Between Defeat and Victory: Finnish memory culture of the Second World War

The article focuses on five essential phenomena in the Finnish memory culture relating to the three Finnish wars fought in 1939–1945, namely, (1) the memory of the fallen; (2) the influential work by author Väinö Linna; (3) the contested memory politics and veteran cultures in the 1960s and 1970s; (4) Germany and the Holocaust in the Finnish memory culture; and (5) the ‘neo-patriotic’ turn in the commemoration of the wars from the end of the 1980s onwards. The Finnish memory culture of 1939–1945 presents an interesting case of how the de facto lost wars against the Soviet Union have been shaped into cornerstones of national history and identity that continue to play a significant role even today. Using the growing research literature on the various aspects of the Finnish war memories and memory politics, the article aims, first, at outlining a synthesis of the memory culture's central features and, second, at challenging the common contemporary conception, according to which the Finnish war veterans would have been forgotten, neglected and even disgraced during the post-war decades, to be ‘rehabilitated’ only from the end of the 1980s onwards.     

Archaeological Interpretation of the Continuity of Chinese Civilization over Five Thousand Years

Chinese civilization has unique characteristics in the world civilization history. Its most prominent characteristic is the continuity of the “5,000-year” civilization. Over 5,000 years ago, different civilizations appeared in different regions of China and the civilizations mainly included their different early-stage theocracy and reign modes. Among these civilizations, the civilization that was handed on from generation to generation was the states with a reign mode that originated in the Longshan culture of Central China and its successors such as the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty. This can be illustrated by the 5,000-year continuous inheritance of the country, people, and territory of China, proved by the 5,000-year inheritance and development of capitals, royal tombs, ritual and ceremonial buildings and vessels, and characters as the national culture (or major tradition) and resurrected by the capital’s centralization,“OneGate Three-Passage” pattern,“centralization of the main hall of the court” and the“Left Ancestral Temple and Right Altar” pattern, and the central axis of the capital, the four doors on four sides of the capital and court, etc. as the materialized forms of the core ideas of center and moderation. These materialized forms of the unbroken civilization became more and more in the past 5,000 years, which indicates that the ideas of center and moderation became stronger and stronger and were constantly deepened. The ideological roots of the 5,000-year unbroken Chinese civilization are the ideas of center and moderation, which are the ideological basis for the state identity and the core value of the Chinese national history.     

十月革命的胜利是科学社会主义的胜利——纪念十月革命90周年

在社会主义思想发展的历史上,空想社会主义思想家既有批判私有制和资本主义的理论贡献,也有不可逾越的历史局限.资本主义基本矛盾的发展,必然导致科学社会主义的出现.这一伟大的历史任务,最终由马克思、恩格斯完成.唯物史观和剩余价值学说两大理论发现,使社会主义从空想变成了科学.1917年俄国十月社会主义革命的胜利,第一次将科学社会主义的理论变成现实,在人类历史上建立了第一个无产阶级专政的社会主义国家.苏东剧变使世界社会主义运动处于低潮.但这并没有改变人类历史发展的进步趋势.中国革命是十月革命的继续.中国特色社会主义理论和实践,使十月革命所开创的社会主义道路充满生机和活力,科学社会主义理论在回应时代的挑战中与时俱进,继续发展.     

Desert Victory: The War for Kuwait: Norman Friedman

Book reviewed in this article: The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and Natural Justice, 2nd ed: Geoff Simons