No Longer Just Peasants and Priests: The Most Recent Studies on Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Ukraine
The article provides an overview of the most recent scholarship on nation building in Ukraine during the long nineteenth century. One of the most important tendencies is the rise of what might be called the neo- or post-statist paradigm that underlines the relevance of early modern legacies for nineteenth-century activism and qualifies the image of Ukraine as a typical East and Central European, non-historical nation. As a result, the emphasis has shifted from the Austrian to the Russian Empire. Also, these new studies tend to pay much more attention to the transnational and entangled qualities of politics in nineteenth-century Ukraine. Nevertheless, contributions focusing on the ‘non-historical-nation’ aspects of the question still bring important insights and cannot be disregarded. The liminal position of Ukraine makes it especially well suited to serve as a testing ground for some received wisdoms about European nation building in general. Apart from considering the limitations of and the possible gains from present-day scholarship, the article offers some thoughts on how the political-military crisis might impact the study of Ukrainian nation building in the future.
Quelle: http://ehq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/713?rss=1
The Bonds That Shame: Reconsidering the Foreign Exchange Trials of 1935-36 Against the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany
This article reassesses the foreign exchange trials and concurrent propaganda campaign in 1935–36 against the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany. Scholars have had difficulties situating the foreign exchange trials within the church struggle because most have viewed the proceedings as legitimate and the impact on the church and the laity as negligible. The argument of an untainted justice system under National Socialism can of course no longer be sustained, and the Nazis routinely used specific crimes to persecute their enemies. The violation of Germany’s complex foreign exchange laws became a signature crime favoured by the Security Service in the persecution of Jews. In 1935, the regime attempted to use accusations of foreign exchange violations in pursuit of the church. New evidence from the Vatican Archives reveals that the foreign exchange trials against the church were anything but legitimate proceedings on the margins of the church struggle. Instead, the regime pursued immediate and specific political goals with the trials at a crucial point in the conflict. In particular, the regime attempted to force the church to publicly capitulate on unresolved issues over Catholic lay associations. Hitler routinely interfered in the proceedings and lower-ranking officials soon joined in and used the trials to discipline bishops and religious orders within their respective spheres of influence. The bishops’ often ill-considered response to the trials only escalated the crisis within the church, and evidence indicates that the regime delayed settlements for as long as possible to press church leaders to make further concessions to the regime.
Quelle: http://ehq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/4/689?rss=1