Conspiracy Theories in Eastern Europe

This collection of state-of-the-art essays explores conspiracy cultures in post-socialist Eastern Europe, ranging from the nineteenth century to contemporary manifestations.

Auteur

Anastasiya Astapova is a research fellow at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, Estonia.

Onoriu Colacel is senior lecturer in English at tefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania.

Corneliu Pintilescu is a researcher at the George Baritiu History Institute (in Cluj-Napoca) of the Romanian Academy.

Tamás Scheibner is assistant professor in literary and cultural studies at the University of Budapest (ELTE), Hungary, and senior research fellow in contemporary history at the Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Excellence.

Contenu

Introduction: Eastern Europe in the Global Traffic of Conspiracy Theories * Anastasiya Astapova, Onoriu Colacel, Corneliu Pintilescu and Tamás Scheibner

• Part I. Conspiracy Culture under Socialism and its Afterlife in Eastern Europe
  1. Chernobyl Conspiracy Theories: From American Sabotage to the Biggest Hoax of the Century * Anastasiya Astapova
• 2. Stalinist Conspiracy Theories in France and Italy: The Limits of Postwar Communist Conspiracy Culture * Pascal Girard
• 3. "By the Order of their Foreign Masters": Soviet Dissidents, Anti-Western Conspiracy, and the Deprivation of Agency * Anna Kirziuk

Part II. "The Enemy Within": Jews and Freemasons

4. The Myth of a Judeo-Bolshevik Conspiracy in Hungary, Within and Beyond the Far Right Péter Csunderlik and Tamás Scheibner
5. An Open Secret: Freemasonry and Justice in Post-Socialist Bulgaria Todor Hristov and Ivelina Ivanova

6. From Judeo-Polonia to Act 447: How and Why Did the Jewish Conspiracy Myth Become a Central Issue in Polish Political Discourse? * Dominika Bulska, Agnieszka Haska, Mikolaj Winiewski and Michal Bilewicz

   • Part III. After Independence: Nation-building and Victimhood Narratives

7. Dissolution of Yugoslavia as a Conspiracy and its Haunting Returns: Narratives of Internal and External *Othering

NebojSa BlanuSa

• 8. The Dangerous Russian Other in Ukrainian Conspiratorial Discourse: Media Representations of the Odessa Tragedy * Olga Baysha
• 9. The Victims, the Guilty, and "Us": Notions of Victimhood in Slovakian Conspiracy Theories * Zuzana Panczová
• Part IV. Eastern Europe Goes Global: Conspiracy Theories and the Rise of Populism
  10. Soros Conspiracy Theories and the Rise of Populism in Post-Socialist Hungary and Romania * Corneliu Pintilescu and Attila Kustán Magyari
• 11. Conspiracy Theories on Moldovan Commercial TV * Onoriu Colacel
• 12. North Macedonia Goes Global: Pro-EU Aspiration and Anti-EU Sentiment as a Basis for EU-related Conspiracy Theories * Biljana Gjoneska, Kristijan Fidanovski and André Krouwel
• 13. Conspiracy Theory Theory, Epistemology, and Eastern Europe M. R. X. Dentith