A Short History of Russia and the Balkan States PDF Download

Author: Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balkan Peninsula
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Author: Andrew Baruch Wachtel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199882738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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In the historical and literary imagination, the Balkans loom large as a somewhat frightening and ill-defined space, often seen negatively as a region of small and spiteful peoples, racked by racial and ethnic hatred, always ready to burst into violent conflict. The Balkans in World History re-defines this space in positive terms, taking as a starting point the cultural, historical, and social threads that allow us to see this region as a coherent if complex whole. Eminent historian Andrew Wachtel here depicts the Balkans as that borderland geographical space in which four of the world's greatest civilizations have overlapped in a sustained and meaningful way to produce a complex, dynamic, sometimes combustible, multi-layered local civilization. It is the space in which the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, of Byzantium, of Ottoman Turkey, and of Roman Catholic Europe met, clashed and sometimes combined. The history of the Balkans is thus a history of creative borrowing by local people of the various civilizations that have nominally conquered the region. Encompassing Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, the Balkans have absorbed many voices and traditions, resulting in one of the most complex and interesting regions on earth.

Author: Mark Mazower
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 0307431967
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Throughout history, the Balkans have been a crossroads, a zone of endless military, cultural and economic mixing and clashing between Europe and Asia, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Subject to violent shifts of borders, rulers and belief systems at the hands of the world's great empires--from the Byzantine to the Habsburg and Ottoman--the Balkans are often called Europe's tinderbox and a seething cauldron of ethnic and religious resentments. Much has been made of the Balkans' deeply rooted enmities. The recent destruction of the former Yugoslavia was widely ascribed to millennial hatreds frozen by the Cold War and unleashed with the fall of communism. In this brilliant account, acclaimed historian Mark Mazower argues that such a view is a dangerously unbalanced fantasy. A landmark reassessment, The Balkans rescues the region's history from the various ideological camps that have held it hostage for their own ends, not least the need to justify nonintervention. The heart of the book deals with events from the emergence of the nation-state onward. With searing eloquence, Mazower demonstrates that of all the gifts bequeathed to the region by modernity, the most dubious has been the ideological weapon of romantic nationalism that has been used again and again by the power hungry as an acid to dissolve the bonds of centuries of peaceful coexistence. The Balkans is a magnificent depiction of a vitally important region, its history and its prospects.

Author: Robert D. Kaplan
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466868309
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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A new edition of the classic travelogue exploring the Balkan Peninsula’s political, social, religious, and economic past. From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy. Chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Times, and greeted with critical acclaim as “the most insightful and timely work on the Balkans to date” (Boston Globe), Kaplan’s prescient, enthralling, and often chilling political travelogue is already a modern classic. This new edition of Balkan Ghosts includes six opinion pieces written by Robert Kaplan about the Balkans between 1996 and 2000, beginning just after the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and ending after the conclusion of the Kosovo war, with the removal of Slobodan Milosevic from power. Praise for Balkan Ghosts “The product of over a decade of travel and research, this is one of precious few works that allows a Western reader a look into the tortured soul of the Balkan peoples. . . . A superior narrative. . . . Kaplan is a master of this genre.” —Library Journal “A memorable portrait of an increasingly important region.” —Kirkus Review

Author: Andrew Rossos
Publisher: Heritage
ISBN: 9781487581169
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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This volume presents an objective diplomatic history focused on five crucial years in the relations between Russia and the Balkan states from the Annexation Crisis of 1908-9 to the outbreak of the First World War.

Author: Barbara Jelavich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521522502
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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This book examines the reason for the Russian involvement in the Balkan peninsula.

Author: Dimitar Bechev
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030021913X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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A nuanced and comprehensive study of the political dynamics between Russia and key countries in Southeast Europe Is Russia threatening to disrupt more than two decades' of E.U. and U.S. efforts to promote stability in post-communist Southeast Europe? Politicians and commentators in the West say, "yes." With rising global anxiety over Russia's political policies and objectives, Dimitar Bechev provides the only in-depth look at this volatile region. Deftly unpacking the nature and extent of Russian influence in the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey, Bechev argues that both sides are driven by pragmatism and opportunism rather than historical loyalties. Russia is seeking to assert its role in Europe's security architecture, establish alternative routes for its gas exports--including the contested Southern Gas Corridor--and score points against the West. Yet, leaders in these areas are allowing Russia to reinsert itself to serve their own goals. This urgently needed guide analyzes the responses of regional NATO members, particularly regarding the annexation of Crimea and the Putin-Erdogan rift over Syria.

Author: Marie-Janine Calic
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612495648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Why did Yugoslavia fall apart? Was its violent demise inevitable? Did its population simply fall victim to the lure of nationalism? How did this multinational state survive for so long, and where do we situate the short life of Yugoslavia in the long history of Europe in the twentieth century? A History of Yugoslavia provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive synthesis of the political, cultural, social, and economic life of Yugoslavia—from its nineteenth-century South Slavic origins to the bloody demise of the multinational state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Calic takes a fresh and innovative look at the colorful, multifaceted, and complex history of Yugoslavia, emphasizing major social, economic, and intellectual changes from the turn of the twentieth century and the transition to modern industrialized mass society. She traces the origins of ethnic, religious, and cultural divisions, applying the latest social science approaches, and drawing on the breadth of recent state-of-the-art literature, to present a balanced interpretation of events that takes into account the differing perceptions and interests of the actors involved. Uniquely, Calic frames the history of Yugoslavia for readers as an essentially open-ended process, undertaken from a variety of different regional perspectives with varied composite agenda. She shuns traditional, deterministic explanations that notorious Balkan hatreds or any other kind of exceptionalism are to blame for Yugoslavia’s demise, and along the way she highlights the agency of twentieth-century modern mass society in the politicization of differences. While analyzing nuanced political and social-economic processes, Calic describes the experiences and emotions of ordinary people in a vivid way. As a result, her groundbreaking work provides scholars and learned readers alike with an accessible, trenchant, and authoritative introduction to Yugoslavia's complex history.

Author: Mary Platt Parmele
Publisher: IndyPublish.com
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Author: Jonathan Eagles
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 085773458X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans in 1475 at the Battle of Vaslui heralded the beginnings of a historic legacy. The victor became known as Stephen the Great or Athleta Christi, Champion of Christ. Perceived as the founder of a Balkan identity, Stephen the Great maintained Moldova's independence during periods of fierce Ottoman attack between 1457 and 1504. His Christian religious stance meant that, in the eyes of Europe, he had not only defeated a significant territorial threat but had elevated Christianity to a superior level as victors over its Muslim opponents. Here, Jonathan Eagles seeks to unveil the mechanisms behind this legacy, reviewing the state formations that allowed this national hero to emerge, and explaining the methods that preserve his memory in the region today. By combining the latest historical studies of the anti-Ottoman resistance with new archaeological findings, Stephen the Great and Balkan Nationalism engages with a fresh approach to the history of the Balkans, and reinvigorates the study of the Ottoman Empire's impact in Europe. This is an important book for those with an interest in medieval history, Balkan history and the Ottomans.