East Central Europe Research Articles

Patrilocality and hunter-gatherer-related ancestry of populations in East-Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age

The demographic history of East-Central Europe after the Neolithic period remains poorly explored, despite this region being on the confluence of various ecological zones and cultural entities. Here, the descendants of societies associated with steppe pastoralists form Early Bronze Age were followed by Middle Bronze Age populations displaying unique characteristics. Particularly, the predominance of collective burials, the scale of which, was previously seen only in the Neolithic. The extent to which this re-emergence of older traditions is a result of genetic shift or social changes in the MBA is a subject of debate. Here by analysing 91 newly generated genomes from Bronze Age individuals from present Poland and Ukraine, we discovered that Middle Bronze Age populations were formed by an additional admixture event involving a population with relatively high proportions of genetic component associated with European hunter-gatherers and that their social structure was based on, primarily patrilocal, multigenerational kin-groups.

“Den ensomme helt mod magtens og storpolitikkens skamfulde forsømmelser”: Den individuelle projektion af en nations kamp i FN-embedsmand Povl Bang-Jensens minde

The Hungarian political and social discourse of the last decades often makes use of a national myth based on Hungarian history that focuses on a constant struggle for survival. The myth is built around the concept of the heroic Hungarians, who from time to time fight against a political and / or military preponderance. A narrative characteristic for the countries of East-Central and Eastern Europe has been created, which in its distinction between itself and the other concentrates on self-defence and victimhood, but at the same time emphasizes the nation’s superiority over the others. The image of the nation characterized by the uninterrupted struggle for survival becomes a schematic but effective tool in the political discourse. It is not a new narrative, but the actualization of the well-known, that finds appropriate events and personalities to disseminate the existing, traditional self-image. The paper attempts to demonstrate how the Danish United Nations official Povl Bang-Jensen and the role he played in the international politics after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 has been used to convey this image. Based on memories, books and documentaries my goal is to discuss how individual recall of experienced events contributed to the (re)construction of Bang-Jensen’s personality. Furthermore, I try to shed light on how intertwining memories about a historical event, scientific research and history writing points to a changed perception of the scientific facts that are no longer considered objective and independent of human consciousness or actions. They describe a reality, which is influenced by consciousness and interpreted through textual formulations. The article argues that the subjective perspective constituted in the memories about Bang-Jensen creates an almost mythologized interpretation of the Danish diplomat as a symbol of freedom and morality, as well. The article was among others inspired by works of Maurice Halbwachs, Sabine Mollers, Annette Warrings and Bernard Eric Jensen on memory, historical awareness and the use of history.

Genetic history of East-Central Europe in the first millennium CE

BackgroundThe appearance of Slavs in East-Central Europe has been the subject of an over 200-year debate driven by two conflicting hypotheses. The first assumes that Slavs came to the territory of contemporary Poland no earlier than the sixth century CE; the second postulates that they already inhabited this region in the Iron Age (IA). Testing either hypothesis is not trivial given that cremation of the dead was the prevailing custom in Central Europe from the late Bronze Age until the Middle Ages (MA).ResultsTo address this problem, we determined the genetic makeup of representatives of the IA Wielbark- and MA Slav-associated cultures from the territory of present-day Poland. The study involved 474 individuals buried in 27 cemeteries. For 197 of them, genome-wide data were obtained. We found close genetic affinities between the IA Wielbark culture-associated individuals and contemporary to them and older northern European populations. Further, we observed that the IA individuals had genetic components which were indispensable to model the MA population.ConclusionsThe collected data suggest that the Wielbark culture-associated IA population was formed by immigrants from the north who entered the region of contemporary Poland most likely at the beginning of the first millennium CE and mixed with autochthons. The presented results are in line with the hypothesis that assumes the genetic continuation between IA and MA periods in East-Central Europe.

The global burden of alcoholic liver disease: a systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 2019.

Alcohol use is a major risk factor for the burden of mortality and morbidity. Alcoholic cirrhosis (AC) and alcoholic liver cancer (ALC) are most important and severe liver disease outcomes caused by alcohol use. The objectives of the current study were to investigate the global prevalence and burden of disease in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for AC and ALC, based on data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Incidence, prevalence, death, and DALYs for GBDs in different locations, years, sex, and age groups were estimated using DisMod-MR 2.1 and a generic Cause of Death Ensemble Modeling approach. The correlations between the age-standardized incidence rate or age-standardized death rate and gender, sociodemographic index (SDI), and alcohol usage were conducted by Generalized Linear Models. Globally, the changes of age-standardized rates of indicators were not much significant over the 30-year period. However, the changes varied widely across regions. Central Asia and East Europe contributed the highest age-standardized incidence, prevalence, death, and DALYs and increased sharply by past 30years. Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) showed male gender as a risk factor of AC, with the relative risk of incidence of 1.521 and relative risk of death of 1.503. Globally, there were improvements in overall health with regard to GBDs over the 30years. However, the prevention of AC and ALC should be promoted in middle and middle-high SDI regions, especially Central Asia and East Europe, whereas more medical resources should be provided to improve treatment levels in low SDI region.

‘When the body speaks back’: Socialization of body-mind dualism in body memories of Cold War childhoods

Studies focusing on East Central Europe have generously explored collective memory (lieux de mémoire, monuments, ceremonies) and nostalgia for a past regime, but rarely have they examined memories as carried in child bodies. In this paper, we analyze selected Cold War childhood memories to explore events in which children’s bodies seemingly act out of control. As a part of socialization, children are taught to consciously control their bodies to fit in the societies they have been born to. With learning to control the body, children also learn that bodies are separate from their minds and that their minds can govern and regiment their body. However, bodies also slip up, avert, or simply remain unaffected by these attempts, in a way ‘speaking back’ to regulating forces, thus troubling the modernist assumption of the separation between the mind and body. The aim of the paper is to show the complexities and limits of socialist or any modern(ist) forms of socialization in which the concerted efforts of the mind are mobilized to govern the body. Moreover, the discussion of body memory and the highlighted mechanisms of how socialization efforts create bodily memories adds to our understanding of the effects of pedagogical intentions in education.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

The Nation at Stake? Ideologizing Conceptions of Family Planning in East Central Europe Since 19391

ABSTRACT This introduction outlines the conceptional framework of the special issue and the current state of research as well as the main juridical, political and social milestones within the discussed timeframe. It offers a historicized view on conceptions of the family and their interdependencies, particularly perceptions of the woman’s role in the respective societies and states for the assessment of family values. In doing so, it places a lens on abortion, which is deemed a practice of the individual’s right of choice and hence a specific outcome of family planning. The article traces social and societal conflicts resulting from the abortion question in East Central Europe. It argues that multi-ethnicity has been a particular trigger which influenced the understanding of the family as the core of the nation and of women as its guardians, so that the various conflict constellations have been reflected in attitudes towards women and families.

Climate change will accelerate the high-end risk of compound drought and heatwave events

Compound drought and heatwave (CDHW) events have garnered increased attention due to their significant impacts on agriculture, energy, water resources, and ecosystems. We quantify the projected future shifts in CDHW characteristics (such as frequency, duration, and severity) due to continued anthropogenic warming relative to the baseline recent observed period (1982 to 2019). We combine weekly drought and heatwave information for 26 climate divisions across the globe, employing historical and projected model output from eight Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 GCMs and three Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Statistically significant trends are revealed in the CDHW characteristics for both recent observed and model simulated future period (2020 to 2099). East Africa, North Australia, East North America, Central Asia, Central Europe, and Southeastern South America show the greatest increase in frequency through the late 21st century. The Southern Hemisphere displays a greater projected increase in CDHW occurrence, while the Northern Hemisphere displays a greater increase in CDHW severity. Regional warmings play a significant role in CDHW changes in most regions. These findings have implications for minimizing the impacts of extreme events and developing adaptation and mitigation policies to cope with increased risk on water, energy, and food sectors in critical geographical regions.

Modernization by the State and its Ecological Consequences in East-Central Europe

During the nineteenth-, and twentieth centuries urbanization and industrialization altered the environment in a dramatic fashion throughout Europe. Much of this change in East‑Central Europe (ECE) was instigated, facilitated and coordinated by the state. The economic-, and technological intervention by the state and its interconnectedness with capitalism and science have had tremendous ecological consequences. Although there have been substantial studies related to the complex interconnectedness of state‑intervention, capitalism, and anthropogenic environmental change, the scientific community still knows little about the environmental aspects of specific modernization attempts in many parts of the world, including East‑Central Europe. To cover this gap, this special issue investigates some of the key historical problems of modernization and subsequent ecological decline in modern ECE via a handful of relevant case studies. This introductory essay summarizes the main theoretical-, and methodological challenges related to the modern environmental history of East‑Central Europe and the role of the state, as well as provides an overview of the case studies included in this special issue.

Nations, Politics, and the Role of History in East Central Europe

Journal Article Nations, Politics, and the Role of History in East Central Europe Get access Ivo Banac. The National Question in Yugoslavia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984. Pp. 456. Paper $45.95. Emily Greble, Emily Greble Vanderbilt University, US Email: emily.greble@vanderbilt.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Vladislav Lilić Vladislav Lilić Vanderbilt University, US Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 128, Issue 2, June 2023, Pages 951–962, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad233 Published: 22 June 2023

Konference Student Migration, Scholarly Networks and Book Culture. Basel and the Swiss Academies in their Relations to (East)Central Europe 15th-17th Centuries

Report from Conference Student Migration, Scholarly Networks and Book Culture. Basel and the Swiss Academies in their Relations to (East)Central Europe 15th-17th Centuries, 14. 6. – 15. 6. 2022, Prague.

Revolution, Transformation and the Role of the Subject

Abstract In order to understand today’s social and political situation in East-Central Europe, one should particularly examine the consequences of post-socialist transformation. The negative and often very painful effects of the social changes that affected Central and Eastern Europe over the past three decades have not been overcome until today. This makes it all the more important to be better prepared philosophically for future social changes. François Jullien offers a number of solutions. In the first part of my paper, taking Jullien’s book The Silent Transformations as a point of departure, I show that many of the problems that still exist in East-Central Europe largely result from placing too much emphasis on the event of the revolution and too little on the transformation experienced by the region’s populations. In the second and third parts, I indicate, pace Jullien, a way towards a moderate, “sober”, but nevertheless creative and productive understanding of the active agent by appealing to the works of Hans-Herbert Kögler and Fabian Heubel.

Creative Friction, Folklore, or Foreign Body? Religious Minorities in Civilizational Encounters in Central Europe and Central Asia

Abstract This paper explores the role of religious minorities in complex civilizational encounters (Johann Arnason) in recent centuries in two Eurasian regions, East Central Europe and Northwestern China (Xinjiang). Particular attention is paid to the emergence of secular ethnonational identities and violent antagonism.

Book Review: Contract Law in East Central Europe

Abstract The book “Contract law in East Central Europe”, edited by Emőd Veress, is a part of a comparative legal project on a wide range of topics in the Central Europe. The book is devoted to the general rules on contracts in the jurisdictions of Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. This book is highly recommended to both academics and legal practitioners who are interested in comparative contract law.

Tangible belonging and national indifference: Being German in interwar Hungary1

AbstractBuilding on arguments from my book Tangible Belonging: Negotiating Germanness in Twentieth‐Century Hungary, this article examines the sense of ‘being German’ in Hungarian‐German villages in interwar Hungary. The basic argument is that rural dwellers possessed a kind of tangible belonging (a tangible sense of being German, in this case) defined by the immediate world around them and that this tangible belonging was continually in negotiations with other constituencies trying to define Germanness, such as Reich Germans, Hungarian‐German leaders, and the Hungarian state as well as other Hungarians. This article also engages with the concept of national indifference, which has become a very common catchphrase in explanations concerning belonging in East Central Europe, especially in borderland regions and on the margins of states.

Comparison of the burden of self-reported bacterial sexually transmitted infections among men having sex with men across 68 countries on four continents

BackgroundMen who have sex with men (MSM) are in general more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than the heterosexual men population. However, surveillance data on STI diagnoses lack comparability across countries due to differential identification of MSM, diagnostic standards and methods, and screening guidelines for asymptomatic infections.MethodsWe compared self-reported overall diagnostic rates for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia infections, and diagnostic rates for infections that were classified to be symptomatic in the previous 12 months from two online surveys. They had a shared methodology, were conducted in 68 countries across four continents between October 2017 and May 2018 and had 202,013 participants.ResultsUsing multivariable multilevel regression analysis, we identified age, settlement size, number of sexual partners, condom use for anal intercourse, testing frequency, sampling rectal mucosa for extragenital testing, HIV diagnosis, and pre-exposure prophylaxis use as individual-level explanatory variables. The national proportions of respondents screened and diagnosed who notified some or all of their sexual partners were used as country-level explanatory variables. Combined, these factors helped to explain differences in self-reported diagnosis rates between countries. The following differences were not explained by the above factors: self-reported syphilis diagnoses were higher in Latin America compared with Europe, Canada, Israel, Lebanon, and the Philippines (aORs 2.30 – 3.71 for symptomatic syphilis compared to Central-West Europe); self-reported gonorrhea diagnoses were lower in Eastern Europe and in Latin America compared with all other regions (aORs 0.17-0.55 and 0.34 - 0.62 for symptomatic gonorrhea compared to Central-West Europe); and self-reported chlamydia diagnoses were lower in Central East and Southeast Europe, South and Central America, and the Philippines (aORs 0.25 - 0.39 for symptomatic chlamydia for Latin American subregions compared to Central West Europe).ConclusionsPossible reasons for differences in self-reported STI diagnosis prevalence likely include different background prevalence for syphilis and syndromic management without proper diagnosis, and different diagnostic approaches for gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Possibilities and pitfalls of the concept of national indifference

AbstractThis introduction to the themed section ‘The history of national indifference. A critical appraisal’ explores the challenges and possibilities of the concept of national indifference. It starts from the premise that national indifference remains a very useful concept to avoid falling into teleological narratives of nationalism. The central argument is that national indifference needs to be theorized as a non‐binary, relative concept that is not the complete opposite of national identification. Indeed, the contributions show that national indifference has gradations and can coexist with explicit, banal or everyday forms of nationalism, both among elites and ordinary people, both in and outside of East Central Europe, both before and after the Two World Wars. This central argument results from an engagement with three areas of debate surrounding the national indifference literature, which all relate to its (inadvertent) reproduction of binary understandings of nationalism: the dichotomous conceptualization of east versus west, nationalisation versus non‐nationalisation and elites versus masses.

The Expansion of the Faith: Crusading on the Frontiers of Latin Christendom in the High Middle Ages, ed. Paul Srodecki and Norbert Kersken

Recent decades have witnessed an augmented interest in crusading movements on the peripheries of medieval Latin Christianity. Beside the notoriously well studied Holy Land crusades and the Reconquista expeditions to Iberia, other theatres of war have been examined in detail. The present book, edited by Paul Srodecki and Norbert Kersken, is the outcome of one of such project, which started at an international conference (‘Crusading and the Crusader Movement in the Peripheries of the Christian West, 1100–1500’) held in Marburg, Germany in 2017. This, the first of two planned volumes, deals with crusading on the frontiers of Latin Christendom in the High Middle Ages (the sequel will cover the late medieval period). The book opens with a well-written introduction by Paul Srodecki, which provides a solid overview of the historiography of the crusades, examines the various approaches and sketches out new directions of research, especially connected to the periphery of Latin Christianity (East Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Baltic region, etc.).

A “Deák School of History”

Abstract This article argues that—fully unintentionally—István Deák founded a distinctive school of history among the students he mentored. The school took inspiration from Deák’s captivating style, clear argumentation, and empathetic moral capacity. In particular, however, Deák and his students sought explanations for social, cultural, and political phenomena in East Central Europe outside the constricting boundaries of the nationalism that dominated this field of history. Before Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm, and Ernest Gellner revived constructivist theories of the nation from very different perspectives in the 1980s, Deák’s wary approach to nationalism and the Habsburg monarchy would become a key element that defined the school of historians that grew up around him. In doing so he and they radically reshaped our understanding of the region and its history.

Spotlighting Deák’s Admirers: Lay and Specialist, Then and Now

Abstract This introduction to the special issue of the Journal of Austrian-American History, “How East Central Europe Changed: The István Deák School of History,” discusses the salient points of the twelve contributions to the issue. It compares these specialists’ analyses of what made Deák’s work so important with the jury comments from the 2020 Friuli Storia Prize, which was made up mostly of lay judges. The introduction also gives insight into how the special issue was conceived, how it intersected with the January 2023 death of the main subject of the collection, and how this influenced the pieces included.