Barbora Skálová Whose side are you on? Radical Left in postwar Finland - on the phenomenon of Marxism-Leninism outside the Eastern Bloc Abstract The dissertation aims to explore the phenomenon of a radical left movement - Taistoists - which at the turn of the 60s and 70s for a short period of time dominated the student and cultural circles in Finland. The dissertation strives to shed light on the reasons for the uprise of the - in European context unique - pro-Soviet, Marxist-Leninist and "anti-anti- establishment" youth movement, and on its influence on home and foreign policy of Finland in terms of so-called Finlandization. The work also puts the movement into the Czechoslovakian context, mainly in relation to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. The dissertation discusses the theoretical anticapitalistic background of the movement and compares it to the theoretical background and political practice of coeval New Left movements in Europe and the USA. The experience of the members of the movement has been elaborated in the oral history part based on personal interviews. The oral history chapter aims to offer an explanation and a broader perspective of the taistolaiset phenomenon presented by direct witnesses and participants of the movement.

1990 wurden linksradikale Akteure aus West- und Ostdeutschland Teil des gleichen Staates und somit gleichsam Teil eines selben Ganzen: der deutschen radikalen Linken. Die große Vielfalt der ideologischen Strömungen in einer höchst heterogenen Szene wie der radikalen Linken machte die Entstehung einer gemeinsamen kollektiven Identität ohnehin schwierig. Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht herauszufinden, wie Akteure aus Ost und West, die sich selbst als „linksradikal“ bezeichneten, im Laufe der 1990er Jahre versucht haben, sich in der neuen, de facto gemeinsamen politischen Szene selbst und gegenseitig zu verorten. Wie wurden die neuen Verhältnisse nach dem Zusammenbruch des Realsozialismus und somit dem Wegfall vieler Bezugsrahmen und Paradigmen des Kalten Krieges neu definiert? Wie sah die deutsche radikale Linke ihre Rolle in diesem neuen Kontext? Gab es spezifische ost- bzw. westdeutsche Antworten auf die neue Situation? Nicht zuletzt wird gefragt, ob ost- und westdeutsche Akteure gemeinsame Kampfinhalte entwickeln konnten. Die Nationsfrage wird in der vorliegenden Studie unter zwei Aspekten verhandelt: Erstens als Erfahrungsgeschichte einer sich neu zu bildenden „deutsch-deutschen Linken“ in Ost und West nach 1990. Zweitens ist es eine Geschichte der expliziten Auseinandersetzung mit den neuen Themen „deutsche Nation“ und „deutsche Geschichte“, wie sie vor allem von Seiten der antideutschen bzw. antinationalen Linken diskutiert wurden. Diese Auseinandersetzung hatte sowohl Auswirkungen auf das linksradikale Selbstverständnis der berücksichtigten Szene als auch auf den Verlauf der Neuvereinigung der ost- und westdeutschen Komponenten dieser Szene. / In 1990, East and West German actors who viewed themselves as members of the “radical left” suddenly became part of the same collective: the German radical left. Yet the contexts in which these actors had been politicized and socialized had been quite distinct prior to the fall of the Wall. The purpose of this study is to examine the modalities by which these actors – East and West – were unified in the course of the 1990’s. On what bases did they – in an environment which remained highly heterogeneous – define the shared reality which is a precondition of any rapprochement? What was the influence of the legacy of the East German leftist opposition’s political experience in the GDR? The position known as antideutsch or antinational particularly attracted our attention. It developed among the West German left in the wake of reunification. It also contributed considerably to redefining the structure of the scene in the East and the West in the second half of the 1990’s. The dissertation throws light on German political culture following reunification, on the one hand, and on the disorientation of the German left after the collapse of Real socialism, on the other. Furthermore, it introduces the East German dimension, which is often neglected by research, in the history of the Western European left.

This essay describes the radicalization of the Greek society and the rise of the political extremism in Greece in the period of 2000-2012. In this time important changes could have been observed in the Greek political scene and in the society which were linked to the polarization of the electorate and the growth of populism, nationalism, euroscepticism, xenophobia and racism. As a result of modernizing efforts of Constantinos Simitis cabinet (1996-2004), which were related to the Greek ambition to become fully-fledged member of the EU and the Eurozone, under the influence of globalization, immigration crisis and finally the recent slump of the Greek economy, a new social conflict emerged in Greece. This essay analyzes these problems from the perspective of the cleavages theory by Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan and tries to find social and political roots of such conflict. The radicalization of the Greek society between 2000 and 2012 does not represent a new phenomenon, but is is a continuation of long-term ideological clashes present in the Greek social reality since the World WarI. After identifying the main cleavages in interwar and postwar period the essay identifies the main conflict of Greece after the fall of junta in 1974. Afterwards it confronts the new political issues of the period 2000-2012...