Conspiracy Theories in Eastern Europe Tropes and Trends

Edited by Anastasiya Astapova, eist in all modern societies. However, Onoriu Coläcel, Corneliu Pintilescu, g today. Conspiracy theories can no : a pathological mind-set located on and Tamas Scheibner ly approach to this most contentious ary perspectives including political studies, area studies and behavioural >gy of conspiracy theories, changes ► fthe Internet, regional and political of conspiracy theories. , single-authored monographs and ies

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>va, Onoriu idual chapters, the eliu Pintilescu and itorial material, asserted in :signs and Patents List offigures VIII List oftables ix j or reproduced or A cknowledgments X other means, now List of abbreviations XJ j recording, or in nission in writing List ofcontributors XJV ademarks or n and explanation lntroduction: Eastern Europe in the global traffic of conspiracy tbeories ANASTAS IYA ASTAPOYA, ONORIU COLÄCEL, CORNELIU tish Library PINTILESCU, AND TAMAS SCHEIBNER tre nds / edited by :scu and Tamas PARTI Conspiracy culture under Socialism and its afterlife :e, 2021. 1 Series: ~s and index. in Eastern Europe 27 74 (ebook) / 073 (ebook) 1 Cbernobyl conspiracy tbeories: from American sabotage 1 Political :, Eastem. l to the biggest hoax ofthe century 29 1 ANASTASIYA ASTAPOVA : HV6295.E87 2 Stalinist conspiracy theories in France and ltaly: the limits l574 of postwar Communist conspiracy culture 48 PASCAL GIRARD

3 "By tbe order oftheir foreigo masters": Soviet dissideots, anti-Western conspiracy, and the deprivation of agency 67 ANNA KIRZIUK vi Contents PART II 11 Conspiracy theories oc "The enemy within": Jews and Freemasons 87 ONORlU COLÄCEL

4 The myth of a Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy in Hungary, 12 North Macedonia goes within and beyond the far right 89 anti-EU sentiment as a

PETER CSUNDERLIK AND TAMÄS SCHE IBNER J BILJANA GJONESKA , KR!: KROUWEL 5 An open secret: Freemasonry and justice in post-socialist Bulgaria 110 TODOR HRISTOV AND IVELINA lVANOVA 1 13 Conspiracy theory, ep M R. X. DENT ITH 6 From Judeo-Polonia to Act 447: how and why did the Jewish conspiracy myth become a central issue in Polish Index political discourse? 125 DOMIN IKA BULSKA, AGNIESZKA HASKA, MIKOLAJ WINIEWSKI, AND MlCHAL B! LEW lCZ

PART IIl After independence: nation-building and victimhood narratives 145

7 Dissolution of Yugoslavia as a conspiracy and its haunting returns: narratives of internal and external othering 147 NEBOJSA BLANUSA

8 The dangerous Russian other in Ukrainian conspiratorial discourse: media representations of the Odessa tragedy 167 OLGA BAYSHA

9 Tbe victims, the guilty, and "us": notions ofvictimhood in Slovakian conspiracy theories 186 ZUZANA PANCZOV A

PART IV Eastern Europe goes global: conspiracy theories and the rise of populism 205

10 Soros conspiracy theories and tbe rise of populism in post-socialist Hungary and Romania 207 CORNELIU PlNTILESCU AND ATT ILA KUSTÄN MAGYAR! Contents vu 11 Conspiracy theories on Moldovan commercial TV 232 asons 87 ONORIU COLÄCEL iracy in Hungary, 12 North Macedonia goes global: pro-EU aspiration and 89 anti-EU sentiment as a basis for EU-related conspiracy theories 250 ER BILJANA GJONESKA , KR ISTIJAN FIDANOVSK I, AND ANDRE KROUWEL :ice in post-socialist Bulgaria 110 13 Conspiracy tbeory, epistemology, and Eastern Europe 268 M R. X. DENTITH rnd wby did the tral issue in Polish 125 Index 289 IKOLAJ WINIEWSKI,

11d victimhood 145

1cy aod its baunting ernal otlteri11g 147

nian conspiratorial e Odessa tragedy 167

,ns ofvictimhood 186

r tbeories and tbe 205

1>f populism 207 N MAGYAR!