European Socialist Research Articles

A nationwide cross-sectional epidemiological study of cardiovascular risk factors as a tool for management of primary and secondary prevention in Latvia

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND MINISTRY OF HEALTH, LATVIA Background. An increasing prevalence (PREV.) of noncomunicable diseases is a major public health concern in Latvia. Regular nationwide epidemiological studies present an opportunity to estimate the dinamics of PREV of health risk factors (RF) and thus assist in planning resources and improving prevention strategies at national level. Objective. The aim was to analyze the PREV of cardiovascular RF identified in a epidemiological study in 2019-2020. To assess changes in RF prevalence, the results were compared to data from a similar study in 2009-2010. Methods. 4070 inhabitants (age 25-74) of Latvia enrolled. The statistical sample (6000 pers.) was random selected from the Housing Register, Central Statistical Bureau (1’209’756 INDV). The survey included an interview, physical examination (body mass index (BMI), arterial pressure etc.) and venous blood sample collection for fasting glucose (Glu), total cholesterol (TC), high and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (Tg) measurement. The data were processed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Results. The mean number of RF ((AH, TC, LDL-C, Tg, BMI, smoking, arterial hypertension) was 2,93 ±0.1 (mean ± SE) per person for the overall study population. The men group had a significantly greater number of RF than the female group (3.15 ± 0.15 vs.2.55 ± 0.12). A positive correlation between age and the number of RF was found. In the age group 65 and more, the mean number of RF decreased in men and stabilized in women. Although the mean number of RFs has decreased statistically insignificantly over 10 years, changes in the PREV of individual RFs are significant (see table). Decrease of PREV of elevated TC, LDL-C, Glu ≥3.0 mmol/L, as well as a decrease in the PREV of young smokers, men, should be noted. Conclusion. The nationwide data can be used as the baseline characteristics against which other measurements can be compared down the road including of health prevention activities Prevalence of most important RF (%) 2019-2020 2009-2010 RF All Men Women All Men Women TC≥5.0 mmol/L 63.2× 60.7× 65.4× 75,2 72.0 78.0 LDL-C≥3.0 mmol/L 62.0× 63.1× 61.1× 73.7 73.1 73.9 Glucose 5.6-6.99 mmol/L 22.1× 27.1× 17.8× 28.7 35.3 24.9 Arterial Hypertension 38.0× 41.1× 35.3× 44.8 52.9 40.2 BMI≥30.0 kg/m² 29.1 28.1 29.8 30.7 25.6 32.6 Daily smokers 25-34 y 30.3× 21.8 46.3 22.3 (x) p below 0.05 comparing years 2019-20 and 2009-10

'Business as usual': The Treaty of Lisbon and transnational party manifestos

The Treaty of Lisbon was a milestone in the enduring process of empowerment of the European Parliament and its connections to the European Commission. This latest reform of the Treaties, in force since December 2009, placed the only supranational institution whose members are directly elected by all citizens of the EU (since 1979) on an equal footing with the Council as a co-legislator in around thirty additional policy areas. The Treaty of Lisbon also strengthened the European Parliament in terms of the annual and multiannual budgetary decisions, and it granted it the right to elect the President of the European Commission according to the results of the European elections. This article examines various possible effects of this major boost of the European Parliament, along with links to the European Commission in the manifestos issued by five European parties: the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), European Free Alliance (EFA), European Green Party (European Greens or EGP), European People’s Party (EPP), and Party of European Socialists (PES). It studies variations from 2004 onwards in the scope of the programmatic proposals regarding EU domains of power, the footprint in the manifestos of the transnational party organisations themselves, and eventually also of their candidates for the presidency of the European Commission. To do so, the twenty manifestos issued by the abovementioned parties for the 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 European elections were content analysed. The results point to the lasting distance between these transnational parties and the European elections, despite the reinforcement of the role of the European Parliament over time.

Keywords, Structures of Feeling, and the Novel

Keywords, Structures of Feeling, and the Novel

An entangled history of postcolonial and socialist education: institutional transfer for educational equality and national development

ABSTRACT Searching for development paths and suitable educational policies, postcolonial governments often turned to the experiences of other countries and sought to adapt these to their own contexts. Research on such processes has largely neglected the resulting entanglements between postcolonial and European socialist countries, and between different postcolonial countries. This gap in research is addressed in this article by tracing a world-spanning history of educational transfers that has its origins in the Workers’ Faculties of the early Soviet Union. Workers’ Faculties were established with two goals: quickly channelling members of formerly disadvantaged social groups into higher education by providing university-preparatory education to workers and peasants; and providing suitably educated cadres for the development of a socialist society. After World War 2, institutions drawing on the Soviet experiences and combining these two goals were established in European, Asian, Latin American, and African countries. Tracing the processes of transfers and local interpretations of these institutions gives insights into an entangled history of postcolonial and socialist education, but also into how tensions between education as a means to provide social equality and education as a tool for (socialist) development played out in various national contexts.

Prediction of impaired myocardial blood flow (MBF) with the use of machine learning techniques on CTCA based parameters

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): This work was supported in part from European Regional Development Fund, Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020 (EPAnEK)”, titled: The Greek Research Infrastructure for Personalized Medicine (pMED-GR) , no. GR 5002802 ,and by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020» in the context of the project “Assessment of coronary atherosclerosis: a new complete, anatomo-functional, morphological and biomechanical approach”, Project no. 504776 Background Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography (CTCA) is a non-invasive imaging modality, used effectively for anatomo-functional assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD). Machine learning (ML) processes can effectively allow the extraction of useful information from multidimensional feature spaces for evaluation of coronary lesions. Purpose To investigate the ability of ML for predicting impaired myocardial blood flow (MBF) by combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) derived parameters with quantitative plaque burden, plaque morphology and anatomical characteristics obtained from CTCA. Methods 53 patients (31 male, mean age 64.7 ± 7.1 years) with intermediate pre-test likelihood of CAD who underwent CTCA and PET-MPI were included. PET was considered positive when > 1 contiguous segment demonstrated MBF ≤ 2.3 mL/g/min for 15O-water or ≤ 1.79 for 13N-ammonia respectively. CFD derived parameters such as a previously validated, virtual functional assessment index (vFAI), segmental endothelial shear stress (ESS), as well as anatomical and plaque characteristics were assessed. Seven classifiers were implemented and internally validated using 5-fold cross validation, repeated 1000 times. Using sequential forward selection (SFS), the highest rank features combination, based on appearances in the highest mean area under curve (AUC) classification scheme, was selected and features performance was evaluated following exhaustive search (ES). Results 92 coronary segments were analyzed and 34 features derived from CTCA were extracted. Classifiers performance are depicted in Figure A. k-NN was the best classifier with AUCmean = 0.791 (SENSmean= 0.622, SPECmean = 0.840, p < 0.05). Clusters of features and number of appearances are presented in Figure B. The combination of vFAI, stenosis severity and lumen area demonstrated the highest AUC (1473 times). ES results are depicted in Figure C. The combination of vFAI and lumen area was the best predictor among all the combinations (AUCmean = 0.830, SENSmean =0.61, SPECmean =0.83, p < 0.05) followed by vFAI and stenosis severity (AUCmean = 0.81, SENSmean =0.72, SPECmean = 0.87, p < 0.05) and vFAI alone (AUCmean = 0.806, SENSmean =0.61, SPECmean =0.87, p < 0.05). Conclusion ML analysis is feasible for predicting with reasonable specificity abnormal MBF by PET, using a combination of CFD derived parameters and anatomical features. vFAI as a single characteristic was a specific predictor of impaired MBF, whilst in combination with stenosis severity, maintained almost the same AUC and specificity values and resulted in improved sensitivity. On the other hand, addition of lumen area to vFAI, increases the AUC and provides a relatively good specificity but low sensitivity. Abstract Figure 1

CCTA-derived functional and morphological features and their comparative performance in predicting impaired coronary vasodilatation by PET-myocardial perfusion imaging

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): This work was supported in part from European Regional Development Fund, Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020 (EPAnEK)”, titled: The Greek Research Infrastructure for Personalized Medicine (pMED-GR) , no. GR 5002802 ,and by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020» in the context of the project “Assessment of coronary atherosclerosis: a new complete, anatomo-functional, morphological and biomechanical approach”, Project no. 504776 onbehalf EVINCI-SMARTOOL Background/Objectives: The relationship between biomechanical characteristics of a coronary lesion with myocardial blood flow has not been studied. We investigated the relationship between local endothelial shear stress (ESS) and computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA)-derived anatomical and plaque characteristics data with impaired vasodilating capability assessed by positron emission tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (PET-MPI). Methods A total of 92 coronary vessels of 53 patients who have undergone both CTCA and PET-MPI with 15O-water or 13N-ammonia were analysed. PET was considered abnormal when > 1 contiguous segments showed both stress Myocardial Blood Flow (MBF) ≤2.3mL/g/min and Myocardial Flow Reserve (MFR) ≤2.5 for 15O-water or <1.79 mL/g/min and ≤2.0 for 13N-ammonia respectively. CTCA images were used to assess stenosis severity, lesion specific total plaque volume (PV), non-calcified PV and calcified PV as well as plaque phenotype. ESS was calculated for the full length of a lesion (total), as well as in the proximal, minimum lumen area and distal lesion segments. Results ESS was weakly correlated with total PV (rho = 0.273, p = 0.008), non-calcified PV (rho = 0.247, p = 0.017) and the volume of necrotic core (rho = 0.242, p = 0.02). ESS increased progressively with stenosis severity (p ≤ 0.001). ΕSS was also higher in functionally significant vs. non-significant lesions (10.4 [8.04-54.4] Pa vs. 3.9 [2.32-7.29] Pa, p ≤0.001). Addition of ESS to stenosis severity improved prediction (Δ[AUC]:0.113, 95% CI: 0.055 to 0.171, p = 0.0001) of functionally significant lesions. Conclusion There is a weak positive association between lesion-specific ESS and plaque volume. ESS increases progressively with stenosis severity and is higher in functionally significant lesions by PET-MPI. The addition of ESS to CTCA-anatomical information improves prediction of an abnormal PET-MPI result.

'Festina Lente’: The ILO and EU Agendas on the Digital Transformation of Work

This article compares the International Labour Organization (ILO) and European Union (EU) agendas concerning the digital transformation of work, and addresses possible policy gaps and their implications for international and EU labour law. It critically reviews the current social acquis of both institutions and concentrates on the key analogies between the ILO’s Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work and some of the various regulatory initiatives taken by EU institutions in the context of the Pillar of Social Rights. The article finds that, despite the often articulated calls for urgent and original measures, both institutions’ programmes present largely a prudent continuation of traditional narratives, failing to strengthen the adequacy of existing labour regulation regimes. Besides their predominantly non-binding nature, the efficacy of the most future-oriented instruments is profoundly undermined by the unreasonable exclusion of those workers who bear most of the brunt of social disparities accelerated by digitalization and casualization of work. In addition, the implementation of these initiatives may be jeopardized by complex governance methods and unresolved tensions between conflicting approaches and objectives. The study concludes that, although positive signs are emerging in the supranational legal order, much remains to be done to address the multifarious challenges arising from the digital transformation. International Labour Organization, European Union, European Social Law, Digital Transformation, Platform Work, Social Policy, Future of Work, Labour Regulation

Sustainable development goals and the European Cohesion Policy: an application to the autonomous Region of Sardinia

Abstract Paramount to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the effective tackling of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) is the cooperation and coordination of the different levels of government—i.e. the supranational, national and local levels. This is due to the very nature of the SDGs, which are multi-dimensional and intended to guide and boost sustainable development at multiple scales. The European Union (EU) demonstrated a full commitment to the Agenda, making sustainable development a top priority. In fact, the five strategic objectives of the EU are modelled on the principles of the 2030 Agenda and the Cohesion Policy, EU’s most transversal policy, is designed to give a direct contribution to the tackling of the 17 SDGs. Introducing a new methodology to evaluate the sustainability of operational programmes co-financed by the EU, the following paper aims to contribute to the building literature around the question of monitoring public investments regarding sustainability criteria. By matching the 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda with the 143 intervention fields of the Cohesion Policy, with specific reference to Sardinia’s European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund 2014–2020 Regional Operational Programmes, the present work introduces the key features of the model developed and its first results. The model could be of valuable support to policymakers who now have an innovative tool to monitor investments’ coherence with the sustainability standards of the 2030 Agenda.

Impact of Car Sharing on Urban Sustainability

The article gives us an insight into the key issues of car sharing and its impact on urban sustainability. A selection of 314 articles published in peer-reviewed journals from the Scopus database were analysed using Leximancer 5.0 for Automated Content analysis. A total of seven themes were identified explaining the researched topic of the car sharing situation in Europe, which are sharing, economy, model, systems, electrical car sharing, policy and travel. There are two ways of sharing owned cars in Europe; access to cars from the fleet of private organisations and P2P car sharing. Sustainable environmental solutions in the context of the electrification of cars are used. Car sharing usually takes place online and can be free or for a fee as defined by The European Economic and Social Committee. The article provides an overview of understanding the concept of urban car sharing in Europe.

Impact of Globalisation Processes on Regional Development Management in the European Union

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to explain why the Euro­pean Union perceives globalisation as the challenge for its regional development and how this assumption influences on regional development management.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem concerns the issue of globalisation as the process which is estimated by the EU as the opportunity and challenge for its regional development at the same time. As a result the EU develops multi-level political system in which, along sovereign states, there are transnational and subnational political actors which have been engaged in regional development management. The research methods used in the study consist of an institutional and legal analysis of the major policy docu­ments, actors and regional development management instruments that they use.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The introduction presents the principal methodological assumptions concerning the analysed research area, the applied conceptual approach and the research methods. The main body of the article discusses why the European Union perceives globalisation as the challenge and opportunity for regions’ competitiveness.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis shows that the scope of competences of the EU with regard to regional development management was laid out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; however, the globalisa­tion affects the formulation of strategic directions of EU actions in this area and implementation of relevant interventions of the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: In accordance to the European Commission globalisation creates conditions and challenges in the scope of regions’ economic development. In order to prepare the regions for global competitiveness in the EU, authority is spread among different decision making and implementing levels which have the sources and knowledge required in the process of increasing regions’ competitiveness.

Into the Vicious Cycle of Precarity: Labour Market, Precarious Work, Social Vulnerability and Youth: The case of Greece within the EU context

Ιn the last decade, there has been a widespread expansion of both precarious work and precarious forms of employment (such as temporary and low-qualified jobs, seasonal and part-time jobs etc.), in which a growing share of young people work. The impact of precarious work on young people is likely to be permanent, while it seems to affect (even over-determine) their life courses. Non-smooth and early transitions into labour market are very likely to worsen progressively their long-term life chances (Lodovici & Semenza, 2012: 7). Undoubtedly, the long-lasting global economic Crisis and the subsequent Recession, has heavily affected the state of play in the labour market worldwide, provoking severe modifications both in the field of employment and countries’ social cohesion. Based on the above mentioned, the paper deals with precarious work in general, while it emphasizes precarious work among youth. It initially captures, briefly, the state of play in terms of the impact of the Crisis on the widening of the phenomenon of precarious work and then it focuses on theoretical insights and critical conceptual definitions concerning precariousness in the labour market. Further, based on secondary quantitative -data analysis, it analyses the key- parameters and facets of precarious work (focusing on youth) in the European Union and, mainly, in Greece. Additionally, it briefly presents parameters of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on precariousness in Greece. Finally, the paper explores the correlation between precarious work and social vulnerability, especially among young people.
 The present paper is based on an ongoing Research Project. More specifically, this research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020» in the context of the project “Precarious Work and Youth in today’s Greece: secondary quantitative analysis, qualitative filed research and research-based policy proposals” (MIS 5048510).

Mathieu Fulla, Marc Lazar (eds.), European Socialists and the State in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

It is a commonplace in American political discourse that socialists are statists, zealous to resolve society’s ills through the intervention of activist government. To a nineteenth-century European labor militant, however, this might come as a surprise. The state, as he saw it, was not there to lend a helping hand but to repress, and the gendarme and military man, not the social worker, were its emblematic agents. Late twentieth century Third Way socialists on the model of Tony Blair might al...

Civil society dialogue between Latin America and the European Union

The article examines the forms and levels of dialogue between the European Union and civil society organizations in Latin America. The content of this dialogue and the goals set by its participants are analyzed. The role of the European Economic and Social Committee in the establishment and development of this dialogue, as well as the difficulties arising in its implementation are shown. Examples of specific joint forums and conferences are given, which formulated specific requirements of civil society organizations to their governments. The conclusions emphasize that the European Union, overcoming obstacles of a historical, social and cultural nature, will continue this work, proceeding from its importance for the formation of a qualitatively new level of relations between the two continents.

External Challenges to Soviet Ideology in the Second Half of the 1960s and in the 1970s

The Soviet Union's foreign policy challenges of the 1960s and 1970s had an ideological aspect to them. Contradictions between Soviet Communism and Eastern European socialist models of development became more pronounced. Eastern European socialist countries began to emphasize the variety of models for “building socialism” and offered their own theories, not sanctioned by Moscow, of the construction of socialism in other European countries. Certain “ideological dangers” for the USSR also came from the Communist parties of capitalist countries. Authority of the Soviet Union and the CPSU among Western communists had declined. The weakening of the influence of Soviet ideology in the world had become evident. As a result, Western communists began to distance themselves from the USSR and the “Socialist Bloc” countries. In the post-war years, the authorities and the elites of the “Capitalist Bloc” countries took additional measures to reduce the popularity of the Communist ideology by promoting the idea of “social compromise instead of social revolution”. One of the most significant challenges to Soviet ideology was also the “convergence theory”. The socio-economic models developed in capitalist countries — especially the concept of the “welfare state” — presented another serious challenge. As a result of these trends and an increase in the standard of living in capitalist countries, there was a “de-ideologization” as well as a decrease in mass revolutionism of the population. The external challenges to Soviet ideology were regarded in Moscow with dismay. New ideological and socio-political concepts in capitalist countries were perceived negatively by the Kremlin. The external challenges had a negative impact on the mass consciousness of Soviet citizens. The article concludes that during the period under review, the challenges posed to Soviet ideology from abroad began to be complex. This article also gives classification of these challenges and reveals main ways of their manifestation.

The Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD) as Part of The European Socialist Family: Ideological and Organisational Influences (2004–2019)

The importance of the ideologies in the current political landscape is often disputed or questioned. Some argue that most of the political forces moved towards the center in the last decades; they state that the catch-all model was embraced by former Conservative, Liberal, or Social democratic parties. Others consider that the ideological hegemony of neoliberalism erased the doctrinal boundaries that used to separate the Left from the Right. These discourses suggest that today’s political confrontations are in fact pseudo-conflicts because they lack an ideological background. In the present article, we contribute to the realization of an overview of the current relevance of the political ideologies by focusing on aspects linked to the recent history of the European Left. The relationship between the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the Eastern European Social democratic parties was often characterized by difficulties. We observe the dynamics of the relationship between PES and the Romanian Social democrats, highlighting episodes filled with tension as well as moments of fruitful collaboration. Moreover, we discuss the messages of some relevant leaders in the European electoral campaigns, and we analyze the political profile of some Romanian Social democrats that occupied important positions in the European Parliament or the European Commission. The article also reflects on the impact had by the evolution of Social democracy on the development and the stability of the European Union. One of the main conclusions of our study is that the cultural and economic differences between the Western democratic Left and the Romanian Social democrats indicate that the relevance of the ideologies should not be underestimated.

Bridging geographical research and political action: the Trentino Italian region in the scientific and socialist writings of Cesare Battisti, 1895–1914

Scholars in the history of geography have paid close attention to the way geographical research has contributed to the development of scientific and political concepts such as ‘region’ and ‘nation’. This paper focuses on the life and writings of Cesare Battisti (1875–1916), a native of the city of Trento who became renowned in Italy and Austria-Hungary as a socialist and a geographer at the beginning of the twentieth century. To understand his thought, this paper collects and examines Battisti’s scientific outputs and published political papers, along with previously unstudied private writings from his archive (1895-1914). The result is a portrait of Battisti as someone who was outside of national geographical traditions; an entangled intellectual who used different geographical, political, and philosophic tools and methods to legitimate his political claims. In particular, the paper suggests that the idea of Trentino as a region was construed through an anticolonial discourse aimed at supporting the region’s claim for autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian empire. This study of Battisti, therefore, offers valuable insights into the emergence of left-wing nationalist and regional discourses, which arose from Italian and Central European socialist networks before the First World War.

Shaping the Soviet Empire from Below

Shaping the Soviet Empire from Below Pavel Kolář Rachel Applebaum, Empire of Friends: Soviet Power and Socialist Internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia. 275 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019. ISBN-13 978-1501735578. $49.95. Martina Winkler, Panzer in Prag: Der fotografische Blick auf die Invasion von 1968 (Panzers in Prague: The Photographic View of the 1968 Invasion). 229 pp. Düsseldorf: C. W. Leske, 2018. ISBN-13 978-3946595090. €35.00. In the past two decades, a growing body of scholarship has dealt with how East European societies shaped their fates within the confines of the Soviet empire. The conception that portrayed the citizens of socialist dictatorships as powerless subjects of totalitarian power has been extensively qualified. Popular strategies, both undermining and consolidating communist rule, have become the center of attention, with historians exploring cooperation rather than subjugation, self-Sovietization rather than one-sided imposition of Soviet power.1 Both Rachel Applebaum's Empire of Friends and Martina Winkler's Panzer in Prag represent valuable contributions to this historiographical revision. [End Page 414] ________ Applebaum concentrates on the "friendship project" between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia from the end of World War II to the collapse of state socialism, arguing that the project was "central to construction, maintenance, and collapse of the European socialist world." Although the arrangement collapsed under the sway of the bloc's disintegration in 1989, she contends, the friendship project should not be seen as a complete failure. Across 40 years of communist rule and throughout political shifts like 1956 and 1968, the notion of Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship proved a significant mobilizing force. Applebaum holds that friendship campaigns were more than an ideological veil. Rather than asking whether people believed in the project or not, she investigates its capacity to engage citizens socially, to make them cooperate despite the steady decline of ideological zeal after 1956 and, even more dramatically, 1968. The friendship project's longevity and breadth, its capacity to outlast political ruptures and to create a "cohesive world" in everyday life, all militate against the failure interpretation. The book is organized in chronological chapters but cuts across established period boundaries, such as 1956. The liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army in 1945 constitutes the starting point and a continual red thread throughout the investigation. Did the friendship and mutual contacts between Soviet and Czechoslovak citizens, the central question goes, enhance or diminish the stability of really existing socialism? The notion of "empire of friends" itself seems a (meaningful) contradiction in terms, since empire is by definition based on domination of one side by another, on a hierarchical asymmetry between center and periphery, however "cooperative" the periphery might be. Can rulers and ruled be friends? Max Weber sought to answer this question by exploring the "motivations for obedience" on the side of the dominated, and Applebaum follows suit. Czechoslovakia seemed to possess the best chance among the "satellite" countries for the project, thanks to its genuine liberation by the Red Army and the overwhelmingly pro-Soviet attitude of much of society. As early as in the immediate post-1945 period, however, frictions in the friendship project surfaced. The initial Czechoslovak enthusiasm began to fade with the Czechs' budding sense of cultural superiority over allegedly backward Russia. Soviet films, for instance, were considered too shallow for the arguably more refined Czech cultural taste, and avantgarde artists like Vítězslav Nezval made no secret of their disappointment over the poor artistic quality of Soviet Socialist Realism. Nevertheless, this dismissive attitude did not prove robust enough in the subsequent Stalinist phase [End Page 415] (after the takeover of February 1948), when adoration for everything Soviet prevailed as a hegemonic orientation, advanced from above by a mighty ideological apparatus. Of special significance here is to what extent and how the friendship project interacted with the other essential component of Stalinist ideology: its enmity narratives. This is all the more important because even in Stalinism, as Applebaum observes, Czechoslovak society showed rather a lukewarm attitude toward the friendship project, while at the same time participating in an unprecedented hatred-driven campaign in connection with the Slánský show trial, which developed into a significant manifestation of...

The COURAGE Registry: A Gateway to the Cultural Heritage of Eastern European Nonconformism

The COURAGE Registry is a digital research tool that allows exploring the legacy of cultural opposition in former Eastern European socialist countries by cataloging and describing relevant collections on dissident culture across Eastern Europe and worldwide. The linked database reveals a great variety of nonconformist cultural practices that were formerly largely unknown and promotes comparative research of similar phenomena in Eastern European societies and cultures. The researchers on the project tended to treat visual sources as traces of the past equally as important as written documents. Images were not only illustrations of the given narratives but, in some cases, visual documents were the only sources that preserved the memory of the alternative or underground activity, while in other cases, it was the act of taking pictures that resulted in the confrontation with official cultural policy. This article aims to provide insight into the basic dilemmas and issues that the project faced dealing with images for the database through three examples. Firstly, we focus on the photo documentation of an exhibition of the Hungarian art group Inconnu that was made by the secret police following the destruction of the artworks. Secondly, we show how photos were also taken by official photographers who operated in the so-called “grey zone.” Finally, our third example refers to Fortepan, a unique public initiative that focuses on the digital preservation of private photographs created between 1900 and 1990.

EDUCATION AS A CAUSE FOR PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS: A CASE STUDY IN BULGARIA

Political participation is a very important factor for liberal democracy. All forms of political participation in government contribute to democracy. In addition, the effects of participation are considered to be substantive in a very different way, for instance by providing an individual with direct usefulness and by contributing to personal contentment and satisfaction with life in general. A priori, from a subject subordinate to the state in all pre-liberal regimes, the individual in contemporary democracies becomes an unavoidable factor in political processes. Given that, the analysis in this article is based on the characteristics of the Bulgarian democratic model. The main purpose of the study is the current challenges to civic engagement and the importance of education for the political participation of Bulgarian citizens to be analyzed. The applied methodology is a combination of a theoretical approach to political participation and analysis of the data gathered from various quantitative surveys (European Social Survey, other representative and non-representative sociological surveys). The results of these surveys reveal the important role of education for the participation of Bulgarians in politics. The influence of education on the alleged interest in politics, the trust in institutions, the participation in political elections and on other forms of civic engagement has been studied. The need for political socialization and the motivation of young Bulgarians to participate more actively in the political sphere is emphasized. Keywords: Education, Political Participation, Political Socialization, Bulgaria

Clinical Characteristics and Risk Factors for COVID-19 Infection and Disease Severity: A Nationwide Observational Study in Estonia

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has required overloading of health systems all over the world. For reliable risk stratification, knowledge on factors predisposing to SARS-CoV-2 infection and to severe COVID-19 disease course is needed for decision-making at the individual, provider, and government levels. Data to identify these factors should be easily obtainable.Methods: Retrospective cohort study of nationwide e-health databases in Estonia. We used longitudinal health records from 66,295 people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA from 26 February 2020 to 28 February 2021 and 254,958 randomly selected controls from the reference population with no known history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or clinical COVID-19 diagnosis (case to control ratio 1:4) to predict risk factors of infection and severe course of COVID-19. We analysed sociodemographic and health characteristics of study participants.Findings: The SARS-CoV-2 infection risk was slightly higher among women, and was higher among those with comorbid conditions or obesity. Dementia (RRR 3.77, 95%CI 3.30⎼4.31), renal disease (RRR 1.88, 95%CI 1.56⎼2.26), and cerebrovascular disease (RRR 1.81, 95%CI 1.64⎼2.00) increased the risk of infection. Of all SARS-CoV-2 infected people, 92% had a non-severe disease course, 4.8% severe disease (requiring hospitalisation), 1.7% critical disease (needing intensive care), and 1.5% died. Male sex, increasing age and comorbid burden contributed significantly to more severe COVID-19, and the strength of association for male sex increased with the increasing severity of COVID-19 outcome. The strongest contributors to critical illness (expressed as RRR with 95% CI) were renal disease (7.71, 4.71⎼12.62), the history of previous myocardial infarction (3.54, 2.49⎼5.02) and obesity (3.56, 2.82⎼4.49). The strongest contributors to a lethal outcome were renal disease (6.48, 3.74⎼11.23), cancer (3.81, 3.06⎼4.75), liver disease (3.51, 1.36⎼9.02) and cerebrovascular disease (3.00, 2.31⎼3.89).Interpretation: We found divergent effect of age and gender on infection risk and severity of COVID-19 ⎼ age and gender did not contribute substantially to infection risk, but did so for the risk of severe disease. Co-morbid health conditions, especially those affecting renin-angiotensin system, had impact on both, the risk of infection and severe disease course. Age and male sex had the most significant impact on the risk of severe COVID-19.Funding Information: Research was carried out with the support of Estonian Research Council, European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund via IT Academy programme.Declaration of Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Tartu.