The Politics of Soviet and Nazi Genocides in Orange Ukraine

This article examines policies and public attitudes concerning the issue of Soviet and Nazi genocides in Ukraine after the ‘Orange Revolution’. The central question is whether such factors as regional political culture affect contemporary policies and public attitudes towards these important historical issues. The article uses a 2008 survey conducted for this study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology to analyse determinants of public attitudes concerning the question of whether Soviet and the Nazi policies were genocidal. It finds that regional political culture is the most significant factor affecting policies and attitudes towards the Soviet genocide in Ukraine.     

Children of Hippocrates: doctors in Nazi Germany.

One of the more unexplored yet frightening aspects of the Nazi years in Germany, 1933-45, is the conduct of the doctors during those years. Many of them abandoned the traditional guiding norms for the practice of medicine, archaically expressed in the Hippocratic oath, and proposed, carried out, and cooperated with medical experiments without the consent of subjects and with little promise of any contribution to medical science. Many also participated in research and other medical activities, such as euthanasia and mass sterilization, whose purposes had nothing to do with a contribution to medical knowledge that would eventually save or improve life, but were simply for the manipulation and killing of persons. These activities quickly fell under the control of Nazi ideology, with no protest on the basis of the norms of medical practice by societies of medical doctors and psychiatrists, and with little, albeit costly, protest by individuals. A brief survey of what the Medical case and the Auschwitz trial revealed about the conduct of the doctors raises the question of the status and effectiveness of a professional standard like the Hippocratic oath against the power of the state. This, in turn, raises the question about the basis of the rights of man outside of what is enacted and secured by a nation-state. In facing this question, an appeal is made for the nurture of care about human rights, among professional groups with transnational identities as well as among individuals and voluntary nonprofessional associations among the general citizenry. Finally, a claim is made for specific kinds of social-political responsibilities of doctors in modern society.     

美国以“巧实力”促东南亚战略“重返”

美国国务卿希拉里2009年7月出席东盟系列峰会，在第十六届东盟地区论坛外长会议上，代表美国政府签署了《东南亚友好合作条约》（TAC），并承诺美将于近期在位于雅加达的东盟秘书处派驻常设外交机构。此举打破了美国长时间游离于TAC之外的状态，彻底改观了布什政府期间对东盟的冷漠态度，     

苏联伟大卫国战争与俄罗斯民族振兴

今年是世界反法西斯战争胜利60周年,经历过这场战争的国家,都会以各种方式纪念那段永世难忘的历史。战争,尤其是让一个民族国家全力投入的反侵略战争,它所留给历史的,不仅仅是当时胜利的喜悦与光荣,更是一种精神的源泉--爱国主义、英雄主义和民族自豪感的精神源泉。这一点,在俄罗斯和前苏联境内各国表现得十分突出。     

苏联解体后的摩尔多瓦共产党

苏联解体后,摩尔多瓦共产党不仅经历了由被禁止活动到重新崛起的过程,而且在2001和2005年两度问鼎政权,摩尔多瓦因而成为苏联解体后在前加盟共和国中出现的第一个由共产党重新执政的国家,同时也成为欧洲大陆上惟一由共产党连续掌权的国家,这在独联体以至全世界都引起了强烈震动。摩共连续获胜并非偶然,它是摩共多年来,特别是2001年执政以来不懈努力的结果。摩共再次执政能否获得成功,将取决于多方面因素的综合影响。