Call for Articles – Volume 9 of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook - Journal “Totalitarian and 20 th Century Studies”

The Editorial Board of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook announces a call for submissions for the next special issue of the publication, covering the years 2025–2026. We invite researchers from various disciplines, including history, political science, law, and sociology, to submit scholarly articles, editions of source materials, and reviews in line with the profile of our yearbook.

In this special issue, we would like to make the concept of totalitarianism, its definitions, and the terminology associated with it the main subject of our interest. We are particularly interested in research on the origins of the term, its evolution, its use in research, and its analytical usefulness with regard to 20th-century political systems. We encourage submissions addressing issues related to the formation of classical theories of totalitarianism, their reception in various research traditions, and the critique and revision of this paradigm in recent historiography, political science, and social sciences. We are interested both in theoretical and methodological studies and in analyses based on source material that present the functioning of totalitarian systems from a comparative, transnational, or regional perspective. Articles devoted to the history of research on totalitarianism, the biographies of scholars who helped shape this category, the reception of the theory of totalitarianism in different countries and its influence on public debate, historical education, and memory politics are also welcome. The Editorial Board intends to create a forum for reflection on the history of this concept, its changing definitions, and the role it has played and continues to play in research on 20th-century political systems. The reflections undertaken in the special issue will also be continued in the form of an academic symposium, which will provide an opportunity for further debate on the yearbook’s main theme.

Moreover, we also plan to use the “Varia” section to publish other submitted articles that fall outside the thematic scope of the special issue as defined above but concern issues related to the broadly understood political, social, and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century.

The Editorial Board of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook invites submissions in Polish or English that fall within the research areas mentioned above. The maximum length of the text is 80,000 characters, including spaces and footnotes. Each submission should be accompanied by an article abstract, a bibliography, five keywords, and a brief biographical note about the author. The articles themselves, as well as the abstracts, author notes, and bibliography, should comply with the text preparation guidelines available on the website. Articles that successfully pass the review process and are accepted for publication in the journal will be translated into English or Polish by the team of translators at the Pilecki Institute.

Applications will be accepted until 31 August 2026, while the deadline for the submission of completed texts is 30 November 2026.

We invite you to submit texts and contact the Editorial Board by email at: redakcja@instytutpileckiego.pl

We are also pleased to announce that the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook is indexed in ERIH Plus, CEEOL, and APCz. The periodical is also included on the ministerial list of journals, with its current MEiN score standing at 20 points.