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Title [en]
Swedes, emotions and moral diplomacy in the Great Terror. Foreign Office´s rescue operation in the Soviet Union, 1937-38
Abstract [en]
Today in Central and Eastern Europe, nationalist rhetoric is increasingly pitted against the concept of liberal democracy, depicting those promoting democratic values as threats to the illiberal nation state. Transnational donations to civil society organizations (CSOs) is a prevalent manner to counteract these tendencies by promoting democratic values and human rights through financial support. However, a closing space has emerged for those transnational donors who once proudly and openly supported democracy and human rights in countries as diverse as Azerbaijan, Hungary, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. By banning, or severely restricting, transnational donations to local CSOs a regime may strengthen its hold on society at large. One of the most systematic manifestations of a closing space in an illiberal regime can be seen in Russia. Foreign funding has played an important role in promoting human rights and democracy since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, but the freedom that initially existed for foreign-funded CSOs has been radically reduced. Over the past fifteen years, foreign funding to Russian CSOs has been put under severe scrutiny and several prominent transnational donors have been outlawed. Despite the restrictions, some CSOs in Russia, like in other illiberal regimes, still manage to interweave the promotion of democracy and human rights with local discourses and practices. The purpose of this project is to explore the support of democracy and human rights in illiberal regimes by looking at the relationships between Russian civil society organizations, their transnational donors, and the local regime over time (1991-2018). These complex relationships are operationalized as negotiated accountability, where accounts are concurrently directed both to the transnational donors and to the local illiberal regime. The study is based on funding applications and reports from Russian CSOs to their transnational donors, as well as annual reports and other information directed at the local authorities. This documentation, in combination with interviews, creates a historical research material showing the precarious balancing of CSOs between transnational donors’ expectations, and the local regime’s demands. The material will be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The study contributes to an in-depth understanding of the challenges of promoting democracy and human rights in increasingly illiberal regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.
Publications (6 of 6) Show all publications
Nilsson, T. (2024). Nordiska öden under Stalinterrorn. In: Björn-Arne Steine; Nikolai Brandal; Morten Nordhagen Ottosen (Ed.), Fra Barks til Quisling: Festskrift til Øystein Sørensen (pp. 151-167). Oslo: Dreyers forlag
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Nordiska öden under Stalinterrorn
2024 (Swedish)In: Fra Barks til Quisling: Festskrift til Øystein Sørensen / [ed] Björn-Arne Steine; Nikolai Brandal; Morten Nordhagen Ottosen, Oslo: Dreyers forlag , 2024, p. 151-167Chapter in book (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oslo: Dreyers forlag, 2024
Keywords
Stalinism, Nordiska medborgare, diplomati
National Category
History
Research subject
Historical Studies; Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-56156 (URN)9788282657297 (ISBN)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, 2019-0017
Available from: 2025-01-13 Created: 2025-01-13 Last updated: 2025-01-15
Nilsson, T. (2024). Rescued from Stalin's terror: The unknown Swedish operation in the 1930s. Baltic Worlds, XVII(1-2), 35-48
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Rescued from Stalin's terror: The unknown Swedish operation in the 1930s
2024 (English)In: Baltic Worlds, ISSN 2000-2955, E-ISSN 2001-7308, Vol. XVII, no 1-2, p. 35-48Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The author analyses the operation by Swedish diplomatsin the Soviet Union during the peak of the Stalinist Terror. Although Swedish communists living in the USSR have beenin the spotlight of some journalists and historians, the extent ofthe different Swedish groups and the complicated diplomaticactions to help them are nearly unknown. Who could besaved? Who disappeared in the Gulag? The context is the Soviet actions against all foreigners in the Great Terror from 1937,forcing them to either become Soviet citizens or immediatelyleave the country. Comparisons are made with Finnish peoplein the Soviet Union, a group much harder hit by the terror thanthe small groups of Swedes. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Södertörns högskola, 2024
Keywords
Swedish communists, Gulag, the Great Terror, Soviet Union, Kiruna-Swedes, diplomacy
National Category
History
Research subject
Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-53917 (URN)2-s2.0-85202668491 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, 17/2019
Available from: 2024-04-25 Created: 2024-04-25 Last updated: 2025-01-13Bibliographically approved
Nilsson, T. & Kotljarchuk, A. (2022). Svenskt och finskt i mörkt sovjetiskt 1930-tal. Historisk Tidskrift för Finland (4), 454-482
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Svenskt och finskt i mörkt sovjetiskt 1930-tal
2022 (Swedish)In: Historisk Tidskrift för Finland, ISSN 0046-7596, E-ISSN 2343-2888, no 4, p. 454-482Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Historiska föreningen, 2022
National Category
History
Research subject
Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-52903 (URN)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, 17/2019
Available from: 2023-12-19 Created: 2023-12-19 Last updated: 2023-12-21Bibliographically approved
Kotljarchuk, A. & Nilsson, T. (2021). ФИНЛЯНДСКИЕ ШВЕДЫ, ШВЕДСКИЕ ФИННЫ И БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕРРОР В КАРЕЛИИ. ПРОБЛЕМЫ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТИ, ГРАЖДАНСТВА И ДИПЛОМАТИЧЕСКОЙ ПОМОЩИ: [Finland Swedes, Sweden Finns and the Great Terror in Karelia. Issues of Nationality, Citizenship and Diplomatic Assistance]. Nordic and Baltic Studies Review, 6, 177-197
Open this publication in new window or tab >>ФИНЛЯНДСКИЕ ШВЕДЫ, ШВЕДСКИЕ ФИННЫ И БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕРРОР В КАРЕЛИИ. ПРОБЛЕМЫ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТИ, ГРАЖДАНСТВА И ДИПЛОМАТИЧЕСКОЙ ПОМОЩИ: [Finland Swedes, Sweden Finns and the Great Terror in Karelia. Issues of Nationality, Citizenship and Diplomatic Assistance]
2021 (Russian)In: Nordic and Baltic Studies Review, E-ISSN 2541-8165, Vol. 6, p. 177-197Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The Great Terror in the Soviet Union 1937–38 was to a high degree accomplished on ethnic grounds. Citizens of German, Finnish and Polish and other descent became victims for the ‘national operations’ of the NKVD. In 1926 approximately 2,500 Swedes were residing in the Soviet Union. In April 1937 an NKVD-directive declared ‘to detect and remove from the USSR all foreign nationals, who in one way or another were suspected of espionage.’ Paradoxically the authorities tried to purge the country from ‘dangerous elements,’ but in the totalitarian communist system, returning home was still nearly impossible. The Embassy of Sweden in Moscow initiated a rescue operation, never before professionally studied. Hundreds of Swedish citizens in various regions of the country contacted the embassy in order to escape the threats from the NKVD. Many of them were from Karelia. Many were rescued, but in many cases the efforts failed. This unknown event gives a new perspective of Swedish diplomatic operations before World War II. But it also contributes to the wider issue of Western rescue operations in the USSR. Our paper is focused on the rescue operations of Sweden. How were they carried out? How did the Soviet concept of nationality affect the identification and misidentification of Swedes and Finns by the NKVD? Did the Embassy of Sweden in Moscow try to define ‘Swedish connection’ as broadly as possible? How important were the emotional reaction for the diplomats? The empirical results of this study open up for theoretical discussion on the relevance of moral and humanistic contents, as well as the principle of legal state in international conflicts and zones of insecurity. The source material is based on the collection of the Foreign Office discovered by the authors in the National Archives of Sweden, which contains various materials regarding the Swedish rescue operation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Petrozavodsk State University, 2021
Keywords
The Great Terror, Swedish citizens, Soviet Karelia, Soviet concept of nationality, national operations of the NKVD, diplomatic assistance
National Category
History
Research subject
Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-47969 (URN)10.15393/j103.art.2021.1991 (DOI)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, 17/2019
Available from: 2022-01-05 Created: 2022-01-05 Last updated: 2022-01-10Bibliographically approved
Kotljarchuk, A. (2020). Norden och nordiska minoriteter i den sovjetiska pressen. In: Oscar Österberg (Ed.), Propaganda: En antologi om påverkan (pp. 50-77). Stockholm: Forum för Levande Historia
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Norden och nordiska minoriteter i den sovjetiska pressen
2020 (Swedish)In: Propaganda: En antologi om påverkan / [ed] Oscar Österberg, Stockholm: Forum för Levande Historia , 2020, p. 50-77Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Forum för Levande Historia, 2020
National Category
History
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-42964 (URN)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies
Available from: 2020-12-21 Created: 2020-12-21 Last updated: 2020-12-21Bibliographically approved
Kotljarchuk, A. (2019). Spoviedzi vymushanykh mauchac. In: Kalinouski, Valer (Ed.), Enfants de France: Histories De Famillles Qui Ont Faint Confiance a Staline (pp. 5-6). Minsk: Knihazbor
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Spoviedzi vymushanykh mauchac
2019 (Belarusian)In: Enfants de France: Histories De Famillles Qui Ont Faint Confiance a Staline / [ed] Kalinouski, Valer, Minsk: Knihazbor , 2019, p. 5-6Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The book is based on  14 oral history interviews that focuses on a specific topic: the re-emigration of Belarusians from France to Soviet Belarus in 1945-1946.  In interwar period many of them  left  Western Belarus (then a part of Poland) for France. However after 1945 they went back to Belarus due to a massive Soviet propaganda.  Hundreds of children and teenagers who grew up in democratic  France and had French as a native language were to adapt to life in the Stalinist dictatorship.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Minsk: Knihazbor, 2019
Keywords
Oral History, Re-emigration of Belarusians from France to the Soviet Union during Stalin's era
National Category
History
Research subject
Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-39590 (URN)978-985-7227-08-2 (ISBN)
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, 17/2019
Available from: 2019-12-13 Created: 2019-12-13 Last updated: 2022-02-08Bibliographically approved
Principal InvestigatorNilsson, Torbjörn
Coordinating organisation
Södertörn University
Funder
Period
2020-01-01 - 2022-12-31
Keywords [sv]
Östersjö- och Östeuropaforskning
Keywords [en]
Baltic and East European studies
National Category
HistoryPolitical Science
Identifiers
DiVA, id: project:2045Project, id: 17/2019_OSS

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