In 1932-1933 famine swept across the Ukrainian countryside killing an estimated 5 million people. The famine was a culmination of different factors, but most notably it was the result of deliberate...Show moreIn 1932-1933 famine swept across the Ukrainian countryside killing an estimated 5 million people. The famine was a culmination of different factors, but most notably it was the result of deliberate policies of the Soviet government. In the summer of 1933 a young Welsh journalist named Gareth Jones illegally toured the Ukrainian countryside, witnessing the dead and the dying, walking through the silent and abandoned villages and speaking with the starving peasants. Upon his return to the United Kingdom Jones attempted to expose the famine in order to aid the starving Ukrainian population. However, his message had little impact. It was snowed under by positive reports coming from Western correspondents stationed in Moscow. The news of the famine failed to gain traction amongst the public, and before long people forgot that it ever happened. This thesis seeks to investigate why Jones’ articles exposing the Ukrainian famine in 1933 had so little impact amongst the British and American public. There was no public outrage, no large-scale famine relief actions, and not a sound from the British and American governments on the matter could be heard. The silence surrounding the famine was deafening, and the voice that was trying to attract attention to it was ignored. Why were people so willing to look away? Can this silence be attributed to a feat of Soviet Propaganda? Were the reports coming from Moscow simply more credible than the reporting of twenty-seven years old Jones?Show less
In the late 20th century it was thought that religion and idea of nation-state would disappear from the scene of world politics. However, the contrary process took place and neither the idea of the...Show moreIn the late 20th century it was thought that religion and idea of nation-state would disappear from the scene of world politics. However, the contrary process took place and neither the idea of the nation nor of the religion has faded away. This thesis aims to examine complex history of Islam in Georgia and recent trends in the development of nationalism and the rise of the religious affiliations amongst both Christian and Muslim Georgians. Consequently, this thesis explores the existing narratives about Georgian Muslims and finds that the notion of ‘Georgianness’ is linked to Orthodox Christianity and that this idea has a long history.Show less
The United States and the Soviet Union divided the world into two hemispherical sides during the Cold War. Foreign relations between these two nations were of great importance, as was understanding...Show moreThe United States and the Soviet Union divided the world into two hemispherical sides during the Cold War. Foreign relations between these two nations were of great importance, as was understanding them from their starting point until the end of the Cold War. The U.S., motivated by an 'us vs. them' dichotomy based on a great sense of mistrust and rivalry, employed various techniques to gather intelligence about their adversary, as did the Soviet Union. Espionage was one of these techniques. Despite its secretive nature, from time to time the American public found out about cases of espionage through the media. These cases oftentimes turned into scandals and impacted American society in various ways. For this thesis three cases were discussed that occurred at different times during the Cold War. The purpose of these cases of espionage is to find out how they were framed in the media and government propaganda in order for the Americans to influence foreign relations between them and the Soviets throughout the Cold War.Show less
Dit onderzoek analyseert in welke mate de totstandkoming van Estlands onafhankelijkheid in 1991 van buitenaf is beïnvloed. Aangetoond wordt dat zowel vanuit de Verenigde Staten als vanuit West...Show moreDit onderzoek analyseert in welke mate de totstandkoming van Estlands onafhankelijkheid in 1991 van buitenaf is beïnvloed. Aangetoond wordt dat zowel vanuit de Verenigde Staten als vanuit West-Europa invloeden werden uitgeoefend die de onafhankelijkheid bespoedigden. Dit werpt een nieuw perspectief op de doorgaans nationalistische historiografie over Estlands onafhankelijkheidsbeweging.Show less
The images of photographic sequence, which show two or sometimes three Soviet soldiers raising the red Soviet banner on the burn-out Reichstag, Germany’s landmark building in Berlin, captured in...Show moreThe images of photographic sequence, which show two or sometimes three Soviet soldiers raising the red Soviet banner on the burn-out Reichstag, Germany’s landmark building in Berlin, captured in early May 1945 by the Red Army photographer Yevgeny Anan'evich Khaldei, have become one of the most emblematic pictures of the ending World War Two and the final defeat of the Third Reich. As Schlüsselbild (key picture), a photographic image with national, cultural and political symbolic characteristic, these photographs play as Bilderakte (image acts) play a crucial and active part in the designing and representing history for future interpretation, based remembering of the World War Two and the collapse of the Third Reich and the national reconstruction of post-1945 identity and narrative. This thesis analyzes the compositional appeal of this particular photographic sequence, consisting of several icon key pictures, which have been reproduced in schoolbooks, films, exhibitions and historiography, among other publication platforms. In an examination of documentation of this particular event and its rhetoric importance and the functioning of photography in visualizing and co-design/co-influence the discourse of future representation of the event, the national narrative and myth creation, this thesis addresses beside the compositional appeal and classification of the photographs as Schlüsselbild or Schlagbild (pictorial slogan) on the traditional function of such victory images, it explores the function of such photographs in context of war and to allocate ‘pre-images’ of visualizing epochal changeovers or beginning of new political time periods. The specificity and functionality of ‘documenting’ visually historical changeovers from the perspective of politics, shows secondly in a case study of two reproductions of the Reichstag icon in the context of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the formative power of photography in the political argumentation process of the ‘liberation’ myth the function of image between the ‘documentary’ evidence and the ‘symbolic’ political message that is argued by the elites of the GDR. The analysis examines one of the possible interpretation of the photographs in the post-1945 political context and the construction of the mythological national narrative and collective memory. Taking the example of the official GDR’s official functionalization and interpretation of the iconic Reichstag sequence, this thesis is an attempt to demonstrate one example of the long pictorial tradition of visually capturing history in order to actively shape and co-determine the reception of the past event influence the future national identity construction and political argumentation communicated and generated by historical key images.Show less
NATO’s relevance has been disputed since its founding and this dispute increased severely after 1991. Questions concerning NATO’s possible overstretch arose after its intervention in former...Show moreNATO’s relevance has been disputed since its founding and this dispute increased severely after 1991. Questions concerning NATO’s possible overstretch arose after its intervention in former Yugoslavia and its involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. How did NATO leaders deal with these questions indicating NATO was in an existential identity crisis?Show less
This thesis argues that the Angolan Bush War should be studied as a global conflict. The war involved a variety of state actors, from South Africa and Angola to Cuba and the Soviet Union, and a...Show moreThis thesis argues that the Angolan Bush War should be studied as a global conflict. The war involved a variety of state actors, from South Africa and Angola to Cuba and the Soviet Union, and a global perspective is required to understand the conflict as a whole. While much of the existing literature on the subject is focused on the political aspects of the war, the analysis of accounts from Soviet soldiers serving in Angola demonstrates that these political dimensions often played a minimal role in the lives of the troops on the ground. However, the accounts examined give detailed commentary on the interactions between the Soviet advisers and their foreign counterparts, including both their battlefield allies and adversaries, and thus offer unique insight into this complex episode of history.Show less
Becoming posthuman does not mean letting go of all human ethics. Rather, the posthuman turn is about a pluralisation of perspectives, which does not mean a negation of the human perspective. The...Show moreBecoming posthuman does not mean letting go of all human ethics. Rather, the posthuman turn is about a pluralisation of perspectives, which does not mean a negation of the human perspective. The cases of late Soviet science fiction (Solaris, Roadside picnic, Solyaris, and Stalker) contain elements of the posthuman turn. Although their makers were informed by different worldviews, in all four cases the concept of the human and human mastery are challenged by the unsolved and unsolvable mystery of non-human agency.Show less
This Thesis´ analysis includes both private actors such as society groups and actors related to the US state, and it identifies how the interplay of these actors and their different interests...Show moreThis Thesis´ analysis includes both private actors such as society groups and actors related to the US state, and it identifies how the interplay of these actors and their different interests contributed to the rise of anticommunism in the Hollywood film industry. In doing so, this thesis explores how a combination of actors and factors contributed to the intensification of anticommunism in Hollywood after the Second World War. As a result, it argues that anticommunism in Hollywood did not originate from solely state or private actors with consistent interests, it emerged from an interplay of state and private actors with different interests and ideas.Show less
This thesis is about the viability of the Evenki language in China and Russia, and the influence of the language policies in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the PRC (People's...Show moreThis thesis is about the viability of the Evenki language in China and Russia, and the influence of the language policies in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the PRC (People's Republic of China). Evenks are originally Siberian people, who currently live in China and Russia. During the communist period the use of the language has declined. This thesis compares both language policies and draws conclusions about to what extent both languages policies have influenced the viability of the language in both countries.Show less
In this thesis I discuss the development of Soviet fundamental physics from the 1917 October revolution until the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, using the life and career of the...Show moreIn this thesis I discuss the development of Soviet fundamental physics from the 1917 October revolution until the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, using the life and career of the experimental low-temperature physicist Lev Vasil’evič Šubnikov (1901-1937) as a guide through this period. After his graduation in Petrograd Šubnikov spent almost four years from 1926 to 1930 in Leiden, where he worked with the then director of the physics laboratory Wander de Haas and was the co-discoverer of the Shubnikov-de Haas effect. After his return to the Soviet Union he became the head of the first cryogenic laboratory in the Soviet Union at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in Char’kov, where he embarked on an extensive (very much Leiden inspired) research program that among other things resulted in the discovery of type II superconductivity (Shubnikov phase). The theoretical explanation of this phenomenon earned Abrikosov and Ginzburg the 2003 Nobel Prize. In 1937 at the height of the Stalinist terror the NKVD launched a clamp-down on the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute, of which Šubnikov became one of the most important victims. He was shot in November 1937. I discuss the extent of the repression in physics in general and at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in particular, and put forward arguments for the thesis that this repression was not random, but at least in part a deliberate and carefully planned attack on individuals who were alleged or perceived to be disloyal to the Soviet cause. Apart from Šubnikov’s work I also discuss the work of other Soviet physicists in that period, among whom Pëtr Kapica, Lev Landau, Igor’ Tamm and others, and their experiences in the Soviet climate. I also pay attention to the (re)organization of science, and physics in particular, by the Bolsheviks after the October revolution, the reestablishment of contacts with the West, the influence of Marxism on physics research (the campaign against physical idealism), and the quality of Soviet contributions to physics and the appreciation of these contributions in the West.Show less
Comparative analyses of ethnic minority policies in Manchukuo and the Soviet Union during the inter war years. Rather than "ideas", it was mostly the need of the indigenous population for the...Show moreComparative analyses of ethnic minority policies in Manchukuo and the Soviet Union during the inter war years. Rather than "ideas", it was mostly the need of the indigenous population for the establishment of hegemony as well as domestic and international crisis that drove ethnic minority policies.Show less
This Bachelor dissertation will focus on America’s policy regarding the Iraqi Kurds and their quest for autonomy between 1958 and 1975, in the context of Washington’s seventeen year-long Cold War...Show moreThis Bachelor dissertation will focus on America’s policy regarding the Iraqi Kurds and their quest for autonomy between 1958 and 1975, in the context of Washington’s seventeen year-long Cold War competition during these years with the Soviet Union for influence in Iraq. Was foreign policy of the United States towards the Iraqi Kurds contradictory or consistent between 1958 and 1975? What factors determined Washington’s policy towards the Iraqi Kurds between 1958 and 1975? And what factors caused it to change? These are the main research questions which should provide sufficient insight in Washington’s motives and goals which determined its policy on the Iraqi Kurds, and should explain how that policy finally took shape. First of all, Washington’s main policy interests in relation to the Iraqi Kurds during General Qasim’s regime from 1958 till 1963 will be examined. Second, the main U.S. policy interests regarding the Iraqi Kurds during the Ba’athist regime of 1963 and during the presidencies of the brothers Arif will be investigated. And finally, these same U.S. policy interests will be examined during the Ba’athist regime of President al-Bakr from July 1968, until the 1975 Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq. During these three separate periods, this dissertation will also focus on how these U.S. interests were eventually pursued.Show less
In this study, I focused on how historians looked at British and American handling of the ‘Polish Question’ in World War II. This was from the moment the discovery of the mass graves at Katyn led...Show moreIn this study, I focused on how historians looked at British and American handling of the ‘Polish Question’ in World War II. This was from the moment the discovery of the mass graves at Katyn led to a break between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile in April 1943 to the end of the Warsaw Uprising in September 1944. I was particularly interested in what ways the United States and Great Britain wanted to solve this problem in accordance with the wishes of the Polish government-in-exile. It seems as if historians are biased on this subject. They mainly see a pleasing Allied side, desperately trying to keep Stalin in the War. Churchill and Roosevelt wanted to please Stalin so much, according to these historians, that they were willing to sell out their Polish allies and to forget about the Soviet crimes committed in the Easter-European country. Instead of this biased historical look on affairs, summarized in the schools of innocence and blame, I argue for the school of reconstruction or a more objective look at this subject.Show less
