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Introduction: Restoration of the National Defence in Estonia – from Scrambled Eggs Back into the Shell
No full textI compare the three Baltic States to three eggs. Colourful metaphors are sometimes necessary to gain a better understanding of historical events. It is easy to make scrambled eggs from an egg, but it’s a lot more difficult, seemingly impossible, to unscramble the eggs and put them back into a living egg inside a protective shell. But that’s exactly what happened with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 20th century.
Czechoslovakia and its Armed Forces in Times of Change
No full textIn the 1980s Czechoslovakia was one of the strongest countries in the Warsaw Treaty Organisations in terms of military capacity. In addition to the regular army, Czechoslovakia had strong internal security forces and people’s militia.The army was under the control of the Communist Party, whose extension wasthe political main directorate of the army.
The reorganisation of the army started in 1990. The main task was to reorganise the army of a totalitarian country into the armed forces of a democratic state. A civilian was appointed the Defence Minister; a new military doctrine was prepared, which stated that national defence was the duty of the army; the general staff and the Ministry of Defence as well as the structure of units were reorganised; reducing the number of staff started; the length of compulsory military service was shortened; and becoming a member of NATO was set as a goal.
The Soviet army units that were stationed in Czechoslovakia in 1968 were withdrawn by summer 1991. The Warsaw Treaty Organisation was disbanded at the same time. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist by the end of the subsequent year: the Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent countries that also divided the armed forces by the 2:1 principle – in favour of the Czech Republic, which is the larger of the two and has a bigger population. The Czech Republic became a member of NATO in March 1999. The number of staff of the armed forces of the Czech Republic was reduced fourfold from 1993–2013. Compulsory military service was abolished in 2005 and a professional army was introduced instead.
The period of transition from a totalitarian military into the defence forces of a democratic state in the former Czechoslovakia is still an almost unexplored part of our recent history. Not all relevant sources are accessible and not all witnesses are willing to share their knowledge. The aim of this article is to outline the main defence issues a newly developing democratic society had to tackle.
Theories of Dictatorships: Sub-Types and Explanations
No full textDespite the third wave of democratisation, dictatorships are still a widespread global phenomenon. In recent years, comparative scholars have shown a renewed interest in such regimes, which has resulted in a significant increase in the volume of research that has been produced. However, such research is not always carried out in a cumulative fashion and, therefore, lacks the traits of a more holistic perspective. Hence, it is appropriate to review this research to try to create opportunities for more systematisation in future studies. This study does this by focusing on two approaches: that is providing definitions of non-democracies, but also developing a framework for empirical explanations of these regimes. Addressing the first approach reveals gaps in previous definitions of dictatorships, which is something that is managed by stating a theoretically founded conceptualisation. Moreover, scrutinising the typologies of dictatorships and their variants provided by previous research reveals some loosely connected or almost arbitrary alternatives. Such flaws are discussed and solutions are given. Regarding the second approach, this article discusses findings on how both the existence of and the transition to dictatorships and their variants can be systematised. The outcome is a framework that can be applied in future research. To conclude, there is still much that is unknown about both the description and the explanation of dictatorships, but by systematising recent research this article sets out a more unified strategy
Political Youth Organisations, Music and National Identity in Contemporary Russia
No full textThis article analyses the relationship between political youth organisations, music and national identity in contemporary Russia. It focuses on four of the most representative political youth groups present in the city of St. Petersburg – the Young Guard, the National Bolsheviks, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), and Oborona [Defence] – and describes their conceptualisation of post-Soviet Russianness, as captured through an analysis of their lyrics. The main contribution of this empirical study is the detection of convergences and divergences with regard to the national identity issue characterising youth organisations that position themselves differently in the Russian political spectrum
Taking an Army from Dictatorship to Democracy: Lessons Learned by the Bundeswehr in Absorbing the East German Army
No full textAfter the reunification of Germany, the Bundeswehr had to take over the former East-German army (Nationale Volksarmee, NVA). The reduction in the numbers of military staff throughout Eastern Europe after the Cold War also made the task more difficult. Researchers from the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences interviewed East-German soldiers immediately after reunification. They found that most of them were obedient followers whose professional skills were good, but who had no initiative. The strong influence of dogmatic communist ideology was also a problem. Many former East-German officers thought that West Germany also had one book of truth that taught them the new, correct understanding of history, politics and society.
The East-German army was not popular among the population. The status of an officer in society was privileged and there were many of them – similar to the Soviet army, junior officers in the East-German army served in positions that in western armies are covered by non-commissioned officers. Conscripts were almost fully at the mercy of the officers.There were ca 42,000 officers in the NVA at the end of 1989. More than 99%of East-German officers were members of the Socialist Union Party of Germany. Approximately 10,000 political officers served in the NVA. Approximately 50,000 active servicemen, incl. 23,000 officers, were to be transferred according to the takeover plan.
These servicemen were put on probation for two years, and once it was completed the 28-member Independent Committee selected those who wereto be offered the opportunity to join the Bundeswehr career system. All political officers were the first to be let go, but generals, colonels (with acouple of exceptions) and all officers over 55 years ago were also released from duty. As for the remaining officers, everyone who was known to have cooperated with the secret services of East Germany was immediately fired. 30,000 of the 50,000 officers and non-commissioned officers transferred by the Bundeswehr soon resigned
Õppematerjali mõju gümnaasiumiõpilaste õpimotivatsioonile: „Praktiline eesti keel teise keelena: B2, C1” [The influence of learning material on students’ motivation to learn: Practical Estonian as a second language. B2, C1.]
No full textLearning motivation connected to a second language is affected by cultural context (the value of language studies, belief in the likelihood of success etc.) and educational context (the study programme, the teacher, using materials, the study group etc.). The article discusses the influence of one component of the educational context – learning materials – on the motivation to learn Estonian as a second language, based on the example of the Practical Estonian B2, C1 workbook. The workbook is a new example of study materials for Estonian as a second language for use in secondary schools, one goal of the creation of which was to increase students’ motivation to learn. For this purpose, the following characteristics of motivating learning activities were taken into consideration when creating the workbook: the meaningfulness of the topics to students, the use of active learning methods, the authenticity of the texts and tasks, and suitably difficult challenges and support. The workbook was tested during its compilation in one secondary school class and, after its completion, as a homework component of the training of secondary school teachers of Estonian as a second language. Feedback was collected from the teachers in the form of diaries. The teachers felt that the students were most motivated by tasks carried out using active study methods that provided appropriate challenges (role play, playful vocabulary and grammar exercises, and a project task in the language environment). Students were motivated by topics that were meaning ful to them (both “youth” topics and topics of overall human importance). The authentic reading tasks had an average level of motivation, while the motivation level of the authentic listening tasks was decreased by the fact that the students were not used to doing them. The students also liked tasks that provided the necessary support in a new way (learning phrases that enabled them to express language functions and practising process writing). Analysis of the feedback also indicated that teachers had room for improvement in regard to teaching methods: they were not always capable of presenting tasks in a motivating way and were not used to using active teaching methods, letting students make their own choices or giving students supportive and motivating feedback
Transition and Continuity: The Polish Army’s March into the Third Republic and into NATO, 1989–1999
No full textPoland’s transition from an authoritarian communist regime to a liberal democracy and market economy and from an army controlled by the country’s only party, the Communist Party, to actual civilian control started at the end of 1989, in particular after Lech Walęsa was elected president. Unlike many other postcommunist states, especially Germany, Poland regards the army as an institution that is the nation’s school, the bearer of national unity and the guarantee of the state’s existence. The Armia Ludowa – people’s army – of communist Poland took over many national traditions of the Polish army, combined them with Marxist and pro-Soviet ideology, and stayed out of political games despite being controlled by the political main directorate of the party. Both the party and the army derived their legitimacy from the people. After the declaration of martial law in 1981, the army unexpectedly found itself with all the power and this was a serious blow to the prestige of the army in the eyes of the people.
The changes made at the beginning of the 1990s were small at first: members of the high command of the army were released from duty or resigned, but younger officers, many of them former members of the party, stayed on. The patron saints of the units and pre-war traditions were restored and field ordinariates of the three biggest churches were established, although there were Catholic chaplains in the Polish army also before 1989. Two crises were important from the viewpoint of civilian control: the first of them was related to the attempt by the conservative Defence Minister Jan Parys to cleanse the ranks of officers and the other to the public non-confidence motion against Defence Minister Piotr Kołodziejczyki by the Chief of the General Staff. The position of the Chief of the General Staff (i.e. the army) in relation to the Defence Minister, the parliament and the President was regulated thereafter. The military intelligence created after World War II similar to the Soviet Army was reorganised as late as 2006.
The transition to democratic civilian control was driven more by the desire of Polish politicians and generals to join NATO than internal developments in Polish politics and the army. In Poland, the army is regarded as a national institution that has certain immunity. The example of Poland shows that the post-communist transition of the army to democratic civilian control is in many respects comparable to the post-fascist transition of the armies in Germany, Italy, Spain or Portugal.
Episteemiline valitsetus: lähenemine poliitikakujundamise poliitikale
No full textThe aim of the paper is to make a meta-theoretical contribution to conceptions of how power and governance operate in contemporary policy-making. Most approaches to governance generally brush aside the actual mechanics of how influence is wielded and social change effected. To fill this gap we argue that society is managed increasingly through epistemic governance, which works on actors’ perceptions of the world and its current challenges. Our point is that regardless of which actors we assume to be influential in affecting public policies, they operate by utilizing a limited number of strategies, in broad paradigmatic as well as in focused practical dimensions. The epistemic work actors are engaged in focuses on three aspects of the social world: (1) ontology of the environment, (2) actor identifications, and (3) norms and ideals, or constructions of what the world is, who we are, and what is good or desirable. As such, we suggest ways to move beyond more or less structuralist explanations of sources and forms of power to reveal the strategies of power at play in attempts to influence policy change in the contemporary world
О строфической структуре верлибра А. А. Блока «Она пришла с мороза…» [On the Strophic Pattern of Alexander Blok’s Free Verse Poem “Ona prishla s moroza…”]
No full textThe purpose of this article is to reveal a sonnet-like structure in a famous poem by Alexander Blok, “Ona prishla s moroza…” (1908). The last four “stanzas” of the poem mimic the strophic structure of the Italian sonnet (4 + 4 + 3 + 3), thus stabilizing the otherwise unpredictable verse form (vers libre)
«Здесь русский дух… здесь Русью пахнет!»: Борьба с «русским духом» в Таллине в начале 1920-х гг. (Реконструкция событий и их отражение в карикатуре) [The Fight Against the “Russian Spirit” in the Tallinn of the Early 1920s]
No full textThis article is aimed at reconstructing the course of events that resulted in the relocation of a monument of Peter the Great in the capital of Estonia. The bronze standing figure of Peter by Léopold Bernstamm (unveiled in September 1910 to commemorate the bicentennial of the siege of Reval) was removed in April 1922. The reasons for its demolition were mainly ideological: for Estonians Peter the Great symbolized years of suffering under Russian rule. The controversy around Peter the Great attracted Georg Tõnisson (Gori), a graphic artist, who portrayed the czar in a series of caricatures published by Waba Maa and Meie Mats