THE POLISH PRESS AS A SOURCE OF RESEARCH ON THE HISTORY OF POLES IN UKRAINE IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The aim of this article is to analyze the state of research on the portrayal of the international position of the Second Republic in the period from the Munich Conference in 1938 to the outbreak of the Second World War in the Polish press. Despite the plethora of literature on the press of the interwar period in Poland, there are few references to the content of the media published during the aforementioned period. Authors synthesized the press of the Second Republic most often focusing on the analysis of periodicals according to the political criterion and on statistics concerning their quantitative development. However, in the literature one can find references to the content of the media that commented on the international position of the Second Republic in the period 1938–1939. The authors focused on the circumstances of the Munich Agreement in September 1938 and its consequences also for Poland. They also leaned on the echoes of the outbreak of the Second World War on the pages of Polish periodicals. It is therefore worth formulating as a postulate for further research the view that there is still a lack of studies that would present the international situation of Poland between the Munich conference and the end of the September campaign in the pages of the national press to a broader extent.

We seek to understand how ideological preferences in the domestic realm are linked to those in the foreign policy arena. We suggest that stances in both are arrayed along two dimensions: one anchored by self-regarding and other-regarding objectives, the other by preferences for either positive or negative incentives-based means of policy. Using public opinion data from the Pew and Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, we find that these dimensions separate conservatives from liberals on domestic issues as well as on foreign policy preferences. Moreover, international conditions shape the precise manner in which this ideological matrix shapes foreign policy preferences, and the effects of such conditions vary by ideology.

This thesis examines Anglo-Russian rivalry in Transcaucasia in general - and Azerbaijan in particular - focusing on the years 1918-1920. The first part of the thesis provides a general review of the history of the Great Game - the geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian Empires fought in the remote areas of central Asia - before going on to examine the growing investment by British firms in the oil industry of Baku. It also discusses how the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 changed the texture of AngloRussian relations without resolving the tensions altogether, which lasted until the February Revolution of 1917, despite the wartime alliance between Britain and Russia. The thesis then goes on to examine British policy towards Transcaucasia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The thesis argues that the political turmoil in Russia provided the British government with an opportunity to exert greater political control over the south of the country, securing its access to oil and control of the Caspian Sea region, thereby reducing any potential threat to India. The allied victory in the First World War, and the weakening of Turkey in particular, meant that British policy in central Asia after November 1918 increasingly focused on advancing British economic and strategic interests in the area. Although the British government did not seek to exert direct long-term political control over Azerbaijan, its policy in 1919 was designed both to support the local government in Baku against possible Bolshevik attack, whilst simultaneously exerting control over Baku oil. The thesis shows that the British military authorities who controlled Azerbaijan in the first part of 1919 typically acted as an occupying force, manipulating the local government, and behaving in ways that alienated large sections of the local population. This pattern of quasi-imperial rule, which was designed to secure the economic benefits of controlling Baku oil while avoiding the costs of large-scale military occupation, eventually proved fruitless. The final part of the thesis then examines how the British sought to defend their economic interests in Azerbaijan even as they removed their military forces. The government in London supported the local Musavat government in its attempt to gain international recognition, hoping that this would bolster its position both abroad and at home. Yet this policy failed to recognise the radical mood on the ‘streets’ of Baku and the appeal of Bolshevism to the many of the local population. When the Bolsheviks finally took control of Azerbaijan in 1920 they did so with the support of significant sections of the population. This thesis suggests that developments in Azerbaijan during this period can be analysed by using a Marxist framework that emphasises how imperialism creates divisions between imperial powers - divisions that endure over time even as they take new forms. It also examines how British policy towards Azerbaijan can be seen as an attempt to establish a form of colonial control that promoted the economic and political interests of key economic and political groups in Britain at the cost of the local Azeri population. In order to develop this argument and avoid the dangers of over-simplification, the thesis draws on a massive array of archive and published sources in English, Russian, Azeri and Turkish. In doing this it offers perspectives and arguments that are absent from the existing scholarly literature whilst introducing the reader to new material unfamiliar to most English-language readers.

The article discusses the emergence of the image of the prison of peoples in the European culture. Most often, this image is traced back to the book by Astolf de Custine “Russia in 1839”. However, de Custine, in essence, talks only about one enslaved people in the Russian Empire, namely the Polish. The idea about the prison of peoples took root only after the “non-historical” peoples of the Central and Eastern Europe entered the political scene. The image of Russia as a prison of peoples dates back to the Polish and even more so to the Ukrainian literature and journalism. In the Ukrainian press, referring to Russia as a prison of peoples becomes common practice in the 1900s. Mikhail Grushevsky in his article “Unity or disintegration?” presents this metaphor in its most extensive form. The image of the prison of peoples played an important role in the program documents of the Austrophile Ukrainian organizations of the First World War era. At the same time, Ukrainian leaders did not forget about Polish nationalism, which “would like to build a new „prison of peoples“” in a revived Poland. In the Polish press in 1900— 1917 the prison of peoples was mentioned less frequently, and not in program documents. Lenin most probably borrowed the formula “prison of peoples” from the Ukrainian or Polish press. From Lenin’s journalism it moved into the Soviet political language. Until the First World War, Russia was referred to almost exclusively as the prison of peoples; then the metaphor began to be applied to other countries, primarily to Austria-Hungary.

The most famous spy scandal before the outbreak of the First World War, took place during the time of intensified diplomatic actions taken to stop the Balkan War. At night on May 24th 1913, Colonel Alfred Redl, the chief of staff for the VIII. Corps stationed in Prague – having been exposed by counterintelligence – committed suicide in Klomser Hotel in Vienna. His death was directly connected to the fact that the special commission that consisted of high ranking officers was established in the extraordinary mode. The case of Russian spy was known only to an exclusive group of ‘initiates’. Nevertheless, it was almost immediately leaked to the press and evoked scandal that stirred up public opinion in Austria-Hungary. The motifs of the scandal – described in Polish press releases of that time: in Cracow, Lvov and Warsaw – have been analyzed in the article. They were significant in the context of political struggle, led mainly between two antagonistic forces: the Austrophiles and the Russophiles. Seemingly distant from Polish matters, the spy affair turned out to be an important factor that ‘catalyzed’ political attitudes of the Poles. The aspect of Redl’s nationality became a significant element of the polemics. And the scandal undermined Austro-Hungarian morale, especially the morale of Slavic nations subject to the Empire; the more so as, at exactly the same time, a political corruption affair which Hungarian Prime Minister was involved in, happened in Budapest. The events that happened in Galicia in May and June 1913 – as connected with political and economical turning point that autonomous country reached, which was caused by Austro-Hungarian preparations for Balkan War – have been examined here as the background context. In this article, basing on a wide range of press sources, the author classifies and describes some key political motifs of the Redl affair: especially the change of ideas about the Balkan War – in accordance to common opinions expressed in Polish press – now bringing the fatal threat to Austro-Hungary. (Russia came into possession of mobilization plans). The other topics are: the decline of Austro-Hungarian prestige on the international arena, the criticism of the code applying to officer corps, assigning Redl the Jewish origin by the anti-Semitic press, attacks on the ones that supported Austro-Hungarian orientations, including those who organized a kind of ‘substitute” for Polish military forces under the auspices of the monarchy, and finally – the spy psychosis.

Throughout the history of the existence of the Rusyn-Ukrainian diaspora in Croatia, several important demographic trends can be traced. One particular characteristic of migrants from Ukrainian lands to the South Slavic territories was the presence of a dual ethnonym: the early wave immigrants brought with them a Rusyn identity, while the subsequent ones carried a Ukrainian identity. As a result, descendants of the Rusyn migration have maintained a certain degree of separateness from the Ukrainians, which complicates the preservation of this minority. The demographic indicators of the Ukrainian community have been influenced by the policies of various governments (Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Royal and Socialist Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia) and military conflicts throughout the 20th to the early 21st century (World Wars, the Serbian-Croatian War, Russian aggression against Ukraine). Determining the exact number of migrants was challenging until population censuses were conducted in Austria-Hungary. Until the 1930s, there was a relatively sharp increase in the number of the Rusyns and the Ukrainians in Croatia: prior to the First World War, thanks to targeted agrarian policies of the Austro-Hungarian government, and during the time of the first Yugoslavia, due to the arrival of Ukrainians as part of Russian White emigration. The period from the 1930s to the 1970s saw a relative stagnation in the size of this minority. Demographic losses during the Second World War were compensated by the resettlement of Rusyn-Ukrainian population from other Yugoslavian republics. Starting from the 1970s, we have observed a steady decline in the Rusyn-Ukrainian diaspora. This process was further complicated by the consequences of the Serbian-Croatian War of 1991–1995, divisions within the Rusyn-Ukrainian organizations, and globalization processes, which resulted in the assimilation of these small ethnic groups. At the same time, the demographic crisis was mitigated by a favorable policy of the Croatian government towards national minorities, which provided relatively generous funding while simultaneously dividing the Rusyns and the Ukrainians. As a result of these negative factors, the Rusyn and Ukrainian minorities in Croatia faced the risk of disappearance in the coming decades. However, the full-scale aggression of Russia against Ukraine led to a significant wave of refugees, some tens of thousands of whom settled in Croatia. This expands the possibilities for preserving the Ukrainian community by integrating the newly arrived individuals into the cultural and social life of the minority. However, nothing has changed for the Rusyns, and their path to overcoming depopulation and assimilation is seen through consolidation with the Ukrainians.

For a soldier in the Russian army during World War I, desertion was one of the most active means he could use to influence his often miserable fate, which makes desertion in its way interesting as an extreme kind of war experience. For Russian military and civil authorities, on the other hand, desertion was one of the major problems to the detriment of the war effort, and the fight against it was ultimately unsuccessful or even backfired, such as was the case with the reintroduction of corporal punishment of soldiers. Ultimately, widespread desertion contributed significantly towards the dissolution of the Russian Army and the Russian state itself. This article focuses on a small and somewhat unusual category of Russian deserters: the ethnically Estonian soldiers who served in the Russian border guard regiments in Finland and deserted (as did many of their Russian comrades) over the Finnish border to Sweden. For neutral Sweden, this way of escaping from Russian military service created an unexpected problem, since there were initially no regulations in place as to what to do with caught deserters. In this article I consider how the Swedish authorities – the Civil Ministry and the General Staff – dealt with this challenge and how the deserters were treated in their new country of residence. At the same time, I focus on the deserters themselves: their individual backgrounds and the reasons for desertion, which also casts light on the circumstances prevailing in the Russian Army. Russian deserters started arriving in Sweden in larger numbers from the spring of 1916 onwards. The border guard outposts in Finland were strengthened with new soldiers, many of whom sensed a good opportunity for easy escape over the border. Originally, deserters who had been caught were allowed to stay close to the border on the Swedish side. From November 1916 onwards, however, when desertions became more frequent, it was deemed a security risk and the deserters were thereafter sent to the south of Sweden and interned in the Malmo area. This system functioned well until about the Russian February Revolution. After that, the number of new deserters was reduced to almost nothing, and the deserters already interned in Malmo started leaving their allocated places of residence and work, probably with the intention of returning to Russia, where amnesty had been declared for deserters and shirkers. In most cases, the men were caught again and deported to Finland or Russia with the help of Swedish authorities. The ethnically Estonian deserters who managed to escape to Sweden were treated the same way as their comrades of Russian and other nationalities who had also deserted. The stories of their escape or other background information that can be discerned from interrogation protocols are not particularly different from those of other deserters. Their relatively large percentage among all Russian Army deserters, however, must mean that the number of Estonians in the regiments in Finland must have been significant. An analysis of the motivations behind the Estonians’ decision to desert shows that by far the most important factor was harsh conditions in the army: low pay, bad and insufficient food, hard exercise and especially corporal punishment of soldiers by officers. National conflicts between Estonians and Russians probably also played a certain role, making military service even more unbearable for Estonians. A major indirect influence was certainly the location of the outposts close to the border, which probably made the idea of deserting much more attractive. The Swedish approach to the problem of deserters was characterised by relative mildness and, at least in the beginning, somewhat ad hoc solutions. As time went by, however, Swedish policy became stricter and a form of internment was instituted. At the same time, the General Staff’s intelligence department tried to take advantage of the deserters’ knowledge about Russian forces in Finland. Local Swedish authorities, however, could be much more lacklustre in their attitude towards the deserters. The men themselves who had escaped to Sweden seem to have been relatively satisfied with their treatment, at least until the Russian February Revolution. The story of the Estonian deserters in Sweden makes a small contribution to our still relatively poor knowledge of the fate and war experience of Estonian soldiers in World War I. However, research in this field must continue to be enriched with other case studies and eventually also generalisations. From the perspective of the Swedish authorities, the situation was handled quite successfully, even though the fears of espionage were likely exaggerated and the internment of deserters in Malmo probably made no real difference. At the same time, however, the case is symptomatic as an example of the kind of entirely unexpected problems that a state that had remained neutral in the war had to handle and come to terms with.

Unfinished Trials and Sentences

Conditions of Democracy in German Austria and Hungary, 1918–1919

The article discusses the “Jewish question” in the Polish-language press in Łódź at the turn of the twentieth century (until the First World War). The follow- ing titles were analyzed: Rozwój, Goniec Łódzki, Kurier Łódzki, and Nowy Kurier Łódzki. These journals represented different ideological profiles. Especially after the Revolution of 1905, Rozwój demonstrated support of National Democracy, while Goniec and its successors—Kurier Łódzki and Nowy Kurier Łódzki—be- longed to the progressive camp. This had a direct impact on their attitudes toward Jews and the Jewish question. While Rozwój quickly became openly antisemitic and anti-Zionist, its competitors followed a path typical of the Polish intelligentsia of the time, in which different positions clashed. In the end, however, the press in Łódź did not show any greater originality of views on the issue than the Warsaw press, and the multinational character of the city, which required the cooperation of many ethnic and religious groups, did not prevent the local press discourse from promoting the idea of assimilation to antisemitic attitudes.

The authors analyze the work of the Soviet government with peasant women in the Yenisei province during the New economic policy. The collection, systematization, summarization of data and construction of the narrative were carried out on the basis of the problem-chronological method. The historical-genetic method is used to analyze the activities of women's departments from 1920 to 1929, the emphasis is placed on the first, most difficult stage of their creation and the beginning of work (until the mid-1920s), when the Soviet government brought the country out of acute political and economic crisis after the Civil War, intervention and war communism. The historical-systemic method made it possible to consider the work of womens' departments to involve women in social production and political life in the context of the changes taking place in the country and the socio-economic conditions of the Yenisei province. Based on the comparative historical method, the tasks and their practical implementation in the field of womens' issues are compared. It is shown that in the conditions of economic devastation after the First World War and the Civil War, famine, and mass epidemics, the harsh tax policy of the Soviet government among the East Siberian peasantry caused an increase in anti-Bolshevik sentiment. Experience of women's departments working with peasant women in the 1920s showed that without solving urgent economic and social problems of society (mass illiteracy, lack of modern industrial sectors, technical backwardness in agriculture, manual labor, low standard of living, etc.), the transformation of womens' position and their involvement in socio-political life were impossible. It became obvious that this kind of large-scale task could only be solved gradually with an increase in the educational level of the population, the qualifications and professional level of women, and the solution of many everyday issues. All these tasks were related to the need to modernize the state's economy.

The purpose of the study is to examine how World War I was represented in German silent feature films between 1919 and 1929 and to determine the role of war films in shaping the memory of the war in the Weimar Republic. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and systematicity, employing discourse analysis, visual analysis, historical-genetic, and historical-comparative methods. The scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive analysis of German silent feature films about World War I, including lesser-known artistic works from 1919–1923, and explores the interplay between cinema and German society in constructing the memory of the war during the Weimar Republic. Conclusions. After traumatic experiences on the front lines and in the rear, and the severe consequences of war – including personal and collective losses – society sought explanations for the suffering it had endured. One of the tools for expressing this experience became cinema. Controversial plots, such as the question of guilt in war, gave films political weight, while depictions of "heroes" and "enemies," "criminals" and "victims" highlighted either the necessity or the senselessness of war. The plot of the vast majority of films focused on depicting the actions of naval forces during the war, highlighting the heroism and bravery of sailors in well-known battles of World War I, with their stories often infused with mythical elements. These films offered a more vivid cinematic spectacle than those portraying the prolonged land warfare in the trenches. In contrast, anti-militarist films were significantly less popular, centering on a nameless hero and his bitter fate. However, all these films share a focus on the exclusively male experience of war, portraying it as an entirely male affair. The image of a woman in cinema was confined solely to the roles of a mother and a wife/fiancé, waiting for their loved ones to return from the front. Similarly, the everyday realities of war or life on the home front generally remained outside the attention of filmmakers.

This article examines the author's prose about the First World War by two famous European writers (and participants in the war) – the Briton Robert Graves ("I'm Sorry, goodbye to all this", 1929) and the German Ludwig Renn ("The War", 1928). The subject of the study is the genre features of the works, some features of which can be attributed to both autobiography and fiction. Special attention is paid to two poetological categories: the role of the protagonist and the chronotope. Ambivalence of the genre characteristics of the works themselves, since, on the one hand, they are documentary, and on the other – fictitious. Documentality or factuality is set by the specific biography of the self-revealing "I" of the author. Fictionality grows out of the absolute possession of the speech structure of the work, the author, the subject and the object of the narrative. Comparative historical and comparative typological methods made it possible to consider literary interactions, parallels, similarities, as well as borrowings and mutual influences of literatures. The typological method made it possible to consider the similarities and differences in literary phenomena by clarifying the degree of similarities and differences in cultural life. The main conclusions of the study are that the Briton Robert Graves changed "I'm sorry, goodbye to all that" into a documentary narrative, and Renn, on the contrary, transformed diary entries into fiction (the novel "War"). The aim of both authors, as Renn himself pointed out, was to show the war as it really is. The scientific novelty of the work is as follows: it was revealed that if the spatial and temporal pointers coincide, then nevertheless space and time in autobiographical texts do not coincide with the real one, since the recalled chronotope is not perceptual, i.e. specifically given, it has the character of a reconstructed in the memory of the author-the subject-protagonist. That is why we are talking about the synthesis of genres in the works of R. Graves and L. Renn, which accumulated features of both autobiography and fiction.

Читать онлайн статью 'The activities of the Russian Monarchist Union during World War І and the February Revolution: Historiographical Problems ', Golovina O.V., в электронном журнале SENTENTIA. European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. - 2014. - N3 на сайте nbpublish.com

Objective determinants of geopolitical space of Ukraine are characterised, which at the present stage is manifested from geospatial position in economic, ideological, information- cybernetic and sociopolitical dimensions. Accordingly, appropriate characteristics and typical features of analysis are proposed for each of these directions. Thanks to them there is a possibility of multilateral consideration of those determinants which define today a place of the Ukrainian space on the European geopolitical arena.
 Philosophical methods (in particular, principles of interdependence, interrelation, causality), comparative-geographical and comparative-historical methods as well as method of system analysis and content analysis were used to observe features of clarity, effectiveness and validity of research results.
 The article analyzes organizational arrangements and institutional mechanisms of implementation of European integration policy of Ukraine, defines the intermediary role of the European Union countries in this policy, and studies the influence of the European vector on structural changes of economic, social and political environment of Ukraine. The attention is focused on the place of Ukraine in the geopolitical concept of the leading countries of the world. The features of internal geopolitical situation formation in the context of large related macro-regions are reflected in detail. In each of the macro-regions some specific mental and behavioral features that determine its uniqueness, but not isolation, are pointed out. The features of territorial and political consolidation of the state at the present stage are defined. The modern determinants of economic nature on the immediate prospects of development of the national economy are highlighted. The role of information component in the formation of geopolitical features of space as a source of influence and popularization of certain behavioral content is noted. Indicators of electoral sympathies, which embody certain ideological and social preferences of the population, were used to assess the socio-political determinant. The impact of recent political events in Ukraine, in particular, the results of the parliamentary elections, on the strengthening of the country's European policy and overcoming the dependencies caused by geopolitical factors is monitored.
 The determinants of the geopolitical space of Ukraine should be assessed from the standpoint of considering the so-called internal and external conditions. Domestic determinants are determined along with the morphology of the territory, political and cultural unity of the country, its retrospective review, consistency and efficiency of public administration, natural resource and economic potential and features of socio-economic development, features of militarization, experience of national diplomacy and more. The external determinants of the national geopolitical space include the influence of foreign states and their union formations, the nature and relationship of political and economic processes in the world and in the region to which it belongs geographically, the validity of transit flows, threats of armed conflict and other negative challenges.
 Based on the priority task of considering the geopolitical space of Ukraine, we note its importance, referring to world geopolitical concepts (F. Fukuyama, S. Huntington, Z. Brzezinski), which emphasize the role of our state as a promising geopolitical player, which should be part of influential economic security supranational structures. At the intra-regional level, the perception of Ukraine's geolocation is largely correlated with linguistic, ethnic, religious and other identifying features, but in contrast to the significant number of historical, socio-cultural and economic components that influenced the implementation of systemic domestic geopolitics. Therefore, the issue of territorial and political consolidation, although raised, was not systemic, and therefore requires the development of a strategy for the development of the state on ideological grounds as a nation-state of the European type with minimization of cultural and civilizational contrasts in the regional space. The economic determinant is emphasized by the possibility of rethinking the status quo (the energy intensity of space needed to reproduce society and the consumer type of functioning of the corporation, both global and transnational) and the possibility of using the chance to build a national economy (postwar recovery) based on progressive European experience. Information and cyber determinants of geopolitical space are determined by the scale and direction of the military-political and socio-economic situation, the goals of state policy of national security, social and economic structures involved in information warfare. Socio-political determinants of the geopolitical space of Ukraine are reflected in the results of the electoral commitment of voters, who thus embodied a certain ideological content. Based on the definition of these determinants, a strategy of geopolitical space should be developed on the basis of a nationally oriented state.
 Keywords: geopolitical space, national manifestations of geopolitics, determinants, geopolitical factors, economic factors, sociopolitical factors, information-cybernetic factors.