Networks of Resistance and Opposition During the Cold War Era

Department of History and Civilization Bridging the Baltic Sea: Networks of Resistance and Opposition during the Cold War era Lars Fredrik Stöcker Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, July 2012 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of History and Civilization Bridging the Baltic Sea: Networks of Resistance and Opposition during the Cold War era Lars Fredrik Stöcker Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Examining Board: Prof. Philipp Ther, University of Vienna (Supervisor) Dr. Juhana Aunesluoma, University of Helsinki Prof. Karsten Brüggemann, University of Tallinn Prof. Federico Romero, EUI © 2012, Lars Fredrik Stöcker No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. v List of abbreviations .............................................................................................................................. vii I. Introduction: The Baltic Sea Region and the Cold War ....................................................................... 1 II. Entangling the Baltic shores: The caesura of 1939 and its repercussions in a historical perspective29 III. War, migration and the roots of the East-West conflict – The topography of resistance and opposition around the Baltic rim ........................................................................................................... 47 III.1 The war against the occupying powers: The transnational dimension of war-time resistance and the Swedish connection ..................................................................................................................... 47 III.2 From refugees to exiles: The reconfiguration and institutionalisation of Polish and Estonian opposition in Sweden ........................................................................................................................ 63 IV. First leaks in the maritime bloc border – Channelling informational flows across the Baltic Sea in the 1950s ............................................................................................................................................... 89 IV.1 From anti-Sovietism to anticommunism: The internationalisation of the exiles’ political struggle in a bipolar world ................................................................................................................. 89 IV.2 Reports from the crow’s nest: Émigré strategies at the edge of bipolar Europe’s demarcation line ................................................................................................................................................... 105 IV.3 Thawing the Baltic: First encounters across the ‘Sea of Peace’ in the shadow of de- Stalinisation ..................................................................................................................................... 122 V. In search of a common language: The second Cold War generation and its approach to challenging the status quo ....................................................................................................................................... 147 V.1 Détente and the resurrection of a region – Cross-Baltic communication and miscommunication ......................................................................................................................................................... 147 V.2 Adapting to the status quo: The reformation of oppositional politics in East and West .......... 163 VI. A challenge to détente – The transnationalisation of dissent around the Baltic rim ..................... 185 VI.1 Bridging the Baltic Sea: Undermining détente from below .................................................... 185 VI.2 Anti-communist opposition and human rights discourses in post-Helsinki Europe: Consolidating cross-Baltic alliances................................................................................................ 204 VII. From individual to mass-based opposition: The transnational dimension of the ‘anti-communist revolutions’ .......................................................................................................................................... 227 VII.1 ‘First Gdańsk, then Tallinn’ – Cross-Baltic opposition and the public sphere ...................... 227 VII.2 At the dawn of the Cold War era: Transnational opposition in the light of the ‘anti-communist revolutions’ ...................................................................................................................................... 261 VIII. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 289 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 309 i ii Abstract Located at the point of intersection of Northern, Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltic Sea Region has historically been a setting of an, at times, vivid exchange between the shores of the small inland sea. Challenging the perception of the region as a merely peripheral borderland of the Cold War in Europe, the present study aims to investigate to what degree the Baltic waterways maintained their specific entangling function in an era largely characterised by demarcation and disintegration. In order to move beyond the bipolar pattern that still dominates Cold War historiography, this study focuses on networks and channels of communication that could develop underneath the level of the official political relations across the Baltic Sea. The neutral Nordic states are in this context seen as a so far underestimated but crucial element in the geopolitical constellation of Cold War Europe. The proximity of Sweden and Finland to their Polish and Soviet opposite coasts and the comparatively low level of political tensions in the region triggered an exceptionally dynamic field of interaction, which was fuelled by the vigorous anti-communist activism of the numerous Polish and Baltic exiles in neutral Sweden. In a chronological framework that covers half a century of resistance and opposition against the geopolitical status quo, the study will reconstruct a topography of uncontrolled communication between the societies around the Baltic rim that hitherto has received undeservedly little attention. Based on so far mostly unexplored archival sources and oral history interviews, the thesis aims to present the first synthesis of the Baltic Sea Region’s Cold War history. It is supposed to form a counter-narrative to the prevailing emphasis on disintegration and conflict and constitutes a first step towards a European Cold War history that efficiently challenges the topos of the Iron Curtain as an impermeable barrier. iii iv Acknowledgements During the past five years, which I largely dedicated to the history of the Polish and Estonian migrants who left their home countries under the impact of war and dictatorship, I have become a migrant myself. Luckily, the Europe of my own time is in a period of peace and integration, which enabled me to freely move across the continent on my journey towards the doctoral degree. There were several places that I used to call ‘home’ during this period. I spent my first year of research in Warsaw, an, at times, depressing, but likewise fascinating city of ruptures and contrasts. After my successful application to the European University Institute, I moved, quite unexpectedly, to southern Europe. Florence, which still after years enchants me with its beauty, became my main domicile during my research on the Baltic Sea Region’s history. Seen from Tuscany, the Baltic coasts seemed strangely remote, so that it felt appropriate and right to spend one unforgettable year as a guest researcher at the University of Tallinn. The academic and private encounters in each of these places enable me to start my academic career with a treasury of impressions, memories and inspirations. The luxury of being able to spend years on the writing of a single book based on the generosity of the institutions that funded me. I am deeply indebted to the Swedish Research Council, which provided the financial means for three years of my time at the EUI and continued to support me even during the fourth and last year, when the EUI paid the major part of my grant. The ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius in Hamburg funded my initial year of research by awarding me a PhD scholarship within the programme ‘Germany and its Eastern Neighbours – Contributions to European History’. Moreover, I am grateful to the German Historical Institute in Warsaw for financing my first months of research in Poland. Also the Estonian Institute in Tallinn has been very generous. Due to the Institute’s financial support, I was able to participate in two summer courses in Estonian language and culture at the Universities of Tartu and Tallinn, while the Estophilus scholarship contributed to covering the costs of my archival research in Estonia. The Natolin College of Europe awarded me the

Load more