The aim of this thesis is to shed light on Post-Soviet urban renewal and people’s perceptions of changes that recently occurred in both the city of Riga and Latvian society more generally since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. More specifically, this study examines how these perceptions are manifest in Riga’s ongoing renewal. Through applying aspects of continuity and discontinuity, I illustrate how the urban renewal of Post-Soviet Riga uncovers imaginary and emotional aspects of the city and how these are interpreted in relation to the past, present and the future. This study introduces the concept “urban postperestroika” and one important difference between this concept and the more common concepts post-socialist, post-communist or post-Soviet is that the former highlights a process while the latter ones largely highlight the state. The starting point is how urban phantasmagorias – contemporary dreams of the future of the city – elucidate urban renewal processes in general and urban postperestroika in particular. In Riga’s ongoing renewal processes I identify three main trajectories in relation to aspects of the past, present and the future: de-Sovietization, globalization and Lettification. Together, these three trajectories constitute an engine that produces urban phantasmagorias. The dissolution of the Soviet Union has given rise to notions that everything is “back to normal” again, and these notions of normalcy have influenced urban renewal processes. The dilemmas, as shown in this thesis, concern the Soviet period and its remaining psychical structure which give the impression of being too conspicuous to eliminate and too contradictory to assimilate. The study illustrates the difficulties of building new urban and societal structures on the remains of pre-existing orders. Such difficulties of course lead to contradictory and ambiguous world views and to new dysfunctional situations that have to be managed in the future.

La Lettonie est l’un des derniers pays indépendants à avoir été rattachés à l’Union soviétique. Elle n’est annexée qu’en 1940 – en conséquence de la définition des « sphères d’intérêts » soviétiques issue du Pacte Ribbentrop-Molotov, tout autant que de la menaçante puissante allemande en Europe. Elle connaît une soviétisation originale, contrastée, violente, profondément liée aux circonstances de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’invasion, puis l’occupation allemande interviennent un an à peine après l’annexion. La vision d’une collaboration de masse, les potentiels de résistance décuplés par le conflit, l’ampleur de la Shoah aussi sont autant de facteurs bouleversant considérablement le processus d’uniformisation avec le reste de l’URSS. En 1944, l’Armée rouge reconquiert une république qui lui est profondément hostile. Parallèlement, durant la guerre, l’URSS a formé les futurs cadres de la république restaurée.De 1939 à 1949, le processus d’homogénéisation se dissout dans une éternelle guerre et sortie de guerre, marquée notamment par la guérilla antisoviétique, et les mesures d’abord tâtonnantes, puis radicales prises par le régime stalinien. Ma thèse suit un cadre chronologique, afin de cerner les ruptures et les tragédies qui marquent l’espace et ses populations. Mais certaines continuités se dégagent, malgré les immenses fractures temporelles, rapides et incessantes de cette époque. A travers la mobilité institutionnelle et humaine, en croisant histoire politique et histoire sociale, étude de l’administration, de la répression et des mouvements de population, se dégage la singularité d’une république « occidentale » de l’Union. / Latvia was one of the last independent countries to be forcibly become a “Soviet Republic”. It was annexed only in 1940, as a consequence of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as well as the growing German threat in Europe. The sovietization that occurred afterwards was uncommon and violent. The German invasion and occupation of Latvia occurred a year after the annexation. During the war, the Soviet leaders elaborated an image of a “rebel” territory (because of the collaboration with the German occupiers, the Holocaust, and the growing anti-Soviet resistance movement). In 1944, the Red Army recovered an hostile and quite illegitimate republic. As the same time, most of the future leaders of the Soviet Latvian republic had been formed in non-occupied Russia.From 1939 to 1949, the homogenization process came along with a never-ending war and “aftermath of war”. This period was particularly characterized by the anti-Soviet guerilla, and by the changing Soviet politics towards “a new territory” (from hesitation to radicalization). The PhD dissertation follows the chronological frames of those changes, in order to insist on the huge breaks and tragedies that reached the territory and its people. Thanks to the analysis of the institutional and human motilities, thanks to the methods of both political and social history, I focus on three main dimensions: the constant turn-over in the “cadres” of the Republic, the specificities of the Stalinist repression, and the population displacements. Those aspects draw the peculiarities of the “Soviet Western borderland”.

Les recherches sur la ville de Nijni Novgorod suscitent des interrogations au sujet de la «ville-nature». Les spécificités de ce territoire, situé dans un autre contexte culturel, nous incitent à contester la généralisation d'un paradigme, celui de la «ville-nature». Il s'agit de revisiter la ville russe contemporaine par la complexité des interactions entre la construction urbaine, conçue par l'homme, et les processus naturels. Par le biais de la «ville-nature» nous repensons la ville et ses changements de conception : le passage d'une ville russe ancienne à la grande ville et à la ville socialiste. L'étude historique était essentielle pour comprendre le phénomène d'urbanisation et les origines des «natures» dans le milieu urbain, dont l'hétérogénéité résulte d'une séquence de bouleversements économiques et politiques. Nijni Novgorod ‒ centre d'agglomération industrielle, pendant la période soviétique Gorki — est fortement marquée par l'industrie. La postsoviétisation et la désindustrialisation ont engendré une recomposition urbaine, en rendant la structure urbaine illisible. Nijni Novgorod s'inscrit dans le territoire par des réseaux multiples dont la reconnaissance et la distinction, réalisées par une lecture stratifiée, à l'aide de la cartographie, mettent en évidence l'émergence du «vert» et participe à la qualification des espaces ouverts. «Sortir du vert» suppose de revisiter le rapport entre l'écologie et l'économie, ainsi que de reconsidérer la présence de la nature dans le milieu urbain par des activités économiques, des enjeux politiques et l'usage des processus naturels par l'homme. La thèse est structurée en entrées thématiques afin de présenter la diversité des rapports que la Nijni Novgorod contemporaine entretient avec la nature. Tout d'abord, sa position à la confluence de la Volga et l'Oka a prédéterminé sa viabilité économique et en même temps a posé le problème de la complexité des conditions naturelles, l'hydrographie et la topographie notamment. En dépit de la réalisation de travaux d'aménagements pendant le XXe siècle, les sols urbains restent difficilement praticables et vulnérables aux processus naturels. Dans la recherche, les espaces ouverts et végétalisés, considérés jusqu'à maintenant non constructibles, sont revisités comme appartenant à l'infrastructure paysagère. Des principes nouveaux d'aménagement sont recherchés pour réorganiser les processus naturels afin d'améliorer la qualité des sols urbains ; le travail du paysagiste s'accorde avec celui de l'ingénieur. Ensuite, la planification stratégique des années 1930 a prédéfini la structure éparpillée de Nijni Novgorod, pensée pour les industries. L'incohérence urbaine résulte des contradictions apparues entre la conception de la ville socialiste unie et la décentralisation uniforme des industries. Les espaces verts conservent l'empreinte des changements sociaux brutaux, de l'inaction politique et des pratiques d'aménagement urbain par les propres moyens des habitants. Le déclin de l'URSS a entraîné l'abandon des grands parcs publics, dont les qualités se rapprochent de celles des terrains réservés pour les espaces verts qui ne furent jamais aménagés. Cependant, la pauvreté des parcs urbains est compensée par la richesse des formes d'agriculture urbaine et périurbaine. Le tissu bâti est composé d'une morphologie dite intermédiaire, incluant des parcelles pour des activités agricoles. Enfin, les processus actuels sont considérés à travers des pratiques d'aménagement qui accompagnent la régénération postindustrielle et l'installation des nouvelles activités. À Nijni Novgorod, la transition postsoviétique accorde de nouvelles données pour le projet urbain, or ce passage se complique par l'ancrage des dogmes soviétiques dans la pensée actuelle. La recherche est réalisée à la rencontre des regards : architectural, territorial et paysager, par le croisement de méthodes différentes : l'histoire, la cartographie, le travail d'enquête sur le terrain. / The researches on the city of Nizhny Novgorod raise questions concerning “city-nature”. The specificities of this territory, situated in another cultural context, incite to contest the generalization of one paradigm, that of “city-nature”. This means to revisit the contemporary Russian city through the complexity of the interactions between the urban construction, which is conceived by human, and the natural processes. Through the “city-nature” we are questioning the “city” and the changes in its conception: the passage from the Russian town to the growing city and to the socialist city. The historic study was essential towards the understanding of the phenomenon of urbanization and the origins of the "natures", presented in the urban area. Its heterogeneousness results from a sequence of the economic and political upheavals. Nizhny Novgorod, during the Soviet period Gorky, is the centre of an industrial conglomeration; it is strongly marked by the industry. The postsoviétisation and the deindustrialization engendered the spatial reorganization and made the urban structure illegible. Nizhny Novgorod fit in the territory by multiple networks. Their recognition and distinction, realized by stratified reading through the cartographic analysis, puts in evidence the emergence of the "green" and participle in the qualification of the opened spaces. "Go out of the green" supposes to revisit the report between the ecology and the economy, as well as to reconsider the presence of the nature in the urban area by economic activities, the political aims and the usage of the natural processes by human. The thesis is structured by the thematic entrances in order to present the diversity of reports which contemporary Nijni Novgorod maintains with the nature. First of all, its position in the confluence of the Volga and Oka predetermined the economic viability and at the same time raised the problem of the complexity of the natural conditions, the hydrography and the topography particularly. In spite of improving the urban environment during the XXth century, the urban grounds remain practicable with difficulties and vulnerable in the natural processes. In the researches, the open and vegetated spaces, considered so far as not for construction, are revisited as belonging to the landscaped infrastructure. New principles of urban design are looked for to reorganize the natural processes in order to improve the quality of the urban grounds; the landscape design requires the engineering skills. Then, the strategic planning of the 1930s has predefined the disperse framework by Nijni Novgorod, conceived for the industries. The reason of urban incoherence due to the contradictions appeared between the conception of the united socialist city and the regular decentralization of the industries across the country. The urban green spaces conserve the imprint of the social upheavals, the political inactivity and the practices of urban design by the inhabitants with their own means. The decline of the USSR entailed the desolation of the city parks, whose qualities nowadays get closer to those of the spaces reserved for the new parks which were never realized. However, the poverty of the urban green spaces is compensated with the diversity of the forms of urban and suburban agriculture. The urban morphology consists of intermediate types, which include household plots, particularly for the gardens. Finally, the current processes are studied through the strategies of spatial organization, which will accompany the post-industrial regeneration and installation of the new activities. The post-sovietization brings to Nizhny Novgorod the new conditions for the urban project, but this passage is complicated by the anchoring of the Soviet doctrines in the urban conception. This research is realized on the intersection of the architectural territorial and landscaped regards and by the crossing of different methods: the history, the cartography and the opinion poll.

Title: Comparison of the Czechoslovak and German prison systems following World War II Author: Klára Pinerová Department: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Economic and Social History Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jiří Štaif, CSc. After World War II, countries that fell into the Soviet sphere of influence experienced major social, political and economic changes in a process which is in literature usually referred to as "Sovietization". This dissertation analyzes this process in the particular case of prison systems in Czechoslovakia and the Societ Occupation Zone which later became the German Democratic Republic. Its main focus lies on the way the Soviet model was applied in both countries, what kinds of similarities or differences can be traced in its development and what were the factors and reasons causing them. The main argument of the dissertation is that Sovietization, even though it produced similar results, was carried out in different ways in the individual countries, depending not only on previous development, but also on the geopolitical position and specific features of the country as well as on the will of the local communist establishment to adopt the Soviet model. It should be also noted that the Soviet model was not uniformly defined, but subject to konstant...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of international trade in Czechoslovakia from the end of World War II to the period of "sovietization". The author will examine foreign trade during the first post war years. He will concentrate on international trade in Czechoslovakia during 1945 -- 1953, especially on the problem of restricting trade with West European countries and strengthening ties with the Eastern bloc. The contribution of this paper consists mainly of creating a compact view of Czechoslovakian foreign trade after World War II until the end of the first five year plan (after the communist revolution).

本文的研究主軸是從哈薩克與俄羅斯雙邊外交互動的情形，來探討哈薩克俄羅斯人的歸屬問題，並以族群政治衝突的模式，分析哈薩克的俄羅斯人其處境。 哈薩克的俄羅斯人數，僅次於前蘇聯各加盟共和國的拉脫維亞，居中亞各國之首，且在哈薩克獨立之前或獨立初期，俄羅斯人的人口數都還遠超過哈薩克族，佔國內總人口數的半數以上，使其境內的俄羅斯人問題成為俄羅斯與哈薩克雙邊關係運作的一個重要變數，是雙方政府在其外交與內政問題上，必須同時面對並保持密切互動與接觸的議題。 因此在探討中亞的民族問題時，除了受「911」事件影響，重視伊斯蘭教的宗教極端主義之外，我們也不能忽視「俄羅斯人」這個受政治變遷所造成的民族問題。這些俄羅斯人在蘇聯解體後，失去其原有的優勢地位，且因為哈薩克有計畫的自境外移入哈薩克人，使俄羅斯人在哈薩克境內的人口數降到總人口數的50%以下，變成少數民族，如此政治社會上的情況轉變，引起俄羅斯人在哈薩克的適應問題與族群間的緊張關係。 本文從歷史、制度與現實三個層面來分析哈薩克境內的俄羅斯人，瞭解何以蘇聯時期出現大規模的移民現象？而蘇聯的蘇維埃化政策對移民地區的政社經濟情勢的變化有何影響？在哈薩克獨立後的國情變遷，以及此過程中，哈薩克政府如何處理其內部的俄羅斯人問題，以及此問題所引發與俄羅斯雙邊關係發展上的變化為何？俄羅斯政府如何在其對哈薩克的外交與內部的民族政策運作上取的協調？以及哈薩克國內的俄羅斯人在俄哈雙邊的外交運作中如何自我定位與調適？最後本文希望藉由探討1991年至1999年俄羅斯人與俄哈政府三邊的歷史互動，除了瞭解上述幾項問題之外，還能夠思考出對族群之間政治衝突解套的方法，以做為未來台灣族群政治問題研究之借鏡。 / This thesis focuses on the Russian who reside in Kazakhstan and on foreign relationship between Russia and Kazakhstan. The approach that the author takes is an Ethnopolitical Conflict model which analyzes the status of Russian-Speaking population in Kazakhstan. Among the former republics of Soviet Union, the Russian population in Kazakhstan is next to that in Latvia, and is the largest in Central Asia area. Moreover, in the beginning stage after Kazakhstan’s independence, the Russian, which is the ethnic majority, outnumber the Kazakh. So this issue becomes an important variable to bilateral relationship between Russia Federation and Kazakhstan in political, economic and social levels. When exploring the ethnic problems in Central Asia, in addition to the Islam religious extremism, we could not neglect the influence of Russian ethnic problems caused by political transition. After the collapse of Soviet Union, those Russian lost their advantages because of Kazakh immigrants so that the Russian became minority instead. With the change in political and social situation, it roused the Russian adaptation problems and racial tense. In order to study the mass migration phenomena in Soviet Union period, the author intends to analyze the Russian in Kazakhstan in historical, institutional and realism aspects. Besides, the author examines what impact the Sovietization policy might have on the political, social and economic changes in migration area. Moreover, it would be detailed that, after Kazakhstan’s independence, how Kazakhstan government deals with the Russian -Speaking Population issue, which affects the diplomatic change in the relation with Russian Federation. In addition, the author depicts how the Russian government strikes a balance between its diplomatic and ethnic policy. Accordingly, it is also examined how the Russian -Speaking Population in Kazakhstan define and accommodate themselves in Russia-Kazakhstan bilateral interaction. Finally, by exploring the context of trilateral relations among Russian-Speaking Population, Russian government and Kazakhstan government from 1991 to 1999, the author seeks a resolution for the racial disputes, and hopes it might be a lesson for studying Taiwan’s racial problems.

This diploma thesis analyzes the approach of the Soviet Union and that of the US-led coalition to state-building in Afghanistan, which today, as in the past, takes place against the backdrop of counterinsurgency warfare. The analysis in the field of politics, economy and security shows that in both cases the intervening powers have focused on building a strongly centralized system of government, in spite of the fact that the Afghan countryside's relationship to the Kabul-based government had traditionally been characterized by broad autonomy. The intervening powers' efforts have futhermore been associated with the export of exogenous political structures and for this reason attention is also drawn to the question to what extent the intervening powers' approach to the modernization of Afghan society has contributed to the escalation of unrelenting conflict.

Lithuania and its neighboring countries have experienced a persistent and significant issue of high suicide rates since the early 1990s. This ongoing problem remains a pressing concern for Lithuania, as it ranks seventh among nations with the highest mortality rates resulting from suicide worldwide. The objective of this study is to examine the historical and socio-cultural context of wars and invasions, as well as the effects of the de-sovietization process in the Baltic States region, and their potential lasting implications in contemporary times. Utilizing key indicators, including GDP, Gini Coefficient, and Alcohol Consumption, to gain insights into the socio-economic developments that Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia experienced between the years 2000 and 2019. These indicators serve as important metrics for understanding the potential impacts and changes that occurred in Lithuania during this period.

Cette thèse porte sur le film de reconstitution historique réalisé en Roumanie pendant la période communiste et vise à analyser les enjeux politiques et culturels de la mise en scène du passé national. La compréhension de cette problématique passe d’abord par la mise en exergue des différentes logiques qui ont présidé l’action étatique à l’égard de la culture et en particulier de la cinématographie tout au long de la période communiste. Nous envisageons d’analyser les conditions économiques, politiques et idéologiques de la production cinématographique, les directives concernant la thématique générale et l’orientation que le parti tente d’imprégner au cinéma. Afin de compléter le tableau des relations sociales, cette étude cherche à mettre en évidence également les positions prises par les créateurs et les bureaucrates en rapport avec une politique ou une autre, les résistances, les convenances et les collaborations. Dans un second temps, cette étude envisage la restitution des processus socioculturels qui ont donné naissance aux films historiques. Il nous intéresse de comprendre la conception interne de chaque œuvre, les forces sociales qui se mettent en route, les positions idéologiques du parti, des artistes, des bureaucrates ou des historiens, les mécanismes de prise de décision. Nous essayons de mettre en corrélation la vision des créateurs avec la position des historiens et celle du parti à travers la focalisation ciblée sur les différents niveaux d’écriture cinématographique ainsi que sur les opérations de négociations souterraines pour défendre une vision ou une autre. Enfin, le troisième niveau d’analyse s’intéresse au décryptage du film, en tant que produit artistique complexe réunissant trois formes d’expression (l’image, le dialogue et le son) dans le but de dégager les significations politiques ou culturelles de la mise en scène du passé. Nous étudions les représentations cinématographiques des mythes historiques, leur évolution des 1960 aux années 1980 et l’apport spécifique du cinéma dans leur reproduction. / The subject of this PhD dissertation is the historical reconstructions films produced in Romania under communist rule and more precisely between 1960 and 1989. It analyses the social and cultural significance of the representation of national past but also the social and political aspects involved in the production process. In order to understand these research objectives our approach we stress first various logics which chairing the state action towards the culture and in particular towards the cinematography. We intend to analyze the economic, political and ideological conditions of the film production, the directives concerning the general thematic and the orientation that the party tries to induce to the cinema. To complete the picture of social relationships, this study tries to emphasize the stand taken by the creators and the bureaucrats towards different policies, the resistances, the liking, the collaborations. Second, this study envisages the restoration of the sociocultural processes that gave birth to the historic movies. We try to understand the internal conception process of every work, the social dynamics, the ideological positions of the party, the artists, the bureaucrats or the historians and the decision-making mechanisms. We try to correlate the vision of the creators with the position of the historians and the party through a targeted focus at the various levels of film writing as well as at the operations of subterranean negotiations in order to defend a vision or another. Finally, the third level of analysis, is interested in the deciphering of the movie as a complex artistic product combining three forms of expression (image, language and sound) aiming at reveal the political and cultural meanings of past reconstruction. We study the film representations of the historic myths, their evolution from the 1960 to 1980s and the specific contribution of the cinema in their reproduction.

在擴大對「蘇聯文化」研究的基礎上，本論文探討蘇聯的文化政治與政策施作，其終極目標乃透過命名的權力來建構文化的社會主體性，也即「蘇維埃人」這樣的歷史共同體。為求例證之多樣性，本論文綜合了文化研究與歷史研究途徑，以文本分析和文獻分析作為研究方法，並將指涉的文化政策範圍縮限於文學與藝術領域，以及對文化公共財，如圖書館、博物館、劇院的擴充。 對布爾什維克而言，爭取文化霸權就是建構並傳播蘇維埃意識形態，透過意識形態國家機器，即藝文團體、報刊媒體等來體現，繼而將個人建構為主體，製造出一批批本應如此的「形象」。因此，蘇維埃意識形態始終驅動著蘇聯文化政策的開展。配合主政之領導人，國家對政策的指導可簡化為「文化革命─社會主義寫實主義─公開性」的歷程，並對應由逐漸緊縮到開放的程度。其中，由列寧發起的文化革命可謂蘇聯文化政策的承先啟後階段，尚且容許藝文團體的多元發展。進入史達林時期後，所推出的社會主義寫實主義既是一種創作風格，也是政策的依歸。從寫作到編曲，從繪畫到電影，它為蘇聯的文藝創作設置理論與框架，並成為作品能否公開展演及獲得國家獎勵的唯一標準。至於戈巴契夫的公開性則帶來蘇維埃意識形態更為人性化的修正與文化政策的轉折。 另一方面，本論文透過觀照經蘇維埃化所產生之新蘇維埃人的日常生活片斷，概括蘇維埃文化的若干特徵，點出其指導大眾邁向由官方營造之理想人生的規訓功能，繼而探究蘇聯社會中不同身分的互動，析論政策造成的後續影響。藉由對精英、婦女與青年等文化研究關鍵面向的討論，可以發現蘇聯文化政策的差別待遇模式，以及未將文化納入政策考量的若干失誤。