Political legitimacy has become a scarce resource in Russia and other post-Soviet states. Their capacity to deliver prosperity has suffered from economic crisis, war in Ukraine and confrontation with the West. Will nationalism and repression enable political regimes to survive? This book studies the politics of legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia.

The revolutions of 1789 and 1917 were defining moments for religious history in France, Russia, and even in Europe as a whole. Drawing on the self-portrayals of some of the most radical actors, historians have presented revolutionaries as enemies of the church, and men of the church either as counter-revolutionaries or as victims of revolution. Revolution and religion have appeared as antagonistic forces, representing the struggle of modernity against tradition. Only recently have these conventional patterns of interpretation been questioned. Historians explore the religious origins of revolutions, look at clergymen and churches as revolutionary actors and analyze how revolutionary movements appropriate religious patterns of thought and behavior. In the French and in the Russian context, revolutions are seen as moments in which the sacred was redefined.

A. Epochen der preussischen Geschichte seit 1871 I. Preussen im deutschen Kaiserreich, 1871-1918 Fuhrungsmacht des Reiches und Aufgehen im Reich; II. Preussen von 1918 bis 1947 -Weimarer Republik, Nationalsozialistische Diktatur, Aufloesung 1947 B. Grosse Themen der preussischen Geschichte I. Das preussische Militarwesen; II. Die Geschichte der Kirchen und Konfessionen; III. Die Epoche der rus-sisch-preussischen Beziehung

Retrospectively, the Prague Spring appears to have been a coherent but unsuccessful experiment in finding a synthesis of Western democracy and socialism. However, this perspective ignores that different groups and individuals participated in these developments and shaped the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia with their completely varying professional, generational, national, and gender-specific experiences. What appears retrospectively as a goal-oriented reform movement or as an 'interrupted revolution' looked in the eyes of the protagonists rather like the situation in a laboratory, where they worked on new syntheses with uncertain results. The volume focuses on the protagonists' ideas of politics, society, and their reform plans. Of particular interest is the question which new thoughts about the interrelation of politics, science, economics, and arts were developed in Czechoslovakia.

Der Wasserweg zwischen der Ostsee und dem Weissen Meer im Norden Russlands ist das erste der Stalinschen technologischen Grossprojekte. Hier sollte von 1931 bis 1933 das Modell eines Zwangsarbeitslagers getestet werden. Die erfolgreiche rekordschnelle Fertigstellung des Weissmeerkanals bedingte die Weiterfuhrung des GULAG-Systems als ein "Wirtschaftsunternehmen" fur grosse Infrastrukturprojekte. Die karelische Kreisstadt Medvez'egorsk, an welcher der Weissmeerkanal seinen Anfang nimmt, ist eine herausragende Gedachtnislandschaft - neben dem viel propagierten Wasserweg befindet sich in Stadtnahe die Gedenkstatte Sandormoch fur die Opfer des Grossen Terrors. Die Studie untersucht diese beiden Gedachtnisorte der Stalinzeit in dem gegebenen Erinnerungsraum und betrachtet dabei die materiellen und rituellen Zeugnisse der Erinnerung wie Denkmale, Museen, Festkultur sowie die kommunikative Erinnerung der hier lebenden Menschen.

Debates about social modernization processes determined the public discourse of the Weimar Republic. The images of the USA and the Soviet Union that were produced in German newspapers and magazines, which were perceived as modernity projects, played a special role. This is where David Franz's study comes in, comparing conflicting depictions of both countries in the leading German print media of the time and embedding them in the social conditions of the interwar period. In addition to journalistic texts, visual representations were also examined. The study thus takes into account both the role of the Soviet Union, which has so far received little attention, as well as the power of visual representation in the debates of the Weimar Republic. As a result, it traces the lines of the interpretive struggles over modernization processes in society, economy and politics that were characteristic of the public debate of the Weimar Republic.

Diese Arbeit stellt die nationalen Rotkreuzgesellschaften Polens und der Tschechoslowakei als Beispiele fur Selbstorganisation im sozialistischen Staat vor. Als Teil der internationalen Rotkreuzbewegung unterschieden sich das Polnische Rote Kreuz (Polski Czerwony Krzyz, PCK) und das Tschechoslowakische Rote Kreuz (Ceskoslovensky Cerveny kri, CSCK) von anderen verstaatlichten Massenorganisationen. Sie verknupften sozialistische Ideologie und humanitare Prinzipien zu einem "socialist humanitarianism". Maren Hachmeister untersucht die Arbeit des polnischen und des tschechoslowakischen Roten Kreuzes zwischen 1945 und 1989 insbesondere fur die Themen- und Tatigkeitsfelder Suchdienste, Blutspende, Jugend und Eliten. Der historische Vergleich zeigt dabei auf, wann, wo und wie zivilgesellschaftliche Selbstorganisationen fur beide Organisationen unter den Vorzeichen des Staatssozialismus moeglich war.