Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Appeal Of The Representatives Of Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Educational Institutions Regarding The War Of The Russian Federation Against Ukraine, Oleksandr Geychenko, Roman Soloviy, Taras Dyatlik, Olga Dyatlik, Ivan Rusyn, Valentyn Siniy, Kseniia Trofymchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Statement of the “Evangelische Bildungseinrichtungen der Ukraine“ 20 April 2022.

"As the next phase of Russia-Ukraine war began with the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, we, the representatives of Ukrainian evangelical theological educational institutions, have witnessed massive war crimes, including numerous acts of violence, irrational cruelty, and inhuman treatment of civilians, destruction of cities, executions of peaceful civilians, rapes, pillaging, and plundering."

Frontmatter (Volume 42, Issue 6), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Letter To An Unknown Hero Of Kiev, Mustafa Ceric

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A letter of solidarity to the besieged in Kiev, from Mustafa Ceric, Ph.D. Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia.

An Appeal Of Covenant, Mustafa Ceric

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, calls on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Russia to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Clergy From The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Uoc) Want Patriarch Kirill To Appear Before An Ecclesiastical Court

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"More than 400 clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), who belong to the Moscow Patriarchate, have signed a call, to put Patriarch Kirill before an Ecclesiastical Court. What they have in mind is a gathering of the leaders of the ancient eastern churches, also the heads of the Orthodox churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The heads of the ancient Patriarchates, during church history had exercised numerous times the function of a supreme ecclesiastical court for Orthodoxy."

Translated by Walter Sawatsky

Reconciliation Attempts And The Return To Conflict In The Balkans, 2010-2022 (And Parallels To The Russian War On Ukraine), Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Hopefully there will be soon peace in Ukraine, and another attempt at reconciliation in Western Balkans. Even as mostly symbolic and commemorative practices, these endeavors proved that they improve social trust and reduce interethnic tensions. There still remains the question about the purpose and long-term goals of such reconciliation efforts. In my 2021 book, Reconciliation and Last Days, published in Belgrade, Serbia, I argue that postwar reconciliation projects make sense, provided there is a new beginning for wartime enemies, that is, the peoples, faiths, and states in the region. In other words, the purpose of a longer period of peace …

U.S.-Ukraine Relations And The Concept Of Strategic Partnership, Khrystyna Pelchar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A strategic partnership has become particularly relevant in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine. Most studies focus on the historical perspective of particular special relations leaning toward the long-standing nature and stability of those relations. Others describe interstate partnerships as dynamic developments rather than static phenomena. Conventionally, strategic partnerships are multifaceted, including the spheres of economic cooperation, military assistance and partnership, and democracy promotion. Scholars also single out cultural proximity as an important factor facilitating mutual trust and feasibility of strategic partnership.

This thesis will discuss the historical background of the U.S.-Ukraine economic, socio-political, and military cooperation and …

Ukrainian Interfaith Families In The Context Of Church, Marriage, And Social Relations Of The 19th Century, Olena Borodenko, Roman Sitarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim. In the article (based on the materials of church statistical books of Orthodox parishes in the Right and Left Bank of Ukraine, ego-documents, documentation of the directive and administrative direction, canonical and fiction), an imaginary collective portrait of interfaith families is created in the representation of marriage partners of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic faiths—in the context of marriage-social policy of the Russian Empire in the 19th century.

Research methods. The interdisciplinary direction of intelligence led to the use, in addition to general scientific methods, of special historical methods: quantitative, comparative, prosopographic and critical analysis.

Main results. Based …

Frontmatter (Volume 42, Issue 3), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Clergy Social Activity During War Conditions: The Case Of Western Regions Of Ukraine, Ihor Lutsan, Iryna Horokholinska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this article, the authors analyze the impact of Russia-Ukraine war on church-religious life and the state of public consciousness in Ukraine and identify the main trends and contradictions in public reactions to threats to their lives and spirituality. The research focuses on religious communities of the western regions of Ukraine and their socially significant activities. The primary empirical source of the article was the study (by questionnaire survey) of the opinions of the clergy of this religious organization on the characteristics of parish life and the role of the pastor in the conditions of war. Three defining vectors that …

Book Review: Die Mehrdeutigkeit Geteilter Religiöse Orte: Eine Ethnografische Fallstudie Zum Kloster Sveti Naum In Ohrid (Mazedonien), Dejan Aždajić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Evelyn Reuter, DieMehrdeutigkeit Geteilter Religiöse Orte: Eine Ethnografische Fallstudie zum Kloster Sveti Naum in Ohrid (Mazedonien). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2021, 410 pp. €45,00, ISBN 978-3-8376-5519-3.

The Work Of The Nazi Special Services Among The Protestants Of The Reichkomissariat Ukraine (According To The Top-Secret Materials Of The Nkvd-Nkgb), Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Studying the work of Nazi special services among the Protestant denominations of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine during World War II is an under-explored aspect of modern historical science. The article attempts to fill this gap by covering the work of the Nazi secret services, Gestapo1 and Sicherheitsdienst (SD),2 among Evangelical Christians (EC), Baptists (B), and Christians of the Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals, CEF) of the RKU. The basis of this study is the recently declassified documents and archival materials of the KGB of the USSR. The article first provides a brief analysis of the activities of the Soviet intelligence services (NKVD3) …

Book Review: Looking East In Winter: Contemporary Thought And The Eastern Christian Tradition, James R. Payton

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Rowan Williams, Looking East in Winter: Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition. London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2021. $30.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-1-4729- 8924-6.

Adaptation Practices And Forms Of Struggle In Jewish Communities For The Preservation Of Religious Worldview In Soviet Ukraine (1920s-1930s), Tetiana Savchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the ways of adaptation of the Jews to the Soviet anti-religious experiments and the definition of forms of counteraction to these attacks during the 1920s and 1930s. There is insufficient research in the historiography of the struggle of Jews for the preservation of their religious worldview. The development of historiography shows a certain imbalance in the studies of the methods and extent of anti- church policy while ignoring the reaction of believers to the Bolshevik experiments. Based on archival documents of the Soviet secret services (not previously introduced into scientific circulation) and …

Neither Buddhist Nor Taoist, But Both (And Even More): Exploring The ‘Hall Of Infinite Principle’ (Guangli Fotang): A Chinese Temple In The Romanian Capital, Serban Toader

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This ethnography regards the sole Chinese temple in the Romanian capital Bucharest, its people and activity, as well as the thinking that supports this new religious movement (Maitreya Great Tao,Mile Dadao 彌勒大道). It is common knowledge that Taoism, Budhism, and Confucianism appear, at least in the official discourse, as a braided rope of unified Chinese tradition, each of the three at the same time preserving their particular features. Nevertheless, Mile Dadao not only seems to implicitly unite the three traditions in one (to which other foreign or popular traditions may be added as well), but also aims to act as …

The Model Of Development Of Precarious Practices During Covid-19 Pandemic: Society, Religion, And Individual, Оlena Honcharova, Valentyna Kuryliak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the phenomenon of precariousness and its development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is postulated that precariousness is a process of instability, which primarily affects the working class and destabilizes social relations at all levels, including the level of personal relationships. The human way of life has been shifted as a result of the epidemiological situation in the world caused by the COVID-19 infection. This process can be observed in the spheres of employment, medicine, religion, family, leisure activities, etc. Against the background of social turbulence, the processes of precariousness began to develop, which worsen …

Pinpointing Patterns Of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach To Violence Escalation In The Ukrainian Holodomor, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time …

Chaplaincy For The Prisoners And The Penitentiary System In Ukraine (1991-2021), Valentyna Kuryliak, Ivan Ostashchuk, Mariia Ovchar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the quality of work of religious organizations in places of deprivation of liberty, as well as their interaction with the penitentiary service of Ukraine. It was revealed that the chaplaincy ministry occupies an important place in the Christian churches of Ukraine. In the early 1990s, ministry in Ukrainian prisons was allowed, but most of the churches were at the stage of survival, so they were not able to carry out active work in prisons. At the legislative level, prisoners have ensured freedom of religion, and the penitentiary service was obliged to provide access to representatives of each …

Sacrality In Modern Ukrainian Poetics: Metamorphoses Of Values, Iryna Lazorevych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This is a study of the influence of religious sacrality on modern Ukrainian literature, particularly poetry, analyzing those sacred meanings that the current Ukrainian mentality actively uses. So far, it eclectically synthesizes the ideological impulses of traditional Christian religiosity (which even in the times of Communism retained its natural strength, especially in the Western regions of Ukraine), and elements of Soviet ideologemes and pragmatism of the modern transitional period. At the same time, it uses certain inclinations to new communication with sacred, which is felt by some of the important creators of modern Ukrainian culture. In this article, the author …

Book Review: Orthodox Revivalism In Russia: Driving Forces And Moral Quests, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Milana Benovska, Orthodox Revivalism in Russia: Driving Forces and Moral Quests, Routledge, 2021. 240pp. ISBN 9780367474201. Ebook $128.00

At God’S Service: Anatoly Dublyanski—A Metropolitan Of Western Europe And Paris Of The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church In The Diaspora (1912–1997), Vladyslav Fulmes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A metropolitan of Western Europe and Paris, Anatoly Dublyansky, who was born in Volyn (Ukraine), was a prominent hierarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). Due to his intense activity, he considerably influenced the development of the culture of his native Volyn region, as well as the UAOC in Germany. After his emigration to Western Europe in 1944, he took an active role in the formation of church and religious life in Germany, and later devoted his life to the UAOC in the diaspora, having first become ordained to the priesthood, and, after the death of his wife, to …

Frontmatter Volume 41, No. 7, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

COMMUNIST ATHEIST PROPAGANDA IN UKRAINE (1946-1991)

SLOVAKIA’S SENIOR CITIZEN HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

PRISON CHAPLAINCY IN UKRAINE (1991-2021)

SACRALITY IN MODERN UKRAINIAN POETICS

AT GOD’S SERVICE: METROPOLITAN ANATOLY DUBLYANSKY BOOK REVIEWS

The Influence Of Atheist Propaganda Of The Communist Regime On The Lives Of Believers And Their Children (1946-1991), Oksana Vysoven, Nina Brehunets, Yuriy Figurnyi, Elena Zham

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the antireligious policy of the Soviet government, which was carried out by the communist regime in Ukraine in the cultural and educational spheres to completely eradicate religion from the lives of the Soviet people. The main purpose of atheistic propaganda was to convince ordinary people that religion and its bearers were enemies of the communist state. Atheistic propaganda was carried out in the form of lectures on natural science and atheistic topics, atheistic evenings of questions and answers, and demonstrations of scientific and feature films. Punitive and repressive methods of atheistic propaganda …

The Club Of Senior Citizens Who Survived The Holocaust: A Case Study From Slovakia, Monika Vrzgulová

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper chronicles the process of how an informal group of Holocaust survivors in Bratislava organized into a senior citizens club that gradually evolved into a source of civic activism directed at the majority of society. Based on qualitative research: repeated interviews with survivors in Bratislava about their experiences of the Holocaust and the Communist era, which the author has carried out from 1995 to the present. It also draws on other data acquired during discussions at the Senior Citizens Club (2005–2017) and active observations of the survivors as civic activists engaged in public discourse and educational events for the …

Book Review: Orthodox Christianity And The Politics Of Transition: Ukraine, Serbia And Georgia, Paul Crego

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Tornike Metreveli, Orthodox Christianity and the Politics of Transition: Ukraine, Serbia and Georgia. London and New York: Routledge. xii, 181 pages. ISBN: 978-0-367-42007-9 (hbk.)

Instrumentalizing The Past: The Politics Of Holocaust Memory In Contemporary Poland, Jonathan Zisook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates Poland’s politics of Holocaust memory from the contentious Jedwabne debate in the early 2000s through the present and shows how the history of the Holocaust has been both distorted and exploited in contemporary Polish politics and culture. It pays special attention to the most recent period of Law and Justice Party rule (2015-2020) and considers the varying ways that the government has constructed its approach to the past by asserting a “policy on history” (polityka historyczna) in state-sponsored research, the educational system, legislation, museum narratives, and more. In so doing, this work argues that the …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 6), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Book Review: Democratization In Christian Orthodox Europe: Comparing Greece, Serbia And Russia, Regina Elsner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Marko Veković, Democratization in Christian Orthodox Europe: Comparing Greece, Serbia and Russia (New York & London, Routledge, 2020) 176 p. ISBN 9780367420833.

Dynamics Of The Religious Situation Changes And Attitudes Towards Religion In Ukraine, Igor Bogdanovskiy, Kateryna Nastoyashcha

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the results of several sociological studies on the level and nature of religiosity in Ukraine. In particular, the paper deals with the study “State and Church in Ukraine 2019: the Results of the Year and Prospects for the Development of Relations,” conducted by the Razumkov Center with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Representation in Ukraine; the latest wave of the World Values Survey, conducted by the Info Sapiens company (in Ukraine it was conducted by the Center for Social Monitoring), etc. The statistical data were analyzed, particularly official reports on the network of churches and …