OsteuropaOsteuropa2012-12-21Abstracts Osteuropa 9/2012Daniel Ursprung
Power struggle in Romania
The government, the president and the judiciary
In the summer of 2012, Romania was plunged into a crisis of state. State institutions found themselves crippled by a power struggle between the new government and the president. In an attempt to oust controversial President Traian Basescu, the government repeatedly violated principles of the rule of law. Behind the dispute lies a struggle over the independence of the judiciary. However, the judiciary has withstood the pressure and could emerge from the crisis stronger than ever.Anneli Ute Gabanyi
A lesson in politics
The crisis of state in Romania
The European Union Commission and Western governments protested against the attempt to unseat Romanian President Traian Basescu. Many sensed a coup by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, something the Romanian Constitutional Court was able to prevent at the last minute. This crisis was the culmination of a protracted conflict between the government and the president, a conflict in which personal power and political influence are at stake. Institutions such as the Constitutional Court are politicized and are being exploited. Romanians' trust in politics has been shaken, Romania's reputation in the world damaged.Mykola Riabchuk
Precarious autocracy
Standstill and transformation in Ukraine
Viktor Yanukovych's victory in the Ukrainian presidential election of February 2010 was not followed by the reforms he announced. Instead there was a return to authoritarianism. Approval for the president and his Party of Regions has dramatically fallen since then. The opposition, however, has benefited little from this. In parliament, the opposition now plays hardly any role; in the 2010 local elections, it performed badly. This fragmentation of political forces plays into the hands of those in power and is actively encouraged by them. Nevertheless, after the parliamentary elections this October, Yanukovych will probably have to seek a compromise with the opposition -- unless he is betting on a "Lukashenka scenario".Valeryi Karbalevich
The first in his pocket
Election simulation in Belarus
In the Belarusian parliamentary election at the end of September, the 110 members of the House of Representatives were determined anew. All of the seats went to regime candidates. According to the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe, the election was neither free nor fair. The official turnout of nearly 75 per cent is clearly exaggerated. Many people stayed a-way from the polls and thus expressed distrust of the regime. Tacit support for Alexander Lukashenka is crumbling, but the fractious opposition has so far been unable to derive any benefit from this.Ignac Romsics
Trianon and the Holocaust
The Hungarian traumas of the 20th century
Jews, who had lived in the Carpathian Basin as early as the 10th century, promoted Hungarian nation-building in the 19th century. They identified with the idea of the Hungarian state and made a decisive contribution to Hungary's economic modernisation and cultural renewal. But as a result of the crises of modernisation and social upheavals, political anti-Semitism emerged around 1870. With the First World War, anti-Semitic interpretations of society put down roots. The national liberal idea of equal rights and integration eroded. The Peace Treaty of Trianon in 1920 and the Holocaust in 1944 are the fateful events of 20th-century Hungarian history. Both are closely interwoven and led to the tragic failure of nation-building and state-building in Hungary.Ferenc Laczo
Tangled threads, blind spots
Hungarian jews in the Horthy-era
The history of Jews in Hungary during the interwar period is often interpreted by its fatal end. This teleological view does not do justice to the era of Miklos Horthy (1919-1944). Right up until 1944, many Hungarian Jews continued to believe in the Hungarian state despite the gradual disfranchisement of the Jews and anti-Semitism. Hungary seemed to provide a sense of security when the genocide against the Jews was already under way in many other places in Europe. Only the realisation that the Horthy regime was not fascist, as the anti-fascist interpretation would have it, leads to the explosive question how could the Hungarian conservatives, manoeuvring between competition and collaboration with the anti-Semites, come to be involved in in the Holocaust.Laurynas Katkus
Comic agony
The grotesque in late socialist literature
The grotesque as a means for representing high social tensions and contra-dictions and as a tool of aesthetic subversion played an important role in Soviet literature from the start. After the Second World War, the genre flourished throughout the Eastern Bloc. That it remained current throughout the region until to the 1980s is shown by a comparison of three novels from that period, one from Russia, one from Poland, and one from Lithuania: the phantasmagorical novels by Venedikt Erofeev (Moskva-Petushki), Tadeusz Konwicki (Mala Apokalipsa) and Ricardas Gavelis (Vilniaus Pokeris) draw on grotesque traditions with virtuoso. They reveal the late socialist world as an absurd age that carries the seeds of its demise within itself.Rüdiger Ritter
Productive misunderstandings
Jazz in the Eastern bloc
During the East-West conflict, Voice of America broadcast Willis Conover's jazz show. This programme inspired millions of people in the socialist countries. It was an instrument of public diplomacy, a weapon of propaganda directed against an ideological opponent. Conover created a community of fans beyond the Iron Curtain, contributed to the promotion of jazz in the Soviet sphere of influence and to East-West exchange, and created room for individual freedom for people in the Communist sphere of influence. But, contrary to the programme's intentions, Conover's activities ultimately had a stabilizing effect on the Communist system. Roland Götz
Endangered species
Germany's Russian economy specialists
Germany's social-science expertise with regard to Russia is not faring well. This is especially true in economics. The reason seems clear: there is no longer any demand. Why is a Russia-specific economic field of economics necessary for a normal capitalist country? Two things are wrong with this view. For one, statistical data, as well as laws, regulations, and government programmes, are usually published only in Russian. For another, without any knowledge of the debates occurring among Russian economists, a scientific dialogue cannot take place. Countries like Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, or Estonia have grasped this. In Germany, this realisation is still missing. Marlis Prinzing
Good bye, KISS
Plea for a new Eastern Europe coverage
German newspapers and other forms of media are being criticised for the way they report on Russia and Eastern Europe. Their reporting is said to be superficial, erroneous, ridden with clichés, negative, and underfunded. In fact, this is the result of structural problems in international reporting. But it is not enough merely to complain. In order to improve correspondents' work, new approaches must be tried. In addition, journalism research needs greater practical orientation.Andreas Umland
Blank spot
Ukraine in the German public view
Although Ukraine is the largest country in Europe, it receives only scant attention. Germany's diplomatic and cultural-political engagement in Ukraine may be relatively high. But in Germany's media and political discourse, Ukraine is a peripheral issue. This does not do justice to Ukraine's strategic importance.