Kazakhstan consistently sides with Russia in global affairs and supports many of its integration initiatives in the former Soviet space. However, following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 the fear that Kazakhstan’s ethnic Russian regions might share the peninsula’s fate has returned.
What does the Bolshevik revolution, whose 100th anniversary falls this week, mean for Russia? Historian Orlando Figes speaks to the editor of Eurozine partner journal ‘Letras Libres’, Daniel Gascón, about some of its key themes – and explains that Russia has yet to come to terms with the consequences of 1917.
In central eastern Europe, memories of 1989–1990 mean strong support for Catalan independence. On the other hand, many of these countries fear Russian separatism within their territories. Is the comparison with eastern Europe entirely misleading? An interview with two representatives of Catalan politics and culture.
The legal regulation of historical discourse poses significant risks. But there are two, exceptional cases in which memory laws protect free speech, argue Grażyna Baranowska and Anna Wójcik.
Imperialism gets a bad press these days, and with good reason. But not all empires are alike, and not all are a disaster for the people governed by them. Steven Beller says central Europe is still struggling to recognise the benefits of the Habsburg Empire, and suggests its demise may hold lessons for the EU.
From broadcasting about places the western media rarely covers, to giving a platform to people that governments would otherwise muzzle, US-funded Radio Free Europe brings news to poorly served regions. Sally Gimson looks at the station’s history and asks: is it still needed today?
Contemporary public policy is no longer able to rely on representative democracy. To stay legitimate and fulfil popular needs, it has to transform and become more participatory and digital, writes Dmytro Khutkyy.
Themes discussed at the 28th European Meeting of Cultural Journals, held in Tartu, Estonia, 20-22 October 2017.
Anton Shekhovtsov traces how pro-Kremlin forces seek to influence political processes in western democracies using local activists and politicians, and how far-right groups across Europe and the US increasingly use Russian web hosting services to spread anti-western propaganda.
After the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, the AKP set about securing what Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referred to as ‘social and cultural power’. Nilgün Tutal studies processes of Islamisation in Ankara and Istanbul, showing how the political struggle in Turkey is about the imposition of a ‘legitimate’ cultural vision.
Writer Slavenka Drakulić has spent much of her career reflecting on what happened in Yugoslavia in the 1990s – and how difficult it is to combat the ‘nationalist virus’ – in books like ‘Balkan Express’ (1993), ‘As If I Am Not There’ (1999) and ‘They Would Not Hurt a Fly’ (2004). In the light of developments in Spain, she spoke to Spanish online newspaper ‘El Confidencial’ about the potential dangers in the Catalan crisis.
Culture has become a major instrument of Russian propaganda. Nowhere is this more so than in the Baltic countries, where Russian media are widely consumed, and where politics, business and the cultural sector combine to promote Russian interests. A Lithuanian perspective.
Russian propaganda co-opts western grassroots criticism of liberalism and globalization, recasting both left and right populism in nationalist terms. Vice versa, local actors borrow the Russian propaganda package and use it for their populist purposes. An analysis of Bulgarian media discourse 2013–2016.
How has the digital dream of the 1990s – equality, freedom of expression and accessibility for everyone – turned into the constantly surveilled dystopia that many observers comment on today? New media expert Evgeny Morozov and sociologist Colin Crouch discussed this digital dilemma at the recent Lector in Fabula festival, in conversation with journalist Marina Lalovic.
The Czech Republic elects a new chamber of deputies on 20-21 October. The ANO party of Andrej Babiš, a billionaire businessman, is leading the polls; meanwhile, President Miloš Zeman gladly accepts the sobriquet ‘the Czech Trump’. In an article from the landmark 50th edition of Eurozine partner journal Transit, Jiří Přibáň explores what is going on.
Marine Le Pen may have lost her bid to become president of France earlier this year, but the modern ideology of the Front National offers insights into the future politics of France, and the currents of populist thought developing elsewhere in Europe. Ernesto Córdoba Castro looks at the sometimes unlikely sources of Marine Le Pen’s worldview.