Studienexkursion nach Helsinki 2013

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In the context of the advanced class “Socialism – Détente – Transition: Sources to Cold War Studies,” seven students travelled to Helsinki, Finland, under the supervision of University lecturer Natali Stegmann, member of the Department of Southeast and East European History at the University of Regensburg. It was a 7-day trip right at the beginning of spring in Finland, so the group witnessed the excitement of the Finnish people about the sun shining nearly all week long. Upon arrival, the group was also astonished to see that the Finnish people appreciate Mother’s Day so much that even all shops were closed on this day. Then again, at the end of the week, the group got to know another Finnish tradition: Every three months on one Saturday everybody who likes to do so is allowed to open his or her own little restaurant for one day, even if it might just consist of one table or a window bench – an opportunity that many Finnish people seize.

However, the aim of the field trip was not only the touristy exploration of the Finnish capital. Rather, it was on the one hand, the discussion of the terms Socialism, Stalinisation, Détente and Transition as well as an approach to the behaviour of the Eastern and Western Bloc. On the other hand, another core question was about the role of Finland during the Cold War, with a special focus on the role of the Helsinki Conference of 1975 in the process of rapprochement of the two blocs during the collapse of the bipolar world.

Program of the stay in Helsinki (PDF)

Travel Diary Helsinki

by Marina Pavlishina, Birte Richardt, Katharina Schalk

Introduction

To gain a deeper understanding of these topics, the group had one intensive prepartory class before and one follow-up after the field trip. Most central was a joint class in Helsinki together with Finnish students which was lead by Natali Stegmann. Some questions had to be answered beforehand, for example: what does socialism mean as a period and as a system, and what are the politics of neutrality and the main principles of the Final Helsinki Act. After settling those questions theoretically, the group mainly tried to approach the behaviour and motivations of the different actors in this period by analyzing the discourses consisting of talks, letters and treaties.