Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Airplane Hangars And Triple Hills: Renovation, Demolition, And The Architectural Politics Of Local Belonging At The Our Lady Of Csíksomlyó Hungarian National Shrine, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

In 2019, Pope Francis, leader of the global Catholic Church, celebrated an outdoor Mass at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó Hungarian national shrine in Romania. When the Franciscan Order that runs the shrine published renovation plans for the altar where the pope would appear, the Facebook post received over 800 outraged comments, including one man who asked, “How can such a beautiful Hungarian symbol, so perfectly integrated into the landscape, be humiliated like this?” By situating these expressions of outrage in the history of Eastern European material politics, I argue that the aesthetic value the commentators were defending – a …

The Parish Choir Movement And Generational Festivals In Romania’S Socialist Period: New Community Festivities In Transylvania’S Gheorgheni (Gyergyó) Region, Eszter Kovács

Journal of Global Catholicism

Among the post-1945 East European socialist regimes, Romania and Poland were the only countries where the Catholic Church—despite government interventions, controls, and bans—managed to play a significant social and political role in community life. This case study provides an ethnographic description of the parish choir movement and graduating class reunions, called “generational festivals” in Hungarian, in the Gheorgheni (Hu: Gyergyó) region in the 1970s and 1980s. The gatherings will be analyzed in the context of everyday life, the socialist system’s distinctive shortage economy, and official limits on religious activity that characterized the era. I will first describe the world of …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Hardships, Motivations, And Resiliency: Case Study Of Health Implications Of 2022 Russian Invasion On Ukrainian Resistance Members, Jessi Hanson-Defusco

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused millions of Ukrainians to flee. Yet most citizens continue to reside in the country, playing critical roles in the Ukrainian resistance. Today the Ukrainian fighting force includes trained military and police as well as citizens who either were conscripted or volunteered to take part in national war efforts. This mixed-method study conducted in Spring 2022 presents data collected from 79 respondents in a semistructured survey, using snowball sampling. Data analysis examined individual self-reported motivations, attitudes toward the conflict, resilience, quality-of-life hardships, and scaled perceived stress. Results indicated that Ukrainian resistance members face …

How A Book Changed A Nation [2022], Teodora Buzea

Master's Theses

“We don’t believe in vampires.”

I didn’t bother to turn away from the TV to look at my parents. On screen, a crew of young men were interviewing an old woman. She spoke only Romanian, and a too-perfect female voice spoke for her in English. I could see the confident fear in her expression as she exclaimed that vampires were indeed real and that she was always scared of them. She wasn’t alone. All of Transylvania were aware of the existence of vampires. Truly, these young men— ghost hunters and cryptologists—were right to come here to this haunted nation. The …

Two Protestants, Three Churches: Croatian Protestantism: Churches, Denominations, And Theological Institutions, Lidija Matošević, Enoh Šeba, Ruben Knežević

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Using the existing data from the national census (2011 and 2021) and other available data sources, the authors present Croatian Protestantism on the national level as a fragmented minority. In search for possible historic reasons for this fragmentized mode of existence, they proceed with an overview of Protestant presence in the Croatian lands, starting from the early adoption of Protestant ideas, eradicated by the Catholic Counter-Reformation up to the ghettoization of the Protestant congregations during the Communist era (late 20th century). The establishment of an independent Croatian state and the subsequent war proved to be a significant turning point for …

Church And State In Montenegro: From The Serbian Orthodox Church To The Church Of Serbia, Vladimir Bakrač

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper deals with the role of religion and the church in the post-socialist transformations of society in Montenegro, focusing on the period from the 1990s to 2022. The goal of the paper is to present the historical and sociological (non-)cooperation between the church and the state in Montenegro and their reflection on social circumstances. According to sociological expertise, secularization and atheization of the society carried out by the then political regime and aligned with Marxist reflections on religion were in force until the 1990s. Subsequently, a period of desecularization of society and revitalization of religion and religiosity followed. Accordingly, …

The Role Of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi In The Formation Of Ukrainian National Identity, Iryna Krasnodemska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the main statehood ideas and views of the socio-political and Church figure, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi’s contribution to the struggle for the establishment of an independent, united Ukrainian state. The impact of the Metropolitan’s activity as the hierarch of the Greek Catholic Church on the Ukrainian national spiritual revival in Ukraine (at the end of the 19th to middle 20th century) is clarified as the solid foundation which was laid by his ecumenical ideas. The judgment of A. Sheptytskyi regarding the necessary prerequisites for building a strong, independent Ukraine, and his ideas about reforming state authorities, the Church, …

Book Review: The Unknown Europe: How Eastern Europe Got That Way, By James R. Payton Jr., Beth Admiraal

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of James R. Payton, Jr., The Unknown Europe: How Eastern Europe Got That Way, Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021, 297 pp, paperback. ISBN: 979-1-6667-0475-4

Modern Accents Of Theological Reflection Of Representatives Of The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Regarding The War And Its Challenges, Olga Nedavnya

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the relevant thematic documents and materials with the purpose of determining the ways, means and features of the theological search of the representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (hereafter UGCC) in relation to the challenges of Russia's war against Ukraine. The principles of objectivity and confessional non-commitment became the methodological basis of the research. The hermeneutic method, system and content analysis, and the method of doctrinal verification were used. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the appeal to a socially important hot topic, which is just beginning to be studied by scientists based …

What Ukraine Taught Nato About Hybrid Warfare, Sarah J. Lohmann, Chuck Benson, Vytautas Butrimas, Georgios Giannoulis, Gabriel Raicu, Michael Bervell, Milagro Castilleja, Chris Clyde, Christopher J. Eaton, Alex Elmore, Ryan Fisk, Erin Hodges, Frank J. Kuzminski, Vishwa Padigepati, Caitlin Quirk, Brenton M. Riddle, Shuo Zhang, Lucas Cox, Samira Oakes

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced the United States and its NATO partners to be confronted with the impact of hybrid warfare far beyond the battlefield. Targeting Europe’s energy security, Russia’s malign influence campaigns and malicious cyber intrusions are affecting global gas prices, driving up food costs, disrupting supply chains and grids, and testing US and Allied military mobility. This study examines how hybrid warfare is being used by NATO’s adversaries, what vulnerabilities in energy security exist across the Alliance, and what mitigation strategies are available to the member states.

Cyberattacks targeting the renewable energy landscape during Europe’s green …

The War In Ukraine And Food Security In Eastern Europe, Eszter Krasznai Kovács, Agata Bachórz, Natasha Bernstein Bunzl, Diana Mincyte, Fabio Parasecoli, Simone Piras, Mihai Varga

Publications and Research

This dispatch outlines some of the immediate consequences and long-term challenges posed by the Ukraine war on food security and production systems in Eastern Europe. We draw particular attention to the food aid and provisioning realities around many million (and increasing) numbers of Ukrainian refugees, and the current lack of systemic, government-coordinated responses to the humanitarian crisis. Further, we outline the distinct forms of agriculture characterising Eastern Europe, notably, the short supply chains and farming networks that are socially and environmentally unique and valuable, and are a result of the persistence of smaller, family-led farms. However, these farms and farmers …

Full Volume 13, Issue 1, Seyma Tufan

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Czech Republic As A Deferring Factor For European Union To Achieve Climate Change Measures, Kris Razianto Mada, Henny Saptatia Drajati Nugrahani

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

This study aims to finds out causal factors for Czech Republic yet to decide on phasing out coal-fired power plant and the impact of delaying the preparation of the coal-fired power plant phase-out plan by Czech on the EU's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The researcher conducts an analysis based on two research questions: what are causal factors for Czech Republic yet to decide on phasing out coal-fired power plant and what impact will it have on the EU's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and become fully carbon neutral by 2050. The method used in this …

Macedonian Orthodox Church-Archbishopric Of Ohrid And Its Arduous Road To Autocephaly, Gjoko Gjorgjevski, Ruzhica Cacanoska, Ivan Blazhevski, Aneta Jovkovska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to examine the recent developments related to the Macedonian Orthodox Church–Archbishopric of Ohrid, the acceptance of the canonical status by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the conferring of status to autocephaly by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2022. From the ecclesiological and the liturgical aspect, the MOC-OA is no longer in isolation and is part of the family of Orthodox churches through the restoration of Eucharistic communion. The final step, the granting of a Tomos by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is expected, which would make the MOC-OA the first by all recognized and accepted autocephalous church …

Repressive Policy Of The Occupiers During Hybrid War Against Religious Communities Of Ukraine, 2014-2022, Oksana Vysoven, Yuriy Figurnyi, Valentyna Molotkina, Nina Brehunets

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the repressive policy of the occupiers during the undeclared Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war against the religious communities of Ukraine in 2014–2022. It has been established that the “russian world'' is a neo-imperial, geopolitical, ideological doctrine aimed at the theoretical substantiation and practical restoration of the "great historical Russia" within the borders of the Russian Empire at the peak of its power in 1914. By way of the "russian world," an important "soft power" of the Kremlin, Russia first planned to capture the mental space of Ukraine and the brains of its citizens; then, if necessary, they would deploy …

A Situation Of The Crimeans Diocese Of The Orthodox Church Of Ukraine In Russian Occupied Crimea (2014-2022), Andrii Ivanets, Iryna Krasnodemska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the situation regarding the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. It should be noted that Orthodoxy and Islam are the most common religions on the peninsula. The Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the largest and most prominent among the Crimean religious organizations. The authors highlight Russia's consistent discriminatory policy toward the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate/the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the temporarily occupied peninsula, which is aimed at their gradual but rigorous expulsion from Crimea. The methods of its implementation …

Between Oriental Orthodoxy And European Modernity: Georgian Orthodox Church, Market Economy, And Social Message, Leons Gabriels Taivans

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "This article aims to ask what the history of the Protestant ethic might contribute to our understanding of the contemporary relationship between Georgian Orthodoxy, economics, and capitalism. In doing so, we engage with a handful of retrospections that offer engagements with Weber regarding this interface. We begin with the key arguments advanced in The Protestant Ethic. Then we incorporate contemporary Pentecostalism into Weber's genealogical account of the rise of capitalist modernity. Thus, we hope to find parallels between twenty-first-century Pentecostalism and the seventeenth-century ascetic Protestantism as a sort of modernization paradigm.

The second part of the article is an …

Focusing On Wounded Collective Identity: Toward A Regional Interpretation Of Religious Processes In Central And Eastern Europe, András Máté-Tóth

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Defending the value system of Christian Europe, defending the nation with the help of God, and defending the nation against nationalism. Three recent statements from three different countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Such ideas and avowals lay the provocative groundwork to take a closer look to the points of connection between religion and security.

I have two theses to put forward, aiming to make them understandable and discussable. The first is that the region Central and Eastern Europe (hereafter CEE) can be appropriately interpreted in the theoretical framework of wounded collective identity. The primary marker of the region …

Attitudes Of Major Religious Organizations In Ukraine To Abortion And Reproductive Medicine, Kateryna Karpenko, Alla Guzhva

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The attitude of the largest religions of Ukraine to reproductive medicine is determined by a variety of practical approaches, which are still in process of change between the rather strict negative official position of major religious organizations of Ukraine, on the one hand, and a rather liberal approach to reproductive medicine in secular legislation of Ukraine. The harsh negative official position of the main religious organizations of Ukraine to surrogacy and abortions is presented in a joint document adopted by the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. While the diversity of practical approaches of these organizations is represented by …