The article presents an analysis of the problems and prospects of relations between Russian Federation and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). These relationships are discussed in broader political context of Russia's relations with the European Union. The author believes that in conflict situations the both parties are responsible. As an optimal strategy the author examines the possibility of linking the integration processes in the Eurasian region – the so-called "integration of integrations", that can become a framework for interfacing the national interests of Russia and the EU's interests. A special role in the normalization of relations in Eurasia the CEE countries are devoted to play – CEE may become a bridge between Russia and Western Europe.

In contemporary Europe, there can be noted the overlapping and rivalry of the two signifi cant tendencies, which are becoming stronger and stronger. On one hand, one can notice multilevel processes of integration and conditions connected with them and that are concerned with democracy, tolerance, globalization, etc. On the other hand, one can observe disintegrative factors of various kind, which refer to actions and postures connected with chauvinism, xenophobia, neo- fascism and separatism. In the second view, especially in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), various aspects connected with nationalism seem to be of great significance. This is clearly reflected by the events which took place in, for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo or Macedonia.

Prowadzenie skutecznej polityki, nieulegającej ideologicznym manifestacjom, może opierać się na unijnym instrumentarium nawet pomimo aktualnego kryzysu integracji europejskiej. Rozsądną odpowiedzią na dylematy geopolityczne Rzeczpospolitej nie wydaje się tzw. „idea jagiellońska”, gdyż potencjalnie stanowi ona przeciwieństwo istniejących filarów bezpieczeństwa narodowego, tj. NATO i UE. Redukowanie polskiej polityki do anachronicznych fantazji o wspólnocie środkowoeuropejskiej może powodować obniżenie znaczenie Polski w strukturach euroatlantyckich. Członkostwo w instytucjach świata zachodniego, polegające m.in. na współpracy z Niemcami, stanowiło do tej pory o bezpieczeństwie Rzeczpospolitej, choć obecnie nie przystaje ono do historycznej koncepcji tzw. „polityki piastowskiej”, głównie z uwagi na obserwowany proces dezintegracji wspólnoty europejskiej.

The article concerns selected problems in the bilateral cooperation between Poland and Romania in 2009–2017. The study attempts to identify the challenges these countries face and how they take action in this regard. The article presents the problem of political and economic cooperation between Poland and Romania in the examined period of time. Issues such as cooperation in the area of external security, energy security or cooperation within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative were discussed. It is important that the joint activities undertaken by Romania and Poland contribute to increasing the attractiveness of the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

About Poland in the Czech Republic in the context of Central and Eastern Europe

Polish studies have a long tradition in the Czech Republic. The Congress of the Polish Studies, held in Prague in 2013, attempted to present the current state of research on Polish issues. Two monographs were published as the proceedings of the congress. This paper discusses the second one, i.e., The Czech studies on Poland in the context of Central and Eastern Europe.

The aim of the presented analysis is to identify factors correlated with the proportion of seats obtained by new political parties in party systems of Central and Eastern European countries. The study provides an original approach to success of new parties, offering factors divided into in four groups (political, social, institutional and economic factors). The study results confirmed that a higher proportion of seats obtained by new parties in the investigated area correlated with lower trust in the European Union, lower institutional trust (index based on trust in the parliament, government and political parties), poorer evaluations of the future of the country (illustrated with the prospective voting variable), lower income inequalities in the society (illustrated with the Gini coefficient value), and a higher effective number of parties. No significant relationships were observed in the case of institutional factors (including the electoral system).

Three boards: security, economy and the new unknown. The complicated relationship between China and Central and Eastern Europe

Two decades ago, when China economically entered Western Europe for the first time, two dominant narratives emerged. The first one claimed that China’s involvement constitutes a great development opportunity for European continent; the other one declared that it’s a serious security threat. Those two discourses on China remain dominant until now and the opportunity vs. threat dichotomy can now also be applied to Chinese’s policy towards Central and Eastern Europe. The answer for the dichotomy is both. China’s engagement means a great opportunity for development for Central and Eastern Europe. The success, however, is uncertain. It may never fulfill due to external factors and the drawbacks may overshadow the benefits.

The aim of the study is to provide an overview of higher education students’ volunteering and voluntary group membership based on a database (N=2,199), in which full-time students from five Central-Eastern European countries (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine) were questioned. We analyzed as well, which variables influence civic engagement. Based on the results we suggest that universities in Central-Eastern European regions should make more use of students’ potential in the field of volunteering and organizational membership, and should do so in an organized way, with special attention to the groups, which display low civic participation according to our research findings.

The article analyzes the causes, implementation strategy, and results of vaccine diplomacy of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, the activities of China and Russia in Serbia, Hungary, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine are covered. The main directions, tools, and consequences of the activation of the two states in the region are outlined. The article underlines that China is expanding its strategic goals according to the One Belt One Road Initiative through the so-called Health Silk Road, providing a vaccine to low- and middle-income countries. The goals of the Russian Federation are established more in the geopolitical and political spheres. Russia seeks to reduce the influence of the EU and the US in the CEE region from political, economic, and security perspectives. China and Russia are both allies and competitors. The two countries are trying to gain additional leverage in the CEE region by means of political lobbying, investment, finance, propaganda, Euroscepticism, public opinion manipulation, and soft power. For some time, the shortage of medicine for vaccination, which was caused by giving priority to the population of vaccine-producing countries, contributed to a rather increased activity of the PRC and the Russian Federation in the implementation of the strategy of gaining image benefits.

Polish and Ukrainian concepts of security and cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe in the 21st century

Central and Eastern Europe is a region located in the context of geopolitical reorganization of the world’s wetlands. The first ideas of creating a security system in this part of the continent arose after the First World War. Among them were the Polish concept of “Międzymorze” (Intermarium, aka “ABC Seas”) and the Ukrainian idea of the Baltic-Black Sea Union. The concept of security and cooperation in the region was reintroduced with the Russian Federation’s accession to the achievement of the influence index from the USSR district. There were also problems in Polish-Ukrainian relations, differences in security strategies, the delineation of the strategic partnership and the formation of the Strategic Culture of the Territories. Countries in the region have announced a number of initiatives to improve regional security (TSI, B9, L3, or Trójkąt Karpacki). The members of the mentioned concepts should be among the geopolitical figures, the position of NATO and the EU and contestations on the part of Russia.

Jaroslav Bidlo and Milada Paulová: On the Institutionalisation of Czech Historical Slavonic Studies in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

This study follows the academic careers of Jaroslav Bidlo and Milada Paulová, focusing on their organisational activities in the realm of historical Slavonic studies. Both were professors of general history, specialising in the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula at the Faculty of Philosophy (Charles University, Prague). Their names are thus tied to the development of Czech historical Slavonic studies since their beginnings in late 19th and early 20thcenturies until the 1960s.

The activities of the opposition and dissident movements in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the journal “Obóz”

The activities of the democratic opposition in the former Soviet republics and in the countries dominated by the USSR under the post-war Yalta agreements had a chance to emerge only in the late 1980s, i.e. when the framework of the geopolitical balance of power in Europe was determined by the democratization processes in the Eastern Bloc. Only then, on the wave of perestroika and glasnostia, the voice of circles contesting the existing order of things had a chance to resonate and be heard by the international community. However, not only the structures of the political opposition, but also dissident movements, equally interested in systemic change, marked their presence in the public space of states ruled by communist parties. Thus, the pages of the magazine “Obóz” discuss the groups and milieus constituting a political opposition in the classical sense, as well as groups which, due to their previous connections, of various nature, with the collapsing communist regime, should be considered dissident movements in the strict sense of these words.

Democratization of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the context of the underground magazine “Obóz”

The democratization of the former Soviet Union countries was a long and arduous process of regaining the sovereignty lost after World War II. The political, social, economic, cultural and institutional transformations taking place at that time, both in the territory of the former Soviet republics and those formally independent of the USSR, but in fact completely dominated by it, constituted a conglomerate of various factors, conditioning in most cases a bloodless revolution. The systemic transformation, however, did not go everywhere in the direction expected by society and the new political class. In many countries, the quality of overall structural transformations left much to be desired. Not everywhere was it possible to fill the institutional void left by the liquidated organs of government and the security apparatus. The lively assessment of the new, democratic political system, formulated in statu nascendi, was shared by the opinion-forming circles that had so far operated in the underground and had a strong influence on the social mood of individual countries. One of the independent magazines devoted to the problems of neighboring countries was the underground periodical “Obóz”.

The Central European initiative during the Bulgarian presidency held in 2022

This text analyses the implementation of the main priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Central European Initiative (CEI) in 2022. The current activities of the Initiative are presented through an analysis of priorities and planned tasks. This analysis shows that the CEI – which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary – is meticulously performing the tasks for which it was established. It undertakes a number of activities for the integration within the EU, regional security and sustainable development issues. Almost all the planned events were organized during the Bulgarian Presidency. Meetings were held in each of the areas of the CEI activity, i.e. the parliamentary, governmental, economic and recently developed local dimensions. The official programme of the Presidency, the indicative calendar of events, as well as information published on the official website of the Initiative and on the websites of some Bulgarian ministries and institutions involved in the Presidency, form the basis of the research.

The role of anthems in the process of forming Central European national identities based on the book by Csaba G. Kiss

Csaba G. Kiss, using comparative analysis, has not only attempted to uncover the corpus of dominant motifs in national songs, but has also indicated how their selection was influenced by historical events and the traditions of individual communities. Particularly noteworthy are the sections of the work where the links between the songs produced in different national communities are presented, both in terms of their forms and content. On the other hand, what can draw exceptional admiration is the enormous erudition of the author of The Anthems of East-Central Europe, who in his investigations referred not only to the literature in the languages of the conference, but also made extensive use of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Romanian and - understandably because of his origin – Hungarian studies. Minor errors of a factual nature are somewhat surprising, such as the attribution to Alexander I the paternity of Grand Duke Constantine, commander-in-chief of the Polish army and the actual governor of Congress Poland from 1815 to 1830. The book under review can be considered a highly successful example of the use of comparative analysis in research dedicated to the emergence of national identity in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.