abstract: Throughout the history of Western art music, political and religious institutions have exerted powerful influence through their patronage and censorship. This is especially relevant to the organ, an elaborate and expensive instrument which has always depended on institutional support. The fascinating story of Polish organ culture, which has existed since the Middle Ages, reflects the dramatic changes in Polish politics throughout the centuries. An understanding of this country's history helps to construct a comprehensive view of how politics influenced the developments in organ building and organ playing. This paper describes the dynamics of the Church, government and art institutions in Poland during the years 1945-2012. A brief summary of the history of Polish organ culture sets the stage for the changes occurring after WWII. The constant struggle between the Church and the communist regime affected music making and organ culture in Poland from 1945-1989. The political détente that occurred after 1989 led to a flowering of new instruments, restorations and performance opportunities for organists. By exploring the relationship between Polish organ culture and prevailing agendas in the 20th century, the author demonstrates how a centuries-old tradition adapted to survive political and economic hardships. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

abstract: This dissertation describes the public sphere that coalesced in the Soviet jazz scene during Josef Stalin’s reign. Scholars debate the extent to which Soviet citizens, especially under Stalin, were coerced into cooperating with the regime through terror; willingly cooperated with the regime out of self-interest; or re-aligned their speech, behavior, and thoughts to conform to Bolshevik ideology and discourse. In all cases, citizens were generally unable to openly express their own opinions on what Soviet society should look like. In this dissertation, I attempt to bridge this gap by analyzing the diverse reactions to jazz music in Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union. I argue that audience engagement with jazz and discussions about the genre in the Soviet press and elsewhere were attempts to grapple with bigger questions of public concern about leisure, morality, ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and patriotism in a socialist society. This jazz public sphere was suppressed in the late 1940s and early 1950s because of Cold War paranoia and fears of foreign influences in Soviet life. In its place, a counterpublic sphere formed, in which jazz enthusiasts expressed views on socialism that were more open and contradictory to official norms. This counterpublic sphere foreshadowed aspects of post-Stalinist Soviet culture. To support my arguments, I employ archival documents such as fan mail and censorship records, periodicals, memoirs, and Stalin-era jazz recordings to determine the themes present in jazz music, how audiences reacted to them, and how these popular reactions overlapped with those of journalists, musicologists, bureaucrats, and composers. This project expands our understanding of when and where public spheres can form, challenges top-down interpretations of Soviet cultural policy, and illuminates the Soviet Union and Russia’s ambivalent relationship with the West and its culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2017

Diplomová práce se zabývá hospodářskou spoluprácí mezi Německem a Sovětským svazem v letech 1939-1941. Nejprve analyzuje vzájemné vztahy po nástupu A. Hitlera k moci, posléze rozebírá uzavření hlavní smlouvy -Paktu Ribbentrop-Molotov a následně popisuje hospodářskou spolupráci z této smlouvy vyplývající.

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Tsar Nicholas II was the last in a long line of Russian rulers. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest individual in the world. The Russian revolution brought about the massacre of Nicholas and his entire family. Following the revolution, the new Soviet leaders developed a series of plans to revitalize what remained of the economy and of foreign relations. Lenin’s plans included reverting to some methods seen under Tsarist rule, while Stalin’s plans hinged on pumping much needed financial resources into military, infrastructure, industry and agriculture and expansion into new areas of natural resources, including Mongolia. Much of the needed money for Stalin’s plans came from the dismantling and selling of the possessions of the former imperial family. The Soviet Government effectively liquidated and used the Tsarist wealth in the the improved development of economic conditions and diplomatic relations.

Popular films in the Soviet Union were the products of the implementation of propagandistic messages into storylines that were both ideologically and aesthetically consistent with of the interests of the State and Party apparatuses. Beginning in the 1930s, following declaration of the doctrine on socialist realism as the official form of cultural production, Soviet authorities and filmmakers tailored films to the circumstances in the USSR at that given moment in order to influence and shape popular opinion; however, this often resulted in inconsistent and outright contradictory messages. Given the transformation that gender relations were undergoing in the early stages of development, one area that was particularly problematic in Soviet cinema was the portrayals of women. Focusing primarily on the Stalinist period of the Soviet History (1934-1953), I plan to look at the ways in which women were portrayed in popular Soviet cinema and specifically the ways in which these presentations shifted before, during, and after World War II.

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Diploma thesis "Radio Stalin as an example of Czech piracy radio broadcast" is aimed to complexly present radio station Radio Stalin which was broadcasting in October 1990 in Prague. Radio Stalin is presented in the context of events of that time and related changes in politics, economy, society and media and in the context of piracy radio broadcast. First of all the emphasis is put on media transformation and changes in legislative framework of radio broadcasting after 1989. Radio Stalin is described through the method of oral history when interviews were held with its several cofounders. This method was chosen because of absence or unavailability of other sources. However, press is used partly. In this thesis is created overall picture of Radio Stalin. It is possible to imagine the situation and conditions in which was this radio created, the period before the start of broadcasting, the broadcasting process, the end of its broadcasting and the continuation of it. The benefit of thesis is the reminder of this often neglected radio which has its own place in the history of Czech radio broadcasting. Radio Stalin is the first private radio station in Czechoslovakia which story is an interplay of many happy coincidences. This radio goal was to fill the missing gap and it enriched in long-term the...

I denna studie har ett spårande och tolkande i utvalda böcker av Astrid Lindgren skett med hjälp av historiebruk. Syftet var att ta reda på hur och om dessa tolkningar av historiebruket kan användas i historieundervisningen. Studien riktar sig mot historieämnet på gymnasieskolan. Tolkningarna av historiebruket utgår från en historiebrukstypologi där likheter mellan verkliga händelser och händelser i barnböckerna spåras. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det genom tolkningar av historiebruk går att spåra händelser i den verkliga historien kopplat till totalitarism i barnböcker skrivna av Astrid Lindgren. Resultatet visar också att med stöd av läroplanen för gymnasieskolan är undervisning med denna typ av tolkningar möjlig. Tolkningarna av berättelserna kan fungera som ett stöd för lärare i gymnasieskolan som har för avsikt att använda sig av denna metod.