Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Westernisation vs Easternisation – Homo Post-Sovieticus Still Exists
Prof. Kinga Anna Gajda
ABSTRACT:
The article aims to discuss the Soviet World and prove it did not end in Central Europe and the idea of westernization and easternisation of Central Europe
Milan Kundera wrote that after WWII, there were three situations in Europe: the situation of Western Europe, the situation of Eastern Europe, and the situation of Central Europe. In the article, the attention will be focused on the issue of Central Europe and the culture of Central Europe.
Central Europe after WWII stuck between what we call Western and what we call non-European parts of the European continent. After the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the process of Westernization of Central Europe began. The notion of westernization of Central Europe was an instrument of force and forcing politics, making countries lying in the eastern part of Europe irrelevant in political discourse, ignored, and weaker. It emphasized the domination of the West and the subordination of the East. In this way, in metaphorical discourse, Europe determines dependencies and positions of strong and weak, aggressive and gentle, fast and slow, courageous and fearful, open to the future and dependent on the past, controlling and controlled. Thus, after 1989 Eastern Europeans did everything they could to get closer to Western Europe and push Eastern identity as much to the East as possible. Because of the diversity of values, Europe’s Eastern border was never assigned to one place and changed over time. Finally, it seems that in the 21st century, the sense of Central European identity was rebuilt. The concept of Central Europe, which includes a strong cultural and civilizational component, started to be seen as something positive in the countries which are part of this region. Researchers have also started to stress the cultural integrity and community of the nations in question. This is particularly noticeable today when the region has again been faced with another Russian aggression. The war in Ukraine showed that the history of the Central European region, and especially the communist times, is still present in this region presence. At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was seen the border of what we call Central European identity/post-Sovieticus did not disappear.
keywords: Soviet World, Central Europe, Westernization, Easternisation, Identity