LITMIR.BIZ

Skylarks and Rebels is a story about Latvia’s fate in the 20th century as told by Rita Laima, a Latvian American who chose to leave behind the comforts of life in America to explore the land of her ancestors, Latvia, which in the 1980s languished behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. In writing about her own experiences in a totalitarian state, Soviet-occupied Latvia, Laima delves into her family’s past to understand what happened to her fatherland and its people during and after World War II. She also pays tribute to some of Latvia’s remarkable people of integrity who risked their lives to oppose the mindless ideology of the brutal and destructive Soviet state.

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Vasily Yan (Vassily Grigoryevich Yanchevetsky, 1874–1954) was a writer of historical novels whose popularity survives the test of time. He was widely read throughout the Soviet era and continues to be popular in the post-Soviet era. This book is not just a biographical sketch of an important Russian/Soviet writer basically unknown to the Western public. The focus on Yan and his work also impressively demonstrates the dominant role of ideology in a totalitarian society, which is not just a socio-economic and political system of the past, but could reemerge in the future as ISIS has demonstrated. Shlapentokh shows that ideology and the cultural and intellectual life in totalitarian regimes are more complex than is often assumed. Intellectuals often enough engaged in stressful, but—in its literary outcome—captivating “cat and mouse” games with censors, the powerful, and the government.

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A great wave of fundraising ‘patriotic’ associations followed in the wake of Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914, at home but also right across the empire. The most successful public campaign of all was launched in London at the beginning of 1915. Known as the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla, the scheme aimed to attract contributions towards aircraft production costs from throughout the British Empire. Any country, locality, or community that provided sufficient funds for an entire ‘aeroplane’ could have it named after them. It was promised that when the machine crashed or was shot down, the name would be transferred to a new one of the same type.
Margaret Hall examines the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla as a facet of imperial history. She analyzes the fundraising efforts in Canada and Newfoundland; the Zanzibar Protectorate; Fiji, Mauritius, and the Caribbean; Hong Kong; the Malay states and Straits Settlements; West Africa, especially Gold Coast; Southern Rhodesia; Basutoland; Swaziland and the Union of South Africa; the Indian empire and Burma; (British subjects in) independent Abyssinia and Siam; in the Shanghai International Settlement, and the British community of Argentina; Australia; and New Zealand. This remarkable and detailed book discusses the propaganda and counter-subversion usages of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla—and what the support for the imperial war effort reveals about contemporary national and regional identities and aspirations.

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Much has been written on the 1917–1920 revolution in Ukraine, on the national movement, the Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks. Yet there were others with a mass following whose role has faded from history books. One such party was the Borotbisty, the heirs of the mass Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, an independent party seeking to achieve national liberation and social emancipation. Though widely known in revolutionary Europe in their day, the Borotbisty were decimated during the Stalinist holocaust in Ukraine.
Out of print for over half a century, this lost text by Ivan Maistrenko, the last survivor of the Borotbisty, provides a unique account on this party and its historical role. Part memoir and part history, this is a thought-provoking book which challenges previous approaches to the revolution and shows how events in Ukraine decided the fate not only of the Russian Revolution but the upheavals in Europe at the time.

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Conceived as the answer to all of mankind’s seemingly insoluble health and social problems, and promoted as a substitute for orthodox religious beliefs, the pseudo-science of eugenics recruited disciples in many countries during the latter years of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth centuries. Nowhere was this doctrine more enthusiastically endorsed than in Germany, where the application of eugenic theory received its most fervent support. A programme born of what were often contradictory opinions began, under Nazi rule, with the compulsory sterilization of thousands of Germany’s citizens before morphing into the mass murder of the most vulnerable of the state’s own population under the guise of so-called “euthanasia”, before ultimately escalating into a continent-wide policy of extermination of those who did not fit the Nazi eugenic template.
The progress of this inexorable descent into barbarity was marked by successive stages of development. From the practical application of “euthanasia” through the organisation dedicated to it—later on called Aktion T4—and the killing centres that this institution spawned, to the centrality of Aktion T4 to Aktion Reinhard and the Holocaust, important elements of the historical record can be seen to emerge.
How did it happen? What impact has it had on contemporary society? And what of the character and fate of the individuals involved in the gestation and implementation of this murderously inhumane quasi-religion? Deceptively simple questions that require complex and often disturbing answers.

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According to general Realist premises, after the end of the Cold War, the United States took an interest in remaining the only super power. Accordingly, it was attempting to maintain and manage unipolarity. The pursuit of this Grand Strategy, however, required the U.S. to adapt its various strategies to the various receiving states.
Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus played very unalike roles in that configuration: Whilst Poland was labeled “America’s best friend” by President George W. Bush, Belarus was not seeking alignment with the U.S., whereas Ukraine-U.S. relations were subject to many ups and downs. The three countries’ diverging attitudes towards Washington led to very different policy approaches from a U.S. vantage point. As this study shows, the U.S. did not have an overall strategy for the region. Rather, Washington managed its relations with European states through a set of mainly bilateral relations.
Madeleine Albright once described the tools of foreign policy as including “everything from kind words to cruise missiles”. This book is a comparative case study of the United States’ use of these tools in its approaches towards Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus after the end of the Cold War. As the “only remaining superpower”, Washington played a key role in the formation of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, its actions and policies have received comparatively little attention. This book contributes to filling that gap by providing three in-depth case studies.

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Jeziorny’s gripping book explores British diplomatic relations in the years of 1933–1935, illuminating London’s attitude towards the Eastern Pact and highlighting the way of thinking and acting of British diplomacy towards the European and even global situation.
Was His Majesty’s Government interested in the success of the initiative promoted by Moscow and Paris? Did they understand the motives of the promoteurs? How did they react to the resistance of countries unwilling to accept such an issue? Who were London’s main partners to negotiate with?
Could the Foreign Office be regarded competent in dealing with European problems, especially Eastern European ones? Were the former conclusions of the academic literature correct in assessing the particular powers’ role in the failure of the concept of the Eastern Pact?
Jeziorny provides answers to these questions through detailed analysis of governmental materials available in The National Archives in London, particularly the general correspondence of the British Foreign Office at this time. A fascinating look behind the scenes of British diplomacy and its attitudes toward the French initiative.

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This engaging and insightful book is the first historical study in English portraying the lives and fates of Slovak women. The seven life stories, ranging from the late 19th century to the present day, expose the often cruel political history of Slovakia through the eyes of prominent women whose acts and deeds on behalf of their fellow citizens remain unforgotten in the Slovak collective mind. The four chapters and three oral history interviews offer a captivating insight into how the situation of Slovak women in society has changed during a most eventful period of history.
This book will be complemented by a second volume on Czech women whose lives have been of the same singular importance for the Czech lands as their Slovak counterparts were for their country (ISBN 978383827100, coming out in fall 2015). The two volumes are separate entities in their own right, but together provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of womens lives in the Czech lands and Slovakia, stressing the distinct political circumstances Czech and Slovak women have faced in recent history.

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This important book analyzes the dubious role of the so-called Democratic Antifascist Youth Movement 'Nashi' in contemporary Russia. Part and parcel of the Putinist project of political stabilization, Nashi dominates state-sponsored youth politics in Russia, communicating demands from official discourse to a young audience. Idealizing the past, present, and future of Putin's Russia, Nashi mobilized young Russians through its emotional appeal, skillful use of symbolic politics and the promise for professional self-realization. However, the movement's impact remains limited – mostly due to its internal contradictions.
Based on original and meticulous research, Ivo Mijnssen skillfully picks apart the dynamics underlying Nashi's influence and furthers a deeper understanding of state-sponsored youth politics in early 21st century Russia.

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This book, based on wide-ranging research on water, views the world through the rippling, complex lens of water. It looks at the emergence of civilizations and their decay, delves into creation myths, ponders the place of water in the human psyche as expressed in art and poetry and folklore, considers its role as a factor of production, a source of energy, a conduit of transportation, and a consumer good, examines changing concepts of physical and spiritual cleanliness, and notes the magical powers of springs and wishing wells and rainmakers.
It reveals how this colorless, tasteless, and odorless substance has made such an impact on our bodies and our souls. Like water itself, it meanders far and wide, and it may, just possibly, restore our sense of wonder at this elixir of life.
Nina Selbst's pellucid and friendly style of writing and her overflowing enthusiasm for her subject assure the reader not only an enlightening experience but also a pleasurable one.

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