Bank Menatep

Bank "MENATEP", Bank "MENATEP SPb" (Russian: Банк "МЕНАТЕП Санкт-Петербург" / Банк «МЕНАТЕП СПб») and "Group Menatep Limited" were financial companies, created by Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. "Group Menatep Limited", the US$29 billion holding company that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company, was later renamed, and now still exists as holding company GML with Leonid Nevzlin as principal shareholder holding a stake of around 70 percent. The other four ultimate beneficial owners who own an equal stake each are Platon Lebedev, Mikhail Brudno, Vladimir Dubov and Vasily Shakhnovsky.
History.
Bank "Menatep".
In 1986, the "Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth" - TSMNTP (Russian: Межотраслевой Центр Научно-технических программ — ЦМНТП) was created in Moscow by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Center Menatep was attached to the Komsomol committee in Moscow's Frunzensky District. In 1987, Leonid Nevzlin, a software engineer, met Khodorkovsky and became a Deputy Director at the Center.
Later on, in December 1988, Khodorkovsky established one of the first private banks in Russia, the "Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress", headquartered in Moscow and renamed in 1990 "MENATEPinvest".
In May 1990, Interbank Association "MENATEP" was registered, subsequently renamed by Khodorkovsky as International Financial Association "MENATEP" (Russian: Международное финансовое объединение МЕНАТЕП / МФО МЕНАТЕП) in 1991. Alexey Golubovich joined MFO MENATEP as the principal economist in 1992. He also served as head of the investment department and the vice-president of the bank MENATEP from 1992 till 1996. In 1997 MFO Menatep became a subsidiary of Khodorkovsky's newly created, Gibraltar-registered holding company Group Menatep Limited.
From 1989 to 1991, Leonid Nevzlin served as president of Bank Menatep (Investment Commercial Bank of Scientific and Technical progress), after which he held other high-ranking positions, including Vice Chairman of the Board (1993-1996) and Head of Public Relations (1994-1996). Nevzlin also worked at Group Menatep, focusing on corporate communications, government relations, and human resources. Nevzlin became in April 1996 Vice President of Yukos, in which Menatep had acquired a 78% share in December 1995.
From May, 1989 to 1990, Khodorkovski held the position of Chairman of the board of "Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress", renamed in 1990 "MENATEPinvest". In August, 1991, Khodorkovski also became Chairman of board of directors of credit-financial enterprises association MENATEP. From 1992 to 1993, Andrei Loginov, was Deputy Head of the Board of the Commercial Innovation MENATEP (Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress). From 1991 to April 1996, Vladislav Surkov held key managerial positions in advertisement and PR departments of Bank Menatep.
In November 1994, Konstantin Kagalovsky became deputy chairman of Bank Menatep. Kagalovsky was Russia's representative to the International Monetary Fund between 1992 and 1995. He is married to Natasha Gurfinkel-Kagalovsky (aka "Nataliya Gurfinkel-Kagalovskaya"), a former senior vice president of the Bank of New York (B.O.N.Y.). The Bank of New York was involved in the tax evasion scandal with billions of dollars channeled out of Russia from 1996 to 1999. (See also: Clearstream scandal) In 1999, both were accused of money laundering, however denied any wrongdoing. Natasha Gurfinkel-Kagalovsky who headed the bank's Eastern European division, decided to resign after being suspended by the bank following the yearlong federal probe of suspicious transfers of $7.5 billion or more through a series of related accounts. However, in early 2000, she filed a suit against her former employer claiming $270 million in compensation for damage to her reputation.
In November 1995, Bank Menatep took part in a mortgage auction, which resulted in its takeover of the oil company Yukos.
Alexander Zurabov served as President of Bank MENATEP from 1996 until 1997 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1997 until 1999. Since 1996, Ilya Yurov has been serving as the Head of Treasury at the MENATEP Bank in Moscow. In February 1997, Yuri Milner became deputy chairman and head of the investment division of Menatep Bank.
Following the financial meltdown in August 1998 when Menatep defaulted on obligations and suspended operations, the bulk of operations were shifted to Bank Menatep SPb and Trust & Investment Bank. In the course of asset distribution Bank Menatep SPb grabbed the lender’s branch network and card business, while Trust & Investment Bank gained the right to deal with most of Yukos’ financial flows.
The Moscow-based Bank Menatep lost its banking license in May 1999 and was declared bankrupt in September of the same year.
Bank "Menatep SPb".
In 1995, a subsidiary in St. Petersburg was founded by the Moscow Bank "Menatep" under the name of "Menatep St. Petersburg". The commercial bank was registered by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on November 27, 1995. It had a general license of the Central Bank of Russia to conduct banking operations.
In 1997, Bank "Menatep SPb" was ranked among the 50 fastest growing banks in Russia.
In 2000, the Bank, acting as a company, was transformed into a joint-stock company. with YUKOS Oil Company as one of the main shareholders.
At the end of 2000, Bank "Menatep SPb" got permission to establish a subsidiary in Switzerland - "Menatep Finance SA", located in Geneva, in order to get better access to the international capital market.
As of 2001, the branch network of Bank "Menatep SPb" comprised 57 branches all over Russia.
In 2001, the bank opened a branch in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia.
In 2002, Bank "Menatep SPb" was among the 20 largest Russian banks by all key financial indicators and the largest bank in St. Petersburg.
Vitaly Saveliev, Director General of Aeroflot since 2009, served as chief executive officer (Председатель правления) and as First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank "Menatep SPb" from November 1995 until 2001.
Dmitri Lebedev served from 2000 until 2001 as executive officer (Заместитель председателя правления) of Bank "Menatep SPb" and from 2001 until 2003 as CEO of the bank. Since November 1998, the Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom, Pyotr Rodionov, served as Chairman of the Board of Directors (Председатель совета) of Bank "Menatep SPb".
As of 2003, the management of Bank "Menatep SPb" consisted of the following:
As of 2003, the principal shareholders of Bank "Menatep SPb" were MFO MENATEP, YUKOS Oil, Kirov Plants, Baltika Brewery and Kontakt Manufacturing & Trading.
In 2004, OJSC Bank "MENATEP SPb" was acquired by its own management team renaming it as National Bank "TRUST" (ОАО) (Russian: Национальный банк "ТРАСТ") later that same year. The decision to change the name of the bank was made by the general meeting of shareholders of the Bank "Menatep SPb" on October 11, 2004. Ilya Yurov, since October 2003 Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced that the new bank planned to continue activities of Corporate Banking service and services for private clients. Yurov served as the Head of Treasury at the MENATEP Bank in Moscow since 1996. Since October 2003, he had been the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the TRUST Investment Bank (TIB) and National Bank TRUST (formerly TRUST National Bank).
As of April 1, 2006, Trust Bank was the No. 34 among Russia’s banks in equity (5.4 billion rubles), according to the rating compiled by Kommersant Dengi (Kommersant Money). It was scored the No. 54 in net asset total (21.5 billion rubles). The holders are five individuals with Ilya Yurov owning the biggest stake of 35.94 percent.
In November 2006, National Bank "Trust" (NB "Trust") moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Group Menatep Limited.
On September 5, 1997, a company called "Flaymon Limited" was registered in Gibraltar. As of October 27, 1997 the total share capital of «Flaymon Limited» comprised 5 million shares, of which Mikhail Khodorkovsky held 10.5%, Leonid Nevzlin 9%, Mikhail Brudno 7.75%, Platon Lebedev 7.75%, Vladimir Dubov 7.75%, and Alexey Golubovich 5%. The remaining 50% stake was held by trust management company "Palmus Foundation" in Liechtenstein.
On December 29, 1997 «Flaymon Limited» was renamed as "Group MENATEP Limited", with a registered capital of 20 million pounds.
Valmet, a Geneva-based global trust business, founded by Christian Michel, agreed in early 1989 to advise Khodorkovsky's group of young businessmen. Valmet later held the key to the Group Menatep fortune, holding shares via nominee ownership schemes and organizing the transfer of vast sums of money via its network.
As of June 19, 2002 the total share capital of "Group MENATEP Limited" was distributed as follows:
Mikhail Khodorkovsky held 9.5%, Leonid Nevzlin 8%, Mikhail Brudno 7%, Platon Lebedev 7%, Vladimir Dubov 7%, Vasily Shakhnovsky 7%, and others 4.5%. The remaining 50% stake was held by a trust fund "Special Trust Arrangement". The sole beneficiary of the trust fund "Special Trust Arrangement" on June 19, 2002 was Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Group MENATEP Limited was the owner of 100% shares of the company "Yukos Universal Limited", registered in the Isle of Man. The company "Yukos Universal Limited" in turn owned 100% of the shares of the company "Hulley Enterprises Limited", registered in Cyprus. As of April 2000, the company "Hulley Enterprises Limited" owned more than 52% of shares of JSC "NC" YUKOS.
As of June 10, 2002, Group MENATEP Limited owned 100% share capital of Yukos Universal Limited, the Isle of Man offshore vehicle which held and controlled 1,364,904,402 shares or 61.01% stake in Yukos. Yukos Universal Limited directly held 79,288,881 shares or 3.54%, while another offshore vehicle, Hulley Enterprises Ltd., a Cyprus-registered wholly owned subsidiary of Yukos Universal Ltd., held 1,285,615,521 shares or 57.47% of the aggregate number of shares of the Company.
Also, Group MENATEP Ltd. controlled Bank Menatep SPb and the Trust and Investment Bank (Доверительный и инвестиционный банк). However, the group's 61% stake in Yukos was reduced to 44.1 percent following a share issue in 2003.
Following the arrest of Yukos' former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky in October 2003, Stephen Curtis, a British lawyer, was appointed managing director of Group Menatep Ltd. in November 2003. However, just a couple of months later, Curtis died in a helicopter crash in Bournemouth on March 3, 2004.
On February 11, 2004, Anton Drel, the lawyer of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, announced his client was no longer a shareholder of Group Menatep and that Khodorkovsky had pulled out of the company on October 20, 2003, several days before he was arrested. At the time of his arrest, Khodorkovsky held 59.5 percent of Group Menatep equaling roughly 26 percent of Yukos, worth $7.8 billion. Shortly after Khodorkovsky's arrest, Group Menatep pulled its shareholder list off its web site and revealed that Khodorkovsky had handed over control of a special trust that owned 50 percent of Menatep. Drel however said that Khodorkovsky had relinquished all his shares in the holding.
The lawyer pointed out that the prosecutors' step of freezing 44 percent of Yukos' shares could be unlawful as Khodorkovsky did not own any shares in Menatep any longer. Menatep owned the frozen stake via two offshore vehicles, Yukos Universal and Hulley Enterprises. Drel further added that he could not disclose the name of the new holder of the shares. Analysts complained Yukos' ownership structure was getting murkier and murkier.
Following the death of Stephen Curtis in March 2004, Group MENATEP announced the appointment of three new managing directors in May 2004: Kevin Bromley, Director of IFG International Limited an Isle of Man trust company; Nicholas Keeling, a Gibraltar-based solicitor representing a corporate director; and Tim Osborne, senior partner of Wiggin Osborne Fullerlove, an English law firm specialising in international tax. The three directors were supposed to jointly manage the operations of the company.
As of mid 2004, holding company Group MENATEP Limited was the 100% owner of the following subsidiary companies:
See also:
As of February 9, 2005, the holding company Group MENATEP Limited was the 100% owner of YUKOS Universal Limited and Hulley Enterprises Limited which together owned 51% of YUKOS Oil Company.
On 23 May 2005, the Gibraltar-registered company Group Menatep Limited issued in London a press release announcing that former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein had joined the Advisory Board of Group Menatep. Before starting his political career, Bolkestein worked for Royal Dutch Shell oil company for 16 years. Fellow members of the Advisory Board were former US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Eizenstat, former Executive Editor of The Economist Dudley Fishburn, former German Federal Minister of Economics Otto Graf Lambsdorff and Margery Kraus, founder and CEO of APCO Worldwide.
In March 2006, a syndicate of Western banks, led by France's Societe Generale, filed a petition in the Moscow Arbitration Court for Yukos to be declared bankrupt. On August 1, 2006, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared Yukos oil company bankrupt after being hit with claims for $30bn in disputed taxes. Two weeks later, the Russian prosecutor general’s office said that it was pursuing a criminal investigation against four executives who managed the Yukos oil company from outside Russia before it was declared bankrupt. Among those executives was British lawyer Tim Osborne, director of the holding company GML, formerly Menatep, which owned a majority of Yukos stock.
At the time of the Yukos bankruptcy, GML controlled 51% of Yukos shares through Yukos Universal and Hulley Enterprises. Veteran Petroleum, the Yukos pension fund, and Millhouse Capital, owned 10% and 8.8% each. Three hedge funds also held a 24% stake in Yukos.
In April 2007, The Times reported that British lawyer Tim Osborne was accused of a criminal offence by the Russian Government. Osborne was accused under articles 160 and 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of embezzlement, misappropriation of assets and money laundering. At that time, Osborne was a managing director of GML (formerly Group Menatep), an investment vehicle and the biggest shareholder in Yukos. On 10 May 2007, Osborne complained in written evidence submitted by GML Limited that "the [Russian] accusations limit his ability to travel and discharge his fiduciary duties to manage GML's claim under the ECT. They further damage his personal and professional reputation and ability to carry on his legal practice." Osborne further demanded that all Council of Europe member states should reject Russian extradition requests and mentioned that in two rulings in Bow Street Magistrates' Court on extradition requests for individuals connected to Yukos, Judge Timothy Workman refused to allow extradition on the basis that the requests were politically motivated. The accusation against Osborne and some officers were published on the website of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in 2007, shortly after the Yukos shareholders had filed a $103 billion suit against Russia at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague for compensation from the Russian government for alleged expropriation of its investment. The Hague claim falls under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an international agreement that in part regulates investments in the energy industry, which Russia signed but never ratified.
About 70 percent of GML was owned in 2007 by Leonid Nevzlin, who inherited Khodorkovsky’s stake in 2003, with the rest split evenly between four other Yukos partners. They are Platon Lebedev, Mikhail Brudno, Vladimir Dubov and Vasily Shakhnovsky.
In July 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ordered Russia to pay about $50 billion in damage following the accusation of violating the EU Energy Charter when it redistributed the Yukos’ assets and “took steps equivalent to expropriation of the claimants’ investment" in the company. In its ruling, the court further wrote: "The primary objective of the Russian Federation was not to collect taxes but rather to bankrupt Yukos and appropriate its valuable assets."
However, to some analysts the Hague Court's ruling appeared biased. Moscow-based political risk analyst Eric Kraus explained that Khodorkovsky was found guilty by both Russia and the European Court of Human Rights. “It strikes me as a very political decision,” Kraus said, adding “It is outrageous that anyone should imagine that Russia is going to pay $50 billion to these criminals”. Russia's Finance Ministry also called the ruling "politically biased." and said that it planned to appeal against the decision.
In November 2014, Russia announced that it is appealing the $50 billion Yukos verdict, on the grounds that the case did not come within the mandate of the Arbitration Court in The Hague.
Clearstream Scandal.
The financial condition of the Moscow-based Bank "Menatep" was seriously damaged during the 1998 financial crisis due to a requirement by the Russian Central Bank that all commercial banks keep a proportion of their reserve requirements in Russian treasury bills known as GKO, which subsequently collapsed, causing a default which led to the crisis and Bank Menatep's bankruptcy. The Central Bank revoked Menatep's licence in May 1999.
The bankruptcy was finalized by February 2001. In an unprecedented move, the core shareholders of the bank, the financial holding Group Menatep of which Khodorkovsky was a principal, decided to share their own money with the 15,000 Bank Menatep small depositors whose savings had been wiped out by the collapse. A new Bank Menatep Saint Petersburg was created from a Saint Petersburg division of Bank Menatep. It accumulated the assets, but not the liabilities of the original bank.
According to Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream, a clearing-house which has been qualified as a "bank of banks", Menatep maintained an unpublished secret account at Clearstream until at least 2000.
In 2001, investigative reporter Denis Robert and ex-banker Ernest Backes, an executive at Cedel (now Clearstream) until May 1983, had published a book, "Revelation$" in which Backes disclosed internal information from Cedel. After Backes had made his revelations the German foreign intelligence agency BND became interested.
In late 2002, Ernest Backes gave the BND insight into a dossier on Yukos and the principal shareholder of the Russian company, Group Menatep, containing incriminating evidence against Khodorkovsky. The intelligence agency was thrilled. In early 2003 Backes handed over a copy of his dossier on Yukos and Menatep to the BND who finally sent it in February 2003 from Pullach to the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. Meanwhile, Putin traveled to Berlin to open the Russian Culture Days on February 9 and meet with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On February 26, the German Chancellor went surprisingly to an "extraordinary meeting" with the Russian President in Moscow.
 When asked by the German magazine STERN in 2007, Schroeder denied having handed over the Backes dossier to Vladimir Putin during his visit to Berlin in February 2003.
The German foreign intelligence agency subsequently invited Backes and another ex-banker, Swiss citizen André Strebel to further talks. In June 2003, Backes and Strebel met with two agents from BND Department 5 ("Organized Crime - International Terrorism") in the Munich Maritim Hotel. They agreed a deal: The BND would finance the establishment of an institute. This was on condition that the BND would get access to the extensive archives, which Backes and Strebel had built up in the course of their work for various banking and clearing systems.
The BND financed the establishment of the "Institute for Economic Research Ltd." (Institut für Wirtschaftsrecherchen GmbH (IWR), located in Saarbrücken and the ex-bankers started working on their dossier. To outsiders, the BND background was not recognizable.
On July 2, 2003, Khodorkovsky’s business associate Platon Lebedev was arrested and Mikhail Khodorkovsky himself was arrested on October 25, 2003. A month later, on November 26, 2003, Backes and his partner Strebel filed through the BND sham institute in Saarbrücken a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general against Khodorkovsky and his colleagues Platon Lebedev and Alexei Golubovich, accusing them of money-laundering and supporting a criminal organization. They requested an investigation and a search of records of the Swiss office of Menatep SA, Menatep Finances SA, Valmet. and of Bank Leu in Geneva, related to claims of fraud against the Russian company Avisma and money-laundering by Menatep in Switzerland.
Clearstream denied "the existence of parallel accounts" and of "personal accounts" (in response, Denis Robert published a list of several personal accounts on his blog). However, the company did recognize that "a banking establishment may request an unpublished account, that is, an account only known by the establishments concerned by the transaction, control authorities, and the auditors of the firm". Clearstream also indicated that it had "spent 15 million euros on various audits without finding anything," Denis Robert's accusations.
Refusal of the European Commission to open an investigation.
On April 26, 2006, 20 Minutes revealed that "in May 2005, MEP Paul Van Buitenen was shocked by Frits Bolkestein's presence on Menatep's international consultative council, a Russian banking establishment, and by his work for Shell, a British-Dutch petrol company, two firms 'maintaining secret accounts in Clearstream'... Van Buitenen, also Dutch, then asked for 'clarification' to the European Commission and the opening of a parliamentary investigation. The Commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, replied that these facts 'do not bring up any new question' and that it is not known 'if Menatep made contact with Bolkestein while he was in these positions'. No investigation therefore took place."
The free daily points out that "in 2001, it was Bolkestein himself who announced the Commission's refusal to open up a parliamentary investigation on Clearstream", following Harlem Désir's requests and accusations that Menatep had an "undeclared account" at Clearstream. Bolkestein refused to answer any questions by the newspaper.


Benjamin Vaughan

Dr Benjamin Vaughan MD FRSE LLD (19 April 1751 – 8 December 1835) was a British political radical. He was a commissioner in the negotiations between Britain and the United States at the drafting of the Treaty of Paris.
Life.
Vaughan was born in Jamaica to Samuel Vaughan, a British banker and West India merchant planter of Irish Protestant descent, and his Anglo-American wife, Sarah Hallowell, daughter of shipbuilder, Benjamin Hallowell.
He was educated at Newcome's School and Warrington Academy and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge, without graduating. He then studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. In 1785, during his stay in Edinburgh, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank, Dugald Stewart, and James Hutton.
His broader long-term interest was in politics and sciences: the latter leading to his friendship with Benjamin Franklin. In 1786, Vaughan was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, to which his father, Samuel Vaughan, had been elected a member two years prior.
Vaughan was a political economist, merchant and medical doctor. Through Benjamin Horne, brother of John Horne, he met the politician Lord Shelburne. Shelburne then used Vaughan in a diplomatic role, to try to bring peace between Great Britain and the United States, towards the end of the American War of Independence. He was also a middleman in reconciling Franklin and Shelburne.
He was elected at a by-election in 1792 as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Calne in Wiltshire, and held the seat until the 1796 general election (however was absent from 1794). He spoke in parliament in strong defence of slavery in Jamaica, in his maiden speech. However, in February 1794, he came out in favour of the abolition of the slave trade. He felt that since slaves could no longer be repressed by ignorance and fear, they should be given inducements not to rebel. During his period in London he lived in Finsbury Square. He was arrested in 1794 on grounds of treason, regarding the supposed invasion of England by the French.
After 1794, Vaughan left France for Switzerland and later to America. His interest in republicanism lead to his permanent departure from Britain. He settled in Boston and then on a farm in Hallowell, Maine in 1797.
He is thought to be the builder (or related to the builder) of Hallowell House in Boston, and it is possible his Jamaican links give rise to the district being called Jamaica Plain.
In 1805, Vaughan was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1813, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
He died in Hallowell in 1835.
Family.
Vaughan married Sarah Manning in 1781 and had several children:
The family and their descendants remained in Maine after Vaughan settled in Hallowell in 1797 and continue to reside in the town today.
John Vaughan and William Vaughan were his brothers.
Legacy.
Several places are named after Vaughan:


Robert Dingley (Roundhead)

Robert Dingley (1619–1660), was an English puritan divine, who supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
Biography.
Dingley, a second son of Sir John Dingley, and a sister of Dr. Henry Hammond, was born in 1619. In 1634 he entered Magdalen College, Oxford. Having finished his university career and taken his degree of M.A., he took holy orders.
On the outbreak of the civil war he took the parliamentary side. Dingley was presented to the rectory of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight during the governorship of his kinsman, Colonel Robert Hammond, and enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher. He gave active assistance to the commissioners of Hampshire in rejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters. He died at Brightstone on 12 January 1660.
Works.
Dingley's works were:
For expressing himself unfavourably about the Quakers he was attacked by George Fox in his "Great Mystery", 1659, p. 361.


Elections in the Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands elects on national level a legislature. The Faroese Parliament ("Løgtingið in Faroese") has 33 members of parliament, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation. The Faroe Islands have a multi-party system (disputing on independence and unionism as well as left and right), with numerous parties in which a single party normally does not have a chance of gaining power alone, and therefore the parties must work together in order to form a coalition government.
Past elections and referendums.
1984.
JF – 23.4%, 8 MPs

FF – 21.6%, 7 MPs

SF – 21.2%, 7 MPs

TF – 19.5%, 6 MPs

SSF – 8.5%, 2 MPs

KFF – 5.8%, 2 MPs
1988.
FF – 23.2%, 8 MPs

JF – 21.6%, 7 MPs

SF – 21.2%, 7 MPs

TF – 16.2%, 6 MPs

SSF – 7.1%, 2 MPs

KFF – 5.5%, 2 MPs

"Others" – 2.2%, 0 MPs
1990.
JF – 27.5%, 10 MPs

FF – 21.9%, 7 MPs

SF – 18.9%, 6 MPs

TF – 14.7%, 4 MPs

SSF – 8.8%, 3 MPs

KFF – 5.9%, 2 MPs

"Others" – 2.3%, 0 MPs
1994.
SF – 23.4%, 8 MPs

FF – 16.0%, 6 MPs

JF – 15.4%, 5 MPs

TF – 13.7%, 4 MPs

VF – 9.5%, 3 MPs

KFF – 6.3%, 2 MPs

MF – 5.8%, 2 MPs

SSF – 5.6%, 2 MPs

"Others" – 4.3%, 0 MPs
1998.
TF – 23.8%, 8 MPs

JF – 21.9%, 7 MPs

FF – 21.3%, 8 MPs

SF – 18.0%, 6 MPs

SSF – 7.7%, 2 MPs

MF – 4.1%, 1 MPs

KFF – 2.5%, 0 MPs

VF – 0.8%, 0 MPs

"Others" – 0.8%, 0 MPs
2002.
SF – 26.0%, 8 MPs

TF – 23.7%, 8 MPs

JF – 20.9%, 7 MPs

FF – 20.8%, 7 MPs

SSF – 4.4%, 1 MPs

MF – 4.2%, 1 MP
2004.
SF – 23.7%, 7 MPs

JF – 21.8%, 7 MPs

TF – 21.7%, 8 MPs

FF – 20.6%, 7 MPs

MF – 5.2%, 2 MPs

SSF – 4.6%, 1 MP
2008.
TF – 23.3%, 8 MPs

SF – 21%, 7 MPs

FF – 20.1%, 7 MPs

JF – 19.4%, 6 MPs

MF – 8.4%, 3 MPs

SSF – 7.2%, 2 MPs

"Others" – 0.7%, 0 MPs
2011.
SF – 24.7%, 8 MPs

TF – 23.3%, 8 MPs

FF – 18.3%, 6 MPs

JF – 17.7%, 6 MPs

F – 6.3%, 2 MPs

MF – 6.2%, 2 MPs

SSF – 4.2%, 1 MP
2015.
JF – 25.1%, 8 MPs

TF – 20.7%, 7 MPs

FF – 18.9%, 6 MPs

SF – 18.7%, 6 MPs

F – 7.0%, 2 MPs

MF – 5.5%, 2 MPs

SSF – 4.1%, 2 MPs


Timothy Abraham Curtis

Timothy Abraham Curtis was Governor of the Bank of England from 1837 to 1839. He had been Deputy Governor from 1834 to 1837. He replaced James Pattison as Governor and was succeeded by John Reid. Curtis's tenure as Governor occurred during the Panic of 1837. In June 2020 the Bank of England issued a public apology for the involvement of Curtis, amongst other employees, in the slave trade following the investigation by the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at UCL.


Lambeth slavery case

On 21 November 2013 Metropolitan Police from the Human Trafficking Unit arrested two suspects at a residential address in Lambeth, South London. A 73-year-old ethnic Indian Singaporean man, Aravindan Balakrishnan, and a 67-year-old Tanzanian woman, his wife, Chanda Pattni, had been investigated for slavery and domestic servitude. The case centred around the Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought commune which was led by Balakrishnan. In the early 1980s after a police raid, Balakrishnan decided to move the group's activities underground. Balakrishnan's control over his followers intensified and the commune became a prison to his followers. On 25 October 2013, three women were rescued from the commune. These were: a 69-year-old Malaysian woman (later revealed to be Aishah Wahab), a 57-year-old Irish woman (Josephine Herivel) and a 30-year-old British woman (Katy Morgan-Davies). Katy Morgan-Davies was born into the sect and hadn't experienced the outside world until her release.
Perpetrator.
Aravindan Balakrishnan (known to his followers as "Comrade Bala") was born in Kerala, India but migrated to Singapore, Malaya, where his father was a soldier, when he was 10. Balakrishnan was a student at Raffles Institution and later the University of Singapore, where although gaining a reputation as a "quiet chap", he became increasingly politically active and believed that he would have been imprisoned in Singapore had he openly admitted to being a communist. In 1977, while living in London, his Singaporean citizenship – which he gained in 1960 – was revoked due to his leadership of the Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought, which the Ministry of Home Affairs accused of engaging in "activities which are prejudicial to the security" of Singapore, and denounced him as a radical "closely associated with Eurocommunists". The authorities claimed that Balakrishnan and others, many of them former Singaporean students he had associated with in London, were plotting to overthrow Singapore's leader, Lee Kuan Yew.
Despite believing the United Kingdom to be a fascist state due to its treatment of the people of Singapore during the Malayan Emergency, Balakrishnan emigrated to the UK in 1963 on a British Council scholarship to study at the London School of Economics, and married his wife Chandra in 1971. Over the years he built up a following by giving lectures and staging various sit-ins and protests. He was a regular attendee at London demonstrations, where he waved banners depicting the Chinese leader Mao Zedong and addressed the crowds.
In 1974, Balakrishnan and his "small clique" were expelled from the Communist Party of England (Marxist–Leninist) on account of "their pursuance of conspiratorial and splittist activities ... spreading social fascist slanders against the Party and the proletarian movement" and attempting "to put themselves above the discipline of the Party". The CPE(M–L) "repudiated the metaphysical logic harmfully promoted" by Balakrishnan in "opposition to dialectical materialism and the concrete analysis of concrete conditions". In response, Balakrishnan set up the Workers' Institute and launched his own publication, the "South London Workers' Bulletin", which accused the CPE(M–L) of being "fascists" and "agents of imperialism".
Between 1974 and 1976, his followers attempted to "build revolutionary stable base areas in working-class communities", primarily South London, and worked in ordinary jobs. Balakrishnan discouraged his followers from joining trade unions, describing them as agents of the "imperialist fascist bourgeoisie".
Eventually, after the more liberal members of his group drifted away, a cult of around 10 female members formed around him. The collective moved to Brixton in 1976, under the title Workers Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Following Mao's death in 1976, the Institute built the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre at 140 Acre Lane, Brixton, which also functioned as a communist collective of "thirteen comrades", with "13 members living on the premises, half in paid work, six doing full-time revolutionary work, with a strong emphasis on women taking a leading role (apart from leading the Party Committee headed by Bala)". Members were handed a rota of chores and only allowed to go out in pairs, which Balakrishnan claimed was because the area they lived in was "notorious for violence" and "anything could happen".
Following a police raid on the Memorial Centre in March 1978, which the group claimed involved "over 200 police", including officers from the Special Patrol Group, "under the pretext of searching for drugs", the Workers' Institute effectively went underground, with the remaining members being convinced to end all contact with others and maintain an intense level of secrecy. Family members were later branded fascist agents and ostracised, and Balakrishnan and his captives moved to a number of properties during this time as a means for him to escape detection from the authorities. Balakrishnan convinced his followers that everything was controlled by him from the sun, the moon, wind and fires; that he could overthrow governments, control natural disasters, and make people live or die. In order to progress his cause, Balakrishnan invented "JACKIE" (an acronym for Jehovah, Allah, Christ, Krishna and Immortal Easwaran) – a type of dangerous, mystical machine that monitored all thought and could control minds.
Balakrishnan began sexually abusing two of the women in 1979, often physically beating them and making others watch as he did so. All of the women were beaten and four (not including his wife) were said to have been sexually assaulted or engaged with sexual relations with him. Balakrishnan forced the women to swallow his ejaculate as it was "the elixir of life", and claimed the women he sexually abused had been trying to seduce him out of "jealousy" for his lover.
Imprisonment and rescue.
The two older victims are believed to have met Balakrishnan in London through, according to police, a shared political ideology, as he was the leader of the Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought. The women were not being physically restrained, but held by "invisible handcuffs" after being subjected to brainwashing, emotional abuse and physical abuse by their captors.
The three women, who are not related, are said to have been held captive for more than 30 years with the youngest of the three thought to have spent her whole life in servitude. However it has not yet been established if she was born in the house from where she was rescued. The police were tipped off by Freedom Charity who contacted police following a phone call they had received on 18 October, during which a woman stated that she'd been held unwillingly for more than 30 years. Aneeta Prem of Freedom Charity confirmed that the Irish woman made contact with the charity after watching the ITV television documentary "Forced to Marry" about forced marriage in the United Kingdom. The women, who are said to be "highly traumatised", are now in safe accommodation.
The two suspects were bailed until April 2014, and were unable to return to the three-bedroom flat they rented from a housing association.
On 11 December 2014, it emerged that Balakrishnan had been charged with offences relating to cruelty to a person under 16, four counts of rape and 17 counts of indecent assault. Balakrishnan appeared before Westminster magistrates on 17 December 2014. His wife, Chanda Pattni, was released earlier in 2014, as there was considered to be insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
Balakrishnan's trial started on 11 November 2015. During his trial, he acted as the only defence witness, and told jurors that a challenge to his leadership resulted in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, and that JACKIE was responsible for the death of a Malaysian prime minister and the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party.
On 4 December 2015, Balakrishnan was convicted of child cruelty, false imprisonment, four counts of rape, six counts of indecent assault and two counts of assault. On 29 January 2016, Balakrishnan was jailed for 23 years.


Barthold Douma van Burmania

Barthold Douma van Burmania (bapt. 17 November 1695 in Hallum – 24 March 1766 in Vienna) was a Dutch statesman and ambassador to the court of Vienna in the eighteenth century.
Van Burmania was born in a small village in Friesland as the son of Jeepke van Douma and Sjuck van Burmania, a military man and later a councillor at the Court of Friesland from 1710 to 1721. After a military career, Barthold became an ambassador in Cologne in 1739 and later at the court of Vienna.
He was a man of broad humanitarian sympathies and an especially staunch friend of the Jews. When, in the 1740s, Maria Theresa ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Prague (to take place before the end of January 1745) and from all Bohemia (before the end of June 1745) Burmania, at the request of the Jewish communities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, exerted all his influence at the court to have the edict revoked. He was assisted by the English minister, Sir Thomas Robinson. The result of his efforts was the postponement of the date of exile to the last day of February 1745. Again the Jewish communities of Holland appealed to Burmania, and again he pleaded, urged, and remonstrated with the Austrian Reichskanzler (Chancellor), that "sovereigns, more than other persons, are responsible to God and man for their deeds." Another month of grace was granted, but on 31 March 1745 the Jews of Prague were exiled. Thereupon, Burmania, supported by the ambassadors of England, Poland, and Turkey, directed his energies toward averting the expulsion of the Jews from the whole of Bohemia, which was to take place in June.
A royal edict was issued on 8 April 1745, ordering all Jews of Moravia also to emigrate within a short time. Again Burmania pleaded for them, and the edicts were modified on 15 May 1745, the Jews being allowed to remain in Bohemia and Moravia "until further orders". Burmania endeavored to have repealed the edict which was issued on 25 June 1746, prohibiting all Jews from coming within two hours' distance of Prague; but he was not successful. Finally, however, on July 1748, Maria Theresa revoked the edict of 18 December 1744 "on account of the pressure from the foreign ambassadors" and the Jews were allowed to return to Prague.


Albanian nationalism (Kosovo)

Kosovo is the birthplace of the Albanian nationalist movement which emerged as a response to the Eastern Crisis of 1878. In the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Ottoman war, the Congress of Berlin proposed partitioning Ottoman Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans among neighbouring countries. The "League of Prizren" was formed by Albanians to resist those impositions. For Albanians those events have made Kosovo an important place regarding the emergence of Albanian nationalism. During the remainder of the late Ottoman period various disagreements between Albanian nationalists and the Ottoman Empire over socio-cultural rights culminated in two revolts within Kosovo and adjacent areas. The Balkan Wars (1912–13) ending with Ottoman defeat, Serbian and later Yugoslav sovereignty over the area generated an Albanian nationalism that has become distinct to Kosovo stressing Albanian language, culture and identity within the context of secession from Serbia. Pan-Albanian sentiments are also present and historically have been achieved only once when part of Kosovo was united by Italian Axis forces to their protectorate of Albania during the Second World War.
Reincorporated within Yugoslavia, Albanian nationalism in Kosovo has drawn upon Kosovar folk culture and traditions which became imbued with theories of descent from ancient Illyrians and Dardanians stressing the purported precedence of Albanian settlement and rights to the area over the Serbs. Traditions of armed resistance by local Albanians to Serbian forces have existed since the interwar period resulting in various and protracted conflicts, ethnic cleansing and violence on both sides. The most recent was the Kosovo War (1999) between the guerilla fighters of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) and Yugoslav army who later were evicted from Kosovo through NATO military intervention. Placed under an international United Nations framework, Kosovar Albanians declared independence (2008) which is internationally recognised by some number of countries satisfying a main tenet of Kosovar Albanian nationalism. Albanian nationalism in Kosovo stresses a secular character sidelining religion.
History.
Background: Late Ottoman period.
The Albanian National movement first emerged in Kosovo through the League of Prizren that attempted to prevent Albanian inhabited territories from being awarded to neighbouring states and over time has become a focus of discourses within Albanian nationalism. The geopolitical crisis also generated the beginnings of the "Rilindja" (Albanian National Awakening) period. With the rise of the Eastern Crisis, Muslim Albanians became torn between loyalties to the Ottoman state and the emerging Albanian nationalist movement. Islam, the Sultan and the Ottoman Empire were traditionally seen as synonymous in belonging to the wider Muslim community. While the Albanian nationalist movement advocated self-determination and strived to achieve socio-political recognition of Albanians as a separate people and language within the state. Albanian nationalism was a movement that began among Albanian intellectuals without popular demand from the wider Albanian population. Geopolitical events pushed Albanian nationalists, many Muslim, to distance themselves from the Ottomans, Islam and the then emerging pan-Islamic Ottomanism of Sultan Abdulhamid II.
During the Russo-Turkish war, the incoming Serb army expelled most of the Muslim Albanian population from the Toplica and Niš regions into Kosovo triggering the emergence of the League of Prizren (1878–1881). Formed as a response to the Eastern crisis and possible partition, the Prizren League was created by a group of Albanian intellectuals to resist neighbouring foreign Balkan states and to assert an Albanian national consciousness by uniting Albanians into a unitary linguistic and cultural nation. Leaders of the Prizren league opposed both Pan-Slavism of southern Slavic peoples and the Greek "Megali Idea". The Prizren league opposed territory containing Albanian speakers being awarded to Greece, Serbia and Montenegro with the Ottoman state for a while supporting the league's claims as it saw Albanian nationalism possibly preventing further territorial losses to newly independent Balkan states. During the late Ottoman period, ethno-national Albanian identity as expressed in contemporary times did not exist amongst the wider Kosovo Albanian-speaking population. Instead collective identities were based upon either socio-professional, socio-economic, regional, or religious identities and sometimes relations between Muslim and Christian Albanians were tense. Some people coming from a Balkan Albanian speaking or cultural space and often belonging to the urban elite in Kosovo that migrated to Anatolia did not always identify with a concept of "Albanianess". Instead they adopted an Ottoman Turkish outlook and came to refer to themselves as "Turks" or Ottoman Turkish speaking citizens. Due to the effects of socio-linguistic assimilation, promoters of Albanian nationalism became concerned about migration to Anatolia and degraded Albanians from the lower classes who undertook the journey.
In 1908 a conference of delegates decided on an Albanian Latin alphabet and the Ottoman government expressed its displeasure alongside other Young Turk policies resulting in a breakdown of relations between Albanian elites and nationalists, many Muslim with Ottoman authorities. The Ottoman Young Turk government was concerned that Albanian nationalism might inspire other Muslim nationalities toward such initiatives and threaten the Muslim-based unity of the empire. The demands for political, cultural and linguistic rights eventually made the Ottomans adopt measures to repress Albanian nationalism which resulted in two Albanian revolts toward the end of Ottoman rule. The first revolt during 1910 in Kosovo and northern Albania was a reaction toward the new Ottoman government policy of centralization. The other revolt in the same areas was in 1912 that sought Albanian political and linguistic self-determination under the bounds of the Ottoman Empire and with both revolts many of the leaders and fighters were Muslim and Catholic Albanians. These Albanian revolts were also a turning point that impacted the Young Turk government which increasingly moved from a policy direction of pan-Ottomanism and Islam toward a singular national Turkish outlook.
Ottoman opposition to Albanian language education and grassroots efforts by Albanian nationalists influenced some Albanian Muslim clergy in Kosovo to embrace the cause of Albanian education during the late Ottoman period. Some Muslim clergy got involved in Albanian cultural clubs and others promoted teaching of Albanian in religious schools and made appeals to others in Kosovar Albanian society to do so. With a de-emphasis of Islam, the Albanian nationalist movement gained the strong support of two Adriatic sea powers Austria-Hungary and Italy who were concerned about pan-Slavism in the wider Balkans and Anglo-French hegemony purportedly represented through Greece in the area.
Balkan Wars, World War One and interwar period.
Kosovar Albanian nationalism has been defined through its clash with Serbian nationalism where both view Kosovo as the birthplace of their cultural and national identities. Ottoman rule ended in 1912 during the Balkan Wars and Kosovo became part of Serbia. During this time Serb forces in Kosovo engaged in killings and forced migration of Albanians while the national building aims of the Serbian state were to assimilate some and remove most Albanians by replacing them with Serbian settlers. The Serb state believed that Albanians had no sense of nationhood while Albanian nationalism was viewed as the result of Austro-Hungarian and Italian intrigue. These events fostered feelings of Albanian victimisation and defeatism, grudges against the Serbs and Great Powers who had agreed to that state of affairs which ran alongside Albanian nationalism. Kosovar Albanian nationalism drew upon and became embedded in popular culture such as village customs within a corpus of rich historical myths, distinctive folk music referring to harvests along with marriage and clan based law.
During the First World War occupation by Austro-Hungarian forces, Albanian schools were opened that later were shut down during the interwar years by Yugoslav authorities while religious Islamic education was only permissible in Turkish. Serbian language education based upon a curriculum of common Slavic identity was instituted by authorities as a medium to integrate Albanians into the state, while they viewed Yugoslav education policy as denationalisation. Yugoslav education policy repressed Albanian secular education to undermine sentiments of Albanian national identity and culture with a view to preventing possible nationalist challenges to Yugoslavia. Religious private Muslim schools were condoned by authorities and seen as promoting collective identity based on religion among Albanians. During the 1920s education taught by Albanian Muslim clergy moved to Muslim tekkes, maktabs and madrasas which emerged as underground centres for spreading and generating Albanian nationalism strengthening within Albanian nationhood the religious element. Albanian nationalists were against this development as their efforts were toward building Albanian national identity on secular grounds. Religious Muslim schools by the 1930s became viewed as a threat to the state and Yugoslav authorities replaced Albanian Muslim clergy with pro-Serbian Slavic Muslim clergy and teachers from Bosnia to prevent Albanian nationalist activities developing in religious institutions. Albanians opposed those moves and boycotted imposed teachers. The Albanian language was prohibited by Yugoslav authorities and some Albanians were made to emigrate.
Secessionist sentiments after the First World War became expressed through the Kaçak movement led by the Kosovo Committee made up of Kosovar Albanian exiles opposed to Yugoslav rule. Represented on the ground as a guerilla group the Kaçak movement was led by Azem Galica and later his wife Shota Galica that fought a small scale war (1918-1921) in formations of "çetas" or fighting bands against the Yugoslav army. Supported by Italy who gave financial aid and Albania, the Kaçak movement was eventually suppressed by the Serbs during the late 1920s. The movement contributed to the development of an Albanian national consciousness in Kosovo and Macedonia. Yugoslav authorities in the 1930s replaced Albanian imams with ones that were hostile to Sufism from Bosnia weakening Albanian nationalism. Kosovar Albanians were viewed by Yugoslav authorities as an enemy within that could challenge the territorial integrity of the state. Albanians in Kosovo felt that Serbian and later Yugoslav rule constituted a foreign conquest. Confiscations of Albanian land and settlement of Serbian colonists throughout the interwar period drove Kosovar Albanians during the Second World War to collaborate with the Axis powers who promised a Greater Albania.
World War Two.
The Italian annexation of Kosovo to Albania was considered a popular action by Albanians of both areas and initially Kosovar Albanians supported Axis Italian forces. Collapse of Yugoslav rule resulted in actions of revenge being undertaken by Albanians, some joining the local "Vulnetari" militia that burned Serbian settlements and killed Serbs while interwar Serbian and Montenegrin colonists were expelled into Serbia proper. The aim of these actions were to create a homogeneous Greater Albanian state. Italian authorities in Kosovo allowed the use of the Albanian language in schools, university education and administration. In Kosovo and other newly attached territories to Albania, non-Albanians had to attend Albanian schools that taught a curricula containing nationalism alongside fascism and were made to adopt Albanian forms for their names and surnames. In 1943, Italian control became replaced with German rule and the fiction of an independent Albania was maintained. In 1944 Axis German forces created the "SS Skanderbeg" division to serve only in Kosovo and named it after the 15th century Albanian commander who fought the Ottomans. Kosovar Albanians were its main recruits and though mass desertions occurred, its members participated in operations against Serbian areas resulting in civilian deaths and pillage while the small Jewish community of Kosovo was arrested and deported. An attempt to get Kosovar Albanians to join the resistance, a meeting in Bujan (1943-1944), northern Albania was convened between Balli Kombëtar members and Albanian communists that agreed to common struggle and maintenance of the newly expanded boundaries. The deal was opposed by Yugoslav partisans and later rescinded resulting in limited Kosovar Albanian recruits. Some Balli Kombëtar members such as Shaban Polluzha became partisans with the view that Kosovo would become part of Albania. With the end of the war, some of those Kosovar Albanians felt betrayed by the return of Yugoslav rule and for several years Albanian nationalists in Kosovo resisted both the partisans and later the new Yugoslav army. Albanian nationalists viewed their inclusion within Yugoslavia as an occupation.
Discrimination: the 1950s and 1960s.
During the interwar period and after the Second World War Kosovar Albanian society lacking Albanian language education such as those residing in villages were mainly illiterate and folk music was the main driver of nationalism. Most Albanian people in the region, aware of differences with Kosovo Serbs and an emerging Macedonian nationality embraced Albanian national identity. Few Albanians claimed a Turkish identity as old Ottoman Millet style classifications based on religious identification waned. The role of Islam locally transformed from a faith community previously unifying Albanians with other Muslim coreligionists in the region and Middle East into one of an ethnic identity marker for Kosovar Albanians separating them from Orthodox Slavs. These changes placed pressure on other Muslim minorities living in Albanian areas to assimilate as Albanians. The 1950s and 1960s were a period marked by repression and anti Albanian policies in Kosovo under Aleksandar Ranković, a Serbian communist who later fell out and was dismissed by Tito. During this time nationalism for Kosovar Albanians became a conduit to alleviate the conditions of the time. In 1968 Yugoslav Serb officials warned about rising Albanian nationalism and by November unrest and demonstrations by thousands of Albanians followed calling for Kosovo to attain republic status, an independent Albanian language university and some for unification with Albania. Tito rewrote the Yugoslav constitution (1974) and attempted to address Albanian grievances by awarding the province of Kosovo autonomy and powers such as a veto in the federal decision making process similar to that of the republics. Kosovo functioned as a de facto republic as Kosovar Albanians attained the ability to pursue near independent foreign relations, trade and cultural links with Albania, an independent Albanian language university and Albanological institute, an Academy of Sciences and Writers association with the ability to fly the Albanian flag.
Cultural revival: 1970s and 1980s.
Between 1971 and 1981, the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo coincided with a revival of Albanian culture that opened new avenues of national expression and awareness that came about when Yugoslavia conceded some cultural and political rights to Kosovar Albanians. Tito's efforts at emphasising a distinctive Yugoslav identity by integrating various nationalities into the sociopolitical Yugoslav structure by overcoming various cultural traditions concerned nationalists who feared assimilation. Regarded mainly as radical movements and on the political fringe, efforts were devoted by nationalists in the diaspora to keep Albanian national symbols and culture alive while other more militant Kosovar Albanian nationalists wanted a Greater Albania. Some Albanian individuals who went abroad embedded themselves among Yugoslav Albanian diasporas formed in the US and in Western European countries. They acted as tutors while also generating print media that aided in educating that diaspora population and hence providing them with the means to participate in events taking place in the Balkans. The issue of Albanian nationalism in Yugoslavia during this time was left mainly for Kosovar Albanian communists to deal with and they withheld intelligence about activities on some underground organisations from Belgrade.
Albanian nationalism in Kosovo is based on the idea of "historic rights" that Albanians are descendants of ancient Illyrians making them the first population entitled to Kosovo and predating the arrival of Slavs, the ancestors of the Serbs. Scholarship by (patriotic) Kosovar Albanian historians (1970s-onward) revolved around researching and attempting to demonstrate Illyrian-Albanian continuity alongside the precedence of that population in Kosovo and Macedonia over Serbs and Macedonians. Kosovar Albanian historians also focused on the Second World War partisan struggle and the Albanian contribution to the liberation of Yugoslavia as being proportionate to other nationalities. These arguments were used to justify Albanian claims toward a right to Kosovo and for the Albanian desire to elevate Kosovo as a seventh republic of the Yugoslav federation. Education in the Albanian language became a source of Albanian nationalism and was confined to Albanian language texts being inaccessible to non-Albanians while school text books were to some extent nationalistic. Albanian historiography in Albanian language texts were viewed by critics in Yugoslavia as a root cause of the "indoctrination of the youth" in nationalism.
In 1981 there was an outburst of Albanian nationalism. Prishtina university became a centre for some nationalistically orientated students that generated Kosovar Albanian protests (1981) over social grievances that marked the first large scale expression of nationalism in Yugoslavia since the Croatian Spring (1971). Kosovar Albanian communists condemned the protests and supported Yugoslav unity while leading the campaign against Albanian nationalism and in that sense shared the view of other Yugoslav communists. The Islamic Community of Yugoslavia dominated by Slavic Muslims distanced itself from the protests, expressed anti-Albanian sentiments and condemned Albanian irredentism estranging Albanian Muslims from establishment Sunni Islam. Albanian Sufi sheikhs instead promoted Sufism among Yugoslav Albanians as an alternative, more traditional and decentralised form of Albanian Islam. The unification of Albanians in the Balkans into one state was also a feature of Kosovar Albanian nationalism and these views were confined to dissident and underground groups. Within the context of the 1981 protests these groups, many with left-wing political orientations united to form the "People's Movement of Kosovo" (LPRK) in Germany (1982). Unification of Albanians into one state was a demand viewed as separatism and irredentism in Yugoslavia which was banned. Kosovar Albanian nationalists were divided into groups with one that wanted to focus on the Albanian question as a whole and the other mainly focusing on Kosovo.
Dissidence and rise of nationalism.
Influences from abroad came and some nationalists were assisted by Hoxha's intelligence services toward supporting the goal of an independent Kosovo. Political dissent by Kosovar Albanians followed resulting in imprisonment and comprising the majority of political prisoners during the 1970s and 1980s. The Yugoslav government claimed that it uncovered during these years many underground Kosovar Albanian separatist organisations. Imprisoned Albanians were subjected to torture and they were viewed by Kosovar Albanians as "martyrs" which led to those involved in political activities to operate within a decentralised organisational structure of small cells. Prominent Albanian prisoners such as dissident Adem Demaçi became an inspirational figure for new generations of Albanian nationalists. The trials and imprisonment of Albanians deemed irredentists by Yugoslav authorities increasingly antagonised and radicalised sections of the wider Kosovar Albanian population. The high birthrate in Kosovo was viewed by Albanians as a way of achieving a "pure Kosovo" by outnumbering local Serbs while communist politicians held the view that Albanian irredentists were attempting to rid Kosovo of Serbs. Some Yugoslav orientated Kosovar Albanians, mainly Catholics lacking certain nationalist sentiments held concerns for their safety due to fears that alleged once Muslim Albanians dealt with Orthodox Christians they would be targeted next. Some Catholic Albanians were in favour of curtailing Muslim dominance on the Albanian scene in a manner done by authorities in Montenegro.
Repression of Albanian nationalism and Albanian nationalists by authorities in Belgrade strengthened the independence movement and focused international attention toward the plight of Kosovar Albanians. The recentralisation of Yugoslavia was promoted due to events in Kosovo, while Serbian nationalism within cultural institutions and the media gained strength. Expressions of Albanian national identity were perceived as overwhelmingly anti-Yugoslav and increasingly anti-Serb. Within that context Albanian language education was viewed as threatening Serbian borders and sovereignty. Kosovar Albanian education was identified with Albanian nationalism while everyone involved was labelled and affected with ideological discrimination eventuating into national confrontation and later intervention. By 1989 the degree of autonomy that Kosovo had attained within Yugoslavia was rescinded by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosević. The Milosević regime also repressed political dissent and initiated discrimination of Kosovar Albanians with the aim of protecting Kosovar Serbs. Albanian nationalists created a non-governmental organisation called the "Democratic League of Kosovo" (LDK) that also gained many dissatisfied Kosovar Albanian communists who joined its ranks after autonomy was rescinded. It was led by the intellectual Ibrahim Rugova who began a period of pacifist resistance and the league created a parallel form of government and civil society while maintaining as its goal to achieve an independent Kosovo. The Kosovo education system became the place where Serbian and Albanian nationalisms played out their conflict. Serbs asserted control of the education system, while educational opportunities for Albanians became limited as they were excluded from university and schools. This prompted Kosovar Albanians to establish a parallel education system where private homes served as schools. Albanian students became immersed in nationalist culture by learning an Albanian history of Kosovo and were no longer exposed to Yugoslav "Brotherhood and Unity" era principles and to learning the Serbian language.
Late 1980s and early 1990s.
Kosovar Albanian national identity making unique claims to Kosovo became homogenised during the 1990s and included multiple factors that led to those developments. Of those were Albanian civil disobedience and popular resistance, the creation of a parallel society in opposition to the Serb state and some underground cells initiating conflict which in all was a reaction to Serbian government policies and repression. From the late 1980s onward Islam within the scope of Albanian identity was downplayed by many Kosovar Albanian intellectual and political figures while Christianity was promoted as a Western marker of "European identity". Albanians in Kosovo alongside their Albanian counterparts in Macedonia after the fall of communism became the main force steering Albanian nationalism, while Islam did not become a main focal point in articulating Albanian political nationalism. Islam was not a significant factor in the recent political mobilization of Kosovar Albanian Muslims who joined with Catholic Albanians during their struggle against the Serbs. During these years Rugova as elected president by Albanians promoted an Albanian identity that stressed their Europeanness and antiquity, in particular one based on ancient Dardania. The wider LDK movement used the resistance theme that had been generated in folklore and traditional songs and turned the image of "victim" into one of "unbreakable hero" invoking traditions of resistance for statehood and toward foreign occupiers. With the Kosovo issue sidelined at the Dayton Peace Accords (1995) ending the dissolution of Yugoslavia, more militant and younger voices disillusioned with Rugova's pacifism dominated like the Kosovo Liberation Army (founded 1992) that began attacks against Serbian forces. The KLA had emerged from the LPRK as many of its members belonged to the political movement.
 As its founding goal was to unite Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans into a Greater Albania, the ideological underpinnings of the KLA were overwhelmingly that of Albanian nationalism stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation. Milosević portrayed himself as the force to curb Albanian nationalism and Greater Albania with the appeal to others such as Greece of acting in that capacity.
Kosovo conflict (1990s) and Kosovan independence (2000s).
Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to the Yugoslavian army retaliating with a crackdown in the region resulting in violence and population displacements. Myths of first settlement and Illyrian descent served to justify for Kosovar Albanians the independence struggle seen as one to eventually unite Albanian lands into a unitary state recreating the mythical state of Illyicum encompassing contemporary Balkan Albanian inhabited lands. A shootout at the Jashari family compound involving Adem Jashari, a KLA commander and surrounding Yugoslav troops in 1998 resulted in the massacre of most Jashari family members. The event became a rallying myth for KLA recruitment regarding armed resistance to Yugoslav forces. By 1999 international interest in Kosovo eventuated into war resulting in NATO intervention against Milosević, ethnic cleansing of thousands of Albanians driving them into neighbouring countries with the cessation of conflict marking the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces. Many people from non-Albanian communities such as the Serbs and Romani fled Kosovo fearing revenge attacks by armed people and returning refugees while others were pressured by the KLA and armed gangs to leave. Post conflict Kosovo was placed under an international United Nations framework with the "UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo" (UNMIK) overseeing administrative affairs and the "UN Kosovo Force" (KFOR) dealing with defence.
In post conflict Kosovo Rugova as first president in his drive toward emphasizing aspects of statehood spent time researching and pursued an identity management project that centred on ancient Dardania and designed state symbols for a future independent Kosovo. Notable among those are the Kosovan presidential flag that displays the two headed eagle of Skanderbeg with the word Dardania emblazoned on it. Some Kosovar Albanians have referred to Kosovo as "Dardania" and Rugova at times supported those moves. To define Kosovo as an Albanian area, a toponyms commission (1999) led by Kosovar Albanian academics was established to determine new or alternative names for some settlements, streets, squares and organisations with Slavic origins that underwent a process of Albanisation during this period. Those measures have been promoted by sectors of the Kosovar Albanian academic, political, literary and media elite that caused administrative and societal confusion with multiple toponyms being used resulting in sporadic acceptance by wider Kosovar Albanian society.
In 2004, prolonged negotiations over Kosovo's future status, sociopolitical problems and nationalist sentiments resulted in the Kosovo riots. Organised and spontaneous acts of violence and damage by Kosovar Albanians was directed at properties of the Serbs, their churches and the Romani leaving some dead and many displaced. International legal precedents based on territorial sovereignty overriding self-determination were brushed aside in the case of Kosovo when parts of the international community recognised the declaration of Kosovar independence (2008). This was put down to fears that not doing so would result in Albanian nationalism possibly making the situation difficult and worse for the international community in Kosovo had conflict eventuated. Albanian nationalism is viewed in the Balkans as having furthered events in Kosovo which has caused concerns about the phenomenon of nationalism and generated fears among Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Romanians and Bulgarians. The ending of the Kosovo war resulted in the emergence of offshoot guerilla groups and political organisations from the KLA continuing various violent struggles. In the Preševo valley the "Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac" (UÇPMB) fought Yugoslav forces (1999-2001) attempting to unite the area with neighbouring Kosovo with conflict ending in peace talks and greater Albanian rights in Serbia. In northern parts of the Republic of Macedonia the "National Liberation Army" (NLA) fought against Macedonian forces (2001) with conflict ending in peace talks and the signing of the "Ohrid Agreement" granting greater Albanian rights in Macedonia.
Kosovo War and influence on Albanian diaspora.
The Kosovo war (1999) generated enthusiasm for using the internet among the Balkan Albanians and the Albanian diaspora (Europe and North America) to meet demands for information and to increase communication between Albanian communities separated by borders and geography. As a consequence the internet has also become a powerful tool for Albanian irredentists to promote political goals against the forces of strong and at times violent state forces seeking to maintain the status quo. Albanian elites who utilised the internet have in cyberspace created a prominent pan-Albanian movement within a single ethno-political space. This has had implications for Albanian national identity in becoming reified and harmonised on the internet. These Albanian websites are often created by diaspora Albanians, in particular from the former Yugoslavia that refer to redeeming irredenta and have maps promoting "Greater Albania" (covering parts of Montenegro, Western Macedonia, Kosovo and Greece). Those discourses and polemics on the internet have affected the international community who is fearful about allowing border changes as it would encourage in Southeastern Europe other irredentisms, ethnic cleansings and wars.
Contemporary Kosovar Albanian nationalism (2010s–present).
In Kosovo, as well as in Albania, Albanians view themselves as being the oldest nation in the Balkans and descendants of the ancient Illyrians with their self-determination struggle being interpreted as one of first settlers in the area fighting against the Slavic Serb "interlopers". Serbs are regarded by Albanian nationalists in generalised terms as "Slavs" and view them without historic territorial rights within an expanded Albanian state. In Kosovo, the additional Dardanian-Illyrian myth also exists that claims contemporary Kosovar Albanians as direct descendants of Dardanians, a subgroup of the Illyrian people who inhabited the area in antiquity. The Dardanians are viewed by Kosovar Albanians as having been Catholics and interpreted as making Albanians historically part of Western civilisation in opposition to the Slavs who are alleged to have taken Catholic churches and converted them into Orthodox ones. The myth has impacted the struggle for Kosovan self-determination from the Serbs in that an independent Kosovo is viewed separate from Albania and as a recovery and recreation of the ancient Dardanian kingdom. Albanian unification has however been interpreted by Kosovar Albanians in the context of reuniting ancient Dardanians into a larger Illyrian whole or modern Albanians of Kosovo into a Greater Albania. The myth has also served to justify expulsion and dispossession of the perceived enemy understood as either temporary or hostile occupiers. A strong link exists in Kosovo for Albanians between nationalist politics and archeology. Kosovar Albanian archeologists continue to attempt through archeological excavations and their interpretations to connect Kosovar Albanians with the local ancient Dardanian and Illyrian populations.
In post conflict Kosovo KLA fighters have been venerated by Kosovar Albanian society with the publishing of literature such as biographies, the erection of monuments and sponsoring of commemorative events. The exploits of Adem Jashari have been celebrated and turned into legend by former KLA members, some in government, and by Kosovar Albanian society resulting in songs, literature, monuments, memorials with streets and buildings bearing his name across Kosovo. The figure of Saint Mother Teresa, whose parents originated from Kosovo has been used for nationalist purposes in Kosovo. Celebrated by Kosovar Catholic Albanians, the Kosovo government and local branch of the Catholic church has promoted Mother Teresa as an Albanian symbol of patriotism. Kosovar Albanians acknowledge her charitable works though some hold misgivings about her patriotism being exaggerated and consideration of her as an Albanian patriot. In the context of de-emphasizing Islam, Kosovar Albanians have shown interest in and referred to Albanian Christian origins and heritage, in particular the "Laramans" (Kosovar crypto-Catholics) assisted to present Albanians as European despite being Muslim. Old Albanian traditions within the Drenica region hailing as a local the medieval Serb figure Miloš Obilić () who killed Sultan Murad I have been utilised within Kosovo school textbooks and by some Albanian nationalists to claim the knight as an Albanian. Establishing the participation of Albanians at the Battle of Kosovo has been a means for Kosovar Albanians to claim roots of being European and to sideline the historic conversion to Islam. Within the context of the Kosovo battle and nation building, some in government circles and wider Kosovo Albanian society have promoted a narrative of continuous Albanian resistance from medieval until contemporary times to states and peoples considered foreign occupiers.
With the declaration of independence (2008), the Kosovo government has promoted the country both internally and internationally as "Newborn" generating an ideology that attempts to break with the past and establish a democratic multicultural future. A prominent left wing nationalist movement turned political party "Vetëvendosje" (Self Determination) has emerged who advocates for closer Kosovo-Albania relations and pan-Albanian self-determination in the Balkans. Another smaller nationalist party, the "Balli Kombetar Kosovë" (BKK) sees itself as an heir to the original Second World War organization that supports Kosovan independence and pan-Albanian unification. Separate to the political scene there also exists paramilitary formations that aim to create a Greater Albania. Regarded internationally as terrorist during the 2000s the emergence of the militant group the "Albanian National Army" (AKSh) made up of some disaffected KLA and NLA members operated in Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia that committed violent acts in those countries.
Albanian nationalism in Kosovo is secular while Islam is mainly subsumed within the parameters of national and cultural identity that entails at times dominant clan and familial identities. Within the public sphere Islam at times resurfaces to challenge the dominant nationalistic view of Albanians being superficial Muslims however the political sphere remains mainly secular. The ambiguity of Islam, its place and role among Balkan (Muslim) Albanians, especially in Albania and Kosovo has limited the ability of it becoming a major component to advance the cause of Great Albania. Greater Albania remains mainly in the sphere of political rhetoric and overall Balkan Albanians view EU integration as the solution to combat crime, weak governance, civil society and bringing different Albanian populations together. In the 2000s onward polling, before Kosovo declared independence, data on Kosovo-Albania unification has waned among Kosovars with support for an independent Kosovo being overwhelming (90.2%). Post independence, support continued to remain high as Kosovo citizens adapted to their statehood, indicating that alongside their Albanian identity a new Kosovar identity has emerged. This factor has been strongly disliked by Albanian nationalists.
However, Albanian nationalism remains popular, with Kosovar Albanians at present supporting the "two states, one nation" platform. This ensures a sustainable Kosovo state, outside of Serbian and foreign control, and a united internal and external front between Kosovo and Albania. Recently, Kosovo's and Albania's governments have signed numerous treaties and memorandums of cooperation which synchronize their policies at home and abroad, including in the diaspora, to create a Pan-Albanian approach without the need for ground unification. The rise of Vetevendosje in Kosovo has further cemented Albanian nationalism and pride within the country, as has a lack of EU integration which has pushed Kosovars to supporting a direct Kosovo-Albania unification to combat isolation, such as with visa liberalization. Gallup surveys between 2008-2013 showed 73% of Kosovo Albanians wanted a union with Albania, with independence support being at high over being a part of Serbia. In 2009,
one year after Kosovo declared independence, support for Kosovo-Albania unification increased to 77%. Today, Kosovo Albanians see Kosovo as the second Albanian state and unification thus being achieved, yet Albanian loyalty remains higher than loyalty to the new Kosovar/Kosovan state (primarily symbols), as seen with support for the use of the Flag of Albania.


East Elbia

East Elbia () was an informal denotation for those parts of the German Reich until World War II that lay east of the river Elbe.
The region comprised the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, the eastern parts of Saxony (Jerichower Land) and the Kingdom of Saxony (Upper Lusatia), Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia, West Prussia and Posen (from 1922 Posen-West Prussia) as well as the states of Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The urban area of Berlin was not included.
East Elbia was noted for its historic manorialism and serfdom, as well as for political conservatism, combined with the predominantly Protestant confession of the local population. "East Elbian Junker" was a politically charged term used by leftist parties especially during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), denoting especially the rich functionaries of the conservative, right-wing German National People's Party (DNVP) that fit the stereotype. Already during the time of the German Empire (1871-1918), these East Elbian Junkers had formed the monarchy's reactionary backbone.


Ingo Zechner

Ingo Zechner (born December 24, 1972 in Klagenfurt, Austria) is a philosopher and historian. He is the Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History (LBIDH) in Vienna.
Research topics: time and memory, aesthetics (especially visual culture), film, digital media and Holocaust Sudies. Further research on the concept of modernity in the fields of Cultural Studies and Post-structuralism (Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida etc.).
Life.
From 1991 until 1997 Zechner studied history and philosophy at the University of Vienna; from 1997 until 2001 he completed a PhD Program in philosophy at the University of Vienna supervised by Hans-Dieter Bahr.
Zechner served as a historian at the Jewish Community Vienna from 2000 until 2008. At the Holocaust Victims’ Information and Support Center of the Jewish Community Vienna, headed by Zechner from 2003 to 2008, he dealt with various kinds of National Socialist Deprivation of Property and Restitution. His fields of activity were the restitution of works of art and the restitution of real estate, research on the property of the Jewish organizations in Austria, the reconstruction of the Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna and the planning of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). He was also a member of the Austrian Commission for Provenance Research from 2002 to 2008 and of the Viennese Restitution Commission from 2003 to 2008. Until November 2009 he was the Business Manager of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI).
From 2010 to 2011 Zechner was a researcher at the Association for the History of the Labour Movement (VGA) in Vienna. Since 2011 he has been an academic staff member at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for History and Society in Vienna, since 2015 the institute's director. The institute was transformed into the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History in 2019. From 2013 to 2016 Zechner was the Associated Director and Research Coordinator of the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna.
Various teaching activities, from 1997 to 2000 at the Institute for Philosophy of the University of Vienna (together with Hans-Dieter Bahr), since 2003 at the Institute of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna.
2004 he was a BTWH/IFK-Visiting Scholar at the German Department of the University of California, Berkeley, 2013 the Raab Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) in Washington, D.C..
He is a participant and project leader at various research projects and holds lectures in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, Sweden, Iceland, Poland, Russia, Israel, Canada and the United States.


Austrian Civil War

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The Austrian Civil War (), also known as the February Uprising (), is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between Fascist and Socialist forces between 12 and 16 February 1934, in Austria. The clashes started in Linz and took place principally in the cities of Vienna, Graz, Bruck an der Mur, Judenburg, Wiener Neustadt and Steyr, but also in some other industrial cities of eastern and central Austria.
Origins of the conflict.
After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the state of Austria was created as a parliamentary democracy. Two major factions dominated politics in the new nation: socialists (represented politically by the Social Democratic Workers' Party) and conservatives (politically represented by the Christian Social Party). The socialists found their strongholds in the working class districts of the cities, while the conservatives could build on the support of the rural population and of most of the upper classes. The conservatives also maintained close alliances with the Catholic Church, and could count among their ranks some leading clerics.
As in most of the nascent European democracies of the time, politics in Austria took on a highly ideological flavour. Both the socialist and the conservative camp did not merely consist of political parties, but possessed far-ranging power structures, including their own paramilitary forces. The conservatives began organising the "Heimwehr" () in 1921–23; in response, the Social Democrats organised paramilitaries called the "Republikanischer Schutzbund" () after 1923. Altercations and clashes between these forces (at political rallies, etc.) occurred frequently.
A first major incident ensued early in 1927, when members of Hermann Hiltl's "Frontkämpfervereinigung" ("Front Fighters Union" — a paramilitary association likewise affiliated with the conservative camp) shot and killed an eight-year-old boy and a war veteran marching with the Schutzbund in a peaceful counter-demonstration in Schattendorf (Burgenland). In July, three defendants in the case were acquitted, which led to outrage in the left-wing camp. On 15 July 1927, a general strike occurred, and demonstrations took place in the capital. After the storming of a police station, security forces started shooting at demonstrators. An angry group of people then set fire to the Palace of Justice ("Justizpalast"), seen as a symbol of a flawed and partial judicial system. Altogether, 89 people (85 of them demonstrators) lost their lives in this July revolt, and many hundreds suffered injury. Surprisingly, the violence soon died down and the factions took their battle from the streets back into the political institutions.
However, the travails of the First Republic only got worse in the following years. The Great Depression also showed its effects in Austria, resulting in high unemployment and massive inflation. In addition, from 1933 — the year Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany — National Socialist sympathisers (who wanted a unification of Austria with Hitler's Germany) threatened the Austrian state from within.
Conflict.
On 4 March 1933, Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß suspended the Austrian Parliament. In a close vote (on railway workers' wages) in the National Council, each of the three presidents of parliament resigned their position in order to cast a ballot, leaving nobody to preside over the meeting. Even though the bylaws could have resolved this situation, Dollfuss used this opportunity to declare that parliament had ceased to function, and blocked all attempts to reconvene it, also threatening to use military force against the parliamentarians, should they try to reconvene. The Social Democratic Party had thus lost its major platform for political action. The conservatives, facing pressure and violence not only from the left but also from Nazis infiltrating from Germany, could now rule by decree on the basis of a 1917 emergency law, without checks on their power, and began to suspend civil liberties. They banned the Schutzbund and imprisoned many of its members.
On 12 February 1934, a force, led by Heimwehr commander in Vienna Emil Fey, searched Hotel Schiff in Linz, a property belonging to the Social Democratic Party. Linz Schutzbund commander Richard Bernaschek was the first to actively resist, sparking off armed conflict between a conglomeration of the Heimwehr, the police, the gendarmerie and the regular Federal Army against the outlawed, but still existent, socialist Schutzbund. Skirmishes between the two camps spread to other cities and towns in Austria, with the heat of the action occurring in Vienna. There, members of the Schutzbund barricaded themselves in city council housing estates (Gemeindebauten), the symbols and strongholds for the socialist movement in Austria, such as Karl-Marx-Hof. Police and paramilitaries took up positions outside these fortified complexes and the parties exchanged fire, initially only with small arms. Fighting also occurred in industrial towns such as Steyr, Sankt Pölten, Weiz, Eggenberg (Graz), Kapfenberg, Bruck an der Mur, Graz, Ebensee and Wörgl.
An apparently decisive moment in the events came with the entry of the Austrian armed forces into the conflict. Though the army remained still a comparatively independent institution, chancellor Dollfuss ordered Karl-Marx-Hof shelled with light artillery, endangering the lives of thousands of civilians and destroying many flats before forcing the socialist fighters to surrender.
The fighting ended in Vienna and Upper Austria by 13 February, but continued heavily in Styrian cities, especially in Bruck an der Mur and Judenburg, until 14 or 15 February. After that, there were only small groups of socialists fighting against the armed forces, or fleeing from them. By 16 February 1934, the Austrian Civil War had ended.
Fallout.
Several hundred people (including paramilitaries, members of the security forces and civilians) died in the armed conflict; more than a thousand suffered wounds. The authorities tried and executed nine Schutzbund leaders under the provisions of martial law. In addition, over 1,500 arrests were made. Leading socialist politicians, such as Otto Bauer, were forced into exile. John Gunther reported that Schutzbund members received "mercilessly severe" sentences.
The incidents of February 1934 were taken as a pretext by the government to prohibit the Social Democratic Party and its affiliated trade unions altogether. In May, the conservatives replaced the democratic constitution by a corporatist constitution modelled along the lines of Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy; therefore the socialists coined the term 'Austrofascism' although the underlying ideology was essentially that of the most conservative elements in the Austrian Catholic clergy, a feature inconsistent with both Italian Fascism and Nazism. The Patriotic Front ("Vaterländische Front"), into which the Heimwehr and the Christian Social Party were merged, became the only legal political party in the resulting authoritarian regime, the "Ständestaat".
Long-term effects.
Though small in scale in an international comparison (and small in scale indeed in the light of the events of the Second World War which soon followed), the Austrian Civil War nevertheless proved a decisive moment in the history of the Republic. After the Second World War, when Austria re-emerged on the political landscape as a sovereign nation, politics again fell under the domination of the Social Democrats and the conservatives, who now formed a party called the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). However, so as to avoid a repeat of the bitter divisions of the First Republic, the leaders of the Second Republic were determined to put the idea of broad consensus at the heart of the new political system. The concept of the 'Grand Coalition' was introduced, in which the two major parties (Social Democrats and People's Party) shared in the government and avoided open confrontation. This system brought with it stability and continuity, but ultimately led to other political repercussions (also see "Proporz"). But the events of the Austrian Civil War had persuaded many in the political establishment (and, indeed, the population at large) that a slow pace of political reform was a small price to pay for social stability.