Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

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The ‘enlargement fatigue’ observed in European public opinion gives poor counsel for thinking in terms of the future. A pause in the enlargement process has already imposed itself through force of circumstance, but a political philosophy should not be made of it. With the exception of Croatia, no other country will have the opportunity to join the EU in the near future. Next will be Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo, and perhaps also Albania; there is little chance of this happening before 2020. Only then would the issue arise of the membership of Turkey, which opened accession negotiations in 2005, and also of the Eastern European countries that have applied to join. It seems utterly pointless to speculate at this time whether these expectations will meet with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, because we do not know what the European Union will be like in 2025, and we do not know what the intentions of these candidate countries will be at that time either. On the other hand, we need to realise that the negotiations have a pacifying effect on the regions concerned, and also that they encourage and support the modernisation process within them. Setting out to fix ‘Europe’s borders’ can only feed populist distortions, since these borders are already defined by encounters between geography and history. Meanwhile, the European Union can move its borders by virtue of the principle enshrined in the Treaty of Rome whereby ‘any European state’ has the right to apply for membership, while the EU’s decision depends on the application of the Copenhagen criteria, the positive outcome of negotiations and its own absorption capacity. There is no need to return to the projects formulated in the aftermath of the Berlin Wall coming down, motivated by the fear of enlargement. The fear that the ‘new barbarians’ were at the EU’s gates was what led to this idea of introducing different circles of integration into the Community, breaking with the principle of equality between Member States: this idea emerged at the time in German Christian Democrat circles, and now seems to have been taken up again by the same circles. This would not serve the interests of the EU in the least; on the contrary, it would weaken it. The European Union can only move forward by taking a pragmatic approach based on a vision of the future. And also based on hopes, not fears. 39 Bronisław Geremek
Confronted by the challenges of globalisation, the European Union must revive its flair for innovation, develop its state-of-the-art technologies, guarantee sustained economic growth and return to its leading role in the world in education and scientific progress. It must also give itself a political dimension that would allow it, and others, to benefit from its ‘soft power’ (as Joseph Nye put it) – the attractiveness of its political and cultural model and its attachment to democracy and the rule of law, as well as its particular cosmopolitan model of an open society. It needs to give itself a common foreign and security policy, and the necessary military potential. It needs new solidarity policies that can guarantee both its energy security and social security. One can understand the bitterness of those who deplore the fact that, on several occasions, the European Union has missed the chance to achieve the federalist project. But Europe is by nature a work in progress, and impatience is not a wise counsellor. Let us accept Europe as it is: ‘a federation of nation states’. Montesquieu said that Europe is one nation composed of several nations. One might now add that it could become one motherland composed of several motherlands. That would require some work on the European mindset. It is said that the European project of the founding fathers, of integration articulated clearly and naturally around peace, has lost its appeal among the younger generations, who do not know what war is like. Analyses of public opinion do not support this, however. What people still immediately associate with the idea of a united Europe is peace (the latest report by Dominique Reynié on European opinion in 2008 proves this). That is why the political Europe is not lost! So what can we do? My answer would be to give priority to European education and to European citizenship. Sometimes deepening is pitted against enlargement. On the contrary, I believe that both can and must go together, and that it is in these two areas that deepening can be achieved. Ignoring history will make way for populists and demagogues to use it as a message of hatred and discord. The present is – whether we like it or not – rooted in Europe’s past. We cannot allow the memories of West and East to remain separate, turning their backs 40
Page 1 and 2: Twenty years after the end of the C
Page 4 and 5: Dedicated to Bronisław Geremek Bro
Page 6 and 7: Table of contents Preface: Never Ag
Page 8 and 9: Preface Never again 7 Martin Schulz
Page 10 and 11: Preface The Past Does Not Go Away A
Page 12 and 13: Introduction by the Editors In 2008
Page 14: about the tense and ambivalent rela
Page 17 and 18: another debate formulated by Richar
Page 19 and 20: theoretical and practical impossibi
Page 21 and 22: History and national identity Histo
Page 23 and 24: the subject of much controversy, th
Page 25 and 26: everything on Stalin and communism:
Page 27 and 28: Prague Spring: “In the mid-1950s,
Page 29 and 30: Literature Arendt, Hannah (1951) Th
Page 32 and 33: Common Memory and European Identity
Page 34 and 35: cried the Ossies as the Berlin Wall
Page 36 and 37: the first phase of negotiations aft
Page 38 and 39: eference to a common destiny, and t
Page 42 and 43: on each other. The only way of chan
Page 44 and 45: “The Word Concentration Camp mean
Page 46 and 47: I think history is essential to thi
Page 48 and 49: denying it is like saying evil does
Page 50 and 51: Soviet camp, not because he had don
Page 52 and 53: Q: In Germany there is a strong fee
Page 54 and 55: the 17 th century so that the South
Page 56 and 57: forests near Minsk. I was taken the
Page 58 and 59: harmonious and prosperous, with the
Page 60: were doing and why they were doing
Page 63 and 64: an explanation. I told him that I e
Page 65 and 66: This movement once had a big meetin
Page 67 and 68: guests of Imre Pozsgay, minister of
Page 70: HISTORICAL DILEMMAS
Page 73 and 74: National myths Every society has a
Page 75 and 76: confessions. The culmination of thi
Page 77 and 78: First, few countries undertake a th
Page 79 and 80: Finally, confronted with the experi
Page 81 and 82: no better placed than governments t
Page 83 and 84: compartments, and that one must som
Page 85 and 86: Such an approach certainly has its
Page 88 and 89: History and Politics: Recommendatio
Page 90 and 91:
The tension between academic histor
Page 92 and 93:
oth a collective and individual exo
Page 94 and 95:
Europe’s responsibilities It is c
Page 96:
egimes provides a deeper understand
Page 99 and 100:
and accounts for professionals deal
Page 101 and 102:
This shift later inspired the devel
Page 103 and 104:
In Germany, public historical cultu
Page 106 and 107:
Historical Bias in Poland: Lustrati
Page 108 and 109:
The Polish United Workers’ Party
Page 110 and 111:
The right’s criticism of the meth
Page 112 and 113:
epresents one more step in the broa
Page 114 and 115:
European Social Democracy and 20 th
Page 116 and 117:
the KPD - even now - is not about p
Page 118 and 119:
esisted them in many cases. The ove
Page 120 and 121:
turned some of them against the SPD
Page 122 and 123:
The Interpretation of the Soviet Un
Page 124 and 125:
the result of a war of liberation a
Page 126 and 127:
Molotov-Ribbentrop protocol? How di
Page 128:
pen in Lithuania. The idea was adva
Page 131 and 132:
and politician Giovanni Amendola to
Page 133 and 134:
The most influential analytical mod
Page 135 and 136:
2. A single mass party consisting o
Page 137 and 138:
their differences. Most comparative
Page 139 and 140:
communism are legal heirs of the En
Page 141 and 142:
the world war and to exculpate the
Page 143 and 144:
They also criticized “revisionist
Page 145 and 146:
seen above, after careful scrutiny
Page 148 and 149:
The Real Problem Latvians Have with
Page 150 and 151:
not see it as something important e
Page 152 and 153:
structures Latvian domestic politic
Page 154 and 155:
the language of instruction in scho
Page 156 and 157:
Diversity in Historical Education:
Page 158 and 159:
and sometimes in adjustment and ada
Page 160 and 161:
For the Record: PSE MEPs react 159
Page 162 and 163:
F. especially the Nazi- and the Sta
Page 164 and 165:
having always been victims, trying
Page 166:
SPECIAL REPORT: SLOVAKS AND HUNGARI
Page 169 and 170:
Much has happened in the last two y
Page 171 and 172:
The conference concentrated, as the
Page 173 and 174:
aristocratic, Estates-based ‘nati
Page 175 and 176:
A person’s identification with a
Page 177 and 178:
ians to evaluate the extent to whic
Page 179 and 180:
more intensive part in forming the
Page 182 and 183:
A Common Past, a Divided History 18
Page 184 and 185:
nearly seven hundred kilometres of
Page 186 and 187:
It is extremely important to note,
Page 188 and 189:
historical public opinion and self-
Page 190 and 191:
thousands of Hungarian and Slovak c
Page 192:
enewed historiography will also be
Page 195 and 196:
we shall turn our attention to two
Page 197 and 198:
In response to these questions, two
Page 199 and 200:
While more than 80% of the oldest a
Page 201 and 202:
Table 2 Opinions of respondents of
Page 203 and 204:
6,0 5,5 5,0 4,5 4,0 3,5 3,0 2,5 ▼
Page 205 and 206:
we consider the trends suggested be
Page 208 and 209:
Resistance and Exile Miguel Angel M
Page 210 and 211:
it was necessary to formulate socia
Page 212 and 213:
degree of generosity, activism and
Page 214:
the ICFTU. There my work focused on
Page 217 and 218:
After Stalin’s death, most of the
Page 220 and 221:
Moscow versus Prague 219 Boris Orlo
Page 222 and 223:
Of all the problems that my country
Page 224 and 225:
Social Democracy and the Prague Spr
Page 226 and 227:
comprehend the overwhelming contrad
Page 228 and 229:
Renaissance of Socialism Observatio
Page 230 and 231:
My Personal Encounters with History
Page 232 and 233:
Over a decade later, political chan
Page 234 and 235:
monument, its location and particul
Page 236:
Minister, Dimitri Rupel, I founded
Page 239 and 240:
people exactly know what actually w
Page 241 and 242:
tablished democracies. What was the
Page 244 and 245:
Memory is a Loaded Gun An Epilogue
Page 246 and 247:
Post office, Gdansk
Page 248 and 249:
Solidarność Memorial
Page 250 and 251:
Krzysztof Pomian, a well known Poli
Page 252 and 253:
effective and positive factor in gi
Page 254:
Martin Schulz, leader of the PSE Gr
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