The third issue of World History (Világtörténet) for 2015, a thematic issue dedicated to the topic of „The Great War and the Balkans” edited by László Bíró has been published. As recently new interpretations have appeared in the literature and the earlier debates regarding the role and responsibility of the small states in the outbreak of WWI have deepened further, the editorial board has decided to publish a thematic issue on the connection between the Balkan peninsula and WWI. We did not intend to outline a summary or synthesis, which task cannot be assigned to a journal with limited space, but rather to emphasize certain problems and focus on debated questions, like state-building in the Balkans; international peace-keeping and the powers; the responsibility of nations states and their willingness to contribute to the settling of international relations; instruments of enforcing economic interests; the aims of cultural penetration and dissemination and humanitarian aid.
The Great War and the Balkans (Laszlo Biro)
Studies
Krisztian Csaplar-Degovics: The Reasons for the Outbreak of World War I and the Serbian Historiography
Gabor Demeter: Expansionism or Self-defence? The Plans of the Austro–Hungarian Diplomatic Circles towards Serbia (1913–1915)
Igor Grebenkin–Petr Akulshin: World War I and Russia’s National Interests: From “Pan-Slavism” to Proletarian Internationalism
Tamara Scheer: The Perfect Opportunity to Shape National Symbols? Austro–Hungarian Occupation Regimes during the First World War in the Adriatic and the Balkans
Balazs Balatoni: Troublemakers: The Balkan Committee and the Reforms in Macedonia (1903–1908)
Peter Pal Kranitz: Russian and Armenian Refugees and Refugee Policies in East Europe after the First World War, with a Special Regard to Hungary
Book Reviews
Stand or Fall? Austrian Policy during the First World War (Enikő Gyarmati)
European War 1914: Necessity or Chance (Laszlo Biro)
War in Peacetime: Armed Confl icts after the First World War (Zoltan Sz. Biro)
Alternatives to Modernity and Impact of Agrarianism on Peasant Society (Janos Fritz)
The journal World History is published by the Institute of History of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The four volumes of World History contain essays by Hungarian and foreign scholars on various topics pertaining to world history, as well as reviews on the secondary literature published in Hungary and abroad. The language of the journal is Hungarian, but each article includes an abstract in English.
Subscriptions can be made at any Hungarian post office, but issues of the journal (including older issues) can be bought or ordered from the Institute as well (postal address: MTA BTK Történettudományi Intézet, 1014 Budapest, Úri u. 53.; telephone: 36/1/224-6700/624; e-mail address: .
