Science and Politics During the Cold War – The Controversial Case of Sexology in Communist Romania

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
Luciana Jinga ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sexual Revolution ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Sexual Science ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Stable Family ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cold War

The paper investigates how formal/informal networks of scientists, while facilitating the scientific West-East transfer in the Cold War context, shaped the scientific field of sexology by imposing personal scientific credos, in a particular national context. The paper shows that in the Cold War context, sexual science was present in Communist Romania, but neither as imitation of the regional scholarship, nor as a simple reproduction of western advancements in the field. The post-war Romanian scholarship in the field of sexology was the result of scientific interests of Stefan Milcu – long time party protégée and respected member of the international scientific community – and of its personal circle that included remarkable personalities such as Victor Săhleanu or Tudor Stoica. Presenting the public with information about sexual and re­productive functions, and sometimes even elaborated descriptions of sexual techniques, certainly was never meant to enhance the individual gratification or provoke any form of sexual revolution. The Romanian production of sex/educational manuals and of sexology works was part of a state policy towards a better, stable, family life, aiming for collective and social happiness.

The Council of Europe: 50 years of European cooperation

1999 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-505
Author(s):  
Daniel Tarschys
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Fundamental Values

The post-war European credo – never again a Europe given over to totalitarian terror and war, but a Europe of peace and freedom – led to the creation in May 1949 of the Council of Europe with the clear political and ideological alignment to build a Europe of common values (democracy, human rights and the Rule of Law), to which the practice of market economy was added. The promotion of those fundamental values constituted the Council's specific mandate and raison d'être together with ever-increasing cooperation patterns. After the end of the Cold War, the organization became the pre-eminent European political institution welcoming, on an equal footing and in permanent structures, the democracies of Europe freed from communist oppression. The Kosovo conflict calls for a hardening of the European resolve to base its future on the defence of human dignity, respect for the individual, the Rule of Law and pluralist democracy, indispensable in fostering a common European identity. Setting-up of regional and European cooperation and integration structures has been an important step forward, but must be complemented by the conviction and determination to forge a common European destiny.

New walls to keep the bad out: populism and the totalitarian psyche

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-130
Author(s):  
Coline Covington
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
Psychic Development ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cold War

The Berlin Wall came down on 9 November 1989 and marked the end of the Cold War. As old antagonisms thawed a new landscape emerged of unification and tolerance. Censorship was no longer the principal means of ensuring group solidarity. The crumbling bricks brought not only freedom of movement but freedom of thought. Now, nearly thirty years later, globalisation has created a new balance of power, disrupting borders and economies across the world. The groups that thought they were in power no longer have much of a say and are anxious about their future. As protest grows, we are beginning to see that the old antagonisms have not disappeared but are, in fact, resurfacing. This article will start by looking at the dissembling of a marriage in which the wall that had peacefully maintained coexistence disintegrates and leads to a psychic development that uncannily mirrors that of populism today. The individual vignette leads to a broader psychological understanding of the totalitarian dynamic that underlies populism and threatens once again to imprison us within its walls.

The Unassailable Self: Freud's Image Among Post-war American Intellectuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
External Force ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Human Being ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.

The 1945 World Order – Process with «Open» Continuation

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-79
Author(s):  
V. T. Yungblud
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Order ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Bipolar Structure ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War

The Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations, established by culmination of World War II, was created to maintain the security and cooperation of states in the post-war world. Leaders of the Big Three, who ensured the Victory over the fascist-militarist bloc in 1945, made decisive contribution to its creation. This system cemented the world order during the Cold War years until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the destruction of the bipolar structure of the organization of international relations. Post-Cold War changes stimulated the search for new structures of the international order. Article purpose is to characterize circumstances of foundations formation of postwar world and to show how the historical decisions made by the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition powers in 1945 are projected onto modern political processes. Study focuses on interrelated questions: what was the post-war world order and how integral it was? How did the political decisions of 1945 affect the origins of the Cold War? Does the American-centrist international order, that prevailed at the end of the 20th century, genetically linked to the Atlantic Charter and the goals of the anti- Hitler coalition in the war, have a future?Many elements of the Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations in the 1990s survived and proved their viability. The end of the Cold War and globalization created conditions for widespread democracy in the world. The liberal system of international relations, which expanded in the late XX - early XXI century, is currently experiencing a crisis. It will be necessary to strengthen existing international institutions that ensure stability and security, primarily to create barriers to the spread of national egoism, radicalism and international terrorism, for have a chance to continue the liberal principles based world order (not necessarily within a unipolar system). Prerequisite for promoting idea of a liberal system of international relations is the adjustment of liberalism as such, refusal to unilaterally impose its principles on peoples with a different set of values. This will also require that all main participants in modern in-ternational life be able to develop a unilateral agenda for common problems and interstate relations, interact in a dialogue mode, delving into the arguments of opponents and taking into account their vital interests.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Future Visions

The book proposes that the Cold War period saw a key debate about the future as singular or plural. Forms of Cold War science depicted the future as a closed sphere defined by delimited probabilities, but were challenged by alternative notions of the future as a potentially open realm with limits set only by human creativity. The Cold War was a struggle for temporality between the two different future visions of the two blocs, each armed with its set of predictive technologies, but these were rivaled, from the 1960s on, by future visions emerging from decolonization and the emergence of a set of alternative world futures. Futures research has reflected and enacted this debate. In so doing, it offers a window to the post-war history of the social sciences and of contemporary political ideologies of liberalism and neoliberalism, Marxism and revisionist Marxism, critical-systems thinking, ecologism, and postcolonialism.

Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European Part of the USSR and Siberia in The System of International Contacts of the USSR during the Cold War (1944—1955)

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8 (106)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Zilya Khabibullina
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Statistical Treatment ◽  
European Part ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Republic Of Bashkortostan ◽  
National Archives ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War

The Spiritual Administrations of Muslims of the USSR were official organizations accountable to the Council for Religious Affairs, which concerned with regulation the life of religious communities in the allocated territory. Their competence included functions of a theological nature, statistical treatment, observation of cult objects and believers. Under the pressure of post-war circumstances, the beginning of the Cold War, religious organizations were engaged in the propaganda foreign policy tasks of the USSR. In permitted international contacts, they created a positive image of the country and demonstrated freedom of religion. The article examines the participation of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia in the spread of the Soviet ideological project abroad. Territorially, the spiritual administration was located in Ufa, the materials of the National Archives of the Republic of Bashkortostan offer an insight into such forms of interaction with the foreign world as: staff meetings of the spiritual administration with representatives of foreign states, visits of Islamic spiritual leaders to Muslim countries, their publication in foreign editions, participation in international conferences, the presence of believers of the USSR in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj. In the 1950s DUMES has been converted regularly subjected to demonstrations to foreign guests of Bashkiria and all kinds of delegations as a symbol of freedom of conscience in the USSR. The Muslim clergy had promoted of the Soviet lifestyle and the country’s achievements in a deep crisis of religious life in the USSR.

Daily Life of the American Embassy in Czechoslovakia in 1945—1948

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6 (104)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Valery Yungblyud
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Economic Recovery ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Leadership Interactions

The article is devoted to the study of various aspects of daily life of the US Embassy in Czechoslovakia in 1945—1948. The author considers the main areas of its work, major problems and difficulties that American diplomats had to overcome being in difficult conditions of the post-war economic recovery and international tension growth. Special attention is paid to the role of Ambassador L. A. Steinhardt, his methods of leadership, interactions with subordinates, with the Czechoslovak authorities and the State Department. This allows to reveal some new aspects of American diplomacy functioning, as well as to identify poorly explored factors that influenced American politics in Central Europe during the years when the Cold War was brewing and tensions between Moscow and Washington were rising. The article is based on unpublished primary sources from the American archives.

scholarly journals Abramchik and Ostrovsky: the struggle for leadership among the Belarusian post-war emigration

2021 ◽  
pp. 272-290
Author(s):  
Evgenii V. Kodin
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
Communist System ◽  
Close Cooperation ◽  
Direct Delivery ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
To Receive

The post-war Belarusian emigration, both in Europe and in the United States, was divided into two main groups: the supporters of the President of the Belarusian Central Rada R. K. Ostrowski (Astrouski) and the Chairman of the BNR Rada N. S. Abramchyk. The declassified CIA documents indicate that this was not just a rivalry for the right to speak and act on behalf of the entire Belarusian emigration, but also to receive substantial dividends from close cooperation with the American intelligence agency in the implementation of plans to destabilize the situation in Belarus through the preparation of various kinds of espionage and subversive operations, up to the direct delivery of agents to the territory of the BSSR in the 1950s, as well as in information and propaganda work against the Soviet Belarus. This confrontation took various forms: from accusations of direct collaboration with the Nazis during the war (Ostrowski) to the self-appointment as the head of the Belarusian Folk Republic (Abramchyk). The visions of the future of free Belarus and its foreign policy between these actors differed, as well as the means and methods of struggle for the liberation of the Belarusian people from the communist system. At the same time, both Abramchyk and Ostrowski understood well that in order to strengthen their positions among the Belarusian emigration, close relations with those who built and financed the anti-Soviet policy of the West during the Cold War were important. First of all, it was about the American intelligent services. And here Abramchyk won an obvious victory, and Ostrowski’s main former comrades-in-arms were soon going to move to his camp.

Robert W. Cherny, William Issel, and Kieran Walash Taylor, eds.,American Labor and the Cold War: Grassroots Politics and Post War Political Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. 320 pp. Paper $23.95

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 177-181
Author(s):  
William Mello
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Working Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Labor

Would the existing powerlessness of American unions be much different had organized labor not been the focus of cold-war repression in the late 1940s and 1950s? How did workers experience the anticommunist upsurge and reshape their political alliances in light of what some have called America's darkest political hour? American Labor and the Cold War is a collection of smart and challenging essays that examine the impact of cold war politics on organized labor and the labor-left. The authors explore the historical impact of the cold war and the constraints placed on working class political power in the United States immediately following the Second World War. They argue that the cold war on labor reflected a process that was driven by state-organized repressive measures that were sustained by regional political-cultural traditions and in some cases high levels of working-class conservatism. The essays highlight the efforts of conservative labor leaders to take control of left-led unions, purging Communist Party (CP) activists and their allies and the ways in which communists sought to resist the radical right-wing movement in their unions and surrounding communities.

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