Nina Paulovicova | Athabasca University (original) (raw)
Books by Nina Paulovicova
Nationalities Papers, 2023
This study identifies the mnemonic strategies of the Slovak extreme-right Ľudová Strana Naše Slov... more This study identifies the mnemonic strategies of the Slovak extreme-right Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS) / People’s Party Our Slovakia as a means of establishing a mnemonic alliance with Putin’s Russia. ĽSNS’s construction of mnemonic culture surrounding two critical events in Slovak history – the 1944 Slovak National Uprising and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army and its allies – is marked by an effort to overcome the ideological divide between its extreme-right ideology and Russia’s identity and memory politics rooted in its anti-fascist heritage. Those two events represent an uneasy terrain for building political and mnemonic alliances between ĽSNS and Putin’s Russia. Even though these two historical milestones represent a seemingly unmasterable past and an obstacle in an ĽSNS-Russia alliance, the party implemented several mnemonic strategies to reconfigure the place of these two key historical events in national memory and clear the path for a closer alliance with Putin’s Russia. We argue that ĽSNS’s memory construction is multidirectional rather than competitive or discordant. We unpack ĽSNS’s memory construction and identify multidirectional effects and trajectories as vectors for building a mnemonic alliance with Putin’s Russia.
have produced an excellent collection on the connections among the French Nouvelle droite, the Al... more have produced an excellent collection on the connections among the French Nouvelle droite, the Alt-right, and the Paleoconservative movement. The diverse contributors, who span the globe, admirably account for the evolution of the extreme Right in the context of the crisis of liberal society and show that it is not necessarily backward looking. It can also be modern and avant-garde. Moreover, they call our attention to the persistence of the racial question for the extreme Right. A salutary book for everyone. A must read!" Stéphane François, University of Mons, Belgium "With its thorough and insightful analyses of a wide range of extreme-right thinkers and their sustained efforts to reach a broader political audience and influence public opinion, this important collection sheds crucial light on the battle of ideas that liberal democracy is facing in the early 21st century. Given the worrisome advance of rightwing populism, which draws a number of its appeals from this intellectual cauldron, it is high time to take this ideological milieu seriously. McAdams, Castrillon and their expert contributors make a major contribution by systematically elucidating radical-right thought in Europe, the United States, and beyond." Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin, USA "For anyone who believed that fascism was defeated on the battlefield in World War II, this volume will provide a bracing wake-up call. Whether calling itself the "Altright," "Young Conservatism," or "White Nationalism," the thinkers discussed here are all motivated by an intense animus against liberal democracy. This book should be read by anyone wishing to understand the philosophic roots of what took place in Washington DC on January 6, 2021." Steven B. Smith, Yale University, USA, and author of Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes "Here at last we have a series of genuinely scholarly engagements with a wide range of propagandists for 'differentialist racism' in several of its New Right, Identitarian, and overtly racist dialects. No matter how abstruse or 'metapolitical' these thinkers seem, understanding them matters because they supply the discourse for a broad spectrum of right-wing populist and neo-fascist movements chipping away at the foundations of liberal democracy all over the world."
Central and Eastern Europe: Geopolitics and Security Issues , 2020
POLITIKA ANTISEMITIZMU A HOLOKAUST v povojnových retribucných procesoch v štátoch Európy Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.), 2019
Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.) BANSKÁ BYSTRICA 2O19 OBSAH Význam šiestich strán Chart... more Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.) BANSKÁ BYSTRICA 2O19 OBSAH Význam šiestich strán Charty medzinárodného vojenského tribunálu Norimberg a Jeruzalem. Problém, ako potresta rozchod s civilizáciou Spravodlivos nikdy nedosiahnutá: Zlyhanie Kanady v stíhaní nacistických vojnových zlo incov a kolaborantov Svedectvá príslušníkov SS z koncentra ného tábora Osvien im v procese pred Najvyšším národným tribunálom v Krakove (24. november -16. december 1947) Boli Taliani "tí dobrí"? Verejná debata v Taliansku po roku 1945 o fašizme a protižidovskej legislatíve Národné a miestne akcie v Rumunsku po 23. auguste 1944 na odstránenie antisemitskej politiky a autorov tejto politiky z verejných inštitúcií Konštituovanie retribu ného súdnictva na Slovensku 6
Nehéz meghatározni a munkaszolgálatosok csoportját, mellyel írásunkban foglalkozunk. Ha magyar zs... more Nehéz meghatározni a munkaszolgálatosok csoportját, mellyel írásunkban foglalkozunk. Ha magyar zsidókról szólunk, akkor olyan fogalommal operálunk, melynek alapja az önmeghatározás kellene hogy legyen. Ez azonban csak igen áttételesen ragadható meg, és sokszor nem igazán rendeződik nemzetiségi kategóriákba. Ha viszont magyar anyanyelvű zsidókról próbálunk beszélni, akkor esetleg kizárjuk a sok két-, illetve háromnyelvű zsidót, akik szintén nagy számban éltek a történelmi Magyarországon. Ugyanakkor, ha a magyar nyelvterületen élő zsidóságról kívánnánk beszélni, már maga a területkijelölés is problémákba ütközik, hiszen az érintett területek egy részén soha nem voltak egyértelműek az etnikai határok. Másfelől, ha valamiért mégis arról a csoportról szeretnénk beszélni, amelyet a fenti meghatározások -leginkább talán úgy mondhatnánk, heurisztikusan -kijelölnek, egyetlen lehetőségünk az, hogy mindazon zsidókkal foglalkozunk, akik a néhai történelmi Magyarország területén éltek a holokauszt idején. Így nem veszítjük el a minket érdeklő csoport egyetlen tagját sem, ugyanakkor nem is tágítjuk ki túlságosan a vizsgálódásunkba bevontak körét. Persze, így esetleg az a vád érhet bennünket, CSŐSZ LÁSZLÓ -FIAMOVA, MARTINA -GIDÓ ATTILA -KUNT GERGELY -LASZÁK ILDIKÓ -PAULOVICOVA, NINA -PEJIN ATTILA -VAJDA JÚLIA Munkaszolgálat a második világháború idején a történelmi Magyarország utódállamaiban* * A szerzők köszönetüket fejezik ki az OTKA-nak a 91036 számú, "A munkaszolgálat az emlékezők elbeszélésében" c. kutatás támogatásáért. Emellett Martina FIAMOVÁ munkáját a "VEGA No. 2/0133/12: Problematika výskumu holokaustu na Slovensku: genéza metodologických a terminologických prístupov" c. kutatás is támogatta. 9 GYURGYÁK János: i. m. 197-208. -Végül a népszámlálást szabályozó 86/1930. sz. rendelet alapján a nemzetiséget az anyanyelv alapján határozták meg, kivéve a zsidók esetében, ahol ez mindegy volt. (Uo. 200.) 10 KOVÁCS Éva: i. m. 11 GYURGYÁK János: i. m. 201-203. 12 Uo.; KOVÁCS Éva: Felemás asszimiláció. A kassai zsidóság a két világháború között (1918-1938). Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet, 2004.
ACTA HISTORICA POSONIENSIA XXXI. JUDAICA ET HOLOCAUSTICA VII. Women and World War II The seventh... more ACTA HISTORICA POSONIENSIA XXXI. JUDAICA ET HOLOCAUSTICA VII. Women and World War II
The seventh volume of the anthology, represents a collection of studies of already established historians, but also the innovative
young generation on the topic of Women and WWII.
Myšlienka projektu Židovská komunita v dejinách mesta Hlohovec (1938 -1945) sa zrodila pred jeden... more Myšlienka projektu Židovská komunita v dejinách mesta Hlohovec (1938 -1945) sa zrodila pred jedenástimi rokmi ako spontánna reakcia na nepoznanú a tabuizovanú minulosť Hlohovca počas existencie prvej Slovenskej republiky, tzv. slovenského štátu. Téma, ktorá už len pri vyslovení bola u viacerých pamätníkov dôvodom na sklopenie zraku k zemi a dlhé výrečné mlčanie, len potvrdzovala naše presvedčenie, ako veľmi sú v tomto ohľade, Hlohovec a aj jeho história zaťažené tieňmi minulosti. Táto kniha prostredníctvom dokumentov a výpovedí rozpráva príbeh o bohatých kultúrnych tradíciách hlohovských Židov, ktorí boli nedeliteľnou súčasťou Hlohovca a významne posúvali jeho napredovanie počas posledných troch storočí až do tragických rokov druhej svetovej vojny.
Papers by Nina Paulovicova
Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, Dec 1, 2020
Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as... more Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as the result of neoliberal globalization. Democratic governance, liberalism, human rights, and values are being questioned while populist, authoritarian, and ethnonationalist forms of governance are being offered. In the European Union, the tumultuous developments have been testing the viability of the identity marker of Europeanness and its perseverance in EU member states. What we are witnessing are significant shifts in the discourse about sameness and otherness, the convergence of left and right ideologies and the emergence of hybrid forms of authoritarianism and democracy that have been dubbed as illiberal democracy or authoritarian liberalism. The rise of the radical right and its mobilization across the EU member states is reflective of these processes, and it is the goal of this author to understand the mechanisms behind the empowerment, mobilization, and normalization of radical right through the case study of Slovakia. In particular, the effort of this paper is to understand how the far-right party Kotlebovci – Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS) in Slovakia re-conceptualized the notion of nation and normalized far-right ideology as a pretext of a broader mobilization.
Nationalities Papers, 2024
In this special issue, our contributors move the academic conversation beyond methodological nati... more In this special issue, our contributors move the academic conversation beyond methodological nationalism and approaches that analyze far-right movements only within their respective state contexts by interrogating the circulation of ideologies, funds, and people across sociopolitical boundaries. Our goal is to scrutinize the far right in post-communist Eastern Europe by examining the multitudinous and multidirectional ties that exist between groups at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels. Attention, moreover, is paid not just to those factors that facilitate such linkages, but also to the obstacles that hamper these flows via various detours, omissions, and other forms of resistance. In this introduction, we offer a theoretical overview and discussion of contributors' findings to argue that conduits for the dissemination of farright discursive frames are hardly unidirectional in nature. As a result, the transitological narratives of progress and regress typically invoked to explain the emergence of the far right offer only a partial understanding of how it mobilizes, builds alliances, and circulates ideas. We unpack the conceptual pitfalls and fallacies of transitological narratives and instead foreground the concept of multidirectionality, which opens up new avenues through which to understand how far-right groups mobilize and disseminate their narratives.
"THE MAKING OF ALT-HISTORY IN POSTCOMMUNIST SLOVAKIA Martin Lacko's construction of a proud nation" In A. James McAdams, Alejandro Castrillon (eds.), Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy , 2021
After the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia faced challenging times in the transition to libera... more After the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia faced challenging times in the transition to liberalism, capitalism, and democracy. This period was marked by a wave of ethnic nationalism, an identity crisis, a desperate search for the nation’s roots, and the emergence of actors who shaped and navigated identity politics. This chapter briefly maps the postcommunist historical milieu and reflects on the contemporary significance of the historical revisionism that was introduced in the 1990s by an aging group of émigré historians and then pursued and distorted by some historians of younger generation working with the Nation’s Memory Institute (NMI) in Slovakia. More specifically, this chapter tells the story of a young historian, Martin Lacko, and his path from historical revisionism to active support of the extreme right People’s Party Our Slovakia (PPOS). How does Lacko construct history, and what contemporary political messages are embedded in his interpretation of the past? This chapter explores how Lacko’s approach to history contributes to extremist thinking and endangers Slovakia’s democracy.
The CONVERSATION, 2022
Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures o... more Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures of immigrant communities, and offer vital community services, employment opportunities and networking to prevent social isolation. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, governments offered public schools financial support to ease the transition to online teaching or to cover pandemic protocols. Heritage language schools, left to their own fates, had to cope by themselves.
The CONVERSATION, 2022
Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures o... more Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures of immigrant communities, and offer vital community services, employment opportunities and networking to prevent social isolation. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, governments offered public schools financial support to ease the transition to online teaching or to cover pandemic protocols. Heritage language schools, left to their own fates, had to cope by themselves.
CBEES State of the Region Report. The Many Faces of the Far Right in the Post-Communist Space, 2022
“DecentPeople”. Dissecting L’SNS’s Identity Construction. This paper focuses on the securitizati... more “DecentPeople”. Dissecting L’SNS’s Identity Construction.
This paper focuses on the securitization discourse, at the core of which is an efort to protect the interests of Slovaks as “decent people”, and to refect on extreme right identity construction to better grasp the nature of the difusion of extreme right ideology by the most successful extreme right player in Slovakia – Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko [People’s Party Our Slovakia]. ĽSNS’s identity politics is multidimensional in the sense that identity is constructed by mnemonic actors chronologically towards past, present and future and geographically from local, regional levels towards national and transnational levels.
Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy, 2021
Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2017
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, edited by Timothy Snyder, New York, Tim Duggan... more Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, edited by Timothy Snyder, New York, Tim Duggan Books, 2015, 462 pp., US$37.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-101- 90345-2For decades, historians embraced Raul Hilberg's theory about the radicalization of anti- Semitic policies as the pretext for the Holocaust. Anti-Semitic legislation, Aryanization, the liquidation of Jewish businesses, and, finally, ghettoization inevitably resulted in the physical annihilation of Jews. Leading American historian and intellectual Timothy Snyder steps away from this mainstream interpretation and claims that the chances of survival of Jews in Nazioccupied territories were predetermined by the existence, or absence, of statehood rather than the degree of anti-Semitism within society. Anti-Semitic decrees, as promoted by many European states, were not the direct cause of the mass destruction of Jews, but the destruction of statehood was (222).Snyder also refutes Hilberg's essential thesis that the Fina...
Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as... more Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as the result of neoliberal globalization. Democratic governance, liberalism, human rights, and values are being questioned while populist, authoritarian, and ethnonationalist forms of governance are being offered. In the European Union, the tumultuous developments have been testing the viability of the identity marker of Europeanness and its perseverance in EU member states. What we are witnessing are significant shifts in the discourse about sameness and otherness, the convergence of left and right ideologies and the emergence of hybrid forms of authoritarianism and democracy that have been dubbed as illiberal democracy or authoritarian liberalism. The rise of the radical right and its mobilization across the EU member states is reflective of these processes, and it is the goal of this author to understand the mechanisms behind the empowerment, mobilization, and normalization of radical ...
Historický Časopis, 2008
The essay looks at how the Western scholarly production dealt with the questions of the Holocaus... more The essay looks at how the Western scholarly production dealt with the questions of the Holocaust in the framework of the several sub-contexts of the Second World War, such as the settlement policy of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe, the process of implementing orders on the level of higher and lower military commanders and its influence on the implementation of the "final solution" as well as the influence of economic and ideological factors on the "final solution". The article describes various currents and trends in the historiography of the holocaust with the aim of pointing to perspectives and levels not considered by Slovak historiography.
Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej
The following editorial offers a reflection on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe with a... more The following editorial offers a reflection on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe with a special focus on the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia. In the past few years, we have witnessed the divisive impact of neoliberalism, economic recession, Britain’s departure from the EU, the refugee and migrant crisis which further shattered societies along cultural lines, the aggressive expansionism of Russia exploiting the weakness of the West, and more recently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with an unprecedented impact on societies, global health and economy. The editorial reflects on how Central and Eastern Europe scores among the imaginative geographies and how these imaginative geographies translate into geopolitics concerning hard and soft power application in the Eastern European Neighbourhood.
Nationalities Papers, 2023
This study identifies the mnemonic strategies of the Slovak extreme-right Ľudová Strana Naše Slov... more This study identifies the mnemonic strategies of the Slovak extreme-right Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS) / People’s Party Our Slovakia as a means of establishing a mnemonic alliance with Putin’s Russia. ĽSNS’s construction of mnemonic culture surrounding two critical events in Slovak history – the 1944 Slovak National Uprising and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army and its allies – is marked by an effort to overcome the ideological divide between its extreme-right ideology and Russia’s identity and memory politics rooted in its anti-fascist heritage. Those two events represent an uneasy terrain for building political and mnemonic alliances between ĽSNS and Putin’s Russia. Even though these two historical milestones represent a seemingly unmasterable past and an obstacle in an ĽSNS-Russia alliance, the party implemented several mnemonic strategies to reconfigure the place of these two key historical events in national memory and clear the path for a closer alliance with Putin’s Russia. We argue that ĽSNS’s memory construction is multidirectional rather than competitive or discordant. We unpack ĽSNS’s memory construction and identify multidirectional effects and trajectories as vectors for building a mnemonic alliance with Putin’s Russia.
have produced an excellent collection on the connections among the French Nouvelle droite, the Al... more have produced an excellent collection on the connections among the French Nouvelle droite, the Alt-right, and the Paleoconservative movement. The diverse contributors, who span the globe, admirably account for the evolution of the extreme Right in the context of the crisis of liberal society and show that it is not necessarily backward looking. It can also be modern and avant-garde. Moreover, they call our attention to the persistence of the racial question for the extreme Right. A salutary book for everyone. A must read!" Stéphane François, University of Mons, Belgium "With its thorough and insightful analyses of a wide range of extreme-right thinkers and their sustained efforts to reach a broader political audience and influence public opinion, this important collection sheds crucial light on the battle of ideas that liberal democracy is facing in the early 21st century. Given the worrisome advance of rightwing populism, which draws a number of its appeals from this intellectual cauldron, it is high time to take this ideological milieu seriously. McAdams, Castrillon and their expert contributors make a major contribution by systematically elucidating radical-right thought in Europe, the United States, and beyond." Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin, USA "For anyone who believed that fascism was defeated on the battlefield in World War II, this volume will provide a bracing wake-up call. Whether calling itself the "Altright," "Young Conservatism," or "White Nationalism," the thinkers discussed here are all motivated by an intense animus against liberal democracy. This book should be read by anyone wishing to understand the philosophic roots of what took place in Washington DC on January 6, 2021." Steven B. Smith, Yale University, USA, and author of Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes "Here at last we have a series of genuinely scholarly engagements with a wide range of propagandists for 'differentialist racism' in several of its New Right, Identitarian, and overtly racist dialects. No matter how abstruse or 'metapolitical' these thinkers seem, understanding them matters because they supply the discourse for a broad spectrum of right-wing populist and neo-fascist movements chipping away at the foundations of liberal democracy all over the world."
Central and Eastern Europe: Geopolitics and Security Issues , 2020
POLITIKA ANTISEMITIZMU A HOLOKAUST v povojnových retribucných procesoch v štátoch Európy Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.), 2019
Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.) BANSKÁ BYSTRICA 2O19 OBSAH Význam šiestich strán Chart... more Stanis v Micev, Katarína Ristveyová (eds.) BANSKÁ BYSTRICA 2O19 OBSAH Význam šiestich strán Charty medzinárodného vojenského tribunálu Norimberg a Jeruzalem. Problém, ako potresta rozchod s civilizáciou Spravodlivos nikdy nedosiahnutá: Zlyhanie Kanady v stíhaní nacistických vojnových zlo incov a kolaborantov Svedectvá príslušníkov SS z koncentra ného tábora Osvien im v procese pred Najvyšším národným tribunálom v Krakove (24. november -16. december 1947) Boli Taliani "tí dobrí"? Verejná debata v Taliansku po roku 1945 o fašizme a protižidovskej legislatíve Národné a miestne akcie v Rumunsku po 23. auguste 1944 na odstránenie antisemitskej politiky a autorov tejto politiky z verejných inštitúcií Konštituovanie retribu ného súdnictva na Slovensku 6
Nehéz meghatározni a munkaszolgálatosok csoportját, mellyel írásunkban foglalkozunk. Ha magyar zs... more Nehéz meghatározni a munkaszolgálatosok csoportját, mellyel írásunkban foglalkozunk. Ha magyar zsidókról szólunk, akkor olyan fogalommal operálunk, melynek alapja az önmeghatározás kellene hogy legyen. Ez azonban csak igen áttételesen ragadható meg, és sokszor nem igazán rendeződik nemzetiségi kategóriákba. Ha viszont magyar anyanyelvű zsidókról próbálunk beszélni, akkor esetleg kizárjuk a sok két-, illetve háromnyelvű zsidót, akik szintén nagy számban éltek a történelmi Magyarországon. Ugyanakkor, ha a magyar nyelvterületen élő zsidóságról kívánnánk beszélni, már maga a területkijelölés is problémákba ütközik, hiszen az érintett területek egy részén soha nem voltak egyértelműek az etnikai határok. Másfelől, ha valamiért mégis arról a csoportról szeretnénk beszélni, amelyet a fenti meghatározások -leginkább talán úgy mondhatnánk, heurisztikusan -kijelölnek, egyetlen lehetőségünk az, hogy mindazon zsidókkal foglalkozunk, akik a néhai történelmi Magyarország területén éltek a holokauszt idején. Így nem veszítjük el a minket érdeklő csoport egyetlen tagját sem, ugyanakkor nem is tágítjuk ki túlságosan a vizsgálódásunkba bevontak körét. Persze, így esetleg az a vád érhet bennünket, CSŐSZ LÁSZLÓ -FIAMOVA, MARTINA -GIDÓ ATTILA -KUNT GERGELY -LASZÁK ILDIKÓ -PAULOVICOVA, NINA -PEJIN ATTILA -VAJDA JÚLIA Munkaszolgálat a második világháború idején a történelmi Magyarország utódállamaiban* * A szerzők köszönetüket fejezik ki az OTKA-nak a 91036 számú, "A munkaszolgálat az emlékezők elbeszélésében" c. kutatás támogatásáért. Emellett Martina FIAMOVÁ munkáját a "VEGA No. 2/0133/12: Problematika výskumu holokaustu na Slovensku: genéza metodologických a terminologických prístupov" c. kutatás is támogatta. 9 GYURGYÁK János: i. m. 197-208. -Végül a népszámlálást szabályozó 86/1930. sz. rendelet alapján a nemzetiséget az anyanyelv alapján határozták meg, kivéve a zsidók esetében, ahol ez mindegy volt. (Uo. 200.) 10 KOVÁCS Éva: i. m. 11 GYURGYÁK János: i. m. 201-203. 12 Uo.; KOVÁCS Éva: Felemás asszimiláció. A kassai zsidóság a két világháború között (1918-1938). Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet, 2004.
ACTA HISTORICA POSONIENSIA XXXI. JUDAICA ET HOLOCAUSTICA VII. Women and World War II The seventh... more ACTA HISTORICA POSONIENSIA XXXI. JUDAICA ET HOLOCAUSTICA VII. Women and World War II
The seventh volume of the anthology, represents a collection of studies of already established historians, but also the innovative
young generation on the topic of Women and WWII.
Myšlienka projektu Židovská komunita v dejinách mesta Hlohovec (1938 -1945) sa zrodila pred jeden... more Myšlienka projektu Židovská komunita v dejinách mesta Hlohovec (1938 -1945) sa zrodila pred jedenástimi rokmi ako spontánna reakcia na nepoznanú a tabuizovanú minulosť Hlohovca počas existencie prvej Slovenskej republiky, tzv. slovenského štátu. Téma, ktorá už len pri vyslovení bola u viacerých pamätníkov dôvodom na sklopenie zraku k zemi a dlhé výrečné mlčanie, len potvrdzovala naše presvedčenie, ako veľmi sú v tomto ohľade, Hlohovec a aj jeho história zaťažené tieňmi minulosti. Táto kniha prostredníctvom dokumentov a výpovedí rozpráva príbeh o bohatých kultúrnych tradíciách hlohovských Židov, ktorí boli nedeliteľnou súčasťou Hlohovca a významne posúvali jeho napredovanie počas posledných troch storočí až do tragických rokov druhej svetovej vojny.
Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, Dec 1, 2020
Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as... more Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as the result of neoliberal globalization. Democratic governance, liberalism, human rights, and values are being questioned while populist, authoritarian, and ethnonationalist forms of governance are being offered. In the European Union, the tumultuous developments have been testing the viability of the identity marker of Europeanness and its perseverance in EU member states. What we are witnessing are significant shifts in the discourse about sameness and otherness, the convergence of left and right ideologies and the emergence of hybrid forms of authoritarianism and democracy that have been dubbed as illiberal democracy or authoritarian liberalism. The rise of the radical right and its mobilization across the EU member states is reflective of these processes, and it is the goal of this author to understand the mechanisms behind the empowerment, mobilization, and normalization of radical right through the case study of Slovakia. In particular, the effort of this paper is to understand how the far-right party Kotlebovci – Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko (ĽSNS) in Slovakia re-conceptualized the notion of nation and normalized far-right ideology as a pretext of a broader mobilization.
Nationalities Papers, 2024
In this special issue, our contributors move the academic conversation beyond methodological nati... more In this special issue, our contributors move the academic conversation beyond methodological nationalism and approaches that analyze far-right movements only within their respective state contexts by interrogating the circulation of ideologies, funds, and people across sociopolitical boundaries. Our goal is to scrutinize the far right in post-communist Eastern Europe by examining the multitudinous and multidirectional ties that exist between groups at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels. Attention, moreover, is paid not just to those factors that facilitate such linkages, but also to the obstacles that hamper these flows via various detours, omissions, and other forms of resistance. In this introduction, we offer a theoretical overview and discussion of contributors' findings to argue that conduits for the dissemination of farright discursive frames are hardly unidirectional in nature. As a result, the transitological narratives of progress and regress typically invoked to explain the emergence of the far right offer only a partial understanding of how it mobilizes, builds alliances, and circulates ideas. We unpack the conceptual pitfalls and fallacies of transitological narratives and instead foreground the concept of multidirectionality, which opens up new avenues through which to understand how far-right groups mobilize and disseminate their narratives.
"THE MAKING OF ALT-HISTORY IN POSTCOMMUNIST SLOVAKIA Martin Lacko's construction of a proud nation" In A. James McAdams, Alejandro Castrillon (eds.), Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy , 2021
After the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia faced challenging times in the transition to libera... more After the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia faced challenging times in the transition to liberalism, capitalism, and democracy. This period was marked by a wave of ethnic nationalism, an identity crisis, a desperate search for the nation’s roots, and the emergence of actors who shaped and navigated identity politics. This chapter briefly maps the postcommunist historical milieu and reflects on the contemporary significance of the historical revisionism that was introduced in the 1990s by an aging group of émigré historians and then pursued and distorted by some historians of younger generation working with the Nation’s Memory Institute (NMI) in Slovakia. More specifically, this chapter tells the story of a young historian, Martin Lacko, and his path from historical revisionism to active support of the extreme right People’s Party Our Slovakia (PPOS). How does Lacko construct history, and what contemporary political messages are embedded in his interpretation of the past? This chapter explores how Lacko’s approach to history contributes to extremist thinking and endangers Slovakia’s democracy.
The CONVERSATION, 2022
Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures o... more Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures of immigrant communities, and offer vital community services, employment opportunities and networking to prevent social isolation. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, governments offered public schools financial support to ease the transition to online teaching or to cover pandemic protocols. Heritage language schools, left to their own fates, had to cope by themselves.
The CONVERSATION, 2022
Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures o... more Heritage language schools are grassroots organizations that maintain the languages and cultures of immigrant communities, and offer vital community services, employment opportunities and networking to prevent social isolation. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, governments offered public schools financial support to ease the transition to online teaching or to cover pandemic protocols. Heritage language schools, left to their own fates, had to cope by themselves.
CBEES State of the Region Report. The Many Faces of the Far Right in the Post-Communist Space, 2022
“DecentPeople”. Dissecting L’SNS’s Identity Construction. This paper focuses on the securitizati... more “DecentPeople”. Dissecting L’SNS’s Identity Construction.
This paper focuses on the securitization discourse, at the core of which is an efort to protect the interests of Slovaks as “decent people”, and to refect on extreme right identity construction to better grasp the nature of the difusion of extreme right ideology by the most successful extreme right player in Slovakia – Ľudová Strana Naše Slovensko [People’s Party Our Slovakia]. ĽSNS’s identity politics is multidimensional in the sense that identity is constructed by mnemonic actors chronologically towards past, present and future and geographically from local, regional levels towards national and transnational levels.
Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy, 2021
Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2017
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, edited by Timothy Snyder, New York, Tim Duggan... more Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, edited by Timothy Snyder, New York, Tim Duggan Books, 2015, 462 pp., US$37.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-101- 90345-2For decades, historians embraced Raul Hilberg's theory about the radicalization of anti- Semitic policies as the pretext for the Holocaust. Anti-Semitic legislation, Aryanization, the liquidation of Jewish businesses, and, finally, ghettoization inevitably resulted in the physical annihilation of Jews. Leading American historian and intellectual Timothy Snyder steps away from this mainstream interpretation and claims that the chances of survival of Jews in Nazioccupied territories were predetermined by the existence, or absence, of statehood rather than the degree of anti-Semitism within society. Anti-Semitic decrees, as promoted by many European states, were not the direct cause of the mass destruction of Jews, but the destruction of statehood was (222).Snyder also refutes Hilberg's essential thesis that the Fina...
Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as... more Societies around the globe have been witnessing the emergence of the radical right, often seen as the result of neoliberal globalization. Democratic governance, liberalism, human rights, and values are being questioned while populist, authoritarian, and ethnonationalist forms of governance are being offered. In the European Union, the tumultuous developments have been testing the viability of the identity marker of Europeanness and its perseverance in EU member states. What we are witnessing are significant shifts in the discourse about sameness and otherness, the convergence of left and right ideologies and the emergence of hybrid forms of authoritarianism and democracy that have been dubbed as illiberal democracy or authoritarian liberalism. The rise of the radical right and its mobilization across the EU member states is reflective of these processes, and it is the goal of this author to understand the mechanisms behind the empowerment, mobilization, and normalization of radical ...
Historický Časopis, 2008
The essay looks at how the Western scholarly production dealt with the questions of the Holocaus... more The essay looks at how the Western scholarly production dealt with the questions of the Holocaust in the framework of the several sub-contexts of the Second World War, such as the settlement policy of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe, the process of implementing orders on the level of higher and lower military commanders and its influence on the implementation of the "final solution" as well as the influence of economic and ideological factors on the "final solution". The article describes various currents and trends in the historiography of the holocaust with the aim of pointing to perspectives and levels not considered by Slovak historiography.
Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej
The following editorial offers a reflection on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe with a... more The following editorial offers a reflection on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe with a special focus on the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia. In the past few years, we have witnessed the divisive impact of neoliberalism, economic recession, Britain’s departure from the EU, the refugee and migrant crisis which further shattered societies along cultural lines, the aggressive expansionism of Russia exploiting the weakness of the West, and more recently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with an unprecedented impact on societies, global health and economy. The editorial reflects on how Central and Eastern Europe scores among the imaginative geographies and how these imaginative geographies translate into geopolitics concerning hard and soft power application in the Eastern European Neighbourhood.
Judaica et Holocaustica, 2019
Holocaust Memory and Antisemitism in Slovakia: The Postwar Era to the Present, 2018
AHM Conference 2023: 'Diasporic Heritage and Identity', 2023
Community-based heritage language (HL) schools play an important role in identity-building of dia... more Community-based heritage language (HL) schools play an important role in identity-building of diasporic communities. This study based on twenty-five interviews with HL school leaders and teachers of the International and Heritage Languages Association (IHLA) in Edmonton, Canada aims to understand the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on HL learners’ diasporic identity formation. We approached HL schools as communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) where learners acquire specific HLs while engaged in socio-cultural communal practices. In addition, Basu’s (2011) conceptualization of school as a space of integration through multilingualism helped us understand the changes affecting immigrant integration and identity perceptions during the pandemic. Findings show that the forced transition to online teaching and learning during the pandemic led to the development of new transregional and transnational practices and collaborations. These new practices helped expand and redefine the traditional understanding of community, identity, and belonging within HL communities. As a result of the pandemic, the conceptualization of community moved beyond physical land borders towards global cyber communities linked by the given HL. This finding signals the departure from land-based understanding of identities towards language-based cybercommunity-linked identities – the shift that prompted us to examine these new relationalities through the lens of groupness, which challenges the rather broad and overused notion of identity. Our findings further indicate that these newly forged relationalities and agencies of diasporic heritage communities generated resistance to the systems of power of the host societies that marginalize diasporic heritage communities.