History Theses and Dissertations
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Item Between Nation and State: Albanian Associations from Ottoman Origins to a Communist Party, 1880 - 1945(2016) Mitrojorgji, Lejnar; Lampe, John R; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation addresses the broader antecedents of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) as one of a number of associations whose experience was central to Albanian political history. This long experience dates back to the informal national associations formed in the Ottoman Empire of the late nineteenth century. The dissertation examines the role of these associations which, pursuing language rights and political representation through imperial state reforms, set a pattern that struggled to connect nation and state, rather than asserting the territorial demands for a nation-state familiar across the region. Starting out in the Ottoman Empire, but then maturing in the Albanian diaspora in Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt and the United States, this dissertation shows politically significant processes of longer-term adaptation that created informal associations as institutional structures able to channel collective action. It then traces the reframing of these patterns through their destruction in the Balkan Wars and the First World War to the emergence of communist associations in the interwar period and beyond. This dissertation is a sustained study that traces long-term Ottoman imperial political legacies in the Albanian successor state. The story of the associations, based on hitherto unexamined archival documents, shows that the Albanians possessed a far greater capacity for political mobilization that previously acknowledged by historians. Moreover, the dissertation successfully challenges the conventional wisdom that portrays the Albanians as irreparably divided along sectarian and regional faultlines. It finds that Albanian national activism was civic in character rather than ethnic as elsewhere in the Balkans. The Albanians fought to remain within a multinational framework because this afforded them political security, social advancement and potential economic growth. In the late Ottoman period, this political objective was manifested in the acceptance of the supranational imperial order whereas during the Second World War, in the aspiration to become members of the Comintern internationalist movement. Another important find, is the newly-discovered evidence concerning the founding of the CPA and its wartime conduct as an organization created and led by the Albanians themselves, albeit with Yugoslav ideological assistance under the transnational umbrella of the Comintern.Item Conscripting the State: Military and Society in Iran, 1921-1941(2011) Bingaman, Lyndon; Zilfi, Madeline C; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power in an Iranian state on the verge of disintegration and dominated by foreign powers. In order to reverse this decline and protect national sovereignty, Reza sought to build a centralized state and strong national military modeled after those of Europe. The military came to dominate affairs within the country by consuming a large percentage of the national budget and by the favoritism given to its officers. The government also attempted to impose martial order on society by implementing conscription, requiring military instruction for students, and imposing national dress codes for citizens. Reza's elevation of the military, heavy-handed style of governance, and the systemic corruption of his regime made it unpopular with much of Iran's population. This thesis argues that Reza's reforms did much to alter the appearance of Iran and its military but failed to make critical institutional changes.Item Ideologues and Pragmatists: World War II, New Communists, and Persistent Dilemmas of the Soviet Party-State, 1941-1953(2010) Stotland, Daniel; David-Fox, Michael; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The decision-making paradigm of the Soviet party-state was defined by the persistent shortage of qualified manpower that afflicted the Russian elite. The traditional Russian problems of under administration, combined with the unique features of the Soviet political system, resulted in a dichotomy between practical and ideological demands. The era of WWII provides a microcosm of pressures facing the Kremlin and illustrates the cyclical nature of policy formation forced on it by the paradoxes of the system. As the party's responsibilities expanded into specialized economic and military areas, political experts increasingly depended on the specialized professionals. These trends grew increased drastically during the war. An unexpected consequence of the party's expansion into economic or military professions was the discovery that co-optation worked both ways and many party members become managers rather than ideological overseers. Throughout the existential crisis of the system - the war and its aftermath - the party would find itself in a fundamental conflict over its identity, challenged over its role both vis-a-vis the state and its own priorities. After an abortive attempt by Zhdanov to reverse the wartime trends, a new paradigm was articulated by the party during the last five years of Stalin's reign. This resulted in the emergence of a new elite consensus which envisioned the party as intergral and invasive economic actor. This shift in the party's identity was the price of maintaining centralized political power and came at the expense of the focus on ideological purity. In the long term, however, the diminished role of ideology robbed the party of its core value system and steadily eroded its legitimizing and self-energizing power. Over time, the new consensus would undermine the very foundations of the party-state construct. Yet if the USSR was to survive as a modern, industrialized state, the accommodation with the technocrats was necessary. The contradiction between ideological and pragmatic aims was inherent to the system, and demanded an eventual choice between the long-term health of the state and that of the party.