War of Annihilation, Reactions, Remembrance

German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
November 22-24, 2012, Neue Mälzerei, Friedenstr. 91, 10249 Berlin

On June 22, 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The preparations for this attack were aimed at an unprecedented war of annihilation which took for granted the death of many millions in the territories to be conquered. A brutal policy of murder, repression and hunger followed the invasion immediately. Over three million Soviet prisoners of war were not the only group of casualties. The civilian population was targeted as well. Millions starved to death or were killed as part of the fight against Partisans. The Jewish population, Roma and civilian officials of the Soviet Party and state apparatus were killed specifically, as were often patients of mental institutions. Millions of locals were forced to work for the occupiers. International researchers convening at this conference will examine these different aspects of the German occupation regime and investigate the reactions on the part of the local population. In what way was everyday life in the occupied territories affected? What were the specific experiences women made? What can we tell about the population’s strategies of survival and resistance? Last but not least, we turn our attention to the remembrance of German occupation in Russia, Belarus, the Baltic states and Ukraine. The aim of the conference is to reflect on recent controversies concerning particular issues, as well as to discuss open questions in this field of research.

Program

Registration
We regret that registration for the conference is now closed, as all the seats in the venue have already been filled.
The number of participants is limited to 100. There is no conference fee.

Contact
Ms Tatjana Turowez: turowez@museum-karlshorst.de

Past and Present of National Image Management among the Small Nations of Northern Europe

Public Diplomacy in Context – Past and Present of National Image Management among the Small Nations of Northern Europe

Helsinki and Turku, 26-27 April 2013

Deadline: 30 November 2012

Website: http://publicdiplomacyincontext.blogspot.fi/

Organizers:

Turku University, Department of Political Science and Contemporary History
University of Helsinki, Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies
Public Diplomacy Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland
ProCom – Finnish Association of Communication Professionals

Conference theme

The organizers are pleased to invite all interested scholars and researchers to participate in a two-day conference dealing with the history and current state of public diplomacy in the small states and nations of Northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc).

The conference will be divided into two parts – an introductory day made of keynote lectures and discussions on the current state of Northern public diplomacy, and a second day dedicated to academic presentations on the historical context of Northern public diplomacy.

The first day of the conference, Friday 26, will be hosted in Helsinki by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It will deal with the current state of public diplomacy in Northern Europe and its possible developments. Discussions will be organized around three keynote lectures and a panel discussion. The keynote presentations will be delivered by Professor Jan Melissen (Clingendael’s Diplomatic Studies Programme, University of Antwerp), Associate Professor Jozef Batora (University Comenius, Bratislava) and CEO of Artek Ms Mirkku Kullberg. The panel discussion will focus especially on the Finnish context and the public diplomacy efforts of Finland.

The second day, Saturday 27, will take place at the University of Turku, Department of Contemporary History and Political Science, and will focus on the historical evolution, nature and role of national image management among small states and nations situated in Northern Europe. The day will start with a keynote lecture by Professor Nicholas Cull (USC Center on Public Diplomacy), followed by workshops and presentations.

Academic outlines

The organizers would like to welcome contributions for the second day of the conference. These should present academic perspectives on the History of public diplomacy, propaganda, national communication and national image management in the small nations and countries of Northern Europe. The following aspects will be especially emphasized:

•     The role of communication studies in public diplomacy

•     National cases, differences and similarities

•     National image management in the early 20th century

•     Propaganda and psychological warfare

•     Baltic cases: from Interwar image management to post-Cold War nation branding

•     Cultural diplomacy

•     Trade and export promotion

•     Public diplomacy and International History

•     “Nordic branding”? Defining and selling Nordicity through Nordic institutions’ public diplomacy

Chronologically, contributions should concentrate on the 20th century after the end of World War I.

The conference would like to emphasize innovative approaches towards the historical study of public diplomacy activities in Northern Europe. Participants are encouraged, in their presentations, to examine those in a chronologically wide and geographically comparative way. The main trend of research on “public diplomacy” has been infused with the notion that “public diplomacy” emerged late in the 20th century as a result of technological change, globalization, and a widening of the scope of international relations. This conference would like to suggest that what recent research calls “public diplomacy” is in fact a much older process of “national image management” by different actors – in several national settings there seems to be a historical continuum between early 20th century “image management” activities, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, and the “nation branding” activities of the 1980s-1990s. This historical continuum will be under study during the conference.

As well, one of the goals of this conference is to unravel generalities about “public diplomacy” and to contextualize national image management activities in various Nordic and Baltic contexts and at various times; to highlight the variety of practices, actors, methods, incentives, interests involved in public diplomacy, and especially to consider the specificities of public diplomacy in small Northern European states and nations. National image management activities will be considered mostly as a part of foreign policy, with a strong involvement of state authorities, but it will also be seen as a part of complex, multi-level international relations – an activity “in context”, not a set of theoretical visions. We will acknowledge that public diplomacy is stuck in and determined by national, historical, intellectual, linguistic, administrative contexts, which give it a different feel at different times and in different places.

Presentations and keynotes will be followed by debates involving all participants.

Submissions and practical matters

Papers for presentation at the 2013 conference will be selected by the organizers on the basis of 500-1000 words abstracts containing the title of the presentation, the name and references of the author. The abstract should express the purpose, methodology, findings, implications and originality of the study. Author and affiliation details are to be printed on a separate sheet and the author(s) should not be identified in the abstract. Abstracts must be presented in Word format, in 1.5 line spacing and 12 point font size. They should be sent to publicdiplomacyincontext@gmail.com before November 30th, 2012. Notification of acceptance will be sent through an email by the end of 2012.

Participation during the two days will be free of charge, but participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.

Contact persons

General inquiries related to this call for papers: Senior Lecturer Louis Clerc, loucle@utu.fi

Other inquiries:

Post-doc researcher Kristina Ranki, kristina.ranki@helsinki.fi
Managing director Elina Melgin, elina.melgin@procom.fi or elina.melgin@helsinki.fi
Director Timo Heino, timo.heino@formin.fi

Research Symposium “Minorities and the EU Eastern Enlargement”

Tartu (Estonia)
Period: Jun. 14-15, 2012
Programma

The Research Symposium “Minorities and the EU Eastern Enlargement” is organized by the Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu. The Symposium will be held on June 14-15, 2012.
Prominent international scholars and researchers will participate to the conference, which will touch upon a variety of issues related to minorities and the European Union enlargement policy towards Eastern Europe. During the eight panels will focus on minority languages and their protection, the status and rights of Romanis in Eastern Europe, diversity management and multiculturalism in Europe. Moreover, the EU conditionality policy towards the Balkans will be discussed, as well as the issues such as mobility, the role of ethnicity and the evolution of nation states.
The Research Symposium will be closed by the keynote speech of George Schöpflin, Member of the European Parliament for Hungary and formerly Jean Monnet Professor of Politics, University College London.

How to participate to the Conference

Participants are required to register in order to attend the Research Seminar “”Minorities and the EU Eastern Enlargement”. The online registration procedure is available at this page.
Organizer

Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu

Information & contacts

Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu
address: Lossi street 36
Tartu (Estonia)
e-mail: admin@assessingaccession.eu

Un altro Novecento. L’Europa orientale dal 1919 ad oggi.

L’Europa orientale che questo libro racconta è l’insieme dei territori che, dopo aver attraversato la dissoluzione dei tre imperi multietnici in seguito alla Prima guerra mondiale, conobbero a partire dal 1939 l’esperienza storica del comunismo di tipo sovietico. La regione trattata comprende attualmente venti Stati (Estonia, Lettonia, Lituania, Polonia, Belarus, Ucraina, Slovacchia, Repubblica Ceca, Ungheria, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Slovenia, Croazia, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo e Albania), distribuiti su un territorio che misura quasi 2 milioni di km2 e una popolazione complessiva di 184 milioni di abitanti. Dopo il 1919, la maggior parte degli Stati successori degli imperi multietnici riprodusse su scala ridotta la frammentazione delle vecchie entità in un contesto politico profondamente mutato (l’età del nazionalismo di massa e del principio di autodeterminazione dei popoli). La dissoluzione nel 1991-93 degli Stati federativi esteuropei, la Jugoslavia e la Cecoslovacchia, ha generato un aspro dibattito in cui emergono molti dei nodi interpretativi di questo libro. Alcuni videro nella scomparsa degli Stati multinazionali, a settant’anni dalla loro creazione, la conferma del carattere fallimentare del loro impianto; altri sostennero che la separazione avrebbe favorito l’estendersi dei conflitti etnici e bloccato il processo di integrazione europea. Altri ancora, con più realismo, ammisero che nessuno dei due Stati era destinato al fallimento perche nascevano entrambi in un momento di crisi da una volontà politica alla quale si accompagnava una lunga gestazione intellettuale, dovuta all’incapacità dei regimi comunisti di gestire le differenze nazionali in modo più soddisfacente rispetto a quelli del periodo interbellico. Nonostante le premesse ideologiche internazionaliste, l’Europa orientale inglobata nella sfera di influenza sovietica non formò mai un’autentica comunità sovranazionale. Tensioni etniche e interessi economici contrapposti si manifestarono all’interno dei partiti unici al potere, influenzando i rapporti bilaterali e alimentando una dialettica crescente con Mosca. L’Europa orientale dipendeva pesantemente dall’Unione Sovietica, ma al rapporto di subordinazione degli anni quaranta e cinquanta si sostituì in seguito una “lealtà condizionata”. La storia dell’Europa orientale resta dunque in parte, anche dopo il 1945, la somma di vicende nazionali. Il quarantennio comunista ha tuttavia impresso su questi paesi un marchio pronunciato. Dopo il 1989 molti si erano illusi che il comunismo costituisse una parentesi storica, facilmente superabile attraverso programmi di privatizzazione dell’economia e democratizzazione della vita politica. La “deviazione” comunista, sommandosi alle specificità ereditate dal periodo 1919-45 (squilibri sociali, conflitti nazionali, instabilità politica), incise in modo assai più profondo di quanto immaginabile sulla mentalità collettiva e sulle strutture sociali dei paesi ex comunisti. Probabilmente la comune eredità di un passato scomodo che esita a passare costituisce l’unico, vero profondo legame che l’Unione Sovietica sia riuscita a creare con i suoi riluttanti satelliti. In ciascuno dei sette capitoli, il volume cerca di combinare un taglio generale cronologico con un approccio tematico comparato, incentrato sull’evoluzione economica e sociale dei vari paesi. Il nazionalismo e il fattore etnico non bastano infatti a spiegare la storia dell’Europa orientale del Novecento. In caso contrario, tale vicenda potrebbe essere ridotta a una serie ininterrotta di vendette e massacri compiuti sotto la spinta di pulsioni ancestrali. Il nazionalismo, nelle sue versioni democratiche, illiberali o populiste di destra e di sinistra, ha naturalmente giocato un ruolo fondamentale nelle vicende storiche del Novecento esteuropeo. Per analizzare le motivazioni alla base dei massacri e degli atti di genocidio che hanno punteggiato il secolo passato in Europa orientale, e necessario tuttavia capire attraverso quale intreccio di assimilazione e dissimilazione, ricordo e oblio, esterofilia e xenofobia si sono formate le rappresentazioni dell’altro. L’analisi sociale ed economica risulta imprescindibile ai fini di una ricostruzione storica che tenti di restituire al mosaico esteuropeo la propria complessità. Sara cosi possibile comprendere perche la distanza politica ed economica dall’Occidente delle “zone grigie” del continente europeo, allargatasi nei decenni del socialismo, tenda oggi ad affievolirsi senza peraltro scomparire, portandoci alla conclusione che un’Europa “orientale” esiste ancora. Affrontando in un saggio recente la scomparsa dei tradizionali confini politici della nuova Europa allargata, lo storico tedesco Karl Schlögel ha osservato che ad essa si contrappone una persistente alterità dei cronotopi, i sistemi di interconnessione dei rapporti temporali e spaziali. Questo libro tenta di raccontare gli “strati di memoria” sedimentatisi nella parte orientale dell’Europa durante il lungo Novecento.

Stefano Bottoni ha conseguito il Dottorato di ricerca in Storia d’Europa presso l’Università di Bologna, dove insegna Storia e istituzioni dell’Europa orientale. E’ assegnista di ricerca presso l’Università del Piemonte orientale e collabora con l’Istituto di Storia dell’Accademia ungherese delle Scienze di Budapest. Per Carocci ha pubblicato nel 2007 Transilvania Rossa, il comunismo romeno e la questione nazionale.

Carocci Editore

VERS UN PROFIL CONVERGENT DES FASCISMES? « Nouveau consensus » et religion politique en Europe centrale
Le « nouveau consensus » dégage depuis une vingtaine d’années les grands traits d’un « fascisme générique » commun à tous les radicalismes nationalistes autour de leur quadruple dimension de syncrétisme idéologique et social droite-gauche et interclasse, d’exacerbation de la religiosité politique, de révolution globale et de promesse de régénération nationale.
Ces analyses, appliquées avec succès au fascisme et au nazisme, ont trouvé un large écho parmi les jeunes historiens roumains, pionniers dans un espace centre-européen riche en mouvements de droite radicaux.
L’affichage d’une foi religieuse et d’une fidélité monarchique de la part de chefs charismatiques comme Codreanu en Roumanie, Szálasi en Hongrie ou Pavelić en Croatie ne doit pas nous tromper : elles ressemblent souvent à des pétitions certes sincères, mais insatisfaites par l’Église et la royauté telles qu’elles interprètent l’identité nationale renouvelée par les bouleversements de la Première Guerre mondiale.
Ce faisant, les analyses des tenants du new consensus s’enrichiront tout en se nuançant, puisqu’elles devront se confronter à des situations de mise en échec du fascisme par les conservatismes autoritaires, à de très résistibles ascensions donc dans le contexte de sociétés encore retardées d’Europe centre-orientale.

Édition L\’Harmattan

Vers un profil convergent des fascismes-pdf indice

La Storia in televisione in sette paesi dell’Europa dell’Est
Ungheria, Lituania, Slovacchia, Repubblica Ceca, Polonia, Romania, Finlandia

Seminario di presentazione della seconda fase della ricerca
“Media e cultura comunitaria: per una storia televisiva dell’Europa”
Bologna, 6 febbraio 2010
Urban Center, Sala Borsa – piazza Nettuno, 3
(le relazioni saranno presentate in inglese con traduzione simultanea in italiano)
mattina, ore 10.00/13.30
Presiede: Luigi Benedetti, Direttore generale Assemblea legislativa
Saluti istituzionali
Luigi Benedetti, Direttore generale Assemblea legislativa
Luca Alessandrini, Direttore Istituto Parri Emilia-Romagna
Introduzione alla seconda fase della ricerca
Luisa Cigognetti, Istituto Storico Parri Emilia-Romagna
Television and history: an uneasy relationship
Tereza Czesany Dvořáková, Praga University, Czech Republic
Television and history in Slovakia
Mária Ridzoňová Ferenčuhová, Bratislava University, Slovakia
History on Lithuanian Television
Karolis Klimka, Vilnius University, Lithuania
History at TV: A Romanian View on History on Recent Television
Anca Velicu, Bucuresti University, Rumania
ore 13.00 Dibattito
ore 13.30 Break
pomeriggio, ore 14.30/18.00
Presiede: Luisa Cigognetti, Istituto Storico Parri
Televising history in Polish television
Urszula Jarecka, Polish Academy of Sciences (FIS PAN), Warsaw, Poland
History on Hungarian Television: An Introduction
Teréz Vincze, Budapest University, Ungheria
History on Finnish Television Channels
Jarmo Valkola, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Sintesi conclusive e prospettive per il futuro
Pierre Sorlin, Paris University, Sorbonne Nouvelle
Info
Istituto Storico Parri Emilia-Romagna, tel. 051 339 72 40 – 339 72 11
Centro Europe Direct dell’Assemblea Legislativa della Regione Emilia-Romagna, europedirect@regione.emilia-romagna.it
Videoteca regionale, videoteca@regione.emilia-romagna.it
Grafica: Roberta Gravano, Centro grafico dell’Assemblea legislativa