Vilnius Between Nations 1795 2000

In this key textbook, Andres Kasekamp masterfully traces the development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Employing a comparative approach, a particular emphasis is placed upon the last one hundred years, during which the Baltic states achieved independence, endured occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking modules on Eastern or Central European History, Communism and Post-Communism, the Soviet Union, or Baltic Culture and Politics. Engaging and accessible, this is also an ideal introduction to the Baltic States for general readers.

No other symbol is as omnipresent in Poland as the cross. This multilayered and contradictory icon features prominently in public spaces and state institutions. It is anchored in the country's visual history, inspires protest culture, and dominates urban and rural landscapes. The cross recalls Poland's historic struggles for independence and anti-Communist dissent, but it also encapsulates the country's current position in Europe as a self-avowed bulwark of Christianity and a champion of conservative values. It is both a national symbol - defining the boundaries of Polishness in opposition to a changing constellation of the country's Others - and a key object of contestation in the creative arts and political culture. Despite its long history, the cross has never been systematically studied as a political symbol in its capacity to mobilize for action and solidify power structures. Cross Purposes is the first cultural history of the cross in modern Poland, deconstructing this key symbol and exploring how it has been deployed in different political battles.

This hitherto unpublished first-hand witness account, written in 1968-9, tells the story of a privileged Polish woman whose life was torn apart by the outbreak of the Second World War and Soviet occupation. The account has been translated into English from the original Polish and interwoven with letters and depositions, and is supplemented with commentary and notes for invaluable historical context. Irena Protassewicz's vivid account begins with the Russian Revolution, followed by a rare insight into the life and mores of the landed gentry of northeastern Poland between the wars, a rural idyll which was to be shattered forever by the coming of the Second World War. Deported in a cattle truck to Siberia and sentenced to a future of forced labour, Irena's fortunes were to change dramatically after Hitler's attack on Russia. She charts the adventure and horror of life as a military nurse with the Polish Army, on a journey that would take her from the wastes of Soviet Central Asia, through the Middle East, to an unlikely ending in the highlands of Scotland. The story concludes with Irena's search to discover the wartime and post-war fate of her family and friends on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and the challenges of life as a refugee in Britain. A Polish Woman's Experience in World War II provides a compelling, personal route into understanding how the greatest conflict of the 20th century transformed the lives of the individuals who lived through it.

The Hungarian historian Professor Zoltán Tefner has a remarkable academic career. This book is a tribute to his versatile, energetically continuous work. At the same time, it is a collection of current texts in which Tefner's well-known students, colleagues and members of the international scientific community deal with historically and socially significant themes, such as the construction of the European territorial order, border policy and contractual civilization, the importance of jurisprudence in the search for the civilizing process, welfare economics, a systematic conception of human being, and Hungary's critical decades in the 19th and 20th centuries. The historical and geographical arc of the texts extends from the Carolingian Empire of the 8th century to the European Union of the 2020s. Tefner Zoltán magyar történész kiemelkedő tudományos pályafutással rendelkezik. Ez a könyv tisztelgés sokrétű, nyughatatlan folyamatos munkája előtt. Ugyanakkor aktuális szöveggyűjtemény, amelyben Tefner neves tanítványai, kollégái és a nemzetközi tudományos közösség tagjai történelmi és társadalmi szempontból is fontos témákkal foglalkoznak, mint a felségterület-elrendezések és határpolitikák Európában, az európai szerződéses civilizáció szerkezete, az igazságszolgáltatás jelentősége a civilizációs folyamat értelmének keresésében, a jóléti gazdaságtan, az emberiség szisztematikus szemlélete, valamint Magyarország kritikus évtizedei a 19. és a 20. században. A szövegek történelmi és földrajzi íve a 8. századi Karoling Birodalomtól a 2020-as évek Európai Úniójáig terjed. Der ungarische Historiker Professor Zoltán Tefner hat eine bemerkenswerte akademische Karriere. Dieses Buch ist eine Hommage an sein vielseitiges, dynamisch-kontinuierliches Werk. Zugleich handelt es sich um eine Sammlung aktueller Texte, in denen sich Tefners namhafte Studierende, Kollegen und Mitglieder der internationalen Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft mit historisch und gesellschaftlich bedeutsamen Themen auseinandersetzen; wie etwa den Territorialitätsordnungen und Grenzpolitiken in Europa, dem Aufbau der europäischen Vertragszivilisation, der Bedeutung der Rechtsprechung bei der Suche nach dem Sinn des Zivilisationsprozesses, der Wohlfahrtsökonomie, dem systematischen Menschenbild und den kritischen Jahrzehnten Ungarns im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Der historische und geografische Bogen der Texte reicht vom Karolingischen Kaiserreich des 8. Jahrhunderts bis hin zur Europäischen Union der 2020er Jahre.

This book provides a forum for theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research on language(s), multimodality and public space, which will advance new ways of understanding the sociocultural, ideological and historical role of communication practices and experienced lives in a globalised world. Linguistic Landscape is viewed as a metaphor and expanded to include a wide variety of discursive modalities: imagery, non-verbal communication, silence, tactile and aural communication, graffiti, smell, etc. The chapters in this book cover a range of geographical locations, and capture the history, motives, uses, causes, ideologies, communication practices and conflicts of diverse forms of languages as they may be observed in public spaces of the physical environment. The book is anchored in a variety of theories, methodologies and frameworks, from economics, politics and sociology to linguistics and applied linguistics, literacy and education, cultural geography and human rights.

An authoritative biography of Jozef Pilsudski, a key figure in interwar Europe regarded as the founding hero of a pluralistic and democratic modern Poland. After the first elected president was assassinated, Pilsudski lost faith in Poles’ commitment to democracy, led a military coup, and ruled as a strongman, leaving a complicated legacy.