Soviet Influence Research Articles

Socialist Wardens and Guards in Czechoslovakia and East Germany: The Replacement and Political Indoctrination of Prison Staff

Abstract This article focuses on the replacement of prison staff in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, later the German Democratic Republic after 1945. The main focus is on the question of how the replacement of prison staff took place, what strategies Czechoslovakia and East Germany used to accomplish this task, and the extent to which local conditions and the overall evolution of the prison systems of the two countries played a role in the process. The other aim of the article is to understand the place of political indoctrination in the staffing of prisons in the two socialist countries and to show how the system of teaching new members of the prison staff changed over time. Comparing the replacement of prison staff shows that although both states were under Soviet influence and transformed their prison systems according to the Soviet model, the implementation of staff changes greatly depended on the distinct political, economic and social conditions of the two states.

Estimating the vulnerability of industrial network infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe

Industrial infrastructure has suffered an unprecedented number of attacks in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This situation can be attributed to many geopolitical factors, including hybrid military conflicts and criminal activity. Industrial networks belonging to the countries that were once under Soviet influence suffer from an elevated risk of cyberattacks. The goal of this work is to propose an easy way to estimate the vulnerabilities of industrial networks to cyber threats on a national level. Since analysis of the industrial vulnerability landscape is difficult, this study proposes an assessment based on the popularity of vulnerable technologies—VPc. This metric is composed of search volume data on keywords related to industrial network technologies and reported security vulnerabilities associated with these words. Data on 116 keywords was analysed and a country-specific VPc index was calculated for twenty states in CEE. The analysis of the popularity of industrial technologies and vendors in CEE reveals interesting information about the industrial security and vulnerability landscape. The results show that some countries (e.g. Estonia) have more resilient industrial infrastructure than others (e.g. Belarus). The results presented in this study are not in conflict with other data and estimation attempts, including the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI). As new vulnerabilities are noted every day, the industrial security landscape changes rapidly. Therefore, a new easy-to-use metric (VPc) can be successfully used for general estimations. This work shows that the VPc score agrees with other estimates and analyses, but as with any other general estimation tool, it must be used with caution.

Drawing on Children’s Mobilisation in the Chinese Soviet Republic, 1933–1934

Abstract After the White Terror of 1927, the Chinese Communist Party relocated from Shanghai to the border region between Jiangxi and Fujian; one of the major challenges that the new Chinese Soviet Republic faced was transition from urban to rural. While political historians explored the ensuing conflicts between Soviet and Chinese influences, the lens of children’s history indicates that children’s organisations—and children themselves—freely adopted Soviet influences for their own local needs. By examining the visual and textual representation of children and by children in two major periodicals, this article suggests that children participated in the creation of a new political culture and imagination with important legacies for wartime propaganda.

Tracing ideologies, influences, and politics: the shaping of a state monopoly in Turkey’s sports system (1920s–1990s)

ABSTRACT Despite Turkey’s changing political regimes, sports have remained under state governance since 1938. This article analyzes the ideologies, influences, and politics that have shaped this state monopoly over the sports system across three phases from the 1920s to the 1990s: establishment, stabilization, and instrumentalization. The establishment phase aimed to align sports with nation-building ideals, incorporating nationalist ideology and paramilitarism. The stabilization phase embraced a statist approach influenced by socio-economic conditions and Soviet influence. The instrumentalization phase, beginning with the Özal years, utilized sports for political discourse and socio-economic purposes, retaining the state-run system even during the era of neoliberalization.

Wedding rituals, political power and the third space in Soviet Azerbaijan

This paper aims at understanding transformations of cultural identity in Azerbaijan by exploring raptures, continuations, and re-formulations of marriage rituals during Soviet times (1920–1990). Seven women born in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and, raised in different regions of Soviet Azerbaijan were interviewed, sharing their memories of their own and their parents' marriage rituals. Their narratives provide a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between political, social, and economic factors that influenced Azerbaijani cultural identity, which historically has interacted with many different cultures. To examine the interaction of local cultural identity with the Soviet colonial power in time and space, we use Mikhail Bakhtin's ‘chronotope’, Stuart Hall's elaboration of ‘cultural identity,’ and Homi Bhabha's concepts of ‘hybridity’ and ‘third space.' We argue that despite Soviet influence, local cultural practices endured, keeping the Azerbaijani individual self-identity distinct.

Blended Legacies: Vietnamese and Other Foreign Influences on the FARC-EP

The article analyzes the phenomenon of blended legacies. It is defined as the local synthesis of foreign guerrilla warfare traditions that the FARC-EP adopted to gain the advantage in their own war. We focus on Vietnamese influence within FARC-EP. The text tracks three types of connections between the FARC-EP and the guerrilla warfare legacies: first, early influence of Vietnamese and Maoist guerrilla political, strategic and tactical literature, as well as Soviet influence through the Colombian Communist Party; second, training in Vietnamese methods from secondary and tertiary parties, particularly instruction the M-19 and ELN received in Cuba and El Salvador respectively that they later passed on to the FARC-EP; and third, direct training the FARC-EP received in Vietnam in 1990. The text also demonstrates the local synthesis through an analysis of the FARC-EP special forces development, as well as their use of improvised explosives.

Recognition of propaganda techniques in newspaper texts: Fusion of content and style analysis

Public texts aiming at reader manipulation for propaganda or disinformation purposes pose a significant threat to society. The ability to detect the presence of a specific manipulative technique in a text offers an informed warning to readers and guides them to carefully judge the actual statement.In this article, we address the problem of developing new models capable of analyzing newspaper articles for propagandistic features. We introduce a new large dataset of manipulative techniques obtained via gathering and human annotation of 8,646 newspaper articles in Czech, which represents one of the former Soviet influence area languages. The dataset allows both to train new methods to recognize propaganda and disinformation and offer a general comparable benchmark for the techniques. We evaluate the dataset against selected state-of-the-art machine learning approaches to provide high-performing baselines for detecting seventeen annotated manipulative techniques. We also present thorough measurements of inter-annotator agreements that approximate the difficulty level of each of the attributes.As a new finding, we propose a set of text style analysis features that lean on the assumption that each manipulation leads to a specific style pattern. We show that the style analysis improves the detection results for most of the manipulative techniques. The viability of the approach is also confirmed on the well-known QProp propaganda dataset, providing new state-of-the-art results.

The Catholic Church in Hungary and Romania during the Communist Dictatorship: A Comparative Analysis

The structure and cultural characteristics of a society are, in the words of Joseph Schumpeter, “like metal” – they bend and melt but do not readily evaporate. My comparative analysis confirms the diagnosis that the everyday presence of dictatorship cannot be adequately described by the standard top-down models of ideologically driven communist power. The substantive differences in developments between Hungary and Romania suggest that external power is only part of the construct, however rigid the hegemonic structure. By looking at the reactions caused by similar effects in different contexts, it becomes clear what has an impact on what. The relationship of the churches to the state in the countries under study includes similarities and differences shaped by distinct historical trajectories that are partly structural and partly situational. In terms of circumstances, Romania’s Orthodox pattern regarding the relationship between the state and the church also determined the relationship with other denominations and sealed the fate of Greek Orthodox Catholics. The measures taken against Roman Catholics, although more or less the same as in Hungary, also tended more towards the state-church model. However, this feature was not the primary cause of the different impact in Romania compared to Hungary. This is because, just as the relationship between church and state differed from country to country, so did the relationship of the churches to their own “national” societies. Further, no matter how tempting it might be to consider the Catholic Church a closed entity, the comparison clarifies that neither the hierarchical division nor the same (Catholic) norm made behaviour uniform. The differences arising from local configurations of the single norm grew more and more evident in the 1950s. All this suggests that state and church strategies and actions were shaped more by the conflict of contexts and pressures to comply than by the tension between the scope of action and the constraints: the differences between Romania and Hungary are explained by the different contexts and the cross-generational ecclesiastical and social patterns A greater historical understanding explains how bishops in Hungary, in line with previous conditions and established practice, hoped for quasi-freedom in church operations through a “partnership” with the state while the Roman Catholic Church in Romania has been operating under exlex conditions for four decades. That does not mean that a rational-legal approach on its own is the key to understanding what has occurred. Under a dictatorship, we can identify deviance, excesses, abuses and arbitrary actions in relation to the law. However, these “models” can only be understood in the context of processes that transcend political history. The behaviour of the authorities in Bucharest towards the Catholic Church has been dramatic compared to other countries under Soviet influence. With the arrests of Áron Márton and Anton Durcovici, the public hierarchy appointed by the Holy See ceased to exist. The elimination of dioceses by the state was also a unique feature. The resistance organised by the Jesuits and Franciscans, with the support of the faithful, successfully paralysed the ecclesiastical administration, which had been put in place due to state intervention after the arrest of Áron Márton. This process was largely due to the church’s strengthened social embeddedness in previous years and its successful adaptation of strategies developed to cope with its minority status. Over the centuries, the Catholic Church in Transylvania has faced a series of challenges that have threatened its very existence. These pressures have also shaped the thinking of its clergy and its relationship with its faithful. The recoveries from crises have led to innovative and flexible adaptation strategies, making the local church “tough” and thus contributing to its management of the next crisis. The mentality of the church, which was minimally domesticated or determined by the secular power, showed fewer Josephine traits than in Hungary. The relationship between church and state tended towards the passive model, while the relationship between church and society tended towards the active model. The Catholic Church’s double minority status in Transylvania during the Communist years – minority as a Hungarian and minority as a Catholic – created an alternative society that did not allow it to abstain entirely from politics. Beyond individual choices, this also made its confrontational position more flexible and its submission more moderate.

The foreign policy of the United States of America towards Iran in the period from 1953 to 1974.

The article examines the foreign policy of the United States of America in the Greater Middle East region, which acquired strategic importance after the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The subject of the study is the American-Iranian relations of 1953-1974, within the framework of which the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi consistently built cooperation with D. Eisenhower, J. Kennedy, L. Johnson and R. Nikson. Despite the fact that their approaches to the implementation of American foreign policy in the Greater Middle East underwent significant changes, the desire to maintain influence in the country, consolidate control over cheap Iranian energy resources and prevent the return of Soviet influence on Iran remained the main directions of American activity. The methodological basis of the research is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency. The following methods were used in the work: historical-comparative, historical-typological and historical-systemic methods. The reviewed diplomatic documents of the United States of America "Foreign Relations of the United States" allow us to establish that the influence of the oil factor on American-Iranian relations in 1953-1974 remained high, despite changes in the approaches of the presidents to the implementation of foreign policy in the region. The return of Iranian oil to the global market allowed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to initiate the start of the "white revolution", supported by the United States, among others. Huge oil revenues allowed Iran in a short time not only to realize its claims in the region, but also to become an important ally of the United States, responsible for regional security during the presidency of R. Nixon. The work illustrates the changing role of the United States of America and Iran in the Greater Middle East, due, among other things, to the influence of the oil factor.

Psychiatric Rehabilitation in the GDR against the Background of Soviet Influences

The study describes developments and local models of psychiatric rehabilitation in the GDR and the USSR. After the Second World War patient care was focused on hospitals. The Rodewisch Theses and the Brandenburg Theses as well as the "Conception to improve the patient care for mentally ill people after 1980" were important suggestions. The GDR primary literature review shows that soviet concepts were often received. The principles of stages, continuity and sectorization set the stage for success here and there. Transition units such as psychoneurological dispensaries, the occupational/protected workshops and assisted residences, therapeutic clubs, day and night hospitals were created. The occupational therapy was intended to facilitate the transition into the normal working. As a consequence, during the 1970s and 1980s in the GDR a high level of employment of mentally ill people in the economy could be achieved.

Considerações sobre a reforma monetária na Alemanha após a II Guerra Mundial

ABSTRACT This article is theoretical and presents the currency reform of June 20, 1948, which laid the basis for the reconstruction and rebirth of the West German economy after World War II. The authors analyze the conditions related to the need to carry out the reform, emphasizing the role and interests of the United States in this undertaking. It is widely believed that the reform gave rise to impressive economic growth, the so-called “economic miracle” that no one could have predicted before. A closer analysis, however, shows that the initial aim was not to pave the way for an economic miracle, but it was rather a meticulously prepared plan of action by the American superpower to strengthen its position in the world and limit the influence of the socialist idea. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the hypothesis that the currency reform in post-WWII Germany was primarily aimed at securing American dominance and limiting Soviet influence.

Russia/USSR – Türkiye/Turkey: Legacy of “Friendly Neutrality”.Goals of Soviet Policy towards Turkey

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the Soviet leadership’s approaches to the implementation of the goals of the Soviet foreign policy towards Turkey, legacy of which remains until nowadays. The Soviet-Turkish relations in the 1920-s were built up on the basis of common political interests shared between two neighboring states existing in a similar geopolitical environment. The common goal for the Republic of Turkey and the USSR was to overcome international isolation and ensure national security. The Soviet government’s approach to determining the role and place of Turkey in the security system near the borders of the USSR was outlined by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin, who saw the Soviet-Turkish cooperation as one of the tools for ensuring the security of the Soviet borders in the south and southwest. One of the key issues in the Soviet-Turkish relations was the issue of the Black Sea straits. Considering the straits a "gateway" for an attack on the southern borders of the USSR, the Soviet government tried to revise the regime of the straits in a more favorable way for the country. the resolution of which in 1936 at the conference in Montreux did not suit the Soviet government completely. It was assumed that strong economic ties with the USSR and mutually beneficial security cooperation would become an effective instrument for deterring the Turkish leaders. During the Great Patriotic War, the goals of the USSR’s policy towards Turkey were to prevent it from being drawn into the war on the side of the antagonistic alliance, as well as to further revise the Montreux Convention in a more favorable direction for the Soviet leaders. The 1939–1946 attempts to put pressure on Turkey on the straits issue caused Turkey to withdraw from the orbit of the Soviet influence and led to almost two decades of hostile and tense relations between the two countries. After the death of I.V. Stalin, particularly in Khruschev’s era, the Soviet approach was characterized by a search for ways to improve Soviet-Turkish relations. The main instrument of this was expansion of the Soviet-Turkish trade and economic cooperation, due to which the foundations of today's highly developed bilateral Russian-Turkish relations were laid.

The Periphery of the USSR: Indian Travellers’ Perception of the Eastern Bloc and Non-Russian Soviet Republics in the Cold War Era

This article examines the perception of countries of the Eastern bloc and Soviet republics other than the Russian Soviet Republic in Indian travelogues of the Cold War era written in the Bengali language. Although most Indian travellers who came to the European countries of the Eastern bloc and the USSR at that period only visited the main cities of the Russian Soviet Republic, some ventured into lesser known territories, e.g. Estonia, Poland, or Ukraine, and in their travel accounts included one or two chapters on those regions. The distinctive feature of their travelogues is the strong focus on various aspects of social and economic life, from the education system, through workers’ rights, to public housing, and on the progress Eastern bloc countries made since coming under Soviet influence. The article argues that Indian travellers created the image of Eastern bloc countries and Soviet republics other than the Russian Soviet Republic as a periphery of Soviet Russia by constantly comparing the two, presenting Russia as the heart of the Soviet world and focusing on problems other parts of the USSR and the Eastern bloc still faced despite of what they perceived as Moscow’s assistance.

The Socio-Economic Situation in An Uzbek Village in the 20-30s of the Xx Century: from Reforms to Collectivization

Objectives: The primary objectives of this article center on analyzing the socio-economic situation in an Uzbek village during the 20-30s of the XX century. The study aims to understand the impact of Soviet power on rural areas, specifically focusing on the presence and influence of the government during the initial years. Additionally, the objectives include examining the period of reforms in the 20s that led to significant improvements in the economic indicators of the agricultural sector.
 
 Methods: The research methodology involves a historical analysis of the socio-economic conditions in the Uzbek village during the specified time frame. It includes a detailed examination of archival documents, historical records, and relevant literature to trace the changes in the rural landscape. The methods also entail a closer look at the policies implemented during the 20s, such as reforms and their effects, leading up to the initiation of collectivization and dispossession in 1929.
 
 Results: The findings of the study highlight the initially unfelt presence of Soviet power in rural areas during the first years. The 20s, marked by reforms, saw significant economic improvements in the agricultural sector. However, the results underscore the detrimental impact of the subsequent policies of collectivization and dispossession in 1929. These policies transformed the role of the Uzbek farmer from an owner to a worker, leading to the destruction of the institution of private property and causing a tragic disruption in the once peaceful social life of the village.
 
 Conclusion: In conclusion, the study reveals the dual nature of the Soviet influence on the Uzbek village during the 20-30s. While the initial years brought about positive economic changes through reforms, the subsequent policies had severe consequences, destroying the institution of private property and disrupting the social fabric of the village. The conclusion emphasizes the profound impact of governmental policies on local farmers and the transformation of their socio-economic status during this crucial period.

Kultura strategiczna USA podczas zimnej wojny i po jej zakończeniu

This text raises an issue of strategic culture. It uses the example of the works of the US federal administration on the official processing of the challenges connected with Cold War rivalry in the period of containment of Soviet influence, as well as under the new challenge from Putin’s Russia. It defines the term “strategic culture”, and provides theoretical orderings locating it among the important factors shaping the decision making of federal bodies on deterrence and key national security challenges. It also discusses institutional arrangements for conducting policies towards new challenges, such as weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, which require a change of approach from the social elite, followed by the adoption of modified procedural patterns in domestic and international relations.

The Transformation of Kitsch Culture in Hungary: From the Pre­ and Post­Communist Era to EU Accession

Kitsch culture is a type of popular culture. In Hungary, kitsch culture emerged in the late 19th century and became increasingly popular in the early 20th century. In Hungary, kitsch culture was especially popular among the working class and peasants. Kitsch culture offered a way to escape the drudgery of life and imagine a better world, and it provided a sense of community and belonging. Of course, kitsch culture was also popular among the bourgeoisie, but they saw it as a way to express their patriotism and loyalty to the Hungarian state. The period from the late 1950s to the early 1970s is considered the golden age of Hungarian kitsch culture. This was due to the rise of socialist realism, the official art style of the communist regime after World War II. Socialist realism is characterized by realism and a focus on social issues, and the Hungarian communist regime used art as a means of propaganda, encouraging artists to create works that promoted socialist ideals and values, such as collective farming and industrialization. As such, Hungarian kitsch art was often used to promote the ideology of the communist regime and glorify party leaders. Kitsch culture in Hungary began to decline after the fall of communism in 1989, as the country's political and social landscape changed: Hungary began to move away from Soviet influence, and the government became more open to Western ideas and culture. Kitsch culture became popular again in Hungary in the 2000s, partly because many Hungarians felt nostalgic for the communist era, and partly because kitsch culture provided a way to express individuality and creativity in a society still in transition. In other words, Hungarian kitsch culture was revived by a number of factors, including nostalgia, globalization, and Hungary's accession to the European Union, and it has continued to evolve and adapt to changing cultural and social trends. An important aspect of kitsch culture during this period was the rise of nostalgia for the communist era. This growing nostalgia for the past has led to a renewed interest in the socialist era, including kitsch culture. Therefore, this article examines the history and development of Hungarian kitsch culture and how it continues to shape the self-identity of Hungarians today after Hungary's accession to the European Union.

Process of sovietisation of tertiary education in Slovakia in 1945-1956

The socio-political events of 1945-1956 are characterised by several phenomena that significantly marked the formation of tertiary education in Slovakia and determined its subsequent development. In the first years after the end of the war, attempts at political, economic, or cultural contacts with Western countries could still be observed in several Central European countries for some time. Universities maintained their traditional internal academic structure, organisation of student enrolment, content of studies, etc. This situation was mainly fostered by the needs of the country's reconstruction, which at the same time masked the political pragmatism of the new, but not yet fully strengthened, people's democratic regimes. Gradually, they became a priority concern of the Communist Party, whose aim was to gain ideological control over them. Soviet influence in education was exercised in the spirit of communist ideology, centralized state planning, and a bureaucratically controlled process of education marked by ideological influences. The paper aims to analyse the basic changes in educational models and specific features of Slovak higher education systems after the bipolar division of the world.

Intimate Foreign Relations

Abstract Visualizing Soviet internationalism as a student dormitory, this essay identifies a new transnational subgenre, the Soviet dormitory novel, and analyzes four examples: Nazim Hikmet’s Life’s Good, Brother (Turkish, 1964); Ismail Kadare’s Twilight of the Eastern Gods (Albanian, 1978); Sonallah Ibrahim’s Ice (Arabic, 2011); and Yurii Andrukhovych’s Moscoviad (Ukrainian, 2000). These works each depict a different decade and come from different locations on the concentric map of Soviet influence: the Afro-Asian world, Eastern Europe, and the non-Russian USSR. Together, they reveal some shared formal features of the dormitory novel and some unintended consequences of Soviet internationalism, including the various racisms it rejected but helped perpetuate.

ამერიკის შეერთებული შტატებისა და რუსეთის ურთიერთობები ახლო აღმოსავლეთის რეგიონში

The main global geopolitical discourse of the 20th century was to divide the world into two parts, the spheres of influence of Soviet and West. The United States was the leader of the West, which was perceived by Russia as a major geopolitical opponent. The political leadership of Russia, at first with inertia, and then thoroughly continued this course of Soviet Union. The US authorities showed a relatively less reactional policy on the Russian Federation than it did to the Soviet Union. However, the final cooperative agreement on the main geopolitical issues has not been reached between the two states. The Persian Gulf and the Middle Eastern region in general have always been a wide area of interest to Russia. Such a persistent interest in the region is due to a very simple reason – the Middle East is the southern flank of Russia's borders. Consequently, Russia's foreign policy will always have a leading influence in the region. Consequently, the US – Russia interests also appear in this region. One of the leading directions in Russia's geopolitics is the United States. Currently, there is a highly tense relationship between the US and Russia due to the Ukrainian war. Nevertheless, both large international actors are more or less aware of how much their relationship depends on the fate of humanity as a whole. Russia and the US were allies in World War II. This historical memory also exists between them, but ideological and civilizational differences have not allowed the parties to lay the groundwork for somewhat peaceful and fair world. Relationships between them are more rivalry than cooperation. At present, Russia has imposed heavy economic sanctions from the US and the West.

Isabel Story, Soviet Influence on Cuban Culture, 1961–1987: When the Soviets Came to Stay Lexington, 2020, pp. xiii + 331

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