Central and Eastern Europe

Cultures d’Europe centrale, n° 3, 2003, 247 p.

Territoires à la frontière, les confins représentent un ailleurs géographique mais aussi poétique, cristallisant et parfois renversant l’opposition entre le « centre » et la « périphérie ». Dans les pays d’Europe centrale, il y va souvent d’un mythe collectif : le rêve des Allemands et des Autrichiens sur la Galicie, des Polonais sur la Lituanie ou l’Ukraine, des Tchèques sur la Slovaquie, des Hongrois sur la Transylvanie, des Juifs assimilés sur le monde de la culture yiddish, pour n’en citer que quelques exemples. Le récit de voyage vers les confins, départ d’un centre oppressant vers un « ailleurs » salutaire, reposant sur la nostal gie d’un pays à la fois proche et lointain, d’une « patrie personnelle », exprime à travers un genre littéraire particulier cette aspiration au ressourcement géographique et spirituel. Études de cas d’artistes, d’essayistes et d’écrivains allemands et autrichiens (Döblin, Däubler, Franzos, Schnitzler), hongrois (Németh), tchèques, yiddishophones (Peretz, Anski), polonais (Schulz, Kossak-Szczucka), russe (Sigismund Krzyzanowski), mais aussi francophones (Simenon, Ritter).


Table des matières

Delphine Bechtel et Xavier Galmiche
Introduction ......................................................................................
p. 7

Andrei CORBEA-HOISIE : « Le voyage colonisateur de Karl
Emil Franzos en Semi-Asie » .........................................................
p. 23

Markéta THEINHARDT : « Jaroslav Čermák, un peintre
tchèque entre Paris et les Balkans » ...............................................
p. 43

Delphine BECHTEL : « D’Images d'un voyage en province (1891) de
Peretz à La Destruction de la Galicie (1921) d’An-Ski :
représentation des confins juifs entre expédition statistique et
littérature » ........................................................................................
p. 57

Thomas SERRIER : « L’Est commence au plus tard à la gare de
Silésie de Berlin : Voyages allemands dans la ‘Marche orientale’
autour de 1900 » ...............................................................................
p. 77

Wolfgang SABLER : « Le Chemin solitaire (1904) de Schnitzler et
les traces des expéditions archéologiques en Bactriane » ...........
p. 97

Catherine SERVANT : « Présences slovaques dans l’oeuvre de
Miloš Jiránek » ..................................................................................
p. 115

Xavier GALMICHE : « Europe centrale et patries personnelles
chez William Ritter » ........................................................................
p. 137

Marek TOMASZEWSKI : « Le voyage nostalgique dans les
confins ou la mémoire des lieux des romanciers polonais des
années 1920 et 1930 » ......................................................................
p. 153

Roman DZIERGWA : «Voyages, visites et confrontations
littéraires avec les confins orientaux de la Pologne de l’Entredeux-
guerres chez les auteurs allemands » .................................
p. 175

Luba JURGENSON : « Sigismund Krzyzanowski et le voyage
imaginaire de Münchhausen » ........................................................
p. 189

György TVERDOTA : « La ‘fraternité de lait’ des peuples
d’Europe centrale dans le récit de voyage en Roumanie (1935)
de László Németh » .........................................................................
p. 207

Boris CZERNY : « Confins et envers des confins dans
l’Europe des années trente chez Georges Simenon » ................
p. 225

Note des éditeurs .............................................................................
p. 243

Penta na Slovensku, Babiš a Křetínský v Česku. Česká a slovenská mediální scéna zažívají nebývalé majetkové otřesy a nástup nového typu majitelů: domácích miliardářů a mocných finančních skupin, skupujících jeden mediální dům za druhým. Ačkoli toto téma již nějakou dobu hýbe veřejným prostorem, dosavadní reflexe se jen málokdy ptají po jeho hlubších příčinách. Jak ukazuje tato analýza, podobné trendy přitom můžeme vidět i dalších zemích našeho regionu.

Short of the war, the destruction, and the massive loss of life, Ukraine is in many ways similar to the Gulf crisis in which the UAE, together with Saudi Arabia, led a 3.5-year-long economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar that, like the Russian invasion, was designed to hollow out the sovereignty of a neighbouring state.

ערב רב: פנים וחוץ בוויכוח הפרנקיסטי הוא ספר מרתק וחדשני החושף את סיפורה הייחודי של התנועה הפרנקיסטית, תנועה יהודית אפיקורסית שצמחה בפולין והתפשטה במרכז אירופה במחצית השנייה של המאה ה-18.

בעיני רוב היהודים פרנק היה 'משיח שקר' ידוע לשמצה. בעיני נוצרים נאורים ומיסיונרים מילנריסטים היה יהודי-נוצרי ואדם חופשי בדעותיו, שלו קשרים מסתוריים והוא משתמש במגיה ובמאגרי עושר סודיים. עבור מאמיניו היה למבשר שחרור מן המסגרות המקובלות המדכאות של מגדר, הלכה, מעמד, משטר ודת.

התנועה הפרנקיסטית עוררה הדים והיתה סלע מחלוקת גם בקרב גורמים דתיים ופוליטיים לא יהודיים: יוזף השני, קתרינה הגדולה, גתה, קזנובה ואחרים. תורותיו של יעקב פרנק, מנהיג התנועה, הציבו אתגר בפני היהדות הנורמטיבית, אך גם בפני האסלאם וזרמים בנצרות. הספר מברר מחלוקות פנימיות ביהדות המודרנית אך דן גם ביחסים בין יהודים לסביבתם במאות ה-18–ה-19.

ערב רב מבוסס על מקורות פנימיים שחיברו פרנק ומאמיניו, על מקורות יהודיים פולמוסיים אנטי פרנקיסטיים, ועל מקורות שכתבו גורמים לא יהודיים בני הזמן. דרכו המוקצנת של יעקב פרנק עוררה עניין רב בו ובתנועתו, ולקורא מוגש ניתוח מעמיק של פרשה היסטורית ייחודית זו.
המחבר, ד"ר פאבל מצ'ייקו מן האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, חוקר את תולדות היהודים בפולין-ליטא בעת החדשה. נולד בוורשה וקיבל תואר דוקטור מאוניברסיטת אוקספורד. פרסומיו הרבים זיכו אותו בפרסים, במלגות ובמענקי מחקר רבים. שימש מרצה אורח באוניברסיטאות שונות, בארצות הברית, בצרפת, בגרמניה ובפולין.

Reviewed in: BUKSZ--Budapesti Könyvszemle (Beatrix F. Romhányi), Catholic Historical Review (Katherine L. Jansen), Collectanea Franciscana (Aleksander Horowski), Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters (Veronika Lukas), Hungarian Historical Review (Dorottya Uhrin), Il Santo (Eleonora Lombardo), Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken (Ralf Lützelschwab), Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique (Michael Robson), Speculum (Thomas F. Luongo)

This report summarizes the main outcomes of the research conducted within Pillar 1 of the MDCEE project, entitled Media Ownership and Commercial Pressures. The primary goal of the project’s first research area was to investigate the market structures underpinning the conditions of news media organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and consequently to analyse the influence of economic factors on the relationship between the media and democracy in this region. While the overall scope of Pillar 1 was broadened in the course of the MDCEE project (2009-2013), and also included explorations in the area of administrative and regulatory capacities of the state vis-à-vis the market in general and the telecommunications markets in particular (see Stetka 2012a), this report focuses specifically on the original core issues of Pillar 1. It attempts to present a systematic and comparative overview of media ownership structures, as well as other important features and tendencies shaping the character of news media markets in the ten Central and Eastern European countries studied by the MDCEE project, particularly with respect to the 2008/2009 financial crisis, which has had a profound and dramatic effect on ownership patterns and on the overall situation of the media in this region.

Slovakia’s relations with the states of Eastern Europe not only have a bilateral impact, but contain geopolitical, security and economic dimensions as well. This article analyzes the domestic, bilateral and multilateral aspects of relations between Slovakia and Russia before and after the parliamentary elections of 1998, when Slovakia adopted a pro-Western course aimed at EU and NATO membership. The article also focuses on bilateral relations with Ukraine, where Slovakia is among the most active supporters of Ukraine’s future EU membership. The final sections analyze the Eastern policy of Slovakia – particularly within the framework of the EU’s Eastern Partnership and the Visegrad Group – as well as Slovakia’s relations with the new Eastern European partners, such as Belarus, Moldova and Georgia, as target countries of Slovakia’s “soft power.”

The German automotive sector’s strong global position is one of the country’s greatest economic success stories. In 2018, two out of the three top global automakers achieving the highest sales volumes originated from Germany, and 80% of all premium class cars produced were German brands. Therefore, it is not surprising that the automotive sector was the key driving force of the economy that helped the country recover so quickly from the global financial crisis and achieve the position of the EU’s unquestioned leader.

However, dark clouds are gathering over the automotive sector today. The new era in international relations, where politics and trade are filled with tension, is having an especially strongly impact on the system based on global supply chains built by the German automotive industry. German carmakers’ managers are also concerned about the vision of autonomous electric cars that may lead to the ruin of the traditional model of automobile industry based on the combustion engine.

This paper analyses the causes of the crisis in the German automotive industry and lists its potential consequences for Central Europe.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

The Hungarian Historical Review invites submissions for its third issue in 2022, the theme of which will be Economy, the Connecting Force in Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages The deadline for the submission of abstracts: January 31, 2022.

Una versión reducida del texto “An Unexpected Twist of Ideology. Neoliberalism and the Collapse
of the Soviet Bloc publicado en "Praktyka Teoretyczna", núm. 5, 2012. Traducción de Luis Martínez
Andrade. Metapolítica: marzo 2013.
The full English version also at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/11798198/An_Unexpected_Twist_of_Ideology._Neoliberalism_and_the_Collapse_of_the_Soviet_Bloc

This study analyzes controversies and public attitudes concerning the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
and Stepan Bandera in Ukraine. The research question is: Which factors affect attitudes toward the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera in contemporary Ukraine? This article employs comparative and regression analyses of surveys commissioned by the author and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in 2009 and 2013 to determine the effects of regional and other factors on attitudes toward these organizations and the OUN-B leader. The study shows that regional factors and perceptions of these organizations' involvement in mass murder were the strongest predictors of the views concerning the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera. Their public support is strongest in Galicia and weakest in the East and the South, in particular, in Donbas and Crimea, two major conflict areas since the “Euromaidan.”

In the Balkan borderlands, a region characterized by hybridity and religious ambiguity, the Muslim allocation of an equivalent saint in the “pantheon” of Christianity was facilitated by a certain “rapprochement” between the two religions through what Mikhail Bakhtin calls an “organic” hybridization: an ongoing fusion of disparate elements into a new language which had culturally productive effects. The polymorphic figures of two “saints”, Sarı Saltuk and St. George, are emblematic of this process of cultural translation. Their joint hagiolatry is a refraction of conquest and appropriation, tempered by pilgrimage and cross-cultural accommodation. Their joint hagiolatry will be examined from the perspective of shared cultural spaces and the entanglements taking place within these spaces.

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

Hall's insistence on 'authoritarian populism' as a vehicle for generating electoral support for right-wing political projects is particularly important for understanding the consolidation of neo-liberal hegemony in Eastern Europe where politicians have idealized the principle of 'work' as the cornerstone of the new moral economy. In this paper I draw on Hall's conceptualization and my previous research on the rise of political anti-Gypsyism in Hungary to reflect on the ascendance of a new brand of politics to positions of governmental power. I begin by elucidating the political and economic underpinnings of the electorate's radicalization in a rightist direction and then show how the main right-wing party modified its ideological platform and political strategy to harness this energy and take the wind out of the sails of the extremist-racist Jobbik party, which by espousing anti-Gypsyism had successfully established itself as the voice of the abandoned countryside. While Hall interpreted the success of the conservative party in terms of hegemonic ideas of freedom from the state, I show that the electoral success of conservatives turned national-populists in Hungary partially hinged on their offer to transform the neo-liberal state in an anti-egalitarian direction with a view to rewarding 'worthy' citizens. Once in government, national-populists centralized state power to reinforce the positions of the bourgeoisie whose representative felt squeezed 'from above' by cosmopolitan elites and 'from below' by the dangerous classes. I show that contrary to expectations, 'authoritarian statist' politics is difficult to consolidate and begins to threaten liberal rule within the core of 'homogeneous society'. I nevertheless argue that this re-emergent 'extremism of the center' should not (yet) be seen as leading to Fascism, mainly because it does not seek to transcend the class conflict but to reinforce class privileges and safeguard bourgeois class rule. I close my analysis by suggesting that authoritarian statism appear to offer a workable model for advancing rightist hegemony on the EU's semi-periphery.

The period between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century is one that witnessed the rise and spread of anti-Semitism throughout Europe. This paper attempts a historical analysis of the development of anti-Semitism in Romania and a comparison with the case of Hungary in the period between 1866 and 1913. Such a comparison is interesting as the process of Jewish emancipation in the two countries could not have been more different: while in the Romanian principalities Jews were almost completely excluded from political life, and faced important restrictions in all areas of activity, in Hungary they enjoyed full civil and political rights. As a result, anti-Semitism in these countries took different forms as well. In Hungary, anti-Semitism is usually viewed as a reaction to emancipation, while in Romania it accompanies the offi cial policy of discrimination and exclusion. As a result, this paper follows the development of legislation dealing with the
Jewish populations in the two countries, and tries to challenge the common perception of anti-Semitism as a phenomenon appearing as a reaction of the majority population to Jewish emancipation. This comparative discussion is carried out taking into account the different historical contexts of the two neighbouring lands and their impact on the situation of the Jews.

This study briefly presents the history of the radical form of Ukrainian nationalism, paying special attention to the geopolitical circumstances which formed this movement. Then, it analyzes some aspects of this phenomenon, such as its main ideologists, racism, antisemitism, religion, rituals, leaders, concepts of revolution, and the ethnic, political and mass violence conducted before, during, and after the Second World War. This short monograph argues that the extreme and genocidal form of Ukrainian nationalism did have a fascist kernel and should be considered a form of European or East-Central European fascism. Nevertheless, because of the specific cultural, social, and political Ukrainian circumstances the radical form of Ukrainian nationalism differed from better-known fascist movements such as German National Socialism or Italian Fascism, and thus it requires a careful and nuanced investigation.

This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In conclusion, the paper argues that neoliberalism confronts the disabled people’s movement with two difficult tasks: to defend self-determination while criticising market-based individualism, and to defend the welfare state while criticising expert-based paternalism.

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

ABSTRACT. In the years following the end of the cold
war in 1989, Western feminist scholars and activists
expressed disappointment in the failure of the newly
democratic Eastern and Central European countries to
sustain mainstream women’s rights movements and
achieve a marked increase in women’s participation
within the new political parties and political life in
general. The authors, historians of Hungarian women’s
movements with a broad East-West perspective, offer a
novel explanation for this phenomenon. Following an
outline of the main stages of Hungarian women’s
movements and women’s political participation, they
focus on two instances in twentieth-century Hungarian
history that resulted in a rapid transition from antidemocratic regimes to liberal, parliamentary systems:
the 1918 bourgeois democratic revolution and the
1990 re-introduction of free parliamentary elections.

DOI 10.1080/08038740410004623

The crisis in Ukraine, which began in 2013, has had significant implications for European security. Cristian Nitoiu identifies three perceived security threats implied by developments in Ukraine and how these threats may develop in future years: the threat of so called 'hybrid warfare' spilling over from the standoff between Ukraine and Russia; the threat posed by nuclear weapons; and the threat posed by more conventional forms of warfare. Perceptions of security threats are arguably more salient than actual threats, most times having a deep influence on the actions of states and other international actors. Hence, they play a key role in the way the EU, Kyiv and Moscow will shape their policies towards each other in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. While Russia can employ a wide range of capabilities, the EU and Ukraine have very few instruments to tackle security threats, be they traditional or non­traditional. In the case of Ukraine, but also more broadly the post­Soviet space, EU­Russia/Ukraine relations are affected by the perception of three types of security threats: so called 'hybrid warfare', nuclear threats and traditional military threats (i.e. territorial invasion). Hybrid warfare In the West and Ukraine the perception of the threat posed by hybrid war has recently increased sharply. The annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have put the spotlight on the way states engage in conflict by using a series of (sometimes innovative) tools and strategies. Hybrid war combines the use of conventional and non­conventional capabilities, the use of irregular troops, cyber­attacks, support for terrorist, rebel and criminal groups, or the use of the media and civil society for propaganda purposes. In eastern Ukraine in particular we have witnessed a combination of the use of both state and non­state actors by all the sides involved. States tend to use parts of this toolkit even in times of peace, however in such situations these instruments are not combined in order to pursue certain assertive foreign policy goals.

This article is to analyze the processes of the revolutionary disintegration of the Empires and the emergence of Bolshevism and the monarchist counter-revolution in the former Russian Empire and Austro-Hungary, as the historical phenomena.
The monarchist counter- revolution in Central and Eastern Europe emerged in Russia, Finland, and Hungary as a response to Bolshevism. The factors of the emergence of the monarchist counter-revolution were the following: the existence of strong monarchist traditions in the societies, the presence of the charismatic political and military leaders with monarchist views, and international military support (intervention) from the neighboring monarchies (the German Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Romania).
The peak of the monarchist counter-revolution in the former Russian Empire took place during the Brest- Litovsk system of international relations, where Germany played the dominant role. Consequently, the defeat of Germany in the First World War automatically led to the collapse of the Brest-Litovsk system and the monarchist counter-revolution in Russia. Although, the monarchist counter-revolution won in Hungary due to the Romanian intervention but the Kingdom of Hungary remained without a king because of the Allies’ pressure. Thus, the monarchist Brest-Litovsk system was replaced by the republican Versailles system (in Eastern European case – Tartu-Riga system).

В статье рассматривается среднеазиатская политика хана Младшего казахского жуза Абулхаира в 1730 - 1740-х гг., стремившегося утвердиться в Хивинском ханстве лично либо посредством своего сына на ханском престоле. Осуществлению этих планов помешала завоевательная политика персидского шаха Надира Афшара, захватившего в начале 1740-х гг. Хивинское ханство. Российские власти, не имея возможности действенно влиять на хана Абулхаира, вступившего в российское подданство, сдержанно реагировали на его внешнеполитические шаги, по возможности стараясь не обострять с ним отношения.
In article the Central Asian policy of the khan Mladshego Kazakh жуза Abulkhaira in 1730 - the 1740th, seeking to be approved in the Khivan khanate personally or by means of the son on a hansky throne is considered. Implementation of these plans was prevented by aggressive policy of the Persian shah Nadira Afshara which has taken at the beginning of the 1740th. Khivan khanate. The Russian authorities, without having opportunity is effective to influence the khan Abulkhair who has entered the Russian citizenship, frostily reacted to its foreign policy steps, whenever possible trying not to fuel with it tension

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) capital markets (of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and, to a limited extent, Belarus) are gradually evolving towards increased breadth (diversity) and depth (liquidity), however, they are still exposed to considerable cross-country volatility and interdependence spill-overs - especially in times of capital flight to more established asset classes (“safe havens”). Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have widely been censured for their undesirable political interference and chronic operational opacity. This paper demonstrates that in CEE, contrary to widespread perceptions attributable to developed markets, SWFs can act as natural and powerful risk mitigators (contributing to a more stable capital base and reduced systemic volatility). Such a proposition is premised on several factors specific to SWFs oriented to CEE. They comprise: strategic long-termism and patience in overcoming interim pricing def...

In his most recent book, Przemysław Czapliński offers the following definition of "the East", which he uses to describe Poland's "post-Soviet" and "post-communist" neighbor: "The word 'East' appears in the table of contents, although this descriptor will apply only to Russia-not Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, or Moldova, for Russia epitomizes and most violently redefines the meaning assigned to the East. Moreover, on literary maps devoted to Poland and Russia, Ukraine and Belarus tend to appear as mere transit zones." 1 1 P. Czapliński, Poruszona mapa: wyobraźnia geograficzno-kulturowa polskiej literatury przełomu XX i XXI wieku, Kraków 2016, p. 11.

Timothy’s Frye’s Building States and Markets after Communism. The Perils of Polarized Democracy is one of the most valuable contributions on post-communist transformation(s) appeared in the last decades. The book examines the relationship between state building and market creation in twenty-five post-communist countries since the end of communism.

It combines statistical quantitative analysis on a variety of data (including a survey of business elites) with more in-depth country studies on Bulgaria, Poland, Russia and Uzbekistan. Frye’s main focus is on political polarization – the policy distance between different political factions present in the political arena – and its effects on democracy and market reforms. The main questions that the author addresses are: 1. ‘Does democracy promote the creation of market economies and robust state institutions? 2. If so, why? 3. Under what conditions do state building and market building work at cross-purposes and when are they mutually reinforcing?’ (p.2). Access the full review

This paper investigates three case studies: the ideas and fates of three Central European philosophers - those of Wojtyla from Poland, Patocka, from Chechoslovakie and Bibó, from Hungary. It is interested in the idea of embodied thought: how political actions could elabora a philosophical problem, or the other way round.