Prague Papers on the History of International Relations (Jun 2015)
The Psychological Struggle between East and West as Reflected in the Interior Review up to the European Safety and Cooperation Conference (1953–1975)
Abstract
Following the political systems’ changes in the East- and Central-European countries and most of these countries’ joining the NATO and the EU, for a short while it seemed that the ideologicalpsychological war, determining the second half of the 20th century and describing the struggle between the capitalist and the socialist world order, would disappear and its notion would be driven back to the pages of scientific historical publications, lexicons and lately, the Wikipedia. But from the situation of a nation on the cultural path of both Eastern and Western Christianity, Ukraine, trying to embrace its freedom, a new conflict broke out. The Ukrainian-Russian conflict of today shows that a bloody, armed fight may break out between countries and people who were once said, thought and believed to be fraternal. A part of this struggle now is psychological warfare, manipulation. To be able to better understand the events of the conflicts of the modern era it is worth studying the ideological-psychological struggle of the ideological systems in the recent past because the essentials and the rules of this struggle has not changed with the years and the rearrangements of power. How much harm did it cause among the once allied neighbouring countries? Or was it rather useful? Can we withdraw ourselves from its demoralizing effect which damages the peace between peoples? We try to find answers by analyzing some articles highlighted by their ideological content, looking over the period from the birth of the Review, marking the peak of the cold war, to the conference, regarded as an important event in the alleviation period.
