Djilas on Communism

Milovan Djihs: “THE NEW CLASS.” Thames and Hudson, London, 1957, pp. 214. 21/‐ stg.     

Communism and Museums in Bulgaria

Despite the growing interest in Eastern European countries since the fall of the communist regimes in the late 1980s, they still remain obscure to Western Europeans. Media information on Eastern Europe focuses mainly on politics or the attractions of holiday resorts and, consequently, the history and local customs of the countries, their cultural affairs and different cultural institutions are little known. This paper describes the way Bulgarian museums developed during the governance of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1946–1989). It is hoped that revealing information on their operations within a broad historical and social context will lead to a better understanding of the country’s cultural affairs at a time when Bulgaria has become the latest member of the European Union. The findings are a result of PhD research.     

Nationhood,Communism and State Legitimation

Abstract. Four states have disappeared as a result of the collapse of communism and many others have come into being. I want to look at the reason why these states have disappeared, what this says about the nature of state-sustaining ideologies and what the disappearance tells us about the relationship between statehood and nationhood. I will also look at the effectiveness of communism as a state-sustaining ideology. The four are, obviously, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. In each case, the survival of the state was linked to communism and the end of communism brought their continued existence into jeopardy. I shall not be looking at the Soviet Union in detail. Broadly, the construction of political identities can come about in two ways – by ethnicity or by the state. Each gives rise to a different set of loyalties, creates its own panoply of rituals etc. When the two coincide, the mythical nation-state can be said to be in being, but this hardly exists in reality (Iceland may be the sole exception in Europe).     

Communism,Heritage and Tourism in East Asia

This study examines the linkages which connect Communism, heritage and tourism with reference to selected East Asian states which are governed by Communist regimes or have recent experience of Communist rule. Aspects of the heritage of Communism are seen to be of interest to tourists, but related visitor attractions also have a wider social and political significance and illustrate how tourism can be employed as a hegemonic tool and propaganda vehicle. Heritage, including that of Communism itself, thus serves as economic, social and political capital within a Communist context where the defining characteristics of government give rise to a distinctive relationship between political systems, heritage and tourism.     

Communism and cultural heritage: the quest for continuity

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical genealogy and main uses of heritage in actually existing communist countries. This is performed by carrying out a critical review of Èleazar Aleksandrovi? Baller’s Communism and Cultural Heritage, (1984, Progress, Moscow). The analysis of Baller’s work reveals that the logics of heritage in communist countries differed in various ways from capitalist countries, mainly because of the almost total state control over the heritage apparatus and the subordination of heritage policies to Marxist–Leninist ideology. Heritage was fundamental in dealing with the problem of change and continuity with the traditions, narratives and identities of previous society, and in the process of transforming citizens into ‘new men’ through the cultural revolution and the inculcation of ideology through museums and monuments.     

Cheating the Censor: Romanian Writers under Communism

Abstract

The Romanian Communist Party enjoyed considerable success in exploiting literature for its own ends. This article asks why those writers who challenged censorship were few in number, and why, even in the final year of Nicolae Ceau?escu’s rule, the chorus of protest was weak. Most Romanian writers failed to oppose censorship, and were deeply marked by it even when they believed that they were ‘cheating’ the censor. In some ways self-censorship proved to be more damaging to creativity than overt repression. The exceptions nevertheless comprise an important category, deserving examination and recognition. The fall of Communism in Romania has allowed a discussion of these themes to be more fully informed and to this end English translations of open letters from a number of writers are appended. Some of these were passed to the author for dissemination in 1989.