Eastern European Studies Commons^™

Stasi Brainwashing In The Gdr 1957 - 1990, Jacob H. Solbrig, Jacob Hagen Solbrig

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear …

How Patriotic Are Albanians? The Comparative Study Of Patriotic Attitudes In Albania And The Albanian Diaspora, Anxhela Spahiu

Master's Theses

In today’s post-modern digital world, patriotism may not be as prevalent as in the past. In this thesis, my principal aim is to investigate to what extent Albanians, a nationality to which I belong, identify with a patriotic attitude toward Albania. I chose to focus not only on Albanians who live in the diaspora, like myself, but also on Albanians who live in Albania. I believe that to understand national pride to its fullest, you must study the attitudes of those who live in the country of origin as well as of those who live in the diaspora. Many people …

When Rules And Common Sense Collide: Expressions, Roots, And Impact Of Informal Civil Society In Ukraine, Svitlana Krasynska

Dissertations

Western donors have dominated third sector developments in contemporary Eastern Europe in efforts to replicate their own institutional models as a way of reconstructing the region’s post-totalitarian civil society. These efforts resulted in limited success, frustrating the donor community and puzzling scholars. Civil society in the region has long been labeled as weak based on a general lack of citizen participation in formal organizations. This dissertation argues that such assessment of civil society fails to recognize the role of below-the-radar civic engagement in contexts where informal practices permeate economic, political and social spheres.

Based on 70 in-depth interviews with civil …

There And Almost Back Again, Holley Adcock

Occasional Paper Series

Adcock reflects on and asses her thirty years of experience living and teaching overseas in places all over the globe. This essay focuses on the changes to both individual and national identity that take place when immersing oneself in other cultures.

Integration Policy And Outcomes For The Russian-Speaking Minority In Estonia, Silviu Kondan, Mridvika Sahajpal

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Estonia’s integration policy vis-à-vis its Russian-speaking residents was developed and reformed several times since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. While comparative data from the international community certainly indicates that Estonia has progressed in the realm of social, political and societal integration, the ‘success’ for each individual policy is now increasingly measured—and contested— within broader considerations of geopolitical security and minority rights. The authors converge interview-based data compiled from various representatives and scholars of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, and think tanks with secondary research on the topic of Russian minority integration in Estonia. The report will seek to …

Frontmatter, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Readers of OPREE are likely to consider different articles to be of importance to them and perhaps to the wider readership. Generally, I avoid trying to influence the readers as to the importance of the content of this publication as I rely on the intelligence and goodwill of the readers. In this issue, I am making an exception. Often I have heard friends in the USA and abroad complaining that so-called moderate Muslims do not publically condemn Islamist terrorism and do not provide alternative voices to the militants. From my extensive contacts with Muslims, I know this not to be …

Review Of Makrides, Wasmuth, And Kube's "Christentum Und Menschenrechte In Europa. Perspektiven Und Debatten In Ost Und West., Dr. Regina Elsner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Review Of Akšamija's "Letter Pismo, Brief, List, Risālah", Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Invitation: A Declaration Of European Muslims, Mustafa Cerić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The tragic events of September 11, 2001 in New York, March 11, 2004 in Madrid and July 7, 2005 in London leave no one indifferent. Of course, one should be aware of other attacks, such as in Riyadh in 1995, Dhahran in 1996, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, Yemen in 2000, Bali in 2002, and Istanbul in 2003. The attacks in New York, Madrid, and London are the most disturbing to Islam-West relations however. Muslims around the world, especially, have been shocked by the fact that the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks claimed to have acted in the …

A Time To Laugh: Religious Humor In Contemporary Russia, Mikhail Sergeev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Contemporary Russian religious humor continues the tradition of this spiritual and selfsacrificial laughter. The anecdotes that are gathered here make fun not only of religion and its characteristic attributes, but of human imperfections and shortcomings, which manifest themselves in relation to various aspects of worship. Everything is good in moderation, including religious zeal that is not the goal by itself, but the instrument of spiritual and moral development. There is a proverbial saying in Russia—force a fool to pray to God and he will beat his forehead. Many anecdotes portray in a comic light this certain pseudo-piety, the eternal human …

Lessons Learned In Eurasia Ministry: Mostly The Hard Way, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The present article is based on a speech delivered at a conference of the United Methodist Church: “Eurasia-Central Asia – In Mission Together,” Fulton, Maryland, May 5, 2017.

Spectacular Politics And Everyday Performance: Tracing Music From Ceauşescu’S Romania To Multicultural America, Benjamin Dumbauld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing from fieldwork conducted throughout the United States and Canada, this dissertation examines the continued performance of socialist-era music within the Romanian-American community. It addresses why a community largely made up of people who sought to leave the country during the authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu continue to perform music tied to that period by tracing the historical performance and reception of multiple genres, ranging from traditional peasant music to folk rock. The dissertation begins by examining the nationalization of Romania’s music industry under the early socialist regime (1944-1965), and locates the difficulties Communist Party members confronted in delineating a …

The Orthodox Church And Religious Minorities In Shida Kartli Region In Georgia In The First Quarter Of The Twentieth Century, Giorgi Sosiashvili, Phd

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"We think that it is of utmost importance to disclose the facts about the uncommon treatment that took place during Soviet rule in the 1920s towards the Georgian Orthodox Church and all the other religious confessions."

Review Of Kotiranta's "The Finnish And Estonian Churches During The Cold War", Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Final Report Ay 2017-2018: Initiative For The Development Of Global And International Studies In Social Science Courses At Parkland College, Isabel Scarborough Ph.D.

Global Studies Initiatives in Social Sciences 2017-2018

This project set out to provide social science faculty at Parkland College with instructional design training tools and aid them in infusing their courses with global studies materials. It also wished to promote the addition in these same courses of current case studies from underrepresented world areas such as the European Union, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, and Russia. Lastly, it hoped to add pedagogical sample assignments and class activities on global studies to Parkland College’s open access repository, as well as acquire scholarly works on globalization for the college’s library collection. This project was successfully completed during the Fall semester of …

Žumberak: A Sixteenth-Century Refugee Settlement Zone, Nicholas J. Miller

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the movement of Orthodox Christian refugees from Bosnia to the Habsburg Monarchy in the 1530s and their settlement in a district called Žumberak. The movement of these Uskoks has never been examined in the context of refugee studies. This study of a refugee movement and settlement over a five-century period offers the possibility of reaching a better understanding of the long-term outcome of refugee movements. Ultimately, this article suggests that the refugees affected the land they settled as much as the settlement zone affected them, and that, in this case, the refugees were able to define their …

Macedonian-Romanian Church Relations, Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The subject of this paper is a content analysis of the articles in the media about the Macedonian-Romanian Orthodox Church relations. According to the content analysis of the sample of articles in the media about the relations between the Macedonian Orthodox Church - the Ohrid Archbishopric (MOC-OA) and the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC), it can be concluded that the analyzed texts are mostly informative and transmit a positive attitude. The articles stress the extremely good, very close and friendly relations between MOC-OA and ROC. At the same time, the analysis shows that the Romanian Orthodox Church is considered one of …

Photo Edition Moc-Oa

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Photos of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, from 1967 to the present.

Frontmatter, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

IN THIS ISSUE

Most of the ordinary issues of OPREE contain articles dealing with diverse subject matters. This issue is different; it is special because it is devoted to the jubilee fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The initiative for it came from one of our advisory editors, Prof. Ruzhica Cacanoska, from Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, a country both ancient and new.

The proclamation of autocephaly, i.e., a totally self-governing Orthodox church on July 17, 1967, has not only been rejected by the Serbian Orthodox Church within which the Orthodox …

Macedonian Orthodox Church In The Context Of Balkan And European Orthodoxy, Gjoko Gjorgjevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to examine the recent history and actual position of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archbishopric of Ohrid (MOC-AO), which is still not accepted by the Balkan Orthodox churches. The relation between nation and church is also examined, recognizing it as one of the causes of the present situation of the MOC. The nature of this topic dictates to use and transmits various opinions and statements of prominent Orthodox leaders, scholars and theologians.

Road To The Restoration Of The Ohrid Archbishopric, Dejan Borisov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The restoration of the abolished Ohrid Archbishopric did not begin with the processes at the end of the World War II, but immediately after its abolition in the eighteenth century. The restoration of the Ohrid Archbishopric as the Macedonian Orthodox Church is in full accordance with the church tradition and practices established by the other local Orthodox churches in the process of obtaining their autocephaly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Thousand-Year Spiritual Tradition Of Lesnovo Monastery In Macedonia, Ilija Velev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Through the rich Christian tradition in Macedonia from the early Christian, medieval and up to the modern period numerous churches and monasteries were built, where all forms of development of spiritual and cultural life took place. A historically remarkable location is Lesnovo Monastery, which has survived until today during almost one thousand years of spiritual and cultural tradition in Macedonia. The oldest indirect and legendary sources point to the conclusion that the original construction of the monastic church in Lesnovo should be moved to the period of the eleventh century, when from 1018 onwards, after the fall of Samuil's Slavic …

The Odyssey Of Archbishop Gavril’S Translation Of The Bible, Marija Girevska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Translating the Bible is not an easy task in any language. Every translation of the Bible is a confirmation of the capacity of a language to convey the Bible’s manifold depths and meanings. The publication of the Macedonian Bible has been received as a historic event in Macedonia. Archbishop Gavril’s translation remains a unique pillar in the development of the Macedonian literary language. The entire process of the planning, translation, and printing of the complete Macedonian Bible encompassed a period of some 50 years. Drawing on these references, the article explores the impressive journey of Archbishop Gavril’s translation of the …

Monastic Traditions And Practices In Macedonia And Their Implications In Modern Times, Maja Angelovska-Panova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The purpose of this paper is to present several fundamental aspects in the reconstruction of the issue related to the monasticism in Macedonia. In that sense, taken into consideration is the historical and spiritual continuity of the monasticism beginning from the ninth century to modern times, as well as the monastic practices established in the existing typicons, and the implications of the revival of the modern monasticism in Macedonia in the 1990s.

Research at digressive methodological level points to the fact that in monasticism, the same traditional Christian values are cherished as they have been cherished in the previous period. …

"St. Naum Of Ohrid" Macedonian Orthodox Church Community In Triengen, Switzerland (1992-2017), Aco Girevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Restoration Of The St. Clement’S Ohrid Archbishopric- Patriarchate As The Macedonian Orthodox Church And Ohrid Archbishopric, Aleksandar Trajanovski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This is a brief narration of the creation of St. Clement's Ohrid Archbishopric-Patriarchate as the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric from ancient times to recent times. The author first returns to the founding of the first three Macedonian and, generally, European Christian churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea by the Apostle Paul and his associates around the middle of the first century, AD. Then, he proceeds to the creation of the autocephalous Archbishopric Justiniana Prima (534-545) by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in Skopje or in its surroundings. The work of the Holy Apostle Paul and Emperor Justinian I was continued …

Church Life In Macedonia During World War Ii, Mikhail Vitalyevich Shkarovsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the history of church life in Macedonia during the occupation from 1941 to 1944, which contributed to the initiation of the organization of the autocephalous Macedonian Orthodox Church. This process was prompted both by the spiritual administration of the Bulgarian Church and the communist government. The growth of the Macedonian Church occurred immediately after World War II with the communist government of Yugoslavia’s active support since they were interested in diminishing the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Ohrid Literary School In The Period Of Tzar Samoil And The Beginnings Of The Russian Church Literature, Gjorgi Pop-Atanasov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is concerned with the role of St. Clement’s Church in the preservation and the spread of Cyril and Methodius’s literary tradition and Slavic church services. Special emphasis is placed on the work of the Ohrid Literary School in the time of Tsar Samoil and the spread of Slavic literacy from its centers toward Macedonia’s neighboring countries and the Kievan Rus.

Sloan On Geopolitics, Geography, And Strategy History In Geopolitics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Geopolitical literature is experiencing a renaissance and scholars representing classical and critical perspectives in this field bring multifaceted assessments to historical and current international political and security issues. Sloan’s Geopolitics, Geography and Strategic History, which is part of Routledge’s Geopolitical Theory Series, examines connections between geography, strategy, and history and is the subject of this review and analysis. Three thesis questions examined by the author include why the geographical scope of political objectives and following strategies of nation states change, how do these changes occur, and over what time period do these changes occur. Sloan examines why the geopolitical theories …

Experiences Of Soviet Women Combatants During World War Ii, Michelle De Jesus Reyes

History Theses

World War II was arguably the most heroic event in the history of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), so much that it was known as the “Great Patriotic War.” Tens of millions of Russians were killed during the large scale conflict against their “fascist foes.” Still, the large population of the USSR were moved to action primarily by mass propaganda distributed by the Communist Party leaders. Women played a large role during the war, not just in the factories on the home front or as partisans, but as combat nurses and snipers as well. Since the losses …