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The following essay addresses Alexandr Volko's adaption and appropriation of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz". Exceedingly popular throughthout the Easern bloc, Volkov's novels have endeared a magical setting and cast of characters to readers who rarely knew of their American origins. I discuss the Wizard's 'travels' throught the Iron Curtain as an incidence of cultural exchange at once motivated by and subverting Cold War cultural politics. I suggest that it is not so much the changes to which Baum's narrative universe has been subjected on its way from West to East that makes this case study remarkable but the ways in wich the two Wizards have been interpreted to fit contestable notions of 'American' and 'Soviet' culture.

In this Bachelor Thesis The Writers Aim To investigate the portrayal of the Soviet Union in the cold war. This portrayal is investigated using two different approaches, one qualitative and one quantitative. The qualitative method examine, through a textual analysis, the portrayal of the Soviet Union in two schoolbooks produced in different years. The first textbook produced in the year of 1996 and the second one in 2012. The quantitative method approach the problem by using a content analysis were the aim focus is to see if the portrayal of the Soviet Union is more positive than negative or vice versa. This is Examined By using a formulation called the coefficient of imbalance, Which is applied to classify content data as positive or negative. Four books are included in the quantitative content analysis, the earliest one is produced in 1986 and the latest in 2011. Both analysis uses the same theoretical background and previous researches, the theoretical background is in this case the use of history. Klas-Göran Karlssons typology over the use of history is the base of the theoretical background. Both analysis are presented separately to be presented together beneath "7. Slutsats" and "8. Diskussion". By merging the two analysis the two authors Could draw a conclusion. The conclusion show That the textbooks portray the Former Soviet Union in a dismissive manor. Some of the use of history had influenced the content in the textbooks, but the Majority didn't. The two use of history that had influenced the textbooks were “non-use of history” and “ideological history”. But the authors clarify that “none-use of history” has affected the portrayal of the cold war history of the Soviet Union.

The following essay addresses Alexandr Volko's adaption and appropriation of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz". Exceedingly popular throughthout the Easern bloc, Volkov's novels have endeared a magical setting and cast of characters to readers who rarely knew of their American origins. I discuss the Wizard's 'travels' throught the Iron Curtain as an incidence of cultural exchange at once motivated by and subverting Cold War cultural politics. I suggest that it is not so much the changes to which Baum's narrative universe has been subjected on its way from West to East that makes this case study remarkable but the ways in wich the two Wizards have been interpreted to fit contestable notions of 'American' and 'Soviet' culture.

Presented thesis discusses the relationship between the Eastern bloc and Libya, using the Czechoslovak model as an example. On the basis of analysis of archive documents this text describes the cooperative process between socialist states and the regime of Muammar Qaddafi within the period of 1969-1989. The emphasis is put on political, economical, military and, to some extent, cultural aspects of mutual relationship between said countries. The purpose of this thesis is to present Czechoslovakia as a so called "small player" in the context of international politics of the Cold war. The author is aiming to show that, contrary to the orthodox explanations of the Cold war as a conflict of two monolithic blocs, Czechoslovakia was capable of limited autonomy within the frame of her foreign policy, especially towards third world countries. Therefore, more than simply presenting the Cold war as an East-West process, this thesis works with a North-South view. The point of this perspective is that the Cold war itself was not just a clash of superpowers, but was also comprised of acts of international help from Eastern bloc states to, among others, the North African countries such as Libya. To complete this task, the author worked with archive materials of Czech provenance, as well as domestic and foreign...

L’Angola est devenue indépendante du Portugal le 11 novembre 1975, au milieu des disputes internes qui ont conduit à l'éclatement de la guerre civile provoquée par le fait que le MPLA a déclaré unilatéralement l'indépendance à Luanda. Ce moment a été déterminée en grande partie par le soutien reçu de Cuba et le bloc de l'Est, plus précisément l'URSS, au cours des 14 années de lutte anticoloniale. Dans la période postindépendance, entre 1975 et 1991, même si des bases militaires soviétiques ne furent pas été installées en Angola, il faut signaler l’influence politique-idéologique et la présence militaire de l’Union Soviétique, qui s’exerça à un degré élevé en comparaison avec d’autres pays dans le contexte d’une bipolarité mondiale. Du point de vue idéologique, l’influence soviétique se manifesta dans des actions de l’Etat angolais en ce que cela touchait à la construction d’un sentiment et d’une identité nationale, ainsi que dans l’appartenance à une nation angolaise, objectivée dans le processus de constitution de l’Homme Nouveau, promu par le Parti-Etat. Du point de vue militaire, l’implication de Moscou dans la guerre en Angola nous a amené à conclure que dans ce territoire les Soviétiques donnèrent une plus grande importance à la consolidation de l’Etat en ce qui touchait la sécurité et le renforcement des appareils politiques, en fournissant matériel et le soutien consultatif pour les forces militaires de l’Angola, bien qu'il soit important de remarquer que les Soviétiques n'ont pas contrôlé la politique intérieure du pays. / Angola became independent from Portugal on 11 November 1975, in the midst of internal disputes that led to the outbreak of civil war caused by the fact that the MPLA unilaterally declared independence in Luanda. This moment has been determined largely by the support received from Cuba and the Eastern bloc, specifically the USSR during the 14 years of anti-colonial struggle. In the post-independence period, between 1975 and 1991, although Soviet military bases were not been installed in Angola, it should be noted the political-ideological influence and military presence of the Soviet Union, which exercised a high degree compared with other countries in the context of global bipolarity. From an ideological point of view, Soviet influence was manifested in the actions of the Angolan government in that it affected the building and a sense of national identity, as well as membership in an Angolan nation, objectified in the process of formation of the New Man, promoted by the Party-state. From a military point of view, the involvement of Moscow in the war in Angola has led us to conclude that in this territory the Soviets gave greater importance to the consolidation of the state in which affected the safety and building equipment policies, providing material and advisory support to the military forces of Angola, although it is important to note that the Soviets did not control the internal politics of the country.

Foreign policy of Czechoslovakia in 70's and 80's depended completely on the policy of the Soviet union and its promoted ideology. The Czechoslovak socialist republic preserved the narrowest relationship with the Soviet union and its sattelite states in Eastern Europe, while the relationship with the western countries oriented to co-operation with the United states, was very cold and was beeing restored very slowly and gradually. The developing countries, especially those heading to a socialist establishment, had a special position in Czechoslovak foreign policy. Especially these countries benefited from Czechoslovak aid such as financial, military or material support. Another way Czechoslovakia implemented its development aid was offering scholarships for university students. The purpose of this form of aid was to contribute to the progress of developing countries, most of whom gained independence recently. Simultaneously the policy pursued another aim - to spread the socialist ideology and the influlence of the Soviet union around the world. Hundreds of foreign students studied in Czechoslovak universities every year during 70's and 80's. Most of them came from so called developing countries. Foreign students came from various countries of the world, various cultures and therefore they perceived...

The aim of this thesis is to numerically evaluate democratic consolidation in Eastern European countries of the former Eastern Bloc. To compare these countries with each other and decide which of these countries can be considered as consolidated democracies. Secondary aim is to find which factors supported this consolidation or at least correlate with it. Theoretical basis of this work is Wolfgang Merkel's theory of democratic consolidation. He divides democratic consolidation into four levels: constitutional consolidation, representative consolidation, behavioral consolidation and democratic consolidation of the political culture. Each level of democratic consolidation is numerically expressed, with usage of Bertelsmann's transformation index data, separately for all states in two-year intervals since 2005 to 2015. Based on that, overall democratic consolidation is calculated. Therefore, we can compare countries between each other and in time. Correlation between factors supporting consolidation and overall democratic consolidation is expressed by Pearson correlation coefficient. This work is beneficial in creating and describing method, which can be used for numerical expression of democratic consolidation in any state since 2005 to 2015 without author's subjective influence. Another benefit is...