Landsbergis (former president of Lithuania) offers a first-person account of the movement for Lithuanian independence and the ensuing conflict with the Soviet Union. He discusses the influence of German and Soviet occupations, mass deportations, and censorship, as well as describing the tone of everyday life under Soviet rule. He also offers details of the difficulties faced by the Lithuanian government after Parliament declared a new independence in 1990. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
Why isn't the Baltic region like the Balkans? Why have the Baltic republics not experienced ethnic cleansing, border wars, authoritarian rule, and social chaos? Instead, peace, democracy, and market economies have taken root since the fall of communism. Walter C. Clemens, Jr. here uses complexity theory, which analyzes the role of self-organization in complex adaptive systems, to explain the "Baltic miracle." He argues that the theory is a vital tool for understanding the remarkable strides made by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since 1991 in coping with the transition to partnership with the new Europe. The Baltic peoples have adapted well to the demands of democracy, a market economy, and a constructive role in world affairs. The achievements of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the past decade are the more amazing when considered against the hundreds of years they were dominated by Teutonic knights, Hanseatic merchants, Sweden, Russia, and the USSR. Clemens uses this history as a springboard to analyze how Balts self-organize today to meet the challenges of transition. One of the first books to apply complexity theory to a major sphere of world politics, The Baltic Transformed will provoke constructive debate with its ambitious and well-grounded analysis of not only Baltic developments but European security more generally. Despite its theoretical foundation, the book is written in a clear and accessible style that will make it invaluable for courses on comparative politics, political development, international relations, security, or transition studies.
Architecture and Armed Conflict is the first multi-authored scholarly book to address this theme from a comparative, interdisciplinary perspective. By bringing together specialists from a range of relevant fields, and with knowledge of case studies across time and space, it provides the first synthetic body of research on the complex, multifaceted subject of architectural destruction in the context of conflict. The book addresses several specific research questions: How has the destruction of buildings and landscapes figured in recent historical conflicts, and how have people and states responded to it? How has the destruction of architecture been represented in different historical periods, and to what ends? What are the relationships between the destruction of architecture and the destruction of art, particularly iconoclasm? If architectural destruction is a salient feature of many armed conflicts, how does it feature in post-conflict environments? What are the relationships between architectural destruction and processes of restoration, recreation or replacement? Considering multiple conflicts, multiple time periods, and multiple locations allows this international cohort of authors to provide an essential primer for this crucial topic.
The most comprehensive and up-to-date student reference on the Cold War, offering expert coverage of all aspects of the conflict in a richly designed format, fully illustrated to give students a vivid sense of life in all countries affected by the war. ABC-CLIO is proud to announce the latest addition to its widely acclaimed legacy of historical reference works for students. Under the direction of internationally known expert Spencer Tucker, Cold War: A Student Encyclopedia captures the vast scope, day-to-day drama, and lasting impact of the Cold War more clearly and powerfully than any other student resource ever published. Ranging from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cold War: A Student Encyclopedia offers vivid portrayals of leading individuals, significant battles, economic developments, societal/cultural events, changes in military technology, and major treaties and diplomatic agreements. The nearly 1,100 entries, plus topical essays and a documents volume, draw heavily on recently opened Russian, Eastern European, and Chinese archives. Enhanced by a rich program of maps and images, it is a comprehensive, current, and accessible student reference on the dominant geopolitical phenomenon of the late-20th century.
The book contains the memoirs of Robert van Voren covering the period 1977-2008 and provides unique insights into the dissident movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, both inside the country and abroad. As a result of his close friendship with many of the leading dissidents and his dozens of trips to the USSR as a courier, he had intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of the dissident movement and participated in many of the campaigns to obtain the release of Soviet political prisoners. In the late 1980s he became involved in building a humane and ethical practice of psychiatry in Eastern Europe and the (ex-) USSR, based on respect for the human rights of persons with mental illness. The book describes the dissident movement and many of the people who formed it, mental health reformers in Eastern Europe and the response of the Western psychiatric community, the battle with the World Psychiatric Association over Soviet, and later, Chinese political abuse of psychiatry, his contacts with former KGB officers and problems with the KGB's successor organization, the FSB. It also vividly describes the emotional effects of serving as a courier for the dissident movement, the fear of arrest, the pain of seeing friends disappear for many years into camps and prisons, sometimes never to return.
This collection brings together 71 papers by 83 authors from 20 countries presented at the 5th Central and Eastern European Communication and Media Conference, titled “Media, Power and Empowerment”, in Prague, Czech Republic, in April 2012. It maps out trends in CEE media research across the entire region and provides insight into the broad span of relevant topics. The contributors to the volume successfully voice the multiple, yet specific, questions relevant to the CEE countries; the papers offer original research results to the reader, and invite them to participate in further debate on CEE media and communications research. To date, there have not been many publications dedicated to outlining the media and communications research interests across the region. This collection shows that the countries of the region indeed have a lot in common – historically, politically, and socially – while also discussing the differences among them, including the multiple political particularities within the unifying label “the East”, and variations in the transformation process and the consequences for concerned societies and their media scenes, as well as the individual lived experiences of the people of the CEE countries.
Updating the popular 2003 first edition, this book is a narrative history of the Baltic States with particular focus on the events of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were granted independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, the three countries have struggled with sluggish economies, tensions with Russia, and government corruption. This extensively updated second edition of a well-regarded reference illuminates the events of the last decade, including the acceptance of all three nations into the European Union in 2004. Although it concentrates on the 20th and 21st centuries, the wide-ranging work covers major historical currents that have swept through Europe from the age of the Crusades through two world wars and into modern times. Updates include events that have occurred since 2003, such as the area's declining birth rates and inflation problems that led to the European Union denying the adoption of the Euro in Lithuania. A new chapter entitled "The Totalitarian Experience, 1940–1953" focuses specifically on the major tragedies of the 20th century: the Baltic States' loss of independence, their conquest by Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and the horrors of the first years of Soviet rule. Historical controversies concerning World War II and the Soviet era are also addressed. Additionally, the Notable Figures section has been updated, the bibliography now includes many electronic resources, and photographs have been added.
