This study focuses on analysing the heights of 10,953 Korean men aged 20 to 40 years who were measured during the Joseon dynasty, the Japanese colonialisation period, and the contemporary period, the latter including both North and South Korea. This study thus provides rare long-term statistical evidence on how biological living standards have developed over several centuries, encompassing Confucianism, colonialism, capitalism, and communism. Using error bar analysis of heights for each historical sample period, this study confirms that heights rose as economic performance improved. For instance, economically poorer North Koreans were expectedly shorter, by about 6 cm, than their peers living in the developed South. Similarly, premodern inhabitants of present-day South Korea, who produced a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita below the world average, were about 4 cm shorter than contemporary South Koreans, who have a mean income above the world average. Along similar lines, North Koreans, who have a GDP per capita akin to that of the premodern Joseon dynasty, have not improved much in height. On the contrary, mean heights of North Koreans were even slightly below (by about 2.4 cm) heights of Joseon dynasty Koreans. All in all, the heights follow a U-shaped pattern across time, wherein heights were lowest during the colonial era. Heights bounced back to Joseon dynasty levels during the interwar period, a time period where South Korea benefitted from international aid, only to rise again and surpass even premodern levels under South Korea's flourishing market economy.
Historical cultural practices that no longer exist can have modern day effects. Because communism has been linked with distrust of government, it was hypothesized that (a) historical communism would be negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccination rates, and (b) trust in government would mediate the association. Two studies assessed these hypotheses. Study 1 tested the hypotheses among European, Asian, and African countries, while Study 2 focused on East and West Germany within Europe. All samples except Africa found support for an association between historical communism and lower COVID-19 vaccination rates. However, trust in government did not mediate the association in Study 1, though a significant indirect effect did emerge within Germany in Study 2. Associations held controlling for GDP and age of population. Together, the studies suggest that historical communism in Europe and Asia is associated with real-world behavior today, and that trust in government might be partly responsible for the effect within Germany but less likely within Europe as a whole.
Secular change in the heights of adult men and women resident in ten rural communities in west-central Poland in four decennial surveys between 1986 and 2016 is considered. The adults were parents of children attending schools in rural communities in the province of Poznań. During each survey, parents of school children were asked to complete a questionnaire which requested their ages, heights and completed levels of education. Ages were reported in whole years. The self-reported heights were adjusted for the tendency of individuals to overestimate height. Height loss among of individuals 35+ years was estimated with sex-specific equations and was added to the adjusted heights. Secular gains in heights of adult males across the 30 year interval, and across the 1986-1996 and 2006-2016 surveys were, on average, larger than corresponding gains in heights of adult females; the sex difference between 1996 and 2006 surveys was negligible. When heights were regressed on year of birth, heights of males and females born before 1950 (prior to World War II and shortly after) showed minimal and non-significant secular changes, while heights of those born post-1950 showed larger and significant secular gains, more so in males than in females. The results highlight significant secular trends in the heights of rural adults over a 30-year interval. Consistent with other studies in Poland, the positive trends likely reflected political, educational and socio-economic changes and by inference improved nutritional and health conditions across generations.
Focusing on South Korean biologists and their efforts to establish national parks in the 1960s and 1970s, I illuminate the ways in which they negotiated their relationship with the ecological diplomacy of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the anti-communist and developmentalist diplomacy of the South Korean government. To justify their activities, these South Korean biologists emphasized the importance of nature conservation activities in the competition for international recognition and economic development with their northern counterparts. The national-park initiative was thus subsumed into the politics of this legitimacy competition between the two Koreas, or what I call 'victory-over-communism' diplomacy. The IUCN's influence over South Korea was limited to the extent that both the government and scientists recognized the diplomatic merit they could gain in the context of their Cold War competition and developmentalism. It is also shown how, during the short detente period of the two Koreas, South Korean biologists used victory-over-communism diplomacy to renew their government's attention to their activities. This Korean episode contributes to the wider perspective of decentralizing the Cold War history of environmental diplomacy in the free-world bloc by illustrating the importance of its entanglement with the Cold War politics surrounding Asian developmentalism.
The fall of Communism is now universally agreed to be what the philosopher Hegel called a world historical event-one that few predicted but nearly everyone saw as inevitable after it happened. In the aftermath many lives-and worldviews-changed, not only, but also in the human sciences. These remarks attempt to address in a preliminary way both the impact of the fall of Communism on psychology in former East Germany (including changes in personnel and approach) and the ways in which these sciences were employed as resources for reflection on the Communist past as well as the transition to new social and political regimes.
The term "gay community" has been criticized for its inability to explain the pluralities in a specific cultural and political context. Based on in-depth interviews with 63 non-heterosexual males in Bulgaria, this study aims to revisit the theories of gay communities in a non-Western, post-communist context. The data from this study suggest that (1) the idea of a "gay community" is often rejected due to anti-communist notions and explicit engagement with individualism as anti-communitarianism; (2) belonging to a gay community is subjective, and initial verbal detachment from gay communities does not indicate a lack of factual belonging to such communities; (3) the concepts of "personal communities" and "family of choice" remain relatively irrelevant in the Bulgarian context; (4) the most significant factor for attachment to a gay community is the notion of "gay culture" and "gay scene"; (5) recent forms of "sexual attachments" have led to a certain political involvement; and (6) the "anti-gender campaigns" have revitalized the importance of gay communities and have brought an increasing number of respondents to certain involvement in gay communities and networks, challenging the theories of "post-gay" societies.
Some of the most acclaimed novels from post-communist countries deal with communism through an anti-communist ethos. The emerging international canon of post-communist representations of communism and transition to capitalism has always sought to enfoce a convincing anti-communist ideal. Writers have only recently formulated critiques of the post-communist transition through what Boris Buden describes as post-communist cultures without social utopias. Those novels are not rooted in anti-communism but rather criticize the death of utopias following the fall of communism. Drawing on the Romanian case, we try to outline the heterotopias of capitalism in post-communism from the standpoint of novels on migration and work abroad, addressing contemporary understandings of capitalist realism, post-socialist realism, autofiction, and documented realism. Analysing novels by Liliana Nechit, Mihai Buzea, and Adrian Schiop, we reveal the subjective nature of the testimonial literature on migration and contrast it to the need to incorporate workers' agency into this literary process. While the description of Eastern European capitalism through novels about migration has become an indictment of communism and a subtle plea for a 'better' form of capitalism, the novels about internal migration recover a lost social utopia that ended with the 1989 collapse of Romanian communism.
The vampire trope's connection to socialism originates in Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848), where it symbolizes capitalism. This interpretation has dominated vampire studies, often narrowing the discourse on the semantic dimensions of the vampire in communist states. This article examines the evolution of the vampire myth in Eastern bloc cinema from Lenin's 1917 October Revolution to Romania's 1989 communist collapse. By comparing socialist vampire movies to Western counterparts, the study reveals that Eastern European vampires usually embody the haunting legacy of communism's earlier phases. The article's final section contrasts vampire depictions in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and Romania during the cinema of late communism. While Romania-known as the vampire trope's birthplace-avoided the myth in cinema, other countries embraced it during this period to critique consumerism and shifting gender roles in Soviet societies. Through this exploration, the article illuminates the cinematic interpretations of the vampire across different socialist contexts.
Against the backdrop of the ideological rivalry between communism and capitalism, sport in the GDR was exploited for political ends. This was evident, among other things, in a state-directed, controlled, hierarchically organized and, in parts, totalitarian competitive sports system. A key component was a conspiratorial, state-controlled program of compulsory doping, which was systematically implemented from the 1970s onwards and affected an estimated 15,000 underage athletes. Performance-enhancing substances, primarily anabolic-androgenic steroids, were administered covertly, without the knowledge, information, or consent of those affected, often before puberty and despite known health risks. In addition to the effects of the doping substances, which enabled training loads beyond physiological limits, there was discipline, pressure to perform, surveillance, isolation, and abuse by sports officials. The resulting impairments to biopsychosocial development are still evident today in the form of serious health damage. Alongside disruptions to hormonal regulatory systems, growth and organ damage, cardiovascular diseases, tumors and degenerative diseases of the musculoskeletal system, and mental disorders with a lifetime prevalence of up to 98% are of particular concern, especially depressive, phobic, and somatoform pain disorders. Despite the laws providing assistance to victims of doping, the political and legal management of this particular injustice perpetrated by the SED remains unsatisfactory. Furthermore, society rarely acknowledges the violation of the human rights of former competitive athletes in the GDR who were forcibly doped as minors and continue to suffer from severe physical and psychosocial consequences to this day. Vor dem Hintergrund der Systemkonkurrenz zwischen Kommunismus und Kapitalismus wurde der Sport in der DDR politisch instrumentalisiert. Dies zeigte sich unter anderem in einem staatlich gelenkten, kontrollierten, hierarchisch organisierten und in Teilen totalitären Leistungssportsystem. Dessen zentraler Bestandteil war ein konspirativ geplantes, staatlich gesteuertes Zwangsdoping, das ab den 1970er-Jahren systematisch umgesetzt wurde und schätzungsweise bis zu 15.000 minderjährige Athletinnen und Athleten betraf. Leistungssteigernde Substanzen, vor allem anabolandrogene Steroide, wurden verdeckt, ohne Wissen, Aufklärung oder Einwilligung der Betroffenen verabreicht, häufig vor der Pubertät und trotz bekannter gesundheitlicher Risiken. Zu den Folgen der Dopingmittel, die Trainingsbelastungen jenseits physiologischer Grenzen ermöglichten, kamen Disziplinierung, Leistungszwang, Überwachung, Abschottung und Missbrauch durch Sportfunktionäre hinzu. Die daraus resultierenden Beeinträchtigungen der biopsychosozialen Entwicklung sind bis heute in Form schwerer gesundheitlicher Schäden nachweisbar. Neben Störungen hormoneller Regelkreise, Wachstums- und Organschäden, Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen, Tumoren sowie degenerativen Erkrankungen des Bewegungsapparats stehen psychische Störungen mit einer Lebenszeitprävalenz von bis zu 98 % im Vordergrund, insbesondere depressive, phobische und somatoforme Schmerzstörungen. Trotz der Dopingopfer-Hilfegesetze bleibt die politisch-juristische Aufarbeitung dieses durch die SED begangenen Unrechts unzureichend. Auch gesellschaftlich wird bislang zu selten anerkannt, dass die minderjährig zwangsgedopten ehemaligen Leistungssportlerinnen und -sportler in ihren Menschenrechten verletzt wurden und bis heute unter schweren körperlichen und psychosozialen Folgeschäden leiden.
After the fall of communism, Polish psychiatry and special education underwent profound transformations, adopting different paradigmatic assumptions in their approach to intellectual disability. The aim of this study is to compare the theoretical foundations of both disciplines and analyze the effects of these discrepancies. Contemporary psychiatry and clinical psychology are based on the biopsychosocial paradigm, integrating biological factors with the environmental model and quantitative research, which ensures their presence in international scientific discourse. Polish special education, on the other hand, has adopted a humanistic paradigm, favoring qualitative methodologies and rejecting the biomedical perspective, which results in its methodological isolation and the neglect of the medical aspects of disability. Despite the converging practical goals of community psychiatry and pedagogy, there is a fundamental divergence between the disciplines that hinders cooperation. In conclusion, there is a need to establish a dialogue and develop a common conceptual framework that combines the medical basis of neurodevelopmental disorders with the humanistic dimension of support.
Migration from Albanian healthcare professionals to Western countries has been widespread since Albania emerged from communism in 1991. The migration of Albanian physicians and nurses has significant impacts on the country's healthcare system. The manuscript addresses the migration intentions of Albanian healthcare professionals, including physicians and nurses focusing on their inclination to emigrate to Western countries. This cross-sectional study included 315 participants from two municipalities, Fier and Vlore, examining various factors that impact their desire to seek employment abroad. A structured, culturally adapted questionnaire (18 items; four subscales: migration intention, social worth, teamwork climate, financial dissatisfaction) adapted from Goštautaitė et al. was used; internal consistency was high (Cronbach's α = 0.885). Results indicate a moderate-to-high level of migration intention, particularly pronounced among younger healthcare workers, those with fewer years of professional experience, and individuals working in high-stress departments such as emergency medicine and intensive care. Statistically significant associations were found between migration intention and key variables, including age (p < .01), ward of employment (p < .05), and self-reported financial dissatisfaction (p < .01). Participants citing greater dissatisfaction with income and professional growth opportunities were more likely to express a desire to emigrate. Additionally, poor teamwork climate and low perceived social worth were moderately associated with higher migration intentions, though not all associations reached statistical significance. These findings highlight a widespread perception of undervaluation and burnout, particularly in public sector facilities and among early-career professionals. Financial dissatisfaction and stressful work settings were associated with higher migration intention; policy measures may mitigate these risks. Several systems have piloted targeted retention levers (remuneration, career ladders, dual practice), offering transferable options. Similar interventions could mitigate the brain drain in Albania, improving job satisfaction and financial stability for healthcare workers.
This article examines the political abuse of psychiatry in Romania during the Ceaușescu era (1965-1989), analyzing how psychiatric institutions were systematically transformed into instruments of ideological control. Drawing on Securitate archives, victim testimonies, legal documents, and medical reports, this study demonstrates three interconnected dimensions of psychiatric repression: the operational mechanics through which political dissent was pathologized into psychiatric diagnosis; the deployment of medical authority to disguise political persecution as therapeutic intervention; and Romania's distinctive post-1989 failure of accountability, through which perpetrator structures survived regime change intact. The analysis reveals how complicit psychiatrists wielded diagnostic categories such as "paranoia" and "discordant syndrome" as political code, while institutions inflicted systematic violence masked as treatment. Unlike other post-communist transitions where lustration laws dismantled collaborator networks, Romania's psychiatric nomenclatura maintained uninterrupted control over professional structures, investigative commissions, and institutional memory. This article contributes to scholarship on medical ethics, state violence, and the weaponization of health care under authoritarian regimes, integrating operational, institutional, and transitional justice perspectives. In doing so, it demonstrates how the fusion of medical authority with security power produced a form of repression uniquely resistant to external scrutiny and post-communist accountability.
Reducing wealth inequality is a global challenge, and the problems of capitalism stem from the enclosure of the commons and the breakdown of the community. According to previous studies by Polanyi, Karatani, and Graeber, economic modes can be divided into capitalist market economy (enclosure and exchange), power economy (de-enclosure and redistribution), gift economy (obligation to return and reciprocity), and concession economy (de-obligation to return). The concession economy reflects Graeber's baseline communism (from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs) and Deguchi's We-turn philosophy (the "I" as an individual has a "fundamental incapability" and the subject of physical action, responsibility, and freedom is "We" as a multi-agent system, including the "I"). In this study, we constructed novel network models for these four modes and compared their properties (cluster coefficient, graph density, reciprocity, assortativity, centrality, and Gini coefficient). Our calculation results show that the market economy has more inequality; the power economy mitigates inequality but cannot eliminate it; the gift and concession economies lead to a more healthy and equal economy; and the concession economy, free from the constraints of obligation to return, is possible without guaranteeing reciprocity. In comparison with the established models, we found that the power economy is equivalent to Barabási-Albert model with power law, that the gift and concession economies can be positioned within variations of Watts-Strogatz model with small-world property, and that the approach from concession to gift economies is more effective in reducing inequality, fostering natural reciprocity while avoiding the constraints of return. We intend to promote the transformation from a capitalist economy to a concession economy through activities that disseminate baseline communism and the We-turn philosophy that promotes concession, that is, developing a cooperative platform to support concession through information technology and empirical research through fieldwork.
This article is informed by sixteen in-depth interviews with LGBT + activists in Romania, my archive and notes during my involvement in feminist and queer activist circles, as well as archival materials of an LGBT + NGO. It proposes the concept of lesbian anonymity as a means of investigating the way in which marginal positions within mainstream movements are anonymized and their contributions to the movement dispersed within the generic queer/gay activism. By looking at specific case studies from Romaniás transition period (1989 to mid 2000s), I analyze how matters of representation were tackled within the LGBT + mainstream movements in relation to grassroots activist circles. The article explores what happens when queer gatekeepers fail to engage with internal criticisms concerning the selective erasure of certain categories of voices such as queer women, trans people, racialized people, sex workers. I argue that lesbian anonymity offers another angle of analyzing the clashes between and within different LGBT + groups in post-socialist spaces. How does lesbian anonymity shape the queer movements and why is it important to keep representational issues in mind while working on non-normative sexualities, gender, and women´s reproductive rights? This contribution offers a necessary critique of the representational gaps within queer movements.
The Cold War's bipolarity between the Free World and the Communist World was evident across diplomacy, literature, military competition. Science, where research and publications often reflected opposing ideologies, is undoubtedly a crucial area. Julian Huxley's Evolution in Action (1953), a scientific work on genetics, exemplifies the scientific outlook of the Free World. Under the auspices of Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals, an American anti-communist organization helping with the resettlement of Chinese refugees, Huxley's Evolution in Action was translated by Xu Guansan and published in Hong Kong in 1953. Through Xu's translation, both the political image of Huxley and the political elements of Evolution were deliberately downplayed. For Xu, genetic knowledge was not merely an expression of political ideology but a means to promote his academic beliefs, particularly integrating historical studies with scientific disciplines. In this sense, Evolution lost the original political significance attributed to it by the Cold War bipolarity when it traveled to Hong Kong via translation. Examing Xu Guansan's translation of genetic knowledge complicates the history of science in Cold War Hong Kong by offering an aspect from the individual who reproduced the scientific work.
East German Sigmund Jähn and West German Ulf Merbold were Germany's first spacefarers. While their rivalry mirrored the superpowers' space race in many ways, it differed in a significant aspect: Jähn and Merbold shared a common cultural and historical background. Going where no German had gone before, therefore, was as much a competition of democracy versus dictatorship, and/or capitalism versus communism, as it was about which state represented the 'better' Germany. Moreover, this rivalry did not end with the Cold War but reappeared with renewed vigour in the country's eventual reunification process after 1990. Drawing on national archival and printed sources from all around the world, this article analyses collective projections and competing performances in the making of Germany's most famous rocket stars, both before and beyond 1990. Discussing individual characteristics, cultural traditions and techno-scientific ambitions, it argues that descent rather than socio-technical prospect proved crucial in designating the progenitor of German space flight.
This essay examines how the transnational interactions of two secularist organizations, the International of Proletarian Freethinkers (IPF) and the Soviet League of Militant Godless (League), and their social contexts, shaped the meaning, direction, and fate, of secularism in interwar Europe. It shows that while Soviet atheism played a central role in European secularism, its actual reach and influence abroad was indirect and, ultimately, limited. It also argues that Soviet atheism's most significant impact was the consolidation of an anti-secularist alliance against "Godless Communism" that cast a shadow long after the decline of atheism in the Soviet Union itself.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the historical development and current challenges of professional training for prison service staff in the Czech Republic. This study focuses on the transition from a repressive system under communism to a democratic approach emphasising human rights, ethics and professionalisation. It aims to assess the effectiveness of the current training programmes and their alignment with international standards, highlighting their impact on safety, recidivism reduction and prisoner re-socialisation. The findings aim to inform policymakers and practitioners about the importance of continuous investment in education and professional development for sustainable improvements in the prison system. The authors focused on the basic professional training of prison service workers. Specifically, 247 people. Through the questionnaire, the authors investigated the reflection of the education itself and its benefit for the participants. This research reveals that the professional training of prison service staff significantly enhances their preparedness, ethical standards and ability to manage crisis situations. Participants acknowledged the high quality of teaching materials and the dedication of instructors. Humanities subjects, such as law and ethics, were found challenging but essential. Well-trained staff contribute to improved prison safety and reduced recidivism. This study emphasises the necessity of ongoing education, collaboration with academic experts and modern training tools. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of tailoring training programmes to meet the evolving needs of diverse prisoner groups and the societal demand for rehabilitation. This study primarily relied on questionnaire-based data from participants in basic professional training courses, which may introduce subjective bias and limited scope. This research focused on the Czech Republic's prison system, and findings may not be directly generalisable to other contexts. Further studies could benefit from longitudinal data collection, in-depth qualitative interviews and comparative analyses across different countries. The implications emphasise the need for more comprehensive evaluation frameworks to ensure that training programmes are continuously updated in line with emerging challenges, such as increasing prisoner diversity and evolving security risks, thereby enhancing the global relevance of these findings. Implementing this study's recommendations can improve the overall quality and effectiveness of prison service training. Regular updates to curricula, inclusion of modern technologies and collaboration with external experts can address the evolving needs of the prison environment. Enhanced training in crisis management, ethics and human rights will better equip staff for real-life challenges. In addition, targeted specialisation programmes can help address the specific needs of prisoner subgroups, including those with mental disorders or cultural differences. These practical changes will contribute to safer prisons, better re-socialisation outcomes and increased public trust in the prison system. By improving the quality of prison staff training, this study supports broader societal goals of reducing recidivism and promoting the successful reintegration of former prisoners. Enhanced training fosters a more humane and ethical approach to incarceration, reducing stigma and fostering public understanding of rehabilitation's value. Addressing social exclusion through effective prisoner re-socialisation directly benefits communities by reducing crime rates and improving social cohesion. The findings also underline the importance of public-private partnerships and community involvement in supporting re-entry programmes, thus contributing to a more inclusive and equitable society. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of prison service training in the Czech Republic, highlighting the shift from a repressive to a rehabilitative approach. Its originality lies in combining historical, sociological and practical perspectives to assess training effectiveness. By focusing on ethical education, modern pedagogical methods and international standards, this study provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to enhance prison systems. The findings contribute to the global discourse on prison reform by showcasing how investment in education and professional development can lead to safer prisons and more effective reintegration of prisoners into society.
This study seeks to theorize the post-communist anti-communist novel as a distinct and productive genre in East-Central European literatures, which we describe - in polemic with the better-known ostalgie - as a narrative of ostodium. We argue that anti-communist fiction became a cohesive genre in post-communism owing to its rigid view of the past, which was kept alive and significant, while simultaneously being antagonized, even after communism had collapsed. To that end, we explain how the anti-communist mindset assumed by intellectuals from the region during communism (which had then been branded as 'anti-politics') maintained monopoly over post-communist cultural production, and merged with ascending post-communist neoliberalism that promoted an anti-statist public mythology. We further outline the shifting shapes in which the ideological bias of the post-communist anti-communist novel was conveyed, and draw distinctions from proximate genres, such as the political novel, le roman á la thèse and historiographic metafiction. One crucial argument in this respect regards the postmodern entanglements of the post-communist anti-communist novel: in maintaining an univocal rejection of the communist metanarrative, they took on a stronger political thèse than in Western postmodernism, but also enhanced postmodernism's anti-realist drive by failing to provide an understanding of the post-communist present.
Robert Wartenberg was an emigrant from Nazi Germany and an iconic pioneer in neurology, describing eponyms and helping to found and nurture the American Academy of Neurology. However, in 1953, ironically, he became embroiled in a controversial event regarding the German neuroscientist and Nazi collaborator Julius Hallervorden. Wartenberg attempted to convince the Dutch delegation to attend the International Neurological Congress in Lisbon from which they had withdrawn in response to Hallervorden's inclusion as a speaker. In addition, he rallied neuroscientists worldwide to help convince the Dutch, largely ignoring and burying their concerns about Hallervorden's ethical transgressions. In numerous letters, Wartenberg wanted to both ignore and exonerate Hallervorden of ethical violations in collecting 700 brains from patients murdered in the Nazi euthanasia program. Wartenberg's unexpected defense of Hallervorden, despite not knowing him professionally, purportedly was to reintegrate German neuroscience to the international community and to create Western "unity" against communism. However, Wartenberg's efforts and the lack of international censure against Hallervorden prevented proper attention to the victims' brains that remained in Hallervorden's collection for decades and the use of these brains in scientific publications. Those who stood against Hallervorden have been vindicated by history, but work remains to uncover all brain specimens in German collections. Wartenberg's misguided and shortsighted involvement in this affair serves as a lesson for future generations of neurologists in the consequences of ignoring ethical concerns for expediency and politics.