fuel in short supply, in large part because of an Azerbaijani embargo on oil shipments through the pipeline that was Armenia's main energy source. 2 Azerbaijan was a bit warmer along the coast of the Caspian Sea, but tens of thousands of Azeri refugees from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh who were scattered throughout the country faced conditions of deprivation similar to the residents of Armenia. 3 A thousand miles to the north, in Moscow, the outgoing U.S. president, George H. W. Bush, was meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin to sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II). The two leaders issued a joint statement appealing to all sides in the Karabakh conflict for a ceasefire and talks. This call was ignored, with an Azerbaijani official allegedly warning that "the Karabakh question will be resolved not in Moscow or in Washington but most likely on the battlefield." 4 Although this comment

According to Vasiliy Mitrokhin, the KGB closely followed the career of US Department of State official Frederick W. Flott, tried to compromise him twice, and finally recruited him as a source in 1973. His espionage has never been revealed publicly, and the FBI appears to have been unaware of it.

This article aims to address similarities and differences in military aid provided by the Soviets to China and Spain in their war against imperialism and fascism respectively, considering the influence that one had on the other, given that the occurred at the same time. Operation X and Operation Z had both material (military supplies) and human components (advisers and volunteers) that played fundamental roles in the defence of these republics, which until now have been studied independently. Incorporating recent works on the particular historiography of both conflicts together with personal research work, this article intends to approach a comparison of both aids and their relationship with Soviet foreign policy.

This article reexamines the role of Soviet advisors in guerrilla warfare during the Spanish Civil War within the framework of Operation X. Drawing on Russian and Spanish archival sources, it challenges the prevailing historiographical view that Soviet involvement in irregular warfare was marginal. Instead, it argues that guerrilla warfare functioned as an alternative intelligence system that compensated for the structural weaknesses of Republican military intelligence. By analysing the organisation, deployment, and operational use of guerrilla units, the article demonstrates that Soviet advisors played an important role in transforming spontaneous resistance into a coordinated system of intelligence gathering and subversive warfare.

This article examines the short-lived episode of Slovak–Soviet relations between 1939 and 1941, framed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and terminated by the German invasion of the USSR. Using archival and published sources, it analyses how the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSĽS) reconciled its identity as a Christian, anti-Bolshevik movement with diplomatic accommodation of Moscow. The study demonstrates the structural dependency of Slovak foreign policy on the German Reich, showing that the establishment, development and collapse of relations with the Soviet Union were contingent on German strategic choices rather than Slovak initiative. It also highlights Slovak elites' attempts to exploit the geopolitical window to expand autonomy, nurturing illusory hopes of a Bratislava–Moscow axis to counterbalance Berlin. Ultimately, pragmatic calculation outweighed Russophile or Slavophile rhetoric. The Slovak case thus illustrates the constrained agency of small Axis states, the malleability of ideology under hegemonic domination and the volatility of fascist diplomacy.

The paper deals with the impact of the Czechoslovak television and radio broadcasting on ethnic identity of Slovaks of Transcarpathia in the Soviet Union period. Slovaks faced a strong assimilation pressure supported by state policies aiming to create the “Soviet people”. The aim of the paper is to identify and analyse the impact of the Czechoslovak media on ethnic identity of Slovaks of Transcarpathia and its preservation. In the environment of isolation from Czechoslovakia, absence of own schools, media, associations and limiting the religious life, the Czechoslovak media became the contact with the Slovak and Czech culture and language. Paper’s findings are based on the interviews with respondents during
our field research in Transcarpathia in 2024 and 2025. We used Oral History method in our research, which helped us to find and interpret the respondents’ memories on the Soviet Union period.

On December 5, 1931, Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was blown up on the orders of Soviet communist dictator Stalin.
A monstrous Palace of the Soviets with a large statue of Lenin on top was to be built on the site of the cathedral. However, due to the war, the building was never constructed.
The construction of a replica of the cathedral, which took place in the 1990s, was criticized from the outset as an overly expensive, even megalomaniacal project that benefited construction companies with corrupt ties to the Moscow City Hall and the clan around then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
However, Yeltsin was also motivated by political considerations and an effort to fill the ideological vacuum left after the end of the communist regime. "It is a Russian national sacred site and must be reborn," the Russian president said in 1994, explaining the restoration of the cathedral. Yeltsin thus paved the way for Vladimir Putin to continue at full force. The alliance between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state is one of the main ideological and political pillars of Putin's regime and Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Отражена вековая история становления и развития отрасли народного хозяйства СССР «Геология и разведка недр». Приведены документированные исторические справки по центральным органам управления отраслью, подведомственным им геологическим управле¬ниям, трестам, объединениям, НИИ, проектным, конструкторским и другим организациям, действовавшим со времени создания первого в России государственного геологического учреждения в 1882 г. по 1985 г., указаны сведения об истории их образования, структуре, преемственности и многие другие данные.
Справочник является практическим пособием для работников геологических, произ-водственных, научных, кадровых, архивных и др. организаций и подразделений, а также для тех, кто интересуется прошлым геологической службы. Он снабжен указателем организаций, предприятий и учреждений, именным указателем, указателем нормативных актов.

У статті реконструйовано виробниче середовище єлисаветградських фабрик та заводів у період індустріального піднесення (1890-ті – початок ХХ ст.) із залученням корпусу фабричної та санітарної статистики, місцевої періодики, оглядово-статистичних й архівних матеріалів. Під час дослідження основний акцент зроблено на полігалузевому підході до вивчення умов праці промислових робітників міста. З цією метою застосовано комплексне порівняння фізичних й санітарних-гігієнічних характеристик виробничого середовища, виділення галузевої специфіки та відслідковування регулятивного впливу контролюючих інституцій. Ці обставини якісно вирізняють роботу від попередніх предметних студій. Було виділено основні галузеві закономірності у розміщенні виробничих приміщень. Так, друкарні містилися на перших поверхах житлових будинків, пекарні – переважно у підвалах. Еталоном організації виробничого середовища слугував завод Акціонерного товариства «Р. і Т. Ельворті» із шести- та чотириповерховими залізобетонними корпусами й призматичною лантерною для забезпечення природного освітлення. Показано, що більшість підприємств функціонували у тісних, часто непристосованих приміщеннях із дефіцитом освітлення, недостатніми вентиляцією та опаленням, що сформувало несприятливий температурний режим і підвищені професійні ризики (задимленість, пил, токсичні випари). Брак простору на окремих заводах ставав безпосередньою причиною каліцтв, а деякі виробничі споруди визнавалися відверто небезпечними як в пожежному, так і в конструктивному сенсі. Санітарно-гігієнічна інфраструктура репрезентувалася слабко: організація роздягалень та умивальників була рідкісною практикою, питний режим забезпечувався водою сумнівної якості з баків («кубів») або колодязів, а вбиральні мали виключно характер примітивних «відхожих місць». Виразні галузеві контрасти виявлено й у сукупній картині умов праці: кращою їх організацією вирізнялися машинобудівні заводи та парові млини, тоді як типографії, тютюнові та пекарські підприємства несли найбільшу ризикогенність. Під тиском фабричної, санітарної інспекцій, а також страйкових рухів, на початку XX ст. зафіксовано точкові покращення (перехід на електричне освітлення, встановлення вентиляторів, цементування вигрібних ям, поява умивальників). Однак, підкреслено, що їхня фрагментарність до початку Першої світової війни не здолала основних системних вад. Звернено увагу, що подальше поглиблення даної тематики можливе за умови пошуку та опрацювання нового масиву джерел, що нині лишаються поза увагою дослідників.

У статті досліджено житлові стратегії промислових робітників Єлисаветграда кінця 19 - початку 20 ст. На основі комплексного аналізу статистичних даних, архівних матеріалів і періодики визначено основні типи житла робітників і причини та мотивації у його виборі. Проаналізовано співвідношення міського та приміського населення у середовищі промислового робітництва та поширеність механізму «маятникових міграцій». Встановлено, що переважаючою житловою стратегією була оренда житла у міському контурі, проте зафіксовано й поступове зростання частки власників нерухомості. Підкреслено, що ця тенденція особливо поглиблюється після початку забудови Робітничої слобідки (Миколаївки) у 1912 р. Виявлено та охарактеризовано й інші, менш поширені форми організації житлового простору – робітничі казарми, нічліжки, лікувально-продовольчі пункти, заїжджі двори та «будинки залізниці». Було здійснено і просторовий аналіз локалізації житла промислових робітників 8 найбільших підприємств Єлисаветграда у 1906 р., що дозволило встановити райони та окремі міські локації найбільшої концентрації робітничого населення.

This thesis covered the cases of the use of Soviet power in the field of
Sports Of The Uzbek SSR in its various interests. In particular, it has been cited
that the working class used precisely the field of sports in increasing their ability
to work, in ensuring defensive strength, in increasing the “Cotton plan”. It can be
seen that the Soviet authorities, as cadres of the sports sphere of the Uzbek SSR,
mainly attracted representatives of other nationalities, on the contrary, a small
number of national cadres were taken into this sphere.

Bu çalışma, Abhazya’da Stalin döneminde uygulanan Gürcüleştirme politikalarını, kitlesel sürgün yoluyla değil, Sovyet milliyetler politikası çerçevesinde hayata geçirilen bir yapısal baskı biçimi olarak incelemektedir. 1930’ların başından 1950’lerin başına uzanan döneme odaklanan çalışma, Gürcüleştirmenin marjinal bir kültürel girişimden ziyade Lavrentiy Beria’nın bölgesel güç ağıyla yakından bağlantılı, eşgüdümlü bir yönetişim stratejisi olduğunu savunmaktadır. Beria, önce Transkafkasya’da kilit bir parti yetkilisi, ardından NKVD başkanı olarak, güvenlik aygıtını, kadro politikasını ve kültürel düzenlemeleri bölge genelinde senkronize eden merkezi bir aktör olarak öne çıkmıştır. Abhazya’da baskı, birbiriyle bağlantılı kurumsal müdahaleler aracılığıyla tezahür etmiştir. Bu müdahaleler arasında Abhaz dilinin eğitim ve idari alanlardan sistematik biçimde dışlanması, Abhazca eğitim veren kurumların tasfiyesi ve yerel siyasal ile kültürel elitlerin, cumhuriyetçi ve bölgesel parti liderliğine sadık Gürcü kadrolarla ikame edilmesi yer almaktadır. 1937-1938 Büyük Terörü sırasında özellikle eğitimciler, yazarlar ve kültürel aracılar olmak üzere Abhaz entelektüelleri “burjuva milliyetçiliği” suçlamalarıyla orantısız biçimde hedef alınmış; bu durum Abhaz özerkliğinin toplumsal dayanaklarını daha da zayıflatmıştır. Çalışma, bu politikaları Sovyet devletinin kitlesel sürgünle ilişkili yüksek görünürlük ve siyasal risklerden kaçınırken Abhazya’nın demografik ve kurumsal yapısını dönüştürmesine imkân veren bir “yerinden etmeden baskı” stratejisi olarak kavramsallaştırmaktadır. Büyük ölçekli nüfus transferlerine maruz kalan diğer Kafkasya örneklerinden farklı olarak Abhazya, fiziksel tahliyeden ziyade idari zorlama, kontrollü göç ve kültürel marjinalleştirme yoluyla yeniden şekillendirilmiştir. Abhazya örneğini Stalinist milliyetler politikası, imparatorluk yönetişimi ve Sovyet sınır bölgelerinin idaresine ilişkin daha geniş tartışmalar içine yerleştiren bu çalışma, Stalinist baskıyı sürgün merkezli anlatılarla sınırlayan yaklaşımlara eleştirel bir alternatif sunmakta; kültürel ve idari zorlamanın Kafkasya’da kalıcı ve etkili imparatorluk denetim araçları olarak nasıl işlediğini ve Stalin’in ölümünün çok ötesine uzanan uzun vadeli sonuçlar ürettiğini ortaya koymaktadır.

С целью анализа адекватности существующих оценок общей численности населения СССР по данным переписи 1939 г. рассмотрены положения инструкции к заполнению переписного листа этой переписи. Их сравнение с более совершенной инструкцией к переписи 1959 г. показало, что инструкция 1939 г. создавала возможность двойного счета населения. Это подтверждает правомерность наиболее низкой оценки численности населения СССР, данной известным российским демографом А.Г. Волковым на основе материалов переписи 1939 г. – 167,6 млн человек, которая ниже ее официального итога на три млн. Рассчитаны и проанализированы количественные оценки влияния межреспубликанского перераспределения переписных листов заключенных при разработке итогов переписи 1939 г. Для всего населения России по большинству показателей эти оценки не меняют картины, известной прежде по официальным итогам этой переписи. Напротив, для Украины и особенно для Казахстана пересчеты дали заметные изменения, которые в некоторых случаях существенно уточняют представление о составе их довоенного населения.

This article discusses the relationships between the European Union and the Central Asian region and the principles for their implementation.
Regional cooperation based on the EU strategy for Central Asia. The factors that led to the development of a new strategy, significant changes in regional policy, the priorities of the strategy and the possibility of their implementation in the countries of the region will be explored. Common problems for the region and the role of the EU strategy in overcoming them will be studied. It also analyses the need for EU experience in strengthening regional integration, considering the different levels of development of the countries of the region. The impact of the EU's neighbourhood policy is particularly notable, as is the shift in foreign policy from normative power to principled pragmatism. The catalyst for this change was a focus on the impact of close neighbours on Europe's security, immigration, terrorism, and economic health concurrently offering a realistic strategy for managing larger challenges of the regional and global security.

Στην έρευνα αυτή έγινε προσπάθεια να αποκαλυφθούν ορισμένες μόνο πτυχές της τουρκικής εξωτερικής πολιτική κατά τον Ψυχρό Πόλεμο. Η Τουρκία διατήρησε τη φιλοδυτική στάση της τόσο στις σχέσεις της με τις χώρες της Μέσης Ανατολή όσο και με τη Δύση, ενώ συγχρόνως υπήρξε δυναμική στη διεκδίκηση των συμφερόντων της εκμεταλλευόμενη τις συγκυρίες. Η πολυπλοκότητα των ζητημάτων και η εμπλοκή πολλών δυνάμεων στον νευραλγικό χώρο της Μέσης Ανατολής και της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου απαιτούν τη διεξοδική διερεύνηση των γεγονότων για την ασφαλή εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων και την κατανόηση των επιπτώσεων του ψυχροπολεμικού διπολισμού.