Historical Justice Research Articles

Forgotten responsibilities? Nordic truth commissions, Sámi history, and the difficulty of transnational perspectives on historical responsibility

The article studies the Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish truth commissions dealing with state-Sámi (an indigenous population living in northern Scandinavia, Finland and north-western Russia) relations through the concept of transnational historical justice. The fact that three separate commissions are studying the history of the Sámi has been criticized by earlier researchers, but never from the perspective of intergenerational, and more specifically historical justice. Our study of the mandate documents and the report of the Norwegian commission (the only one published in the time of writing of this article) points to constructive ways forward that could acknowledge and better embrace the transnational character of Sámi history, especially in terms of historical justice. We also study in what way the Norwegian commission worked within and stretched the framework set by the mandate document. Our conclusion is that the lack of transnationalism in the mandate and work of the commissions leads to historical Sámi individuals and groups being forgotten. These are historical groups and individuals whose existence does not fit in neatly in the presentist perspective of the commissions, projecting the current nation state borders back in time. For this reason, historical justice toward these groups is also a forgotten issue in the mandate and work of the commissions.

ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРНЫХ И ФИЛОСОФСКИХ ОСНОВАНИЙ В РОССИИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ДИАЛЕКТИКИ ВСЕОБЩЕГО ДУХА

This article presents an analysis of the perspective of research on cultural and philosophical foundations in Russia, taking into account the dialectics of the universal spirit. The author examines the influence of cultural and philosophical traditions on the formation of Russian identity, considering their interaction with universal principles of spiritual development. The article discusses key concepts, including the notion of the universal spirit, its role in a cultural context, and its impact on philosophical thinking in Russia. The author offers their vision on studying cultural and philosophical foundations in Russia, highlighting their importance for understanding the mentality of contemporary society. Special attention is given to the interaction of cultural and philosophical traditions with modern challenges and issues characteristic of the modern world. The article provides historical justification for the researched issues, touching upon aspects of cultural heritage that may be useful in conducting this research. Overall, the article calls for the study and preservation of the country's cultural heritage, as well as the development of modern philosophical concepts that address contemporary challenges.

The Ukrainian War of Values

The role of ethical values in history is often overlooked. The main role ascribed to the political, economic and military aspects of history diminishes the role of norms and values. At the same time, the perspective concentrating on the history of culture, mentality and daily life provides a viewpoint from which ethical norms and values are treated as an aspect of culture and have limited influence on other aspects of history. In this paper, I present the importance of ethical values and historical justifications, referring to them based on the example of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speeches during the first year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. This provides an opportunity to analyze an example of the role ethical values play in the Ukrainian struggle against Russia and justify the thesis that ethics plays an important part in geopolitical security and defense. This paper consists of four parts: first, the author briefly describes the importance of ethical values for historiography and certain aspects of the historical context in which Zelenskyy’s speeches will be interpreted throughout the text. Secondly, the issue of nihilism in history is described, with particular attention to Zelenskyy’s opposition toward it. The next part describes historical determinism as a tool to justify abhorrent actions, and the final part describes the value ascribed to freedom by Zelenskyy, especially as a prerequisite for the existence of other ethical values and as a method to search for an answer to aggression, war, and evil.

Реституция и репатриация культурных ценностей: позитивистский подход бывших метрополий против подхода стран третьего мира к международному публичному праву

The article addresses the correlation between the mechanism of international legal regulation of restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage with the position of moral philosophy, exemplified by their voluntary return to countries of the Global South within the framework of the “metropolis-colony” model, aiming to restore historical justice in the context of cultural artifacts’ removal by former metropolises from former colonies’ territories. It highlights the problem of the current impossibility to recognize this process as a legal institution of international law due to the lack of a unified declared approach to solving the aforementioned issue. The article concludes by advocating for the necessity of consolidating the existing experience and developing a unified concept for the return of cultural heritage lost by previously colonial dependent states. It argues that the basis of restitution and repatriation lies not only in the moral paradigms of Western Europe and modern political interests but also in the preservation of global cultural heritage and the prevention of the voluntary restitution’s exploitation as a legitimate means of its transfer to private collections. This article delves into the intricacies of international legal frameworks surrounding the restitution and repatriation of cultural artifacts, juxtaposing the positivist stance of former colonial powers against the perspectives of nations from the Third World. It scrutinizes the ethical and political dimensions of governments’ attitudes towards their historical colonial past, examining various models of voluntary restitution within the national systems of the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The analysis underscores the imperative of synthesizing diverse approaches and crafting a cohesive strategy for returning cultural treasures to their rightful owners. Moreover, it emphasizes the multifaceted motivations underlying restitution efforts, emphasizing not only moral imperatives and modern political agendas but also the imperative of safeguarding the world’s cultural heritage and thwarting the exploitation of voluntary restitution as a conduit for the legitimization of cultural appropriation into private collections.

Expectation and Demand: Paul Tillich and the Dialectics of Deep Hope

ABSTRACT Paul Tillich's early political thought centers on a dialectic of expectation and demand. This essay interprets these paired concepts in terms of Tillich's realistic yet hopeful attitude regarding the fulfillment of justice in history. It likens Tillich's hopefulness to what the philosopher of religion Andre Willis terms “deep hope” and to the “infinite hope” of Martin Luther King Jr. The essay thus focuses on a form of political hope that faces up to despair without succumbing to it. Tillich's dialectic of expectation and demand is then applied therapeutically to diagnose pathologies of hope and hopelessness in the contemporary theo–political imagination as manifest in recent, popular works by Rutger Bregman, Chris Hedges, and Srećko Horvat. Finally, the essay suggests some provisional, Tillichian medicine consisting in devotion to the encountered other, the source of both the demand to make justice real and the heartening call to expect what is seemingly impossible.

PROTECTION OF HISTORICAL JUSTICE AS A FACTOR IN THE STABILITY OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

Historical justice is an important theoretical and practical category for nation-states of the 21st century. Therefore, its unambiguous and clear understanding is the key to a successful intercivilizational dialogue. However, at the moment there is no such dialogue, there is only its appearance, supported by manipulations and speculations, the means of implementation of which is the falsification of history. This method is one of the most destructive and painful in the international confrontation of the 21st century. At the state level, it is recognized as a serious threat to the national security of modern Russia, requiring elimination. Therefore, knowledge of historical facts, the ability to identify truth and lies, the ability to navigate the past and the present, finding logical cause-and-effect relationships in a plurality of disparate historical facts and events will allow Russians to maintain their core (national mentality) and survive in the information and mental war of our time.

Timeo danaos et dona ferentes, або як Кремль дружив з незалежною Литвою проти другої Речі Посполитої (1918–1940): історична та історико-правова розвідка

Soviet foreign policy in the interwar (1918–1939) period was carried out on the basis of the strategy and tactics of the "world revolution", which, in turn, provided for the rallying of all "anti-imperialist forces", including the so-called oppressed peoples. While supporting the struggle of the Hindus against the British colonialists or the Chinese Kuomintang against imperial Japan, the Kremlin manipulators did not let the European continent out of their sight. One of the powerful knots of contradictions at that time became the Polish-Lithuanian relations, caused by the forceful annexation of the Vilnius region by the Poles, even contrary to the decision of the Versailles Conference. From the very beginning of the conflict, the Union of the SSR sided with Kaunas under the Pharisaic slogan of the right of nations to self-determination. Explanations for this lay on the surface. First, the interwar Second Commonwealth in its then borders was a project of the Council of Ambassadors of the Versailles Conference (primarily of France), concerned about the Soviet threat. Secondly, Moscow did not have a territorial conflict with Lithuania, but it did with Poland. Thirdly, actual (non)intervention in the conflict, its intensification or, on the contrary, its weakening could be used as a bargaining chip in relations with third states (such as Germany). Kaunas also had its interest, which lay on the surface (Vilnius region). The Soviet invasion of Poland, carried out under the pretext of taking under the protection of the population, which the "unreasonable policy of the Polish authorities" allegedly put in an extremely dangerous situation, was accompanied by a "generous" act of restoration of historical justice for the Lithuanians offended by the Polish invaders. However, in less than a year, the Soviet Janus showed his true face to the until recently friendly Lithuania.

Corrosive Comparisons and the Memory Politics of “Saming”: Threat and Opportunity in the Age of Apology

This article contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of memory and historical justice studies by analyzing one, particularly troublesome kind of competitive comparison that sometimes happens in memory politics in the so-called age of apology. The article calls this kind of competitive comparison, “saming”. Saming involves the attempt, via far-fetched or otherwise wrongheaded comparison, to exploit the recognition of some well-known case of historical injustice. Further, saming involves pursuing this comparison in ways that both trivialize the original injustice and undermine the framework from which the recognition of that injustice derives. The article develops its arguments and analysis by studying Budapest’s House of Terror museum and two Canadian redress campaigns, which sought historical recognition for the wartime internments of persons of Italian and Ukrainian ancestry, respectively. Saming is a recurrent problem, ubiquitous and probably inevitable in memory politics because the recognition of historical injustice brings with it unavoidable and indeed often valuable incentives to comparison. Thus, the overall aim of this article is to analyze the threat of saming in order to better defend the cause of comparison in introspective collective remembrance.

Migration and the Dystopian Imagination of European Border Regimes

Inward migration has long troubled the European political imagination. For example, an emphasis on fortification and low immigration was key to the civilisational fantasy of many early modern European literary Utopias. The dominant contemporary political framing of irregularised migration as a European problem thus leans on an imagined transnational ‘European civilisation’, concretised in the contemporary EU but with roots stretching back centuries. This article examines critical cultural treatments of legal and policy frameworks, grounded in a (supra-)nationalist civilisational myth, which now determine the treatment of irregularised migrants. Specifically, I examine three cultural texts (a novel, a film, and documentary artwork) produced in the years immediately preceding the development of the current Dublin III Regulation, which determines how and where asylum claims are processed in the EU. These three realist primary texts counter the official techno-scientific discourse of territorial integrity using science fictional narrative strategies, generic conventions, and tropes: the 2012 documentary artwork Liquid Traces: The Left to Die Boat Case by Forensic Architecture uses science fictional visualisations to directly confront the deadly effects of European bordering in the Mediterranean. Aki Kaurismäki’s film Le Havre (2011), shows how twentieth-century history haunts contemporary migration fears by spatialising multiple temporalities in the titular city. Finally, Chika Unigwe’s novel On Black Sisters’ Street (2009), explores the colonial dynamics of irregularised migration and the complexities of individual agency, producing a form of critical dystopian engagement with the social and political conditions of the present without being a generic dystopia. These three texts expose the dangers and violence of European bordering, and counter the science fictional civilisational fantasies of its policies. They share an emphasis on the need for solidarity, resistance, and, via encounters with the spectral presences of Europe’s past, they demand forms of historical justice which will break with contemporary dystopian conditions and the hard borders of the present.

Combative Genealogies of Tricontinentalism: Re-Presenting the Southern Struggle for Historical Justice in Latin America and Beyond

Abstract Tricontinentalism, the radical ideational universe of the Global South so important in the 1960s and 1970s, lost much of its original thrust with the neoliberal turn, and its contribution to global history has long been obscured. Recently, however, historians, political theorists and others have been studying its take on global justice and the multiple impacts of its political strategies, ideological rhetoric, identity formations, as well as its many transnational connections: traces still recognisable in the repertoire of social movements today. By unearthing these strands and constellations of global history, and by sometimes cooperating with activists, these scholars act as Foucauldian genealogists, laying bare sediments of historical agency that the hegemonic memory formation of neoliberalism had all but buried. Such efforts constitute a form of counter-history in the competitive field of political memory. This paper applies elements of mnemonic hegemony theory (mht) to analyse Tricontinental memory, with a particular focus on Latin America.

The role of tradition in the territorial dispute between Vietnam and China

The article analyzes the arguments of Vietnam and China on the ownership of the Paracel Islands and the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea. The evidence base of the parties is based on historical justifications, which do not include all the islands of the archipelagos with geographical coordinates, have no data on permanent human habitation and economic activity. The International Tribunal in The Hague (2016) issued a verdict that China’s claims to “historical rights” over the maritime areas of the South China Sea contradict the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and are null and void.

Historical Meaning and the Care of the Soul: Ethical Reflections on the War in Ukraine with Edith Stein and Jan Patočka

ABSTRACT Amidst the human tragedy represented by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ideological and historical justifications for the conflict as they have been framed by Russian president Vladimir Putin themselves call for a philosophical response and ethical critique. Putin’s political theological justification for the war, grounded in the commonalities of language, historical affinity, and ecclesial unity, which he posits constitute Ukraine and Russia as one people and justifies the imposition of Russian imperial authority over the Ukrainian state, is philosophically problematic and ultimately totalitarian. In contrast, the phenomenological philosophies of Edith Stein and Jan Patočka, whose political philosophies were shaped in spiritual resistance to similar ethnic and ideologically driven imperialisms of the twentieth century, offer resources for understanding and critiquing the world-historical interpretations of the meaning of civilization, peoplehood, and national destiny which drive Putin’s foreign policy, and which have important ethical and political implications far beyond the Ukraine/Russia conflict.

KHARKIV INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL UKRAINE

The article solves the difficult task of restoring historical justice in relation to some representatives of the technical intelligentsia who were directly associated with the Kharkiv Institute of Technology in the period from 1890 to 1934. The importance of informative knowledge about the role of graduates of a higher technical educational institution for future generations, about their hard, dedicated work for the good of the country, has been proved. In the work, the authors reveal the personal contribution of its graduates to the development of certain regions of Ukraine, leading enterprises and industries in such cities as: Izyum, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Makiivka, Mariupol, Kramatorsk and other Ukrainian cities. The article extensively covers the names of graduates of the Kharkiv Institute of Technology - specialists in agricultural engineering, steam engine construction, tractor production, modernization of prototypes and the creation of the legendary T34 tank, specialists in coking and coal enrichment technologies, sugar industry, shipbuilding, brilliant scientists, architects, engineers of Kharkiv, who built and organized the cities of Ukraine - all those whose names should remind of heroic work and encourage Ukrainians to protect all their assets from the racist invasion.

Tracing Exilience Through Literature and Translation: A Portuguese Gargantua in Paris (1848)

Abstract The present article explores the way translated literature informs on (i) how exile shapes the cities’ landscapes (both the starting city and the arrival), as well as (ii) the emotional hardship of the exilic condition, which entails a feeling of estrangement and the longing for imaginary homelands. To attain this twofold aim, it focuses on the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Portuguese migrant movements to Paris. It searches, on the one hand, to retrace exilience in descriptions of Lisbon and Paris in biographical accounts of Portuguese exiles. On the other hand, it analyses an 1848 rewriting of Rabelais’ Gargantua in Portuguese. It is contented that Gargantua Portuguez [Portuguese Gargantua] bears testimony of the presence of anonymous Portuguese-language exiles in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, while creating a “safe house” for them, by seeking historical justice which would, in turn, assist in coping with the exilic condition.

Group (Non) Identity and Historical Justice

Group (Non) Identity and Historical Justice

Comparative perspective on social welfare policies for the indigenous peoples in Taiwan and India: exploring best practices and lessons

This study discusses the social welfare policies for Indigenous peoples in Taiwan and India. Offering critical insights into the historical progression of social welfare policies, this study provides an analytical review of the existing policies and outlines the different approaches to social welfare with an emphasis on best practices in both countries. The synthesis of literature makes it evident that Taiwan and India show a notable shift towards mainstreaming indigeneity. The primary approach of this reformative process involves dismantling the historical impacts of colonization and adopting more inclusive policy frameworks for the welfare of their Indigenous peoples. This study outlines similarities such as increasing budgetary allocations, framing social welfare policies based on Indigenous rights and values, and recognizing culture as an essential aspect within welfare policies. However, the Taiwanese social welfare policy is characteristically operating towards transitional and historical justice for Taiwan. On the other hand, India has adopted a dynamic social development model of social welfare policy that works on need-based action. The dichotomy between right-based (Taiwan) and need-based social development policy (India) reinforcements characteristically local policy dynamics and modelling towards country’s approach to Indigenous social welfare. Conversely, differences exist within the best practices of Indigenous social welfare policies, serving as a pioneering lesson for both Taiwan and India.

Дискурс исторической справедливости: этико-политические основания и концептуальные противоречия

The article examines the use of the “historical justice” category as a public justification for political actions. Despite its frequent use in public discourse, the scientific legitimacy of the concept remains questionable, as its formal definition encounters a range of challenges. Firstly, the status of the main subjects of justice – perpetrators and victims – remains uncertain, since the assessment of their activities in the historical perspective may change over time. Secondly, the so-called non-identity problem is essential, as it complicates establishing the continuity between the victims of historical injustice and the modern communities claiming to represent them. The active use of appeals to historical justice rooted in the doctrine of “moral remembrance”, which arose as a result of World War II and consists of three main principles: the duty to remember, the duty to face the past, and the duty to ensure justice for victims. As the composition and number of leading political actors changed, there was a sharp increase in memorial narratives, and the automatic extension of demands for historical justice to these narratives resulted in an increase in memorial conflicts. In modern public space, the discourse of historical justice has become a crucial tool of symbolic struggle, often replacing moral attitudes towards the past with political manipulation. In this regard, it seems necessary to distinguish between historical justice as a political tool and as a category of historical ethics that allows determining and assessment of the relationship between historical facts and modern narratives.

Кадровое обеспечение специальных судебных коллегий. 1934-1938 гг.

Special Collegiums operated in the Soviet justice system in 1934-1938. They were created within the framework of the NKVD reform to consider political cases investigated by this agency. To date, the study of this topic has been on the periphery of scientific research. There are works that only fragmentarily describe their functioning. There are no studies devoted to the study of the staff of judicial bodies. The main characteristics and peculiarities of the formation of the staff of these bodies have been revealed. The article is based on a wide range of published and archival sources stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region (OGACHO). The research is based on the method proposed in the works of P. Solomon (Jr.), which involves a combination of traditions of such disciplines as criminology and history of justice. Also, historical-genetic and statistical methods are used in the work. In the course of the study, the author found that the special collegia represented a hierarchical system with subordination to the Supreme Court of the USSR. Their number depended on administrative transformations, and their activities were based on the territorial principle. The staff composition of these bodies was not stable. Provision with staff was low. The staff of the special collegia was made up of former NKVD officers. The educational level of the staff of special boards was low. The bet was made on politically loyal people, who had some experience in law enforcement or justice, and who came from social strata close to the party. Regular purges resulted in a systematic renewal of personnel. In 1934-1937, the purges mainly affected employees nominated to this job by the justice authorities. In 1937-1938, former NKVD officers who had been transferred to this job in 1934-1935 were repressed. Often the purges were carried out purposefully, on the basis of departmental instructions. A stable professional staff of the special collegiums was not formed. As a result, there were numerous violations of the norms of procedural law when forming the composition of the court. Special Collegiums were liquidated in 1938. The main argument explaining their liquidation was the adoption of the Law on the Judicial System. In the text of this normative act there was no mention of special collegiums within the Supreme and regional courts. The decree on the creation of special collegia was abolished only in 1956.

Сохранение памяти о наполеоновских войнах: формы международного сотрудничества России и Германской империи в начале ХХ в.

The article is devoted to the characteristics of the main forms of international cooperation used at the beginning of the twentieth century keeping the memory of significant events in military history. Based on archival documents, press materials and personal testimonies, the preparation, semantic content and attitude of society towards Russia’s participation in commemorative projects implemented on the territory of the German Empire on the eve of the First World War are analyzed. The focus is on considering the features and problems of building narratives about the joint military past of the two empires within the framework of the international exhibition in Breslau and the opening of monuments in Leipzig. The author concluded that the implementation of commemorative projects dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the victory in the Napoleonic wars is influenced by the existing system of international relations. Behind the scenes of the grandiose celebrations was hidden the desire of the German Empire to provide a historical justification for its foreign policy course. For the Russian state, participation in joint projects provided an opportunity to remind Europe of its role in the international arena and the strength of the army. Promising directions for further research of the problem are outlined.

Navigating the Complexities: Land Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa

In the nearly three decades since the advent of democracy in South Africa, land reform has remained a critical issue. The African National Congress (ANC) introduced Land Reform Policies (LRP) in 1994, aiming to address three core aspects: restitution, reform, and redistribution. In 2017, the ANC signalled its intent to begin land distribution without compensation following the amendment of Section 25 of the South African constitution. However, progress has been slow, with only 9% of farmland transferred to date. Corruption and other factors have hindered effective land distribution. The ANC’s historical success in land dispossession between 1994 and 2004 contrasts with recent difficulties. Their focus on capital-intensive farming has limited alternative livelihood options for beneficiaries. Moving forward, addressing corruption and considering diverse approaches will be crucial to achieving equitable land distribution for Black South Africans. This paper sheds light on the complexities of land reform, emphasizing the need for a multifaceted approach that balances historical justice, economic viability, and social aspirations.