Czechoslovak housing estates built in the last two decades of state-socialism can be viewed as a socialist spatial entity with its own uniqueness and local characteristics specific to the circumstances of socialist Czechoslovakia during the "normalisation" era. These housing estates appeared from the beginning of the 1970s in big cities such as in Prague and Bratislava provided a new kind of living space for the residents. The ideas behind the creation of these estates were not only related to their physical appearance which shows the direct connection to modernist architecture, but also the aspiration of socialist ideologues to make a positive change in the name of socialist modernisation. Although the post-war socialist centralization of the Czechoslovak state and architectural practice endorses the notion of collective endeavour, the construction of housing estates for all as a part of the "building of socialism" program was attacked by contemporary critiques as providing the premises for the citizens' retreat into the private sphere. These estates could be argued to have caused a psychological impact and worked to shape a new lifestyle and mentality of the residents whose lives epitomized the main theme of normalisation-era: the quiet lives away from politics. Different poles of criticism to...

No description available.

This dissertation thesis focuses on a topic that is of growing interest among scholars, and for which there is still plenty of room for analysis and interpretation, namely the role of the Ukrainian Sixtiers during the Khrushchev Thaw in the USSR in the period 1956-1964. This cultural phenomenon is analysed within a broader socio-cultural context with the help of the approach of colonial studies. The key research question is "How did the worldview of the Sixtiers develop during the Khrushchev Thaw (1956-1964) from the point of view of colonial studies and how was this reflected in their literary works?" The first chapter describes the historical, political and cultural context of this period. It includes an analysis of the circumstances surrounding the proclamations made in Khrushchev's secret speech in 1956, the beginning of the policy of de-Stalinization, and its impact on the political and cultural life in Soviet Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to the development of the official discourse of socialist realism as an official and dominant cultural concept, which was to be applied in artistic and literary works. The main principle of socialist realism, so-called "internationalism", is analysed in terms of its role as an element of colonial discourse. The second chapter focuses on the...

The thesis "Evangelické sítě a disent" ("Evangelical social networks and dissent") is about interconnection between evangelical people and other people from dissent. There is over represented number of evangelical signatories in Charta 77. I want to show some factors, that could cause this fact. I want to explain the way of involving Protestants in the czech dissent by historical facts from published documents, theory of weak and strong ties ba M. Granovetter, theory of new social movements and testimonies. This testimonies were acquired for the purpose of this thesis. This testimonies would help to show some special phenomenas in the ties between evangelical people and people from dissent and underground. There is part in the thesis, which is dedicated to the degree of civic engagement of evangelical people and the causes of the high degree of civic engagement of evangelical people. And there is part about situation of evangelical parsons and evangelical church itself in the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century.

The general aim of this thesis is to analyse and compare archival materials concerning Huguenot and Walloon families, and to carry out a sample analysis of these and whether it is possible to find the cities of origin where they lived until the Nantes Edict was revoked in 1685 and they were forced to flee because of their reformed faith. The selected sources consist primarily of materials from the French departmental archives and materials accessed via the internet as digitalized pictures (.jpg-files) and so on.  The descriptive section of this thesis concerns literature about Huguenot and Walloon history, genealogy, and exodus, as well as research into archive and information sciences primarily access and findability. I begin by describing the overall view, to set the stage. Then, I investigate the European archives. Thirdly, I proceed with a time intensive sample analysis of 30 known families from varying places in France, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden and finally, I attempt to clarify the difficulties that arise concerning findability and why those arise.  The method is genealogical research on sources accessible by the internet, and it turns out in the conclusion that 50% of the chosen families can be found in their home parishes, even if findability issues often show themselves, both because we’re talking about a religious minority, people fleeing the country, and a large geographic area. It was heartening and surprising however, that my search was successful in finding so many of the 30 families, and interesting to note which areas were easier to search than others.  The findability issues are further deepened because the archives’ Internet pages are not optimally designed as their metadata is often insufficient, and the pages furthermore so difficult to navigate since they are both widely different from each other, and because they are not, in the words of Wendy M. Duff, managing to hit the “perfect pivot point” between archiving and usage. Reasons for this include a lack of descriptive data attached to the digitalised files, and because .jpg-files are often not searchable, as observed as well by Catherine Styles.  More user research is required in the area of archives, so that better and easier access to these webpages can be guaranteed, especially given varying userbases and their differing needs in searching.

Abstract This thesis examines the various biographical threads, which created the complex fabric of Sergei Parajanov’s life and work, especially his films. His origins, education, marriages, family life, and friendships forged in film school and in the various studios, where he worked, are used to frame his cinematic productions. However, the most novel features of this study result from an examination of his letters from prison and the artistic output, drawings, collages, scripts/scenarios, assemblages, etc., created in the gulag and outside during the time that he was denied the right to make films. An argument is made that the Soviet authorities jailed him as a dissident although he never considered himself one, being rather simply an honest creative individual, who would not abide the censoring or redaction of his work. His homosexuality was the pretext for Soviet authorities to incarcerate him, but Parajanov’s queerness has been almost completely omitted from purportedly authoritative memoirs and biographies meant to capture the late filmmaker’s legacy. These publications written by Soviet and post-Soviet critics, Parajanov’s close friends, and numerous confidants make a deliberate effort to erase his self-professed queer identity. Foreign aficionados of his work, on the other hand, have little hesitancy acknowledging his queerness. My research centers on Parajanov’s queer identity as the underlying source of his bold and innovative artistic output.

On October 1, 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war from and with the support of the Republic of Uganda against Rwanda. This war was accompanied by unspeakable violations of International Humanitarian Law. Both conflicting parties violated the basic rules protecting the civilian population in situations of armed conflicts. The United Nations Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of its Charter, passed resolution 955 of November 8, 1994 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute alleged responsible of such violations. This study investigates the background of the ICTR and questions the nature of the conflict that prompted the Security Council to establish another ad hoc international criminal tribunal after the one established for the former Yugoslavia. It further inquires into its jurisprudence and reflects critically on the ICTR's approach to serious violations of IHL under Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. / Jurisprudence / LL. M. (Law)

On October 1, 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war from and with the support of the Republic of Uganda against Rwanda. This war was accompanied by unspeakable violations of International Humanitarian Law. Both conflicting parties violated the basic rules protecting the civilian population in situations of armed conflicts. The United Nations Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of its Charter, passed resolution 955 of November 8, 1994 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to prosecute alleged responsible of such violations. This study investigates the background of the ICTR and questions the nature of the conflict that prompted the Security Council to establish another ad hoc international criminal tribunal after the one established for the former Yugoslavia. It further inquires into its jurisprudence and reflects critically on the ICTR's approach to serious violations of IHL under Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. / Jurisprudence / LL. M. (Law)

Exile has always played a significant role in the history of the Romanian nation. On that account the Romanian literature written in exile after 1945 presents an important part of the history of Romanian literature as a whole. Due to its linguistic and cultural affinity France became one of the main host countries for Romanian exile writers. The introductive chapter is dedicated to description, classification and history of this phenomenon in Romanian context; furthermore, it deals with the position and reception of exile literature in Romania. According to their departure date in exile two generations of authors are presented: Mircea Eliade, Virgil Ierunca, Monica Lovinescu who left Romania in 1940s and Paul Goma, Bujor Nedelcovici, Dumitru Ţepeneag who decided to leave in France in 1970s and 1980s. The chosen works help us to get to know to the writers' creation and lives during the process of integration and, simultaneously, we get familiar with the communist Romania that became the main topics of the exile writers who are chosen as representatives of their exile generation. Through them the basic survey of this phenomenon in Romanian literature was drawn up.

The diploma thesis deals with the architectonic tendencies in 1980s in Czechoslovakia which were aside the stream of the official design studios and The Czech architects Union. The aim of the diploma thesis, based on the particular examples of free architectural groups, exhibitions and other activities they had in common, to create vivid and complex image of tendencies in monitored period. The situation of centralized building production is described in the introducing part - what made the youngest and middle generation of architects to attempt at the change of architectonic production and also the status of own profession. In individual chapters you can learn about syndicates "Středotlací", "Vokolo Vosmýho", "Obecní dům" and "Zlatí Orli". The first common exhibitions of graphic artists and architects in early 80s and later the exhibitions of painted/paper architecture arranged by "Technical magazine" between 1985 and 1990 are introduced in the paper. It introduces the activity of Jiří Ševčík who was the essential theorist of contemporary architecture. He devoted his work to mediate foreign, most often postmodern, theory of architecture. The thesis is trying to pass an opinion on the specific point of view of contemporary local interpretation of postmodernism and also to introduce application of...