Postsocialism

Based on fifteen months of ethnographic research conducted between 2010 and
2013, this article explores queer life-worlds through the Armenian notion of alternativ
space, spaces that create possibilities for practices, desires, ways of looking, and
being that differ from Armenian national values of propriety. Political-economic
reform has created anxieties regarding national propriety and the family’s ability
to exist in continuity with a moral past within postsocialist time-space. Intense
anxieties regarding the proper social reproduction of national propriety make
visible forms of difference from what is considered proper difficult. As such,
in/visible spaces in which these differences can be exhibited have emerged, merging
nonnormative sexual and gendered worlds with wider experiences of alterity that
disturb the nation’s social reproduction and continuity with the past. Although
alternativ spaces make difference possible, they also reproduce the nation’s norms
by containing that difference in interior queer life-worlds. I suggest, however, that
these spaces also have the potential of redefining Armenianness as they bring alterity
into the larger space of nation, queering Armenian futurity in ways that LGBT
visibility would not make possible.

During the 1990s, a long historical cycle of Bucharest came to an end. From the mid-19th century on, industry became an important economic and cultural presence in Bucharest's landscape. During the last 10-15 years it began to contract. Along with other urban processes such as urbanization, gentrification and emergence of ghettos, deindustrialization represents a major trend in Bucharest's recent history. Deindustrialization is both an economic and a cultural transformation. This volume uses insights from urban geography, heritage studies and urban history in order to understand the landscape of deindustrialization, situated between the fetish of gated communities and post-industrial wasteland.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Dezindustrialization and changes of urban landscape
Chapter 2. Postindustrial nostalgia, industrial heritage and refunctionalization
Chapter 3. The geography, history and the memory of Bucharest's industrialization
Chapter 4. Current usage of industrial spaces and the new urban landscape
Chapter 5. The social life of industrial ruins: The cultural reinsertion of industrial spaces

This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In conclusion, the paper argues that neoliberalism confronts the disabled people’s movement with two difficult tasks: to defend self-determination while criticising market-based individualism, and to defend the welfare state while criticising expert-based paternalism.

«Когда зима наступает, перевал закрывается, Казарман никому не подчиняется», - с таких шутливых слов жителей началось наше знакомство с регионом, который расположен в центре Кыргызстана.

Казарман оказался самым приключенческим в силу загадочных обстоятельств, которые у нас произошли по дороге туда и обратно, что и отсылает к названию выставки. Оказались мы в этом регионе, как и еще в 10 других, с тем, чтобы собрать истории, в которых героини и герои рассказывают о локальных инициативах «снизу». Их деятельность глубоко связана с решением проблем повседневной жизни в регионах, однако, зачастую остается на периферии или вовсе вне поля зрения государства и СМИ.

По результатам поездок создано 1 1 лонгридов и подкастов об инициативах и контекстах их реализации.

Выставка «Казарман не отпускает» основана на историях героев и героинь проекта, но не является их прямой репрезентацией. Экспозиция является больше результатом рефлексии над историями, жизнью в регионах, природой и нашим опытом пребывания там.

Экспозиция разработана Лабораторией СИ – Диана У, Джошик Мурзахметов и Алмаз Исаков.

Проект «Жизнь регионов в лицах» реализовывался в партнерстве Walkerstory https://walkerstory.com/

“When winter comes, the pass closes, Kazarman does not obey anyone.” Our first meeting with region, which is located in the center of Kyrgyzstan, started from these humorous words of locals. Kazarman was the most adventurous place of our trip due to mysterious circumstances that happened on the way there and back. It became a point that generated the title of the exposition.

We found ourselves in the region, as well as in ten others, in order to collect stories in which heroines and heroes told about local grass-roots initiatives. Their activity is deeply related to the solving of everyday life problems in the regions; however, it is often remains out of the sight of the state and the media. Eleven long reads and podcasts were created about the initiatives and contexts of their implementation.

The exposition «Kazarman does not let go» was based on the stories, but was not a direct representation of them. It was more about our reflections over the stories and life in the regions; facing with natural forces and our experience of being there.

Exposition:
Almaz Isakov, Joshik Murzakhmetov, Diana U

Vreme nakon raspada jugoslovenske države obeležio je niz događaja i aktera kojima je i u društvenim naukama posvedeno veoma mnogo pažnje. Transformacija političkog sistema, uspon starih i novih političkih elita, ratovi u Hrvatskoj, Bosni i Hercegovini i na Kosovu, kao i postjugoslovenski nacionalizmi, samo su neke od ključnih tema naučnog istraživanja ovog perioda. Brojne studije, monografije, zbornici, članci u časopisima posvedeni su promenama koje su se desile u celoj istočnoj Evropi od početka devedesetih godina 20. veka. Ova istraživanja -bilo iz pera zapadnoevropskih autora ili "domadih" stručnjaka -težila su da objasne uzroke i posledice sloma socijalističkih sistema i tzv. demokratizaciju istočnoevropskih društava. Skoro bez izuzetaka nova "demokratija" je tumačena "u paketu" sa uvođenjem tržišne ekonomije, a država pre svega kao nacionalna, a ne kao socijalna država. Tumačenje aktuelnih događanja odvijalo se prevashodno u skladu sa Fukujaminim "krajem istorije": liberalna demokratija i kapitalistički poredak "slobodnog sveta" konačno su odneli pobedu nad projektom "realno postojedeg socijalizma", a činilo se, i nad principima levice uopšte. Uspostavljenoj hegemoniji različitih teorija transformacije -poznatije po pojmu tranzicije -na postjugoslovenskom prostoru mogle su konkurisati još jedino nacionalistička tumačenja društva i društvene promene. I jedan i drugi narativ -neoliberalni i nacionalistički -imali su za cilj legitimisanje nove / stare političke elite i novog društvenog poretka. Danas, dakle dvadeset godina kasnije, možemo sa razočarenjem zaključiti da je i jedna i druga strategija imala uspeha: Kao što je normalizovan nacionalizam, tako je normalizovan i novi ekonomski poredak. Istovremeno, postoji i razlika između odnosa prema ova dva fenomena. Dok je kritika nacionalizma od samog njegovog (ponovnog) pojavljivanja tokom devedesetih godina postojala -iako ograničena na uske krugove "alternativne" intelektualne elite -kritika kapitalizma na postjugoslovenkom prostoru do pre nekoliko godina, ako je i artikulisana, bila je skoro neprimetna. Pritom je upravo ekonomska transformacija ovog dela Evrope ne samo proces koji odlično ilustruje pojedinačne aspekte kapitalističkog poretka, pa samim tim i njegovu kritiku, ved ima i značajan uticaj na j u g o L i n k . p r e g l e d postjugoslovenskih istraživanja. // leto 2012. // god. 2. // br. 1 // //Mladen Perid i Đorđe Tomid -Kako je rashodovano društvo// //79// svakodnevni život ljudi na ovom prostoru. Kao što je za vedinu stanovnika bivše Jugoslavije bilo poražavajude doživeti inflaciju, "spontanu promenu oblika svojine", a samim tim i promenu vlasništva nad društvenom svojinom, zatim neformalnu, pa formalnu nezaposlenost, pad opšteg životnog standarda, "sivu ekonomiju", "crno tržište", nestašice, neispladene lične dohotke itd., skoro podjednako poražavajuda za ta društva jeste činjenica da se čitav ovaj proces retko ili nikako ne dovodi u pitanje. Izuzev nekoliko kritičkih radova o ekonomskim problemima socijalističke Jugoslavije 1 kao i o nastanku nove ekonomske elite tokom devedesetih godina, 2 vedina naučnih istraživanja koja bi se dala svrstati u oblast ekonomske istorije, propast (post)jugoslovenske ekonomije tumači kao propratni efekat teške, ali nužne društvene promene. Tek noviji teorijski i empirijski radovi o društvenoj transformaciji, 3 pre svega analize privatizacije i najnovijih radničkih borbi, 4 kao i opšti istorijski pregledi raspada Jugoslavije 5 predstavljaju prve značajne pokušaje jedne kritičke analize skorije prošlosti postjugoslovenskih društava. Sa ciljem potpunijeg razumevanja privatizacije i kritičke analize procesa ekonomske transformacije uopšte, u ovom tekstu bide objašnjen jedan od mehanizama pomodu kog je sistematski uništavana (post)jugoslovenska privreda, a koji se pojačano primenjuje nakon 2000. godine -koja inače važi za prelomni trenutak u postsocijalističkom "prelaznom periodu" u kom je "pobedila demokratija". Reč je o strateškom korišdenju stečaja. Koja ekonomska "logika" stoji iza napora preduzetnika da tek kupljena preduzeda uvedu u stečaj, koji pravni okviri i političke odluke omogudavaju ovaj proces, ko su akteri koji učestvuju u ovom procesu i konačno, koje ekonomske i socijalne posledica ima ova strategija, samo su neka od pitanja na koja ovaj prilog daje odgovor.

This paper explores the silence surrounding disabled people’s sexuality in contemporary, postsocialist Bulgaria. The related desexualisation of disabled people is regarded as an instance of disablism that is sustained through medicalisation, patriarchal stereotypes and negative understandings of the bodily difference of ‘impairment’. The analysis draws on disability studies and phenomenology in order to elicit the workings of these mechanisms in everyday discourse as represented by an autobiographical essay and an internet discussion. A number of strategies for challenging disablist desexualisation are also highlighted whose point of departure is breaking the silence on the topic of disabled people’s sexuality.

Recently, much scholarly attention has focused on the various mechanisms involved in the redefinition of Chinese citizenship in the reform era, or the formation of the post-Communist personality. 1 General agreement among scholars discussing these trends exists that an ideological vacuum has come into being in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Moreover, these scholars share the view that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not been able to construct a value system that adequately mirrors the liberalization of the economy and that succeeds in replacing the old Maoist elements of collectivism, asceticism and altruism. Of course, the CCP has attempted to create a 'socialist spiritual civilization' (SSC) not only to provide new norms and values, but also to offset the formation of an autonomous popular culture, which party ideologists believed could only be of a vulgar, superstitious, pornographic and unhealthy nature. 2 But by invoking the same stale elements of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, fortified or updated with elements of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the goal of this new civilization is bogged down by an internal contradiction. After all, while attempting to combat the negative consequences of uneven development, (CCP-based) corruption and ever sharper inequalities in the distribution of wealth and welfare, SSC precisely turns to the old patent medicine of ideology that can be held accountable for the appearance of the negative phenomena it tries to combat.

Azan on the Moon is an in-depth anthropological study of people’s lives along the Pamir Highway in eastern Tajikistan. Constructed in the 1930s in rugged high altitude terrain, the road fundamentally altered the material and social fabric of this former Soviet outpost on the border with Afghanistan and China. The highway initially brought sentiments of disconnection and hardship, followed by Soviet modernization and development, and ultimately a sense of distinction from bordering countries and urban centers that continues to this day.
Based on extensive fieldwork and through an analysis of construction, mobility, technology, media, development, Islam, and the state, Till Mostowlansky shows how ideas of modernity are both challenged and reinforced in contemporary Tajikistan. In the wake of China’s rise in Central Asia, people along the Pamir Highway strive to reconcile a modern future with a modern past. Weaving together the road, a population, and a region, Azan on the Moon presents a rich ethnography of global connections.

This study explores a much disputed product of the contemporary Romanian music industry, usually known as manele. Manele could be best defined as a musical hybrid containing oriental, Balkan, and Gypsy rhythms alongside “traditional” Romanian music and also dance or hip-hop influences. It is disputed because of an ardent public and media critique but also because of its public influence. In many cases, this musical genre is labelled as immoral and is generally interpreted in terms of ethnic and racial stereotypes. This kind of public discourse is used by many intellectuals and journalists for whom manele represents a form of ignorance that threatens the “education of youth” and should be removed. Wide-spread opinion “explains” the consumption of this music as being due to poverty, lack of education and social integration. But it is difficult to define this musical genre in terms of class, socioeconomic status, education, occupation, or other variables. Manele, in their contemporary form as consumer culture, is the musical expression of post-socialist life trajectories. Industrial decline and increasing rates of poverty and unemployment after 1990 have led to complex life strategies (“economic informalisation”), which have been adopted by most people for their own survival.

Alongside approaches to the English of the Irish diaspora, the English of incoming migrants in contemporary Ireland is also examined (e.g. the attitudes of migrants towards Irish English). Interestingly, the volume succeeds in reflecting a major social change that Ireland has undergone in the last decades: Ireland, traditionally a country of emigration, has become a destination for immigration.

The paper focuses on the TRIZ community, formed around a shared interest in the “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving” as developed by Genrich S. Altshuller during the 1960s and’70s in the Sviet Union. As a theory, TRIZ reached its popularity peak in the 1970s and ’80s, when many local TRIZ communities had been formed in different corners of the Soviet Union. These communities, consisting of both professional engineers and amateurs of inventorism, shared not only a rational algorithm-based approach toward innovation, but also a particular type of socialist morality. For many TRIZ adherents, this theory became not only a professional tool but rather a philosophy of life.
During the Perestroika period and the early 1990s, the increased level of outmigration from the (former) USSR helped to spread the TRIZ approach to innovation far beyond the confines of the Soviet Union. The author places particular emphasis on the tension between the philosophical logic underlying TRIZ and the work ethic characteristic of the community members and demonstrates how moral implications of the theory became a ground for internal conflicts within the community under conditions of capitalist economy. The article is based on ethnographic data collected in 2010 in St.Petersburg.

Данная статья является кратким изложением моего исследования на обогатительной фабрике в Центральном Казахстане в 2013-2014 гг. В указанный период я провела включённые наблюдения и ряд интервью на фабрике около Караганды. Моё исследование фокусировалось на женском рабочем труде и начиналось с философского вопроса, рассматриваются ли рабочие-женщины в той же мере, как рабочие-мужчины.

Is there a labour movement in China? This contribution argues that China does not have a labour movement, but that contestation between workers, state and capital is best characterized as a form of 'alienated politics'. Widespread worker resistance is highly effective at the level of the firm because of its ability to inflict losses on capital and disrupt public order. But authoritarian politics in China prevent workers from formulating political demands. Despite the spectacular repressive capacity of the state, the central government has in fact responded to highly localized resistance by passing generally pro-labour legislation over the past decade. The consequence of this is that worker unrest has produced important political shifts at the national level, but these have come about without workers' direct involvement in the process. In other words, workers are alienated from the political object that they themselves have produced. As a consequence, when the state intervenes in labour politics, it appears to be doing so of its own accord, i.e. paternalistically. This framework helps us to understand how worker unrest in China has become highly antagonistic towards employers and the local state, while maintaining the stability of the system as a whole.

Kontradikce. Časopis pro kritické myšlení / Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought is a bilingual (Czech and English) publication that assesses and creatively revives radical intellectual traditions of Central and Eastern Europe, bringing them to bear on the historical present and bringing them into international discussions of emancipatory social change.
This is the Czech-language issue of Kontradikce / Contradictions, vol. 1. For more, see https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/archiv

This article describes the transformations of work-discipline and time in a large Romanian state bank privatized to a European bank in the early 2000s. Building on ethnographies of skilled service workers' experience of time, I describe the sudden process of disciplining the post-socialist workforce and the instilling of a new sense of daily routine. Based on data collected from middle managers, human resources personnel and socialist-era employees, I describe the post-privatization transformations of time and work. These include a sharper separation of work and life, greater standardization of time-keeping, individualization of work space, colonization of personal time by organizational time, and the dumping of personal plans into an indefinite future. The mixture of perpetual, high-paced present and a diffuse ''long-term'' future where meaningful plans and self-promises are located might be called ''fantasy time.''

Abstract.
This article addresses the ways in which the systemic transformation of the former Soviet republics has been reflected in urban development in two capital cities, Minsk (Belarus) and Astana (Kazakhstan). Changes taking place in these capitals have been analysed through the prism of an ideological recycling of the socialist legacy, a concept that permits exploration of which aspects of the socialist legacy have been jettisoned and which retained, in the process of formation of a capital. The article
explores the nationalizing strategies adopted by Belarus and Kazakhstan and reified by various practices, including those involving the recasting of cities. These strategies, however, are analysed not as inventions of post-Soviet regimes, but as forms of structural continuity.

This volume examines contemporary Eastern European youth cultures from an interdisciplinary perspective, investigating how the radical changes resulting from the demise of state Socialisms and concurrent increased globalization processes have resulted in huge challenges for young people and a reimagining of youth itself.

Распад социалистического блока на рубеже 1990-х гг. положил начало драматическим преобразованиям на всем постсоветском пространстве. Перед государствами, как новыми, так и уже существовавшими, встали схожие проблемы, связанные с переходом к новым политическим и социально-экономическим основам функционирования государства. Представители социальных и гуманитарных наук, в свою очередь, столкнулись с проблемой - как осмыслить случившееся, в каких терминах и понятиях описывать те изменения, которые происходили на просторах Евразии. Монголия в этом смысле представляет особый интерес.
В XX в., меньше, чем за сто лет, эта страна прошла стремительный путь от кочевой периферии Цинской империи до государства, которое называют единственным примером успешной демократизации в Азии.

For a short period in the 1980s, some folk healers in Soviet Estonia announced they will only receive patients with an official referral from a medical doctor. The requirement was a response to state prosecution, and aimed to promote the image that they work in cooperation with medical doctors. Not all patients brought referrals, but the referrals brought make for interesting research material. The article concerns the patients of one South Estonian folk healer: the healing ritual, patients  self-diagnoses, origin of doctors and patients, printed material in the healer s tradition, written narratives as part of the ritual, the magic power of miraculous healing.

The paper focuses on celebrity chefs in Poland as a relatively new phenomenon. In the first part of the paper a synthetic review of the discussion about celebrity chefs in global foodscapes is given. In the second part an analysis of Polish version of cookery show MasterChef is presented. The program is interpreted as a carrier for the meanings about the formation of a new gastronomic field in Poland with celebrities of different scale as key actors. The show’s imitative character as well as its detachment from rather conservative eating habits of the majority of Poles is underlined. Polish MasterChef presents culinary capital as seemingly accessible to everyone, recruits smaller-scale food celebrities and stimulates a development of a new food culture connected to a global gastronomic field. This process is a part of larger lifestyle modernization in Poland: the show positively interprets biographical and cultural change, defines the relationship between passion and work, and promotes the specific idea of life success.

This chapter discusses parental collective efforts to challenge existing medical and state authorities in the Czech Republic and to change the current birth care system for the better. In the Czech Republic the issue of ‘natural childbirth’ has recently become a headline, covering newspaper pages almost every other day.
In this paper I map the trajectory of the natural childbirth movement to examine forces that have shaped a particular course of this social movement. I employ the theory of health related social movements and new social movements to explore birth activists’ strategies and understand their perspective in depth. To meet these aims, I have been conducting a long-term ethnography of the movement since spring 2011. I particularly build on participant observations of key public events, five in-depth interviews with birth activists and 19 narrative interviews with women who gave birth naturally; qualitative media analysis of 77 media contributions, and the “netnography” (computer mediated ethnography) of Czech childbirth activism.
In my analysis I draw a particular attention to the role of science and medicine in the Czech society, and power dynamics between medical and state authorities, and the birth activists. I argue that in the Czech cultural context a traditionally powerful position of doctors and medicine and the related general scientization of the society are biggest obstacles to the movement’ s success, as these prevent midwives and women-birth care users from becoming equal partners in negotiations with medical and state authorities.

The study attempts to present the economic strategies of a settlement, in which employment in state companies built upon a specific environmental resource (natural gas extraction) as well as the success of an independent enterprise has signifi cantly transformed the livelihood strategies based on agriculture, resulting in a change in lifestyle as well. The studied settlement represents the opposite model of the villages re-peasantised after the regime change, described in the Transylvanian scholarly literature. The study analyses the economic behaviour modes, as well as the changes in the livelihood strategies observed in a settlement along the Kis-Küküllő (Târnava Mică) River, aiming to present the stratifi cation of the rural society based on economic strategies. The author outlines the way in which in this multiethnic (inhabited by Hungarians, Romanians and Romani) small settlement, the bakery which used to function as a cooperative during socialism became a well-established company employing a significant part of the village’s population, being present in important segments of the national markets, connecting the previously isolated small settlement with new regional and national networks. He also presents
the significance of the natural gas extraction activities from the point of view of livelihood strategies, after which he presents the economic strategies built upon agricultural activities.

michigan state universit y r e s u m e n El éxito de Cuba en el campo de la salud pública a menudo se asocia a altos índices estadísticos alcanzados por la población en muchas áreas. Ésto ha llevado a muchos estudiosos a hacer de la isla un "anti-modelo" de desarrollo. Sin embargo, los investigadores en esta línea de pensamiento caen en lo que yo llamo fetichismo estadístico. Esta forma de fetichismo tiene un objetivo específico. Los indicadores básicos de salud en Cuba proporcionan un modelo de la realidad, pero no permiten el examen crítico de lo que las cifras reflejan o cómo se obtienen. Este artículo propone el amplio examen de los procesos sociales, que moldean e influyen en el sistema primario de salud pública en Cuba. Concretamente, el trabajo examina cómo el colapso del bloque soviético y el fortalecimiento del embargo por parte de los Estados Unidos están cambiando la experiencia y la aceptación que la población tiene del sistema de salud. Además, el trabajo analiza cómo los cambios en la dinámica de las relaciones entre la población y la burocracia médica han transformado también los modos en que el Estado ejerce y representa su poder de un modo más sutil a través de la imposición de una disciplina física a nivel individual.

Exploring the Mongolian pawnshop institution through the analytical lens of anthropological exchange theory,this article argues that commodification has boosted the flow of dangerous agency and ‘spirit’ by easing the flowand exchangeability of belongings. While the distinction between gifts and commodities appears in Mongolianethnography, it is neither stable nor definite, and it is argued that commodification at the pawnshop mightactually serve to spiritually charge people and objects and thereby enhance their social agency and gift-likeaspects.

The chapter “Fashion and time: The lifespan of clothing” investigates the changes in everyday consumer practices from the point of view of the concept of time. Scholars have called Soviet society a “repair society” (Gerasimova, Chuikina 2009) because not only were things under constant repair in an effort to prolong their lifespans, but so was the whole societal system. Based on differences in the longevity of relationships between humans and things, at least three concepts of clothing consumption may be identified: “permanent,” “fast,” and “sustainable.” I also distinguish a “transitional” fashion. These concepts are rooted in societies with particular economic conditions, levels of technological development, norms, traditions, and customs, as well as consumer practices. I argue that “permanent” consumption was a feature of socialist societies, “transitional” fashion is intrinsic to a period of reforms, “fast fashion” is a dominant characteristic of emerging consumer markets, and “sustainable consumption” is a feature of mature capitalist societies. Based on these concepts, I explore daily practices related to man-thing relations from the point of view of the life cycle of clothing.

Bringing together empirical studies of former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, this Special Issue explores the relationship between censorship and self-censorship. All the cases under consideration share a history of state-led censorship. Importantly, however, the authors argue that journalism in the former Eastern bloc has developed features similar to those observed in many countries which have never experienced state socialism. This introduction presents the theoretical framework and the historical backgound that provide the backdrop for this Special Issue’s contributions, all of which take a journalist-focused angle.

In situations in which an entire population is affected by war and great political-economic transformations, as was the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina, generational differences exist regarding the extent to which people experience these events as disruptions to their lives. Even in a nationally divided city like Mostar after the 1992-1995 war, generational experiences-of past and present times as well as of future prospects (or the lack thereof)-are crucial for the way people rethink the past and (re)position themselves in the present. In the case of the generation of the "Last Yugoslavs", I argue that the disruption of their life course and the resulting loss of future prospects prevent people from narrating the local past and their lives in a meaningful and coherent way.

(European Architectural History Network) The paper discusses how the concept of " heritage " has been employed in interpretations of the Soviet architectural legacy in the Belarusian capital Minsk, producing competing geopolitical narratives of Belarusian national development. The logic of Soviet cultural heritage-making in Belarus has been underpinned by the overlapping aims and intentions of various different actors. The paper aims to explore the correlation between professional architectural discourses on the status of the Soviet architectural legacy and strategies for the appropriation of the Soviet past in the official politics of Belarus. In the post-independence period, the professional architectural discourse reassessing the Soviet architectural legacy of Minsk so far as heritage was concerned concentrated on the aesthetic value of Soviet architecture in Minsk, but it relied implicitly upon the perception that the postwar reconstruction period in Belarus had been a " golden age " for Belarusians. While there have been recent attempts of re-framing the cultural artefacts representing socialist realism in terms of " heritage " in countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In marked contrast to the case of Belarus, however, not one of these countries sought to combine this international symbolic capital of the socialist legacy with the status of " national heritage " .