Stories about History from November, 2009
Serbia: Sinisa Boljanovic Wins Climate Change Blogging Contest
Sinisa Boljanovic, a GV author and Lingua Serbian editor, became one of the winners of Round 1 of TH!NK2: CLIMATE CHANGE blogging contest; here's Sinisa's winning entry: Black Point of the Danube Basin.
Hungary: Genetic Research on the Origin of Hungarians
Hungarian Spectrum writes about genetic research on the origin of the Hungarian people.
Ukraine: New Documentary on Holodomor
Nash Holos writes about Yury Luhovy's new documentary on the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33.
CEE: “20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall” – a Poll
Foreign Policy Association's Russia blog writes about the results of a Pew Research Center's poll on poverty, wealth and attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe “20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
Barbados: Whipping Boy
“We seem determined to deny our history, rather than learn from it. Why else would we, who have been so wounded by the whip, venerate it?” B.C. Pires puts in his two cents’ worth on the recent flogging of schoolchildren in Barbados.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Banja Luka
Bosnia Blog writes about travel to Banja Luka.
The Balkans: Danilo Kiš
Belatedly, a tribute to Yugoslav writer Danilo Kiš (1935-1989) – at Balkans via Bohemia.
Russia: Potential for Rebellion in Toliatti
Window on Eurasia reports that “Russian government plans to lay off 50,000 autoworkers in Toliatti […] have sparked rumors that Moscow plans to introduce interior ministry troops to keep order and that at least some of the workers plan to use arms to defend their jobs.”
Russia: The Cossack Factor
Window on Eurasia writes that “articles in the Russian blogosphere suggest both that an increasing number of Cossacks view themselves as victims and are prepared to act as an independent force and that the Russian government is increasingly concerned about that possibility, something that could undermine Moscow’s control of the...
Europe: The Berlin Wall
Leopolis celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
U.S.: Blogger Invited to Reception at Czech Embassy
Czechmatediary has been invited to a reception with Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, at the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C.: “The reception is held in honor of not only the Czech president himself but also because of the celebration of the National Czech Day as well as...
Russia: 1999 Chechen Diary, Parts 2 & 3
Part 2 and Part 3 of the translation of Polina Zherebtsova’s 1999 Chechen Diary – at Sundry Translations and Other Tangentialia (links to intro, Part 1 and the Russian-language original are here).
The Balkans: The Past, the Present, and the Future
Thoughts on Radovan Karadzic's trial and Biljana Plavsic's release from prison – in a post titled “Bosnia now: the past and the future facing each other” at CAFÉ TURCO. Thoughts on “history that offends people” – at Balkan Anarchist.
Ukraine: Chernobyl Photos Web Exhibit
Chernobyl and Eastern Europe links to Michael Forster Rothbart's interactive web exhibit of Chernobyl photos.
CEE: A Travel Roundup
A selection of travel posts – Belgraded: travel from Belgrade to Sarajevo by train for the first time in 17 years, ‘Red Star’ stadium possibly to be renamed ‘Gazprom Arena’, the Avala TV Tower rebuilt; Croatia-Expert.com: travel to Trogir; MoldovAnn: Ukrainian village museums; The Czech Daily Word: industrial architecture and...
French Caribbean: “La Toussaint”
In the French-speaking Caribbean, celebrating "La Toussaint", All Saints' and All Souls' Days, are as much an opportunity for family reunions as the Christmas season is. Here is a review of what the blogosphere says about it this year...
The Balkans: Another Open Letter To Amnesty International
Another open letter to Noam Chomsky and Amnesty International – at Americans For Bosnia, Greater Surbiton, and Srebrenica Genocide Blog.
Lithuania: National Identities
“Everyone is a historian here, everyone is preoccupied arguing who Vilnius belonged to in the past, whose it should be now, and whether true Lithuanians were of Slavic or Baltic origin. It almost seems as if Lithuanian modernity was nonexistent,” writes Andrei Khrapavitski about online and offline debates in Lithuania....