East Central Europe Research Articles

The spread and influence of crusading ideology in Bohemia and Poland

This article investigates the transmission and influence of the idea of crusade in Bohemia and Poland, pivotal in shaping East Central Europe’s religious, cultural, and political landscape during the Middle Ages. Exploring cultural exchanges, political alliances, and ecclesiastical influences, it reveals the mechanisms of this ideology’s dissemination and absorption in the Piast realm. It examines the nuanced transformation in attitudes and policies following the reception of the idea of crusade, contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay between ideology and regional dynastic dynamics and its enduring impact on the Christian world.

Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European Planning Systems

The spatial planning act should define the key values of a given planning system. However, legally defining these values does not guarantee their smooth or efficient implementation. Though, it should provide guidance in their subsequent interpretation. Spatial planning law defines values but does not guarantee their realisation. The articulation of values in spatial planning law must, as a rule, be more general, detailed by specific provisions and considered in judicial interpretation. The aim of this article is to extract and comparative analysis spatial planning values comprised within national legal acts of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. It then sets out to compare these values to the planning practices within these countries. Values stated in legislation at the national level are also applicable at lower planning levels, particularly at the local level. Their inclusion in acts is therefore very important from the perspective of planning practice. For the purposes of this article, values in spatial planning are those comprised within national laws on spatial planning matters. This refers to the values explicitly identified and included at the beginning of such laws. The way these values are framed and understood is explored in the article. The legal recognition of values in spatial planning can provide a basis for their wider implementation. However, there are several barriers against their successful implementation. Different jurisdictions engage with these values in distinct ways. The same applies to actual planning practice. Identifying and comparing the ways in which spatial planning values are framed in the laws of the surveyed countries made it possible to single out values that are repeated in all systems (e.g., sustainable development, environmental protection, protection of architectural properties and public interest) and values that are framed differently across Central East European planning systems.

Hungary and the Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (1988–1991)

Abstract After the demise of Communism in East-Central Europe in 1989–1990, the new, non-Communist governments in the region had to consolidate their countries’ independence. The basic institutions of Soviet domination in East-Central Europe—the Warsaw Pact, the Council for Economic Mutual Assistance (CMEA), four large contingents of Soviet troops, and various other mechanisms of intra-bloc integration—still existed, and Soviet leaders hoped they could preserve most of those features in some form. Officials in East-Central Europe soon realized that they would have to take the initiative in eliminating all vestiges of Soviet hegemony in the region. The main impetus came from Hungary and Czechoslovakia and eventually Poland. Acting as a pressure group, they achieved agreement in the first half of 1991 on the dismantling of the alliance's military structures and then, by mid-1991, the dissolution of both the Warsaw Pact and CMEA. This article draws on recently declassified Hungarian, Soviet, East German, and Bulgarian archival sources to tell the behind-the-scenes endgame of the Warsaw Pact.

Conservation of unmanaged pan-European forest landscapes as a priority natural heritage for epiphytic lichens at different ecological and biogeographical scales - A review

The European forestry landscape represents an important priority for biodiversity and needs adequate management strategies. The main focus of this review is the importance of European forest areas for epiphytic lichen richness under the impact of different management practices assessed in the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. In total, 88 scientific articles were reviewed (based on the first author’s archive and by query in Web of Science), which examined epiphytic lichen richness within managed and unmanaged European forests. Biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe were not taken into account in the reviewed articles, but we used them for statistical analyses in the present work according to the geographical position of the investigated sites published in the reviewed articles. We also analysed the dissimilarities in epiphytic lichen richness among European biogeographical and ecological regions. Additionally, we analysed the impact of different silvicultural management practices (within assessed forests) on epiphytic lichen richness across the different biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. The main results indicate that epiphytic lichen richness is significantly different across the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. Epiphytic lichen richness is significantly greater in Western European broadleaf forests in the Carpathian and Caledonian mountain areas and significantly lower in the Central European mixed forests and East European forest steppe. Management practices applied within studied forests had a negative impact on epiphytic lichen richness, while epiphytic lichen richness was higher within unmanaged forests. The main conclusion is that forests within highland areas of Europe that are not subjected to anthropogenic activities or management practices harbour greater epiphytic lichen richness and therefore should be conserved and protected due to their biological and ecological importance.

Our Common Home: Eastern Europe / Central Europe / Post-Communist Europe as Signifiers of Cultural-Political Geographies and Identities

The article discusses the historical mutability and political connotations of the geographical signifiers Eastern and Central Europe, and the chronotope Post-Soviet / Post-Communist Europe. It considers the tensions present in these denominations, arguing for the need to defamiliarize and re-define them. Three major sections survey the circumstances that shaped the referential and connotative values of the terms from the Enlightenment to the era of European integration. The article notes commonalities in the defining experiences of the countries in the east of Europe: their emergence from the ruins of former empires (Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman) and of the Soviet bloc. It considers whether the spatial terms have been developed from within or imposed from the outside, and discusses how they have perpetuated stereotypes of the region under consideration and its people(s) and generated enduring cultural myths. It concludes by proposing terms that recoup the cultural significance of the region—East-Central Europe, its close correlative East-Centre Europe, the neologism Europeast—and by alerting scholars working on transnational Shakespeare adaptations to the importance of recontextualizing research in individual national traditions as part of a larger investigation of the mutual translatability of shared experiences. The publication of the article was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Politics, Shakespeare, East-Central Europe: Theatrical Border Crossings

This essay discusses how productions of Shakespeare’s plays that transcend various geographical, national, and linguistic boundaries have influenced the theatrical-political discourse in East-Central Europe in the twenty-first century. It focuses primarily on the work of four internationally-established directors: Andrei Şerban (Romania), Jan Klata (Poland), David Jařab (Czech Republic), and Matei Vișniec (Romania), whose works have facilitated interregional cultural exchange, promoting artistic innovation and experimentation in the region and beyond. Among the boundary-crossing productions analysed in detail are Vișniec’s Richard III will not Take Place, Jařab’s Macbeth – Too Much Blood, Klata’s Measure for Measure, and Serban’s Richard III. The essay also notes that while there has been a relative scarcity of Shakespearean productions in this region engaging closely with gender and race inequalities, productions such as Klata’s African Tales or Vladimír Morávek’s Othello manage to work with these politically charged topics in subtler but still productive ways. The essay concludes that the region’s shared historical experience of totalitarian regimes followed by the struggles of nascent democracies, provides a fertile ground for a diverse and internationally ambitious Shakespearean theatre. The publication of the article was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Introduction: East-Central and Central-East Europe as an Imagined Space for Shakespeare

The publication of the issue was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Time for Cooperation in East-Central Europe – Interview With Konrad Poplawski, Project Coordinator, Centre for Eastern Studies, Poland

Tamás Tibor Csontos (Review of Economic Theory and Policy) requested an interview with Konrad Poplawski, Project Coordinator of the Connectivity and Regional Integration Programme at the Centre for Eastern Studies, Poland. He asked him about industrial policy in Poland, the changing role of Germany and the state of regional cooperation in East-Central Europe. Konrad has been the head of the Central European Department from 2020 to 2022, and previously a long-term analyst of the German economy. He is the author of many analyses and several longer studies on the economy of Central Europe and Germany. He has been a coordinator and author in international research projects in the framework of the Visegrad consortium of think tanks, preparing expert opinions for the diplomatic ministries of the V4 countries. Konrad regularly gives guest lectures at Polish universities (including the University of Warsaw and the Warsaw School of Economics). He is a commentator and author of articles for the largest nationwide media. He defended his doctorate with honors at the Warsaw School of Economics with a dissertation entitled “Changes in Germany’s Foreign Trade After Joining the Eurozone”.

Competing Frameworks of Interpreting Modernity in East Central Europe

Competing Frameworks of Interpreting Modernity in East Central Europe

The decline of tufa deposition in an alkaline fen ecosystem in East-Central Europe and its impact on biotic assemblages: Insights from monitoring and paleoecological data

Protection and restoration of the CaCO3 depositing alkaline fens require an in-depth understanding of these unique and declining ecosystems. The present study investigates the development of the formerly heavy tufa depositing alkaline fen in East-Central Europe after CaCO3 precipitation markedly declined ca. 5400 cal yr BP. By combining palaeoecological and monitoring data, we aim to identify the limiting factors for tufa deposition and to recognise the vegetation and mollusc response to the change. Investigation of the current fen ecosystem included a botanical and malacological inventory and a monthly monitoring of the physicochemical properties of the groundwater emerging at the fen. It was also tested whether CaCO3 precipitates there. Transformations of the fen ecosystem since the mid-Holocene tufa decline were recognized by applying plant macrofossil and malacological analyses supplemented with organic matter and CaCO3 contents and the radiocarbon chronologies of the sediment cores. Although macroscopic tufa is currently not observed at the fen surface, the monitoring study revealed the microscopic calcite crystals at the glass slides during the spring and summer. A combination of cooling, gradual depletion of the Ca2+ pool, acidification of soils, and water table fluctuations was likely responsible for limiting tufa deposition in the mid-Holocene and maintaining this state during the late Holocene. Share of the calciphilous species' macrofossils (e.g. moss Tomentypnum nitens) declined following the sedimentary CaCO3 drop, whereas the contribution of species associated with high nutrient levels raised (e.g. Juncus articulatus). Inspection of the contemporary vegetation of the fen revealed that only Carex paniculata is associated with the calcium-rich substrate. The response of molluscs to the decline in tufa deposition remains unclear as mollusc shells did not preserve in CaCO3-depleted sediments, except for the youngest deposits. The present-day malacofauna consists of 21 species, including two rare and protected calciphilous species, namely Vertigo angustior and V. geyeri.

Late Palaeolithic to Early Mesolithic transition in the Carpathian Basin

Szekszárd-Palánk is one of the handful in situ excavated sites from the Late Glacial period of East-Central Europe which is also supported by radiometric dating. However, the considerable time that has passed since its discovery necessitates a revision, the topic of this paper. The technotypological analogues of the assemblage are Late Epigravettian – Early Mesolithic sites of the Northern Balkans to the south, and Epimagdalenian sites of the Moravian Basin to the north. These analogues, the southern location and northern raw materials of the site support two previous hypotheses: the regional survival of the Epigravettian traditions, and the pivotal role of the Danube in the communication between East-Central Europe and the Balkans in the Late Glacial – Early Postglacial. The site is thus identified as a Final Epigravettan, Late Palaeolithic – Early Mesolithic transitional industry.

About the spatial and chronological relationship between the Mousterian and Micoquian industries of East Europe

The geography of the Middle Paleolithic of East Europe (referring to the European part of the former USSR) shows two main peculiarities. The first is a very uneven (patchy) spatial distribution of sites which form dense local accumulations separated by vast empty spaces. The second is the nearly ubiquitous cooccurrence of the Mousterian and Micoquian industries. Both are present in all major accumulations from Transcarpathia in the west to the Volga-Don interfluve in the east, including also the Prut-Dniester region, the Donets-Azov basin, the Crimean Peninsula and the Northwestern Caucasus. The distribution areas of the two industries in East Europe not merely overlap but coincide (except the Northeastern Caucasus where only Mousterian assemblages are known by now). This pattern does not agree well with the opinion that these industries should be regarded as two independent cultural traditions, unless one assumes they were time-transgressive. In contradiction to some of the available absolute dates, the relative chronology of the Mousterian and Micoquian assemblages seems to corroborate such an assumption. The analyses of the published stratigraphies of the sites where both industries occur in one stratigraphic column shows that, as a rule, the Micoquian tends to overlay the Mousterian. Such a situation was observed at Kůlna (Czechia), Biśnik, Nietoperzowa, Ciemna, Zwierzyniec (Poland), Korolevo 1, Jezupol 1 (Ukraine), Ripiceni Izvor (Romania). The inverse sequence was found in Crimea, at Kabazi 2, Karabi Tamchin and, probably, Shaitan-Koba. Therefore, there are grounds to think that at least in some parts of east Central and west Eastern Europe the two technocomplexes succeeded one another.

The vulnerability of Central & Eastern European and Zimbabwean migrant home care workers’ wellbeing in the UK: the intersectional effects of migration and social care systems

ABSTRACT The UK welfare system and growth in social care escalate the demand for migrant care workers (MCWs) as a system-level intervention. However, the UK migration regime creates structural barriers and facilitators for different groups of MCWs. The nature of the UK migration and social care policies, combined with societal systems, including racism, affect the wellbeing of MCWs. This article addresses current literature gaps investigating the interplay of migration governance and social care systems’ effects on MCWs’ wellbeing. We utilise qualitative interviews collected from two groups of MCWs: Zimbabwean and Central East European migrants. These two groups have been subject to differentiated migration policies and societal perceptions during the data collection (2019), which coincided with the Brexit process. Data were analysed thematically guided by a wellbeing of care workers’ framework while allowing for new themes specific to the intersectionality of migration and social care systems to emerge. The analysis highlights that migration shapes MCWs’ wellbeing through two distinct mechanisms. First, the migration experience interacts with the same underlying factors that influence all care workers’ dimensions of wellbeing at work. Second, migration and the specific profile of migrant social care adds a new layer of factors that influence MCWs’ wellbeing in additional ways. The latter is affected by structural systems, such as the migration regime, and systemic challenges, such as the experience of inequalities and racism, exacerbated by the migration regime.

‘Houses of Graves’ of Central-East Europe: Archaeology about Jewish Funeral Rituals

This article presents the state of archaeological research on Jewish cemeteries in Central-East Europe, mainly on the basis of excavations conducted in Poland, Czechia, and Lithuania). It presents the possibilities of reconstructing funerary rituals on the basis of archaeological findings: the organisation of the burial space, the dress and equipment of the deceased, the layout of the corpse and the arrangement of the interior of the burial pit. Possibilities for interdisciplinary studies of the funerary customs of the Central European diaspora were studied and further research needs were identified.

Native recovery or expansive threat? Past and predicted distribution of Trapa natans L. s. l. on northern limit of species’ range – Handout for species management

Global changes are responsible for the movement of species. While many research emphasize the spread of alien or invasive alien species, the rapid spread of rare, native species is poorly study. In our studies, we focused on Trapa natans, a species that is considered a strictly protected plant species in Europe, but is considered an alien invasive species in North America and Australia. The aim of the study was to analyze the historical and current occurrence of T. natans at the northern range of this species (Poland, Central Europe) and, based on future climate projections (wordClim), to determine its potential spread in Europe by modeling the occupation area of available habitats in Europe. We found a rapid spread of T. natans in Poland associated with increasing temperatures. Statistical analyzes showed that the mean temperature of the warmest quarter and precipitation of the driest month are the most important climatic variables determining habitat suitability for T. natans. The model for 2021–2040 showed an expansion of habitats suitable for the species to the north (Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia), to the east (Germany and Central Europe), to the northeast (Eastern Europe, e.g., Lithuania, Latvia), and to the south (Italy and Southern Europe). In the next two time periods (2041–––2060 and 2061–––2080), the models showed that the entire European area is suitable for colonization by the species, with the exception of the high mountain regions and Spain. T. natans is a representative species whose distribution and recent range changes allow us to track aquatic species feedbacks to climate change in the species’ home range and is a good ecological indicator of global warming. The message for conservationists is that the status of species classified as rare needs to be urgently reviewed.

Evolutionary significant units (ESUs) and functional conservation units (FCUs) in the Phengaris (Maculinea) nausithous populations of East-Central Europe

The aim of this study was to analyse the level and structure of genetic and morphometric variation in the East-Central European populations of Phengaris (Maculinea) nausithous. On the basis of the life cycle of the species, we expected a low level of variation within the populations coupled with a relatively high level of differentiation among them. We also assumed that the differentiation among the populations has a regional pattern. In order to confirm these assumptions, we collected population samples from two regions within the Carpathian Basin (western Transdanubia and Transylvania) and from a region east of the Carpathian Mountains (Bukovina). The level of enzyme polymorphism and the amount of morphometric variation were investigated in the sampled populations. As the western (Transdanubia) and the eastern populations (Transylvania plus Bukovina) were suggested to belong to different subspecies (Rákosy et al. in Nota Lepidopterol 33:31–37, 2010), our working hypothesis was that these two groups of populations belong to different evolutionary significant units (ESUs). The results of all genetic analyses (PCA, Bayesian-clustering analysis and especially the UPGMA dendrogram) confirmed our assumption. The level of differentiation was higher between the western and eastern populations resulting in two monophyletic lineages of Phengaris (Maculinea) nausithous in East-Central Europe. This result suggests that these lineages can be considered as two different ESUs.

Iron Curtain in Aš: Socialist Heritage and Its Destiny after 1990

Abstract This paper presents collaborative interdisciplinary research on the mixed natural and cultural heritage of the former Iron Curtain in the Czech town of Aš. Sociocultural anthropology, history, and geobotanical and environmental studies were the main disciplines that were equally involved. The former Iron Curtain is one of Europe’s longest linear landscape features and an exceptional symbol of European history. The researched area covers the Czech-Bavarian and Czech-Saxonian borders, mainly the Aš spur. The research investigates the impacts of the long-term existing isolated strip of land of the Iron Curtain both on natural and sociocultural levels. It further examines the post-socialist transformation of the given area and the elements and processes of redefining local memory and identity through handling the local Iron Curtain heritage.

Introduction: Reconsidering “Post-Socialist Cities” in East Central and South East Europe

Introduction: Reconsidering “Post-Socialist Cities” in East Central and South East Europe

Revision of <em>Sinomesuropetala daohugensis</em> Boudet, Nel & Huang, 2023 (Odonata: Aeshnoptera: Mesuropetalidae).

The mesuropetalid dragonfly Sinomesuropetala daohugensis Boudet, Nel & Huang, 2023, is here revised based on a new well-preserved dragonfly from the Haifanggou Formation of Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The new specimen allows us to complete the forewing characters of this species, showing the close relationship of Sinomesuropetala Boudet, Nel & Huang, 2023 with Mesuropetala Handlirsch, 1906. The mesuropetalid dragonflies are currently recorded from the Late Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous deposits of east Asia, East Central South Europe, and southern America, indicating the wide distribution and the possible long-distance migration ability of some basal aeshnopteran dragonflies during these epochs.

We have never been human: Staging subjectivity from Diderot and Artaud to the aesthetics of the European refugee crisis

This essay explores the shifting matrix underlying the pervasive theater that enacts the making and unmaking of human subjectivity by focusing on key historical transformations and prominent contemporary manifestations. Offering a comparative analysis of Denis Diderot’s theory of the actor, and Antonin Artaud’s theater of cruelty, I argue that the paradox of the human had led to human–artwork hybrids well before the digital age of the posthuman recast the body as virtuality. Drawing on a broader understanding and scope of human–artwork hybridization, I examine two different yet equally memorable and infamous responses in 2015 to the European refugee crisis: the Petra László video and Norbert Baksa’s Der Migrant. The aesthetic and cultural practices revolving around the staging of the European refugee crisis constitute a key sphere in which this hybridization is tested, played out and in the context of East-Central Europe, calibrated to a ballad tradition whose generic conventions were reinvented in conjunction with a growing national identity in the 19th century. The ballad of ‘The Walled-Up Wife’ has enjoyed sustained popularity in East-Central Europe, ever since its anachronistic ‘rediscovery’ in multiple national literatures around the mid 1800s. It deserves critical attention, for its extensive cultural history as well as its rich vernacular heritage can shed new light on the ways in which the idea of material embodiment comes to bear extended meanings for a reconceptualization of the human in digital spaces of aesthetic rather than merely socio-political signification.