Suchergebnisse

Drawing widely on archive material and recently published documents from both German states on the 1980s, the article examines the impact on a divided Germany of the nuclear arms spiral, from the end of the 1970s up to the collapse of socialist states East Germany and the Soviet Union. Drawing on personal reflections and talks with witnesses, the author describes contradictory attitudes in the World Peace Council and its East German counterpart towards the new European nuclear disarmament movement around the European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign (END). The Cold War dictated rules and defined the scope for the fight to end the nuclear arms race and avert the constant threat of an atomic inferno. In the state-socialist system centred on the USSR, ideology determined the struggle for nuclear disarmament and, in turn, the foreign and security policy principles of the Soviet system. This objective and subjective framework imposed limits of its own, was influenced by the hegemonic objectives of the Soviet system, and contradictory in itself. Inevitably, therefore, East German attempts at containing damage after the double-track decision were restricted.

The paper explores the theoretical unity between socialism and peace that motivated the communist‐dominated World Peace Council (WPC) in the Cold War. Within the broad WPC spectrum, intrasystemic conflicts were tangibly expressed around the Hungarian events of 1956. With growing differentiation in world communism, especially Sino‐Soviet conflict, tensions escalated when Warsaw Treaty states marched into Czechoslovakia in 1968. Instrumentalization of peace councils to serve state and party interests provides a second analytical focus on the link between peace and socialism. As Third World states emerged and national liberation movements consolidated political ideologies, the concept of just war acquired new meaning within anti‐imperialist discourse. Examples are the Arab‐Israeli wars, unconditional advocacy of armed struggle, and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The World Peace Council danced a tightrope during the Cold War between Soviet security interests, systemic ambitions, and underlying communist postulates.

Der Verfasser stellt Entstehung und Entwicklung der linken Opposition in der KPD im Kontext mit den innerparteilichen Machtkämpfen in der Sowjetunion dar. Er zeigt, dass die KPD zeitverschoben und mit differierender Intensität Differenzierungsprozesse innerhalb der KPR(B) und der KPdSU(B) reflektierte. Die relative Unabhängigkeit der deutschen Kommunisten wandelte sich bis zum Ende der 20er Jahre in eine völlige Unterordnung unter die von der russischen Partei kontrollierte Kominternführung. Die Entstehung der linken Opposition in Deutschland vollzog sich zwischen 1923 und 1930 parallel zu entsprechenden Prozessen in der Sowjetunion. Nach 1924 wird die Diskussion innerhalb der kommunistischen Bewegung von der Kampagne gegen den "Trotzkismus" dominiert. Die zahlreichen politischen Schwenks der Kominternführung sorgten für eine Desorientierung im linkskommunistischen Lager. Auch für die Linkskommunisten war eine Orientierung auf Moskau charakteristisch. Der nach dem Vorbild der "Vereinigten Opposition" in der UdSSR gegründete Lenin-Bund zerfiel nach 1930 zusehends. (ICE)

Drawing widely on archive material, including previously inaccessible German Peace Council documents, the paper examines links between Western pacifists and the World Peace Council (WPC), initiated by communist parties in Eastern Europe, from the WPC's foundation until the mid‐1960s, when discussion about European security and detente began. From the angle of an East German peace historian and activist, the author describes contradictions in the WPC as it sought to become a broad world movement while being instrumentalized increasingly to serve foreign policy in the Soviet Union and nominally socialist countries. In both East and West bloc, prejudices simmered despite attempts at concerted action. Divided Germany was a pivot which crystallized many tensions. This is illustrated by the 1961 Peace March, due to pass through Berlin just as the Wall went up.