Eastern Europe Flashcards
When is the historical significance of Ashes and Diamonds being related in 1958?
Two years after Polish October/Polish thaw/Gomulka’s thaw and Hungarian Uprisings - year of transition in Poland, move away from hardline Stalinist faction
What does Davies say the Polish October/Thaw saw the transformation of Poland from/to?
Transformation of Poland from a puppet state to a client state
What does Pearson say the Polish October saw the transformation of Poland from/to?
transformation of Poland from a Soviet colony to a dominion
What is the historical significance of The Joke being published in 1967? (3)
Published months before beginning of Prague Spring in Jan 1968 with election of Dubecek
Completed in 1965 but complaints from censors meant publication delayed in Czecho until 1967
Period of partial reopening up of regime - couldn’t have written it any earlier or any later
What is the significance of the Joke being banned in 1968 following the Warsaw Pact invasion and the crushing of the Prague Spring?
It suggests that Kundera’s continued claims that “the Joke is a love story” and not a political novel is more or less irrelevant because it was received as such regardless
What does Kundera’s stressing that the function of a novel should be to inquire, not take a moral position make difficult?
It makes establishing what treatment of women in the novel means a complicated task
Regardless of Kundera’s suggestion that the function of a novel should be to inquire, not take a moral position, what makes it still a useful historical tool into the state of Czechoslovakia and ordinary people at this time?
It still gives us an insight into what the treatment of women was like and what living under state socialism in Czechoslovakia was like at the time
Even though Kundera tries to refute it, what does his assertion that Ludvik and co are victims of “the joke history has played on them” seem to be getting at?
That this joke is communism
How does Kundera’s own life mirror that of Ludvik?
Joined the Czech CP and began his university education
Expelled from the Party and Uni
Readmitted during the Thaw
What is the historical significance of Nobody Leaves being published in 1962?
1960s Poland full of contradictions - years since the Thaw and things are very much confused on many different levels - relate to consumerism and gender
What is the significance of Ryszard Kapuscinski being a young adult Polish journalist in the early 1960s?
Kapuscinski part of the equivalent of the Silent Generation significantly smaller than the generation before and the next generation the Baby Boomers
Child during WWII came of age during 50s and 60s
Was sent around Poland during the early 1960s as well as on foreign assignments
What is the significance of Kapuscinski having been sent on foreign assignments?
Liked to point out similarities to new states throwing off colonialism/struggling through major social conflicts and Poland
Why is Nobody Leaves a historically significant work despite being “magic journalism”?
Exploration of post-Stalinist but still socialist Poland and highlighting how country is on edge of modernity and the great promises haven’t necessarily worked out
All about social inequality and generational change in socialist states
What is useful context about the nature of journalism in Poland in this time from American Sociologist Jane Leftwich-Curry’s study?
She found that Polish journalists were like governmental watchdogs to ensure policy was being implemented properly.
How does Nobody Leaves support Leftwich-Curry’s claims that it was common for journalists to have connections to the ruling elite and use their knowledge to change policy?
Seen in Dune when he offers to step in and “finangle the money out of the county administration”
Because journalist reports in Poland at this time toed the line between criticism and support, why is it hard for us historians to pin down a political viewpoint?
Unclear if conorming in a society that still censored and banned direct criticism of if this was his viewpoint
What is the historical significance of the lack of clarity over whether Kapusckinski’s reports are conforming in a society that still censored and banned direct criticism or if this was his viewpoint?
It gives us really great insight into the everyday totalitarianism and raises the point of Fitzpatrick that it is just important to think about how people lived their lives rather than if they consented or not
Kapuscinski is best known for his “literary reportage” what is this?
political and historical accounts told with a gripping narrative voice, in a style described by Adam Hochschild as ‘magic journalism’ (a pun on the Southern American literary genre ‘magic realism’).
What is the significance of Loves of a Blonde being released in 1965?
Destalinization process in Czechoslovakia progressed more slowly in most other states under Novotny hence why it is a comedy-drama and not explicitly critical of anything BUT 1965 restricting of economy led to increased demand for political reform too - 1963 to 1967 slight liberalisation occurred
What is Loves of a Blonde based on?
A real-world incident in Forman’s past
What is the significance of the Czech New Wave cinema?
Took advantage of temporary relaxation of totalitarian control over artists to use cinema as a means to explore new narrative strategies while making pointed critiques of social and political conditions behind the iron curtain
What does Loves of a Blonde do?
Records and exposes the everyday reality of Czechoslovakia
Why was Czechoslovakia the only industrially advanced country in the world at the time whose national income was dropping annually and not rising?
Stalinist model of industrialisation applied poorly to Czechoslovakia because it was already quite industrialised before WWII and the Soviet model mainly took into account less developed economies
Where was Loves of a Blonde filmed?
at the Zruc nad Sazavou shoe factory
How was Loves of a Blonde censored?
It was not distributed at all within the Soviet Union
What did the Czechoslovak critical response of Loves of a Blonde focus on?
The film’s negativity regarding social and political conditions
How does the Joke indicate the existence of support for socialism amongst ordinary people and that people were not necessarily anti-socialist or communist?
Sense of cognitive dissonance between the personal and the political - internalise opporession faced in public sphere and become oppressors in everyday life - beef not with system but with individual actors
How does the Joke give the sense that ordinary people were not ideologically committed to the Party itself, but go along with it because of opportunism?
Zemanek changes his spots quickly, used to teach Marxism, now that it isn’t cool he has changed
How does the Joke give insight into the national element of socialism in a post-that “individual roads to socialism” world?
Czechoslovak cultural and folk elements
How does the Joke suggest the continuance of Czech life and culture throughout socialism/totalitarianism?
The continuity of Festival could be seen as a metaphor for the continuity of life even in the midst of dictatorship and violent change.
How does the Joke suggest communism has culturally devastated Czechoslovakia?
Cultural devastation of Czechoslovakia by communism specifically manifested in attack on Christianity, which Kostka finds compatible with true Communism and decline of folk culture is seen in the folk music and Ride of Kings and symbolised by Jaroslav’s hear attack.
Moravian festival Ride of the Kings declining in importance and meaning
In Ashes and Diamonds, what does the hotel represent?
The hotel is an illusion to Poland having been occupied. Representation of a Free Poland but it is stuck.
How does the hotel in Ashes and Diamonds give insight into life in socialist Poland in the 1950s?
Within the hotel they are in different spaces, the communist elite flat is really bourgeois comparatively - elite better education etc,
What does Wajda criticise in Ashes and Diamonds about the impact of Soviet communism?
The way the Soviet incursion has turned country man against country man - he continuously alludes to a Free Poland
How does Wajda in Ashes and Diamonds subtly comment on the absurdity of how Poland became part of the Soviet bloc?
Falkowska states Szczuka’s speech at start of film completely different tone from rest of film intentional as in hindsight it is meant to appear out of place and propagandic
What is the significance of the portrayal of the relationship between Maciek and Szcuska, the only well-intentioned and good-hearted characters on with side?
It suggests that the bright future of a Free Poland or a socialist Poland dies with them, with only opportunists/killers left
It is an indictment on the nature of Poland at this time and his thoughts on Polish society
What is the significance of the white horse in Ashes and Diamonds?
It is symbolic of Poland
It appears out of nowhere and it’s only role is to act as a turning point for Maciek - key
It is used as areuccring symbol of innocence in Wanda’s films but is also prevalent in 19th century Polish art
What is the historical context and significance of the poem recited by Krystyna and Maciek in Ashes and Diamonds?
It also comes from 19th century Polish art - romantic poet Norvid - another allusion to a free Poland
What is the historical significance of Maciek and Andrzej listening to the song “The Red Poppies of Monte Cassino” in the bar?
It is a patriotic song of Polish resistance - one of the best-know military songs of WWII - composed on the eve of Polish Army’s capture of the German stronghold - significant ?
What is the historical significance of Wanda’s continued use of Polish symbols and motifs in Ashes and Diamonds?
He is appealing to a Polish nationalism or romanticism reminding the Poles they can be proud of their history and believe that they will once again be a proud and independent nation
What is the historical significance of the nostalgic discussions between Maciek and the porter about Warsaw: “losing Warsaw was like losing an arm”?
significance of Warsaw failure in paving way for Communist rule (Bloodlands Synder).
What is the significance of the spectators in the Big Throw missing the championship thrower take his long shot: “it happened and we didn’t even notice”?
It could be emblematic of Poland missing it’s chance and being left to that anonymous existence - c-ref/link to Wajda Ashes and Diamonds
How does the statue in Danka suggest that Poland in this period is full of contradictions and stuck at a cross roads?
statue is made for an exhibition in Warsaw but is rejected for being too sacral and religious, but deemed to “social realist” by a church when tries to sell it to them. Not a space for such an object, perhaps could be extended to Poland. Caught between two worlds: not yet modern, but not traditional.
