Suchergebnisse

This paper presents changes that have occurred at the local level in Poland and new German federal states during the process of the post-communist system transformation. The stages of rebuilding the local self-government and its structures are analyzed. The experiences of Poland and Eastern Germany – two states where the system transformation took different courses – were compared. At the same time, both countries have different constitutional orders of the unitary state and federal state, and this context are interesting fields for a comparative analysis. This paper also confronts the two methods of institution building – the importing of well-established institutions and developing them in the evolutionary way, where in both cases path a dependency can be well observed. In Germany this is considered a special case (Sonderfall) of institutional transformation, in which the key role was played by the transference of institutions, personnel and financial means. This was also done much quicker and in a more structured and comprehensive way than in Poland. In the case of Poland, the creation of local self-government structures or shaping the political actors was a grassroots and evolutionary process. This article points out the most important factors that had a crucial significance in the course and results of the transformation and explains different ways of developing the system of democratic local self-government.

The article examines the relatively little-known relationship between two historians, philosophers, intellectuals and prominent representatives of the Silver age in the development of Russian spiritual culture: a medievalist Lev Karsavin and a historian and theologian Fr. Georges Florovsky. The material is based on unpublished correspondence between Georges Florovsky and his brother, Anthony Florovsky — a historian, Professor at Charles University in Prague, as well as on the basis of letters from the 1920s from Klaudia Florovskaia (sister of Georges and Anthony) to Georges Florovsky. The letters are kept in the archive of Anthony Vasilievich Florovsky, in the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague (Slovanská knihovna). The correspondence shows the problems of Russian post-revolutionary emigration to Sofia (Bulgaria) and to Prague (Czechoslovakia). Three possible reasons for difficult, almost negative relationship between Georges Florovsky and Karsavin are analysed: rivalry in work as they both tried to obtain the position of patrology teacher at St. Sergius Theological Institute in Paris; their different opinions on the work of Vl. Solovev and his influence on the Russian thought, primarily on the development of the Russian religious renaissance; Karsavin's critical opinion on research abilities of Florovsky's sister — Klaudia Vasilievna, a historian, the first woman private docent of University in Novorossiysk, to whom Karsavin provided assistance with regard to issues of medieval Italy during her overseas internship in 1909. The article also characterizes some other contradictions in the work of two thinkers, and draws a conclusion about the subjective, personal nature of Florovsky's attitude to the work of Karsavin.

The Senate of the Republic of Poland hosted another seminar in a series of Polish-Kazakh seminars. These seminars are an effect of the cooperation of Polish Senate, including the Senate Legislative Committee run by Senator Doctor Piotr Zientarski and the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Poland headed by Ambassador Yerik Utembayev. These seminars serve the purpose of mutual closing and getting to know of the representatives of both countries' parliamentary, scientific and cultural environments. The leading subjects of the June seminar were the issues of deportation of Polish people to Kazakhstan under Stalin rule and the relations of the Kazakh state with European countries – especially with Poland – in Middle Ages. In the seminar participated among others Vice Director of the Eastern Department Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Zdzisław Raczyński, Head for the Senate Legislative Committee and Deputy Head for Kazakh-Polish Parliamentary Group Dr Piotr Zientarski, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Poland Mr Yerik Utembayev, Head for the Department of Legal Systems and Human Rights of Zielona Góra University Faculty of Law and Administration Professor Andrzej Bisztyga, Head for the Department of Public Law, Human Rights and European Law of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty of Law and Administration and President of the Asia-Pacific Society Doctor Adam Marszałek. The active participants of the seminar were Doctor Władysław Sokołowski, former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Kazakhstan and Professor Andrzej Wierzbicki of Warsaw University. The seminar was attended by numerous Members of Parliament and representatives of various academic centres.