Parallel Cultures: Majority/Minority Relations in the Countries of the Former Eastern Bloc by Christopher s> Lord Olga Strietska-Ilina (review)

Abstract

i6o SEER, 83, I, 2005 Another important theme of this volume is historical memory, which is addressed in four contributions, including Dan Diner's analysis of the Holocaust in historical memory, Elisabeth Domansky's examination of the POW memorial church in Bochum, Germany, and Avner Ben-Amos's dissectionof Leon Gambetta'sfuneralin I833 (and subsequenttransferof his heart to the Pantheon in I920). Boaz Neumann also considers memory, among othertopics, in his thought-provokingarticleon death in Auschwitz. Many of the articlesin this volume build on work that has been published, either previously or subsequently. Though not presenting on the whole fundamentallynew conclusions -especially to readersalreadywell versed in recent scholarship -they all offeroriginalresearchand maintaina uniformly high standard. Furthermore, the comparative framework represents a first attempt to articulatethe pan-Europeanimplicationsof the modernistcurrent in contemporaryhistoriography.In sum, thisusefuland stimulatingvolume is recommended to a wide readership. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies SUSAN MORRISSEY University College London Lord, Christopher and Strietska-Ilina,Olga (eds). ParallelCultures. Majority! MinorityRelationsin the Countries of the FormerEasternBloc. Ashgate, Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2001. Xi + 295 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliographicalreferences .Index. ?45?00. MINORITY issues have not gone away since the collapse of Communism allowed the carving up of the former Eastern Bloc into a large number of ethnically-basedstates.This book aims to addressthem by means of five case studies preceded by an introduction by Christopher Lord which takes up almost half the book. We need broad, over-arching studies that place the recent world upsurge of nationalism in context. We need to examine the culturaland religiousroots of national differences.We need to take a critical look at the legends that so often underpin inter-ethnic strife. The author is strong on all these things. He ranges far and wide over world history and philosophy, takingin Herder, Spinoza, StAugustine, St Thomas Aquinasand Suf al-Ghazali, scatteringmany interestingand provocativecomments on the way. His general approachis highly criticalof nationalism.It is 'theproblem, not the solution'(p. 63). Buthe tendsto spoilhiscase by overstatement.Surely therewas room in such a long essayfor qualificationsand reservations.Above all, he repeatedly contradicts the scholarly consensus without giving any detailedjustificationof hispositions.Here aresome examples.I haverestricted my own comments to a minimum. The Greeks 'are actually an Ottoman remnant population rather than anything' (p. 6). This is as if one were to say that the Lithuanians are a remnant Russian population or the Slovenes a remnant of the Habsburg Empire. In fact there was very little Ottoman settlement in Greece. The Middle Ages 'werea period of decline and collapsein WesternEurope'(p. 7). The Polish state became extinct in the eighteenth century 'because Polish provinces did not conform to the diocesan boundariesof the Church' (p. 37). REVIEWS i6i The dialects spoken in Greece were 'self-evidently Turkish in lexicon and phonology' (p. 41). Apostolos Vacapoulos might differ. In the KabardinoBalkariaAutonomous Republic 'two groupswere recognisedtogetherasjoint owners at the expense of other candidates' (p. 104). Slovene 'is not a South Slav but a West Slav language' (p. I I5). After I989 the Czechs 'wanted colour TVs and new cars; Slovakia would be a drag on this consumerism; so they dumped the Slovaks' (p. 48). The Czechs are also apparently responsible for forcing the German minority into Hitler's camp. 'Left out of Czechoslovakia's nationalistic agenda the Germans turned to Hitler' (p. 63). In fact Czechoslovakia treated its minorities better than any other East European country. Nevertheless, I would applaud Christopher Lord's main point, a plea for the toleration by modern Europeans of parallel cultures, on the lines of 'its historical source: the treatment of the Jews in the Middle Ages' (p. 120). But were Jews treated so well in the Middle Ages? If we endeavour to look past the inaccuracies which are possibly inseparable from working on such a gigantic canvas, we see that there is deep thought here, as well as some wit: 'Differences between the Northern and Southern dialect areas of American English would definitely be sufficient grounds' (p. 51) for a Slav nationalist to set up several new states there. The five case studies which follow will have to be treated briefly. The article by Olga Strietska-Ilina on the Russian Federation advances some cogent arguments in favour of...