“La questione dell’influenza dell’invasione tatara sulla vita politica, culturale, civile della Russia è sempre stata uno dei maggiori problemi, un autentico rompicapo negli studi storici e politici sulla Russia. Sul tema c’è sempre stata tuttavia scarsità di opere scientifiche che fossero capaci di fare i conti con documenti di differente provenienza. Troppo disperse, infatti, sono le fonti e per molti episodi e periodi sono sempre state anche scarse e frammentarie.”

Georges Castellan, Marie Vrinat-Nikolov

Scritto a quattro mani da Georges Castellan e Marie Vrinat-Nikolov, Storia della Bulgaria alza il sipario su uno dei paesi europei meno conosciuti, realizzando così una tappa decisiva del progetto di Argo di contribuire a far conoscere al pubblico italiano il ‘continente’ balcanico. Peculiarità del saggio, il sapiente ed equilibrato intreccio tra l’affresco delle vicende storiche e le varie, vivacissime fasi della cultura del popolo bulgaro. La narrazione si sviluppa in modo lineare: dopo le vicende antiche, in gran parte interne alla storia greca e romana, la Bulgaria comincia ad assumere – almeno linguisticamente – la fisionomia a noi nota con la colonizzazione dei popoli slavi nei secoli VI e VII. Ma è con i protobulgari e il mitico ‘zar’ Simeone (893- 927) che queste antiche popolazioni si guadagnano un posto di prestigio nella storia imponendosi perfino all’impero bizantino. Poi, a par tire dal 1396, si abbatterà il lunghissimo dominio ottomano, che si dissolverà solo con la guerra russo-turca (1877-1878). L’autonomia finalmente ritrovata non porterà tuttavia serenità al generoso popolo bulgaro: prima le disastrose guerre balcaniche, poi le infelici alleanze militari nella prima e soprattutto nella sconda guerra mondiale, infine il lungo periodo all’ombra dell’Unione Sovietica. Un’autonomia vera del paese delle rose ha date recenti e quindi il carattere della cronaca: dal 2007 la Bulgaria fa anche parte dell’Unione europea ricucendo così una storia troppo a lungo lacerata.

Indice

Argo

Igor Despot

The Balkan Wars in the Eyes of the Warring Parties: Perceptions and Interpretations

In the fall of 1912, the Ottoman Empire was in turmoil. In addition to the Albanian and the Yemen rebellions, the Empire was at war with Italy over the Libyan territory. Worse yet, cholera was spreading throughout the country, leaving a decimated population in its wake. In its weakness, the Ottoman Empire was ripe to be attacked, and the Balkan countries did so. On October 8, 1912, Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, beginning the first of the Balkan Wars. Embracing maturity and setting their differences aside, four nations joined together to form the Balkan League—Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.

Despite the tremendous land victory celebrated by the Balkan League, disputes over dividing the won territory soon arose. Dissatisfied with its share of the Macedonia, Bulgaria attacked its former allies Serbia and Greece. On August 10, 1913, the Treaty of Bucharest ended the second conflict, but it did not bring the peace. In the First World War, which was initiated by Sarajevo assassination, Balkan again became theater of the war.

The Balkan wars have been a popular topic for scholarly research since their resolution. Despite the attention this topic has received, however, the research is far from complete. In this study contributing to the documentation and understanding of this conflict, author Igor Despot has not only reviews the events of the wars, but also considers these events in light of pertinent cultural aspects, identifying the commonalities and differences that may have determined alliances or sparked conflict throughout Balkan history.

Igor Despot was born in Zagreb. He graduated from the faculty of humanities and social science of the University of Zagreb in 1998, obtaining the degree of history and philosophy professor. He obtained his master’s degree on 2008 from the same faculty. This is his PhD dissertation, which he defended in 2012.

iUniverse

Second Joint PhD Symposium on South East Europe

London, Jun. 18, 2012

Program

Following the success of the First Joint PhD Symposium on South East Europe, held at LSE in June 2010, the Centre for the Study of the Balkan at Goldsmiths, University of London, will host the Second Joint PhD Symposium in June 2012.

The aim of the symposium is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas between scholars currently undertaking doctoral research on the region. The event will try to help research students to overcome the academic isolation associated with PhD research, to ‘try’ their ideas and findings on wider audiences, and to establish new collaborative links across disciplines. Researchers will also be able to ‘engage’ with a wider academic community, including academic members of staff at the three institutions, and also a number of other distinguished scholars who will be involved with the symposium.
The Second Joint PhD Symposium on South East Europe will address several issues related to the abovementioned region with a multi-disciplinary approach touching upon political studies, sociology, anthropology, economy, history, law and cultural studies.
How to participate to the Symposium

Participants will be expected to pay for their own travel, accommodation and subsistence. There will also be a registration fee of £15 for all participants, payable upon registration. General participants are welcome to attend.
Organizer and Partners

Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Goldsmiths
Centre for South East European Studies, SSEES, UCL
LSEE-Research on South East Europe, European Institute, LSE

Information & contacts

e-mail: phdsymposiumgold2012@gmail.com

Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation

The Wilson Center, Embassy of Romania

The Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies at the University of Maryland, College Park and the Romanian Cultural Institute, in collaboration with the Wilson Center’s Cold War International History Project began, in 2007, a series of conferences in Washington D.C. focused on providing, by means of reflection on watershed moments of post-1945 history, an overview of the global dynamics characteristic for the 20th century and its lessons and impact upon the 21st. In the previous years, the central topics were centered on the Sovietization of Eastern Europe, the promises of 1968, the meanings of 1989, and on the process of overcoming a traumatic past in post-authoritarian societies.

This year’s conference entitled Ideological Storms: Intellectuals and the Totalitarian Temptation will take place on 14-15 November 2011.

Day one of the conference will be held at The Wilson Center.

Day two of the conference will be held off-site at the Embassy of Romania.

The conference will provide an overview of the main issues raised by the temptation of the extremes in the 20th century and their weight upon the contemporary world. The aim is to create a forum that will discuss political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments in massive social engineering. In the process it will attempt to chart the map of and explain what Hannah Arendt called “the ideological storms” of a century second to none in terms of violence, hubris, ruthlessness and human sacrifices.

Programma
Conference speakers include:
Christian Ostermann, Wilson Center; Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland; Mark Lilla, Columbia University; Adrian Vierită, Ambassador of Romania to the US; Horia-Roman Patapievici, President, Romanian Cultural Institute; Dennis Deletant, Georgetown University; Cristina Vatulescu, New York University; Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland; Michael David-Fox, Georgetown University; Angelo Mitchievici, Ovidius University, Romania; Balazs Trencsenyi, Central European University; Ian Ward, University of Maryland; Annette Wieviorka, CNRS; Stanislao G. Pugliese, Hofstra University; Nikos Marantzidis, University of Macedonia-Thessaloniki; Jeffrey Isaac, University of Indiana, Bloomington, and more.

14 November: 5th Floor Conference Room, The Wilson Center
To RSVP to Day 1 of the conference email: HAPP@wilsoncenter.org

15 November: OFF-SITE at the Embassy of Romania
To RSVP to Day 2 of the conference email: ideologicalstorms@gmail.com

Visit www.CWIHP.org for more information.

Dopo l’Unione Sovietica: i diritti delle minoranze in Europa Orientale e nell’ex-URSS

7-9 aprile 2011

Torino, Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà (Corso Valdocco 4a, Torino)

7 aprile

Russia – Urss – Russia: continuità imperiali?  (a cura di Memorial Italia)

8 – 9 aprile

Le minoranze:   territorio /accesso alle risorse/ proprietà / migrazioni (a cura del Prin Urban Changes and Minorities in East-Europe after 1989)

Programma completo della conferenza

7 aprile
Russia – Urss – Russia: continuità imperiali?  (a cura di Memorial Italia)

ore 10.30-13.00

Andrea Graziosi, University of Naples, chair

Alberto Masoero, University of Venice, Memorial Italia: Geografia del potere e governo delle differenze: l’eredità imperiale

Boris Dubin, Levada Centre, Moscow: The empire from which we went out and from which we cannot go out

ore 14.30-19.00

Andriy Portnov, Memorial Kiev: Imaging, promoting, and fighting Empire in post-Soviet Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

Nikita Okhotin, Memorial Moscow: Fighting the “enemies”: an aspect of the imperial policy

Alexis Berelowitch: State violence: URSS – Russia

Milana Bakhaeva, Memorial Groznyj: Russian policy in Chechnya and the imperial continuities

Charles Urjewicz, INALCO, Paris: Russian policy in Georgia and the imperial continuities

Marco Buttino, University of Turin, Memorial-Italia: Conclusions

(È prevista traduzione simultanea)

Urban Changes and Minorities in East-Europe after 1989
8 aprile

Le minoranze:   territorio /accesso alle risorse/ proprietà / migrazioni (a cura del Prin)

ore 9.00-13.00

Gianmaria Ajani    (Università di Torino)  chair

Tiziana Zaira Lofranco (Università di Napoli): Il diritto alla casa: mutamenti giuridici ed effetti socio-culturali nella Sarajevo post-conflitto

Marzia Marchi  (Università di Bologna): Città dell’Istria e minoranza italiana dopo il 1990

Vanni D’Alessio (Università di Napoli): Ex-Jugoslavia. La ridefinizione delle appartenenze e dei confini nell’adriatico orientale

Davide Artico (Università di  Breslavia): In diritti delle minoranze in Polonia, fra nazionalismo post-sovietico e integrazione europea

Carla Tonini (Università di Bologna): Gli ebrei di Varsavia dopo il 1989

ore 14.30-19.00

Brunello Mantelli (Università di Torino): Displaced persons, crisi del 1989/90, riemergenza della memoria: il caso dei Vertriebenen tedeschi

Liza Candidi (Università di Berlino): Fra espropri e privatizzazioni, banditi e yuppie. I tedeschi orientali nell’economia post-riunificazione

Stefano Bottoni (Università del Piemonte Orientale): Targu-Mures (Transilvania): ungheresi

Pietro Cingolani (FIERI): Vivere insieme. Rom e romeni del Banato dalla caduta del regime alla migrazione in Italia

Francesco Vietti (Università di Genova): I greci di Albania. Migrazioni e gestione delle risorse turistiche nella “zona di minoranza”

Matteo Varani (Università di Bologna): I russi nella Tallinn post-sovietica: tra integrazione e autoesclusione

9 aprile

ore 9.00-13.00

Abel Polese (University of Edinburgh): Ucraina, Odessa: chi e la minoranza?

Giulia Panicciari (Università di Torino): Almaty: kazaki, i nuovi colonizzatori della città

Marco Buttino (Università di Torino): Storie di minoranze e di mahalla a Samarkand: Gli ebrei di Bukhara e i coreani

Matteo Fumagalli (Central European University, Budapest): Gli Uzbek di Osh e Jalalabad tra autoritarismo, indebolimento dello stato e normalizzazione della violenza

Raya Cohen, (Università di Napoli): Gerusalemme tra etnicizzazione e urbanizzazione

ore 14.30-16.30
Discussione su come continuare la ricerca e su come utilizzare il blog sulle città

Convegno Internazionale

Стратегије Италије на Балкану током XIX и XX века

Le strategie balcaniche dell’Italia nel XIX e XX secolo

Belgrado, 3 e 4 dicembre 2010

Venerdì 3 dicembre, Кnez Mihailova, 35, aula 3, piano I
Sabato, 4 dicembre, Кnez Mihailova, 36, aula 2, piano I

Programma del convegno Le strategia balcaniche dell’Italia nel XIX e XX secolo

The Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Southeastern Europe Study Group, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, invite scholars, researchers, university faculty, public policy practitioners, and graduate students at advanced stages of research to submit 500-word proposals for papers to be delivered at the symposium “Continuity and Change in Southeastern Europe” on February 4, 2011, at Harvard University.

Deadline for submission: November 15, 2010. Proposals should be submitted along with a recent CV to Andrew Hall at Andrew_Hall@hks.harvard.edu. Small stipends for travel and accommodation will be available for selected participants.

Proposals must fall into one of the below thematic units:

I) Institutional Legacies: Tracing Historical Continuities

Over the last century and a half, Southeastern Europe has been marked by a large number of critical junctures: from the collapse of multinational empires to the long period of wars form 1912-18 and World War II to the emergence of Communist states and their collapse. These monumental changes often disguise lines of continuity, especially in regard to institutions. This panel will bring together papers that help understand how and why institutional continuities and legacies persist over time. Avoiding historical determinism, the papers will shed light on particular paths institutional developments have taken and how this helps understand Southeastern Europe today. From ethnographic micro-cases to larger comparative studies, papers representing a variety of disciplines and approaches are welcome.

Chair: Dr. Florian Bieber, Editor-in-Chief, Nationalities Papers

II) Domestic-International Relationships in Political Reform in Southeastern Europe

What do case studies of political reform in post-socialist Southeastern Europe tell us about the conditions under which international actors can work together with domestic actors to develop institutions that are responsive to and valued by ordinary citizens? How have domestic actors in Southeastern Europe been able to incorporate domestic values and traditions into new institutions in the face of pressure to adopt Western models?  Under what conditions are international actors who promote reform sensitive to local knowledge?  This panel seeks to learn from case studies of reform that are considered unsuccessful, as well as those considered successful.   Papers will increase our understanding of the processes and outcomes of political reform viewed as valuable by Southeastern European peoples through investigations of case studies that cover various Southeast European countries and issue areas.

Chair: Dr. Paula Pickering, Associate Professor, Department of Government, College of William and Mary

III) Gender, Nation and Globalization

The last two decades have been a time of tremendous upheaval for the nations of Southeastern Europe, which have variously weathered the storms of sudden economic change, political disintegration, social instability, increasing crime and corruption, massive out migration, violence, and war.   Most recently, the region has been wracked with the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis and individual men and women are facing the ever-growing hardships of recession and IMF-imposed structural adjustment.  Throughout these twenty years, idealized notions of masculinity and femininity have shifted and been reimagined to take account of the local realities in an era of globalization.  In some cases, traditional gender norms and expectations have been subverted and/or overthrown altogether, with both men and women gaining from an increase of possible gender subjectivities.  In other cases, traditional roles for what makes a “real man” or a “good woman” have reasserted themselves with newfound force, finding allies in new or old religious movements and nationalist political rhetorics.  This panel aims to explore the continuities and changes in gender norms and gender politics in Southeastern Europe, and welcomes all papers that explore these dynamics with an eye to seeing the complex interactions between local and global forces.

Chair: Dr. Kristen Ghodsee, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, Bowdoin College

Areas of focus: Albania * Bosnia-Herzegovina * Bulgaria * Croatia * Cyprus * F.Y.R. of Macedonia * Greece * Hungary * Kosovo * Moldova * Montenegro * Romania * Serbia * Slovenia * Turkey

For more information on the Kokkalis Program, visit: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kokkalis