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| Multipolär världsordning. Allegori. |
Tobias Hübinette försöker hålla redan på turbulensen inom euro-hård-högern. Observera att han fortfarande kallar slovakiska Smer för högerparti, när det egentligen är ett vänsterpopulistiskt dito. Dock intressant i övrigt!
Förvirring och inbördeskrig inom den europeiska radikalhögern
"Secrets of the Dead: Field of Vampires" is a somewhat macabre documentary about vampire panics in 17th and 18th century Central Europe. It centers on recent archeological excavations of a burial field outside the obscure village of Pien in Poland. Many graves were found to be disturbed in an apparent attempt to hinder the dead from rising again as vampires.
The film-makers have decided to concentrate on an unknown female nicknamed Zosia, who seems to have died a natural death at the age of 18. She was buried with a padlock attached to her foot, a superstitious attempt to keep her "good soul" from leaving the body. If it would do so, its evil double would take over! For some reason, the grave was opened at a later date and the padlock found to be broken. To stop Zosia from rising again as a vampire, a scythe was placed over her neck, presumably to behead her if she ever tried. The remains buried in some of the other graves were treated even worse. For instance, a dead child had gotten half of its body removed.
The archeologists speculate that Zosia may have suffered from seizures when alive, which would have marked her out from "normal" people. Somewhat surprisingly, she must have been rich. Analysis of her teeth suggests that she wasn´t a local, and may actually have been Swedish. During the 17th century, Swedish troops invaded Poland and attacked Torun (the largest town in the area where Pien is located). Could *this* explain why Zosia was suspected of being a vampire? A wealthy woman from an enemy nation who behaves strangely. We sense a mixture of envy, hatred and fear.
However, since at least one third of the graves at the "vampire field" had been disturbed, something else was surely going on. Perhaps some kind of mass hysteria or should we call it vampire panic? The docu mentions a very bizarre case from 18th century Moravia of just such an occurence. In 1755, corpses were dug up and put on trial (!) in the small village of Svobodné Hermanice (Frei Hermersdorf). Found guilty, the corpses were then taken to a nearby forest and burned. Perhaps vampire scares had something to do with life becoming harsher during the Little Ice Age and the increasingly more deadly wars during the Early Modern Period? This was also the high tide of the witch-burnings.
"Secrets of the Dead: Field of Vampires" ends with a Swedish forensic expert reconstructing the face of Zosia, which for some reason becomes very emotional to the Polish archeologists. Personally, I just shook the head at the "human condition" while watching this. For isn´t that what vampires really are? A kind of de-humanized humans. And a very human superstition...
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| The skull of a red-necked wallaby (another one) Credit: Klaus Rassinger |
It´s not a kangoroo, it´s a wallaby! Europe´s only marsupial strikes again...
Slovakia´s unlikely visitor survived the winter, but not the road
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| - Why am I so lonely? I used to rule the world! |
The real problem isn´t "Czechia" (apparently the new name for the Czech Republic in English). Try India. Or China.
That being said...it *is* interesting that the Czechs still buy most of their oil from Russia, given the fact that their present administration claims to be pro-Western.
Reminds me of how Vaclav Klaus pretended to be a Milton Friedman-inspired neo-liberal...only to heavily subsidize the Czech economy and establish friendly ties with guess who...yepp, a somewhat younger version of citizen Putin in the Kremlin.
The traditional anti-German geopolitics of the Czechs always had a pronounced pro-Russian tilt, and here we go again, it seems...
NATO ally spending five times more on Russian energy than Ukraine aid
Hur många röster fick nationalister och populister i EU-valen? Från Hübinettes blogg. Vad som inte framgår är förändringar sedan tidigare val, samt valdeltagandet.
Sedan kan man ju ifrågasätta Hübinettes definitioner i vissa fall. Varför kallar han slovakiska Smer eller tjeckiska CSSD för "höger"? Smer är snarast vänsterpopulister, CSSD är socialdemokrater. Visst, CSSD har anklagats för att vara pro-ryska, men i så fall är det tjeckiska kommunistpartiet rimligtvis också "högerradikala" enligt denna definition! Och om Smer är med på listan, varför är inte slovakiska Hlas det också? Hlas är en klon av Smer.
Och varför är ungerska Jobbik med på listan? De är höger, visst, men de är mot Orbán. Och så vidare. Om CSSD är med för att de är pro-ryska, borde Jobbik således inte vara med eftersom de är anti-ryska...
That being said...still an interesting contribution.
Valresultat för de högerpopulistiska och högerradikala partierna
Prioriteringar...
Slovakisk politik:
Premiärministern kämpar för sitt liv efter skjutningen
Svensk politik:
This may be somewhat obscure news unless you are very well versed in Early Medieval Central European history. Archeologists in the Czech Republic and neighboring nations have found peculiar belt buckles showing a snake devouring a frog-like creature. The meaning of the symbolism is unclear, but could be connected to the cosmogonic myth of some unknown pagan cult. The buckles are dated to the 8th or 9th century AD (this is not clearly spelled out in the article linked below, but I´ve skimmed the original paper) and are "typologically Late Avar".
The Avars were a nomadic people from the Eurasian steppes (northeast Asia, according to the original paper) who controlled Pannonia (today Hungary) during the Early Middle Ages, but aspects of their culture were also adopted by their vassals and neighbors, both Slavic and Germanic. Some of the belts were found at Lány in Moravia, described in the original paper as a multi-cultural melting pot at the northern periphery of the Avar khaganate. The metal used in the belts has been analysed and found to hail from the Slovak Ore Mountains, also outside the core area of the khaganate.
Well, aint that fantastic.
The reason why the above caught my eyes is that years ago, I read some Slovak history books with a nationalist or crypto-nationalist tendency, in which the Avars were always depicted as really henious oppressors of the usual rape-and-pillage type, eventually overthrown by the heroic and valiant Slavs, et cetera. Note that the Avars were based in the area that later became Hungary, the traditional enemy of Slovak nationalists. Anachronism, much?
So I thought it was kind of funny that the Slavs were culturally influenced by the Avars even outside the territory controlled by the khaganate. Even to the point of adopting an unknown pagan cult!
Medieval belt buckle might be from unknown pagan cult
OK, so I might as well link to the original paper, since I mentioned it three times already:
Copper-alloy belt fittings and elite networking in Early Medieval Central Europe
So according to rumors, cited by Bloomberg, a secret Russian delegation recently visited the US with a "peace proposal" concerning Russia´s war against Ukraine. The deal would be to let Russia keep all the occupied territories. In return, the rest of Ukraine would be allowed to join NATO and (I presume) the EU.
In other words: Western surrender.
First, Putin has long advocated the partitioning of Ukraine, once even telling Poland that they can have the Western part. This was when Eastern Ukraine (including the ethnic Ukrainians there) still voted for pro-Russian parties. Western Ukraine, by contrast, has always been more nationalist. So Putin wouldn´t lose *that* much by effectively ceding most of Ukraine to the West.
Second, Putin has Trojan horses in NATO and the EU. Yes, in NATO, that would be Turkey and Hungary. And perhaps Slovakia. In the EU, that would be Hungary. And perhaps Slovakia. They could block Ukraine´s membership in NATO-EU even in the event of a "peace agreement".
Third, the occupied territories have the largest natural resources and access to the Black Sea. They could perhaps be integrated into the Russian economy (which is largely unhurt by the "sanctions"). The rest of Ukraine is an economic basket case and probably can´t be integrated just as easily into the EU. And while it´s possible that both parties have lost an equal number of men in the brutal war, Ukraine has a smaller population and may have lost its best fighters, while Russia has mostly lost dispensable cannon-fodder.
Fourth, and following from the above, there won´t be any lasting "peace", just a temporary cessation of hostilities, until the Evil Empire decides it´s about time to resume the Drang nach Abendlandes...
"Peace in our time."
Can anyone please teach the Amerikan barbars at Breitbart News the basic facts of European geography?
Slovakia is one of the EU´s smallest member-states, and has a population of less than six million people. Indeed, Slovakia is smaller than the territory their Prime Minister wants Ukraine to cede to Russia!
In fact, I doubt even the Slovaks themselves refer to Robert Fico as a "world leader"...
LOL.
Is NATO turning into some kind of sick joke, or what?
Turkey and their Hungarian vilayet are blocking Sweden´s NATO membership bid, and now Slovakia say they will veto any future attempts by Ukraine to join NATO.
Having three Putinist Trojan Horses in NATO seem to come with consequences...
So Robert Fico of the "Social Democractic" Smer party did manage to become Slovakia´s new Prime Minister, heading a coalition government of Smer, Hlas (a similar party) and the right-wing nationalist SNS.
Fico is often seen as pro-Russian, and has indeed promised to stop all military aid from Slovakia to Ukraine. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the EU´s attempts to sanction Russia (and perhaps Hungary).
And for how long will Fico´s cabinet last? The Hlas party is led by a former ally of Fico turned rival, Peter Pellegrini...and now ally again?
I also note that Fico has promised not to take Slovakia out of the EU and NATO, but who knows how much mischief they can cause while still being a member-state. After all, Hungary haven´t left the EU and NATO either!
More questions than answers...
The pro-Russian party Smer (alias Smer-SD and other aliases) won a plurality of votes in the recent Slovak parliamentary elections. Usually, nobody much cares about elections in Slovakia - one of the smallest member-nations of the EU and NATO - but this year, everything is different due to the war in neighboring Ukraine. Slovakia´s pro-Western government have apparently shipped off a substantial amount of arms to Ukraine and also welcomed Ukrainian refugees. They also voted yes to Swedish and Finnish NATO membership.
Smer could change all this. Led by former prime minister Robert Fico, this "Social Democratic" party (really a kind of left-populist nationalists) have promised to discontinue all military aid to Ukraine and might also attempt to stop further EU sanctions against Russia. If so, Slovakia would become a bit like Viktor Orbán´s Hungary.
Or will it? Could it all be a false alarm? With 23% of the vote, Fico´s party needs the support of other political parties to form a coalition government. But one of these possible coalition partners is led by Peter Pellegrini, another former prime minister and a personal rival of Fico´s. Pellegrini, then a high-ranking member of Smer-SD, took over as prime minister when Fico was forced to resign in 2018 after a number of mafia-related scandals (yes, the Italian mob is active in Slovakia). Later, Pellegrini and Fico had a fall out, prompting Pellegrini to form his own political party, Hlas-SD, apparently a kind of Smer-SD copycat.
However, the personal conflict between the two populists might complicate any coalition negotiations, or threaten the stability of a future Fico-Pellegrini administration. Which brings me to my next remark. In contrast to Hungary, long dominated by Orbán´s Fidesz, Slovakia´s political landscape is notoriously fractious. Unstable coalition governments come and go, old political parties dissolve, new are formed, and so on. Think Italy! Thus, any coalition headed by Fico might turn out to be short lived. There are also cynics who point out that Fico´s rhetoric might not be entirely in line with his actual politics when in power. After all, Fico has been prime minister of Slovakia twice before, and yet, the country is still a EU-NATO member in good standing.
When the chips are really down, the future of Ukraine is decided in Washington DC. Not by a snap election in some obscure Central European backwater...
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Kan någon förklara det här nyhetstelegrammet? Jag trodde Tjeckien, Slovakien och Ungern var pro-ryska. Särskilt Ungern. Fast här verkar det som att just dessa länder lackat ur på Ryssland. Eller agerar de under hårda påtryckningar från EU och USA? Rumäniens utrikespolitik kan jag ingenting om, men jag antar att konflikten i Moldavien (Moldova) tenderar att göra dem anti-ryska.
For quite some time, the Czechs liked to portray themselves as more enlightened, democratic, Protestant, and Western-oriented than the Slovaks, who were accused of being generally backward and Catholic. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Slovaks were also painted as dangerous "populists" and probably Russophiles.
I used to believe something like this myself. Then, I started digging into Czech history...
It *is* true that Slovakia was something of a backwater for about 1000 years. It´s also true that Bohemia was a culturally advanced region, Prague in particular, during the a portion of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Emperor Rudolf II´s court is famous in this regard. But note that this wasn´t an exclusively Czech thing. It was equally German (or Austrian). Bohemia was a kingdom within the "Holy Roman Empire".
Czech nationalism during the 19th century was to a large extent pan-Slavist and pro-Russian. During World War I, the Czechs got the best of all possible worlds. They were oriented towards both France, the United States and...Czarist Russia. The Czechoslovak Legions played a prominent role in the Russian Civil War. For this reason, the relations between the Soviet Communist regime and Czechoslovakia were originally quite non-existent.
During the 1930´s, Czechoslovakia changed its foreign policy and entered an alliance with Stalin´s Soviet Union. Note that Czechoslovakia was at this point still a capitalist democracy. There was also an alliance with France.
During World War II and the period 1945-48, Czechoslovak president Eduard Benes (a moderate Czech Social Democrat) headed a "national front" dominated by the Communist Party. In the elections after the war, the Communist Party became the single largest party in the Czech lands. It did *not* become the largest party in Slovakia...
The bad experience of Communism (1948-1989) made the Czechs pro-Western, pro-American and anti-Russian. Playwright and pro-Western dissident Vaclav Havel was elected president of post-Communist Czechoslovakia and then transitioned to president of the Czech Republic. However, then something odd happened...
The next president, Vaclav Klaus (who originally claimed to be a Milton Friedman neo-liberal), turned out to be a pro-Russian Euro-skeptic climate change denialist. The third president, Milos Zeman, is apparently a former Communist and also regarded as soft on Putin. And in 2017, the Czech Republic voluntarily elected a "populist" prime minister, one Andrej Babis. What makes this even more piquante is that Babis is ethnically Slovak! So after accusing their Slovak cousins for being "Russophile populists" for 20+ years, the Czechs eventually elected one of these hideous Slovak populists Czech head of government!
Am I the only person who thinks we may have been played by Czech propaganda all this time?
This is probably the most obscure book I will ever review here on my blog.
"Slovenske Mestske a Obecne Erby" is a book by Jozef Novak, published in 1967 in Bratislava by Slovenska Archivna Sprava. It was the first volume in a series called "Edicia Pomocne Vedy Historicke a Archivnictvo".
Yes, folks, we're talking about a book published in Communist Czechoslovakia.
The book deals with heraldry, more specifically the coats of arms of Slovak towns and villages. It's written in a relatively accesible style (at least if Slovak is your first language), but the author is obviously a scholar. The notes abound with references to archival sources, including medieval documents, seals and earlier works on Slovak heraldry. Or rather Hungarian ditto, since Slovakia was an integrated part of the Hungarian Kingdom until 1918.
The author explains the evolution of Hungarian heraldry in some detail. Originally, Hungarian towns used coats of arms based on those of the ruling dynasty (the House of Arpad). Later, this became impossible due to frequent dynastic conflicts and the rise of powerful local rulers. To feign neutrality, the towns therefore preferred to show patron saints on their coats of arms. A third phase saw the emergence of distinct town symbols, beholden neither to the ruling house nor the Church, reflecting the increased power and confidence of the towns during the Early Modern Period.
Apparently, the coat of arms of Banska Stiavnica is unique in Slovakian history, since it adopted a distinct town symbol already during the 13th century, no doubt because of its immense economic importance (silver mining).
During the 19th century, coats of arms were seen as antiquated and "feudal", and the local governments often stopped using them altogether. Those who continued using them often didn't know what coat of arms was the right one!
An administrative reform in 1902 tried to remedy the situation, even decreeing that all town seals in Hungary should be remade by the same person, Ignac Felsenfeld. A special commission studied relevant archival material to decide on the "right" emblems. As a heraldry nerd, Jozef Novak naturally believes that the earliest coats of arms are more "pure" than later ones, while the commission rather preferred the latest designs, since towns during earlier periods often used strikingly similar symbols.
Since the colors of many coats of arms were unknown (probably because they were only used as symbols on wax seals), the commission decided what colors to use, showing a strong preference for silver charges on blue shields, making Hungarian heraldry look weirdly uniform.
The book doesn't deal with developments under Communism, when many Slovak towns and localities unofficially kept their coats of arms - or changed them in very unheraldic ways (although it's possible this didn't happen until after the book was published).
I happen to know that many Slovak towns use the "wrong" coats of arms, compared to the ones Novak has unearthed from the archives. Often, the devil is in the details, as when Pezinok's coat of arms shows Mary on a green shield, when the actual motif should be Anna holding an infant Mary on a blue shield...
Or perhaps not, since the Catholics insist that the lady on the escutcheon *is* the Virgin Mary, while the Lutherans apparently interpreted her as Anna! This per the current website of Pezinok.
The color is still wrong, though.
Perhaps it's time for another commission?
