Eastern Europe

The humanitarian crisis continues at the borders between Belarus and Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Belarus’s government triggered the situation, as retaliation for EU sanctions over President Lukashenka’s authoritarian crackdown. Belarus has cruelly duped desperate people — mainly from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, including many persecuted Yazidis and Kurds — by selling them flights to Minsk and visas that it falsely said would get them legally into the EU. On arrival, they find they can only cross irregularly, through dense, dangerous forest in increasingly harsh weather. Border guards and...

Slightly different Kino Eye this week. Wondering what seasonal gift to buy your film-loving friend? Try this new box set from Second Run, three rarely seen Hungarian classics: Merry-Go-Round (Zoltán Fábri, 1956), Current (István Gaál, 1963) and Angus Dei (Miklós Jancsó, 1970). All three were important films when released and have stood the test of time. Merry-Go-Round captured the spirit of a people about to rise against their oppressors in 1956 with its effervescent, optimistic tale of a Romeo-and-Juliet love reaching across the barriers between collective farmers and private holders; István...

At least thirteen people trapped on the Belarus-Poland border have died, the most recent a one-year-old child. Given the magnitude of the barbarism inflicted on these people, it could easily have been many more. Belarus’ noxious regime, which funnelled refugees to the border in order to exert pressure on the European Union over economic sanctions, is undoubtedly in large part responsible for this crisis. But so, equally, are the EU governments (and the UK’s, which has backed them up, including with troops!) This particular confrontation may fizzle out, as Belarus sends many of the migrants...

In the Morning Star of 18 November, former Straight Left ultra-Stalinist Nick Wright, now rehabilitated into the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and a regular contributor to the paper, had a lengthy article headed “The truth about immigration waits at the Polish border” While rightly condemning Poland and the EU over the plight of the people at the border, Wright glosses over Lukashenko’s cynical manipulation of desperate migrants in his efforts to destabilise the EU (while his master Putin gloats from the sidelines), and reports of Belarusian troops forcibly turning back migrants attempting...

Speaking about the thousands of refugees stranded without shelter on the Poland-Belarus border, a Polish comrade told us: “There was a pregnant refugee, I think from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Polish border guards took this woman by her hands a legs and threw her back over the border like a sack of potatoes. She lost the pregnancy. The border guards have been made like gods, with power of life and death over people. “The persecution of the migrants divides people in the area. It is a very conservative region, and many are deeply hostile. But then there are people with good hearts who...

The possibility of ousting Central Europe’s “Little Caesar” Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party is obviously to be welcomed. However, the announcement of a six-party coalition to contest Hungary’s elections coming in April or May 2022 does not inspire much confidence. The candidate for prime minister chosen by a coalition primary in September-October, Péter Márki-Zay, describes himself as “independent”, a “conservative Catholic”, and was once a manager of a multinational company. His only previous political experience appears to have been winning the mayoralty of Hódmezővásárhely, a sleepy one...

Although a small country, Georgia has produced some brilliant film makers, Otar Iosseliani, Mikhail Kalatozov, Nana Jorjadze, Tengiz Abuladze and Eldar Shengelaia to name only a few. Shengelaia made Blue Mountains in 1983, an absurdist satire which lampoons Soviet bureaucracy and could be seen as a precursor to the “Glasnost” (“openness”) movement associated with Mikhail Gorbachev. Soso is an aspiring novelist who regularly visits the local publishing house, desperately trying to get someone interested in his latest writing. However, the staff are lazy, frequently out for lunch, boozing and...

Two weeks ago, far-right thugs attacked the LGBTI community’s “March for Dignity” in Tblisi, Georgia. Dozens of people, mostly journalists, were badly beaten. It was a tragedy that could easily have been foreseen — and prevented. And it has triggered a historic fight led by the journalists’ union with the full support of journalists’ unions around the world. The attacks were orchestrated by supporters of the ruling party in Georgia, whose leaders bear some responsibility for what happened. Prior to the march, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said it was “not reasonable” to organise such an...