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From Trebizond to Kallithea: Pontian Greeks, Perceptions of Greekness, and the Birth of Modern States
By Isaure Vorstman Abstract Between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., a colony of Greek merchants and sailors left mainland Greece to settle on the northeastern coast of Asia Minor, on the shores of the Black Sea, in a territory they baptised “Πόντος,” (“Pontos”) literally meaning “sea.” There they developed a distinct identity, culture, and…
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Soviet Women’s Acceptance of Infantilization as a Means of Compromise, Resistance, and Denial on the Frontlines of World War II and Beyond
By Julia-Maria Xavier Content Warning: Sexual Assault Abstract World War II was marked by the violent acquisition of land, shaping, and re-shaping of territories and populations both in its immediacy and aftermath. For citizens of the Soviet Union, like most other nations, defending their territory was an issue of patriotism, in which all citizens were…
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Passport to Reprieve: Global Movements and Camaraderie During the Second World War
By Susan Samardjian Content Warning: Genocide Sonia Caplan, Passport to Reprieve. Canada: Azrieli Foundation, 2021. xi + 209 pp., with illustrations. ISBN: 9781989719169 (sc). Price: CAD$14.95. “The complexity of our lot struck me so forcefully that I was staggered again and heard myself exclaiming, ‘If I live to tell the story, nobody will believe it.’”1…
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Mangled Memory: Remembrance of the Nazi Regime in the German Democratic Republic
Cover photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Berlin, Palast der Republik — um 1990 — 2” / CC BY-SA 4.0 By Aviva Gomes-Bhatt From 1949 until 1990, Germany was divided into the Western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). Ideologically separated by the proverbial Iron Curtain, each state had to grapple with reconstruction and usher itself…
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Revolution under the Shadow of the State: Organized Crime in the Soviet Union
Moscow’s Red Square during the Soviet era. Photo: daves_archive_1/Flickr. No changes made. View the license here. By Mike Shirley Introduction “I have no mother and no father. There is only the code, the vory v zakone code.” – Nikolai Luzhin, Eastern Promises[1] In 1971, Voldemar Mirkin, an antiques dealer in the Soviet Union’s thriving black market, came…
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The City of the Dead Confronts the City of the Living: Mostar’s Partisan Memorial Cemetery as ‘lieu de mémoire’
Cover photo: Partisan Memorial Cemetery, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: leiris202/Flickr. No changes made. View the license here. By Nikolai Ranko Duffield Introduction Located in a valley between the Hum and Velež mountains, a city of stone sits idly, intersected by the mighty blue Neretva, which flows quietly through the centre. Frequently listed as a…
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The Voices of a Few: Women in the Gulag
Shack from Gulag- Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Photo: Marcin Szala/Wikimedia Commons. No changes made. View the license here. By: Julia Maria-Xavier The Stalinist era saw millions of people caught within the penal system, whether in prisons, labour camps, forced labour colonies, or exile, and millions more who bore the traumatic experience of being…
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Hostages of History: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and the Hazards of EU Accession
Photo: Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Photo is in the public domain. By: Isabelle Avakumovic-Pointon Despite the groundbreaking Prespa Agreement with Greece in 2018, North Macedonia’s accession to the European Union (EU) is once again on hold. This time, the veto comes from Bulgaria: North Macedonia’s neighbour and, until recently, its staunchest supporter in…
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Nectar of the State-Owned Cooperative: A Commentary on Hungarian Wine’s Stagnation and Revitalization
Title Photo: Hétszőlő vineyards in Tokaj, Hungary. Photo courtesy of Jerzy Kociatkiewicz/Wikimedia Commons. No changes made. View the license here. By: Ben Marshall The Latin saying “vinum regnum, vinum rex,” or “wine of kings, king of wines,” is a phrase which is commonly attributed to the French King Louis XIV, and it is in no…
Eurasiatique
Identity and Place – vol. XI