Suchergebnisse

This article deals with the peculiarities of the student protests of 1968 in Germany and their political and social consequences. Among the many protests in the West that year, they had particularly far-reaching consequences for German society. These consequences were related to the heavy legacy of the Nazis, who committed grave crimes against humanity during World War II. It is for this reason that the article places a special emphasis on overcoming the Nazi past, which played an extremely important role in the emergence and spread of youth protests in the FRG. Placing the German protests in the context of a generally rather homogeneous and synchronous protest movement in all Western countries against the old values of bourgeois society and its morals poses difficulty – it is no accident that one of the symbols of youth protest was John Lennon's single "Yesterday". The past ("yesterday") indeed came suddenly into the spotlight and was subjected to unrelenting criticism. But the changes in the political culture of society and its mentality were very significant. The mutation toward the triumph of leftist-liberal discourse in the West German public consciousness was so complete and total that it is possible to state, as German satirists joke, that the situation was similar to the way public opinion was controlled in the GDR. As a result, it can be rightly asserted that 1968 in the FRG was perhaps the most important reason for the triumph of left-liberal political discourse in Germany.

The review of the book "The Long '68: Radical Protest and its Enemies" by R. Vainen analyzes the contribution made by the author to the study of the problems of social disturbances in the West in 1968 and their further consequences. R. Vainen rightly points out that what happened can be likened to a world revolution — similarly to the revolution of 1848 in Europe. The author also does not hide his sympathies and dislikes, taking a very clear political position, although some of his assessments and emphasis (in particular, the arbitrary exclusion of Italy and Japan from the analysis) may cause objections. In addition, the author was well aware that the youth of "68" believed that the West was to blame for the troubles of the third world countries. This meant that developing countries should, first, "be left alone" with complete freedom of choice, and, secondly, they should be given means for economic development. Of course, the reader may not share the concept presented in the study of the English professor, but in any case it is of interest. Also, Vainen's analysis of the prospects of the "long" 1968 might be corrected: it seems that these prospects can be extended to the position and indoctrination of the "new right" both in the United States and in other countries. But in general, Richard Vainen is right regarding 1968 as the touchstone of the most acute ideological struggle, which provided the world with new role models and inspiration.

The article describes the life path and analyzes academic achievements of a prominent Russian scholar, historian, member of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences, professor of the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University Valery Evgenyevich Vozgrin (1939–2020). The works of V.E.Vozgrin are well known in all Scandinavian countries, Germany, Italy, Spain, Estonia and other countries. The authors of the article highlight three main areas in his study of the history of the Scandinavian countries: first — the history of diplomacy and international relations of the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly, the diplomacy during the Great Northern War; second — the colonial policy of the countries such as Denmark and Sweden, which has never been researched by domestic historians; third — historiographic direction in the study of Scandinavian countries, which has never been developed on such a large scale in Russia before. Moreover, the analysis of a number of large historiographical works of the researcher clearly indicates an original style of the author in considering some little-known and very complex historiographic problems. The article concludes that the research base established by professor Vozgrin for studying the history of the Scandinavian countries has laid a solid foundation for further examination of the history of the Nordic countries as well as for Scandinavistics in St. Petersburg to whose development V.Vozgrin made a considerable contribution.