E-Dossiers
Closing Ranks or Drifting Apart? The Warsaw Pact on Thin Ice (1961–1969) |
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Building on original archival research and our large online holdings, this new E-dossier by Laurien Crump of Utrecht University questions conventional wisdoms about the history of the Warsaw Pact. Crump documents the attempts by the smaller Pact countries to assert themselves from Soviet dominance inside the alliance. By contextualising the crises and internal disagreements that the WP was confronted with from 1961–69, she succeeds in showing that the WP was much more than a transmission belt of the Soviet Union. See also the documentary companion to the inside history of the Warsaw Pact 'A Cardboard Castle?' co-edited by the PHP. |
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| Submarine Intrusions in Swedish Waters During the 1980s |
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Following previous PHP-supported research on the controversial subject of submarine incursions in Swedish waters during the 1970s and 1980s, Bengt Gustafsson, the former General and Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, once again reviews the evidence. Drawing on previously unused sources as well as technical expertise, Gustaffson argues that Soviet responsibility for these incursions can be safely assumed. Consequently, he rules out the occasionally forwarded proposition that Western submarines had been resposnsible for the violation of Sweden's territorial integrity. See also his previous PHP collection on the Soviet Threat to Sweden during the Cold War and the previous PHP debate on the submarine issue. |
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| Submarine Incursions in Swedish Waters during the Second Cold War |
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In the early hours of October 28, 1981, the Swedes discovered a Soviet submarine which had run aground deep into the archipelago close to their main naval base in Karlskrona on the Baltic Sea. The incident, known as the "Whiskey on the Rocks" in allusion to the NATO designation of the vessel's class, resulted in a tug of war over the terms of the Swedish inspection of the submarine and interrogation of its crew before their release to the acutely embarrassed Soviet authorities. The inadequacy of Moscow's explanations seemed to corroborate beyond reasonable doubt also the identity of other mysterious submarines periodically detected in Swedish waters both before and after "Whiskey" hit the rocks.
While Soviet responsibility for these and other violations of Swedish sovereignty has been generally taken for granted outside of Sweden, in the country itself the identification of the culprit has been an agonizing exercise. As late as two decades after the 1981 incident and a decade after the end of the Cold War, the submarine incursions became a subject of a heated, yet strangely inconclusive debate in Sweden as it navigates its transition from a dogmatic to a pragmatic concept of neutrality. The larger questions that have been raised - and not raised - in the debate have prompted the PHP to introduce this surprisingly complex subject matter to the readers of its website. |
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| Soviet Military Mapping of Ireland During the Cold War |
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Desmond Travers (Col. Ret'd., Irish Army) documents Soviet cartographic activity in Ireland during the Cold War and reveals new insights into the extent of Moscow's geo-strategic interests. Assessing the quality of the Soviet maps, he seeks to answer the question whether the Soviet Union copied Irish Ordonance Survey maps. Although Soviet satellite technology may have been of poorer standard than the of the West during the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet maps under discussion were unquestionably superior to many foreign military maps of pervious periods. Map indexes of various series also indicate the level of Soviet mapping of the entire Northern and of certain regions of the Southern Hemisphere. |
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| The Netherlands in the Cold War: NATO and the Build-up of the Dutch Armed Forces, 1951-1952 |
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This paper analyzes NATO's militarisation process focusing on the build-up of the Dutch Armed Forces in the early 1950s. Inspired by the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950, US president Harry Truman put the Europeans under pressure to step up their defense effort. The United States and the European member states held widely divergent views on burden sharing and it turned out to be far from simple to break the deadlock in the their dispute on the build-up of the NATO defense.
Only at the North Atlantic Council in Ottawa, Canada, of September 1951, a Temporary Council Committee (TCC) was established, tasked with making an analysis of “issues involved in reconciling on the one hand the requirements of external security, in particular in fulfilling a military acceptable NATO plan for the defense of Western Europe, with, on the other hand, the realistic politico-economic capabilities of member countries.” The TCC operation led to a change of course in all member states in respect of the planned build-up of their armed forces. Jan Hoffenaar, from the Institute of Military History in The Hague, illustrates this on the example of the Netherlands armed forces, specifically the Royal Netherlands Army. The Temporary Council Committee developed a practical and integrated approach geared to harmonizing the military requirements and the socio-economic constraints of individual member states. The West and NATO succeeded in striking and preserving the right balance between maintaining a strong economy and developing an effective deterrent. This put them in an advantageous position towards the Eastern bloc, what was among others a factor responsible for the West to win the "Cold War." |
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In late June 2005, the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presented to the public the results of its five-year project on Denmark and the Cold War. The report's purpose is not just to elucidate Denmark's strategy concerning its security policy in response to the military threat to Denmark and other West European nations posed by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw pact allies, but also encompasses a thorough analysis of Denmark's national security policy and the national security debate, with emphasis on the period leading up to the end of the Cold War.
While NATO allies perceived Denmark as a loyal member, the Eastern bloc occasionally distinguished Denmark as one of the "weak links in the chain." Efforts of the Warsaw Pact allies to influence Danish security policy, directly or indirectly through political organizations or the political parties, are brought forward as being of special interest to the Commission. While the available sources do not prove that the Eastern bloc had intensions of embarking an unprovoked attack, the Soviet Union engaged upon a clear, offensive strategy towards Western Europe around 1961, where Denmark should be subdued within 14 days by Polish troops. In the 1980s, the fundamental orientation of Danish security policy was unchanged, though the non-Socialist government sharpened, along with the US, its tone and stance towards the Soviet Union. Concerning two of the decisive questions in the Danish national security debate on the Cold War's last ten years, the reports concludes on the consequences of Danish “footnote politics” and Denmark's general foreign policy influence and reputation. |
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| The Cold War History of Sino-Soviet Relations |
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Thanks to the declassification of relevant documents in eastern European countries and the succession of publications of material from Chinese historical archives, the investigation of Sino-Soviet relations proved to be one of the most striking subjects. The change in Sino-Soviet relations to a considerable extent decided the fate of the socialist camp, and directly influenced and changed the political setup of the world in the Cold War era: the signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance in the early 1950s ultimately shaped the direction of the US Far East strategy, leading the Cold War spreading from Europe to Asia; the split between China and the Soviet Union eventually led to the easing and normalization of Sino-US relations, with the consequence of China withdrawing from the Cold War marked by Soviet-US confrontation. In this sense, discussions on Sino-Soviet relations are one of the most interesting subjects for research in Cold War history, and such research has been very fruitful in recent years. The Parallel History Projects invites you to read seven articles by authors from China and Japan. All these articles have made use of historical archives and documents, concentrating on one particular issue or event. To a considerable extent they reflect the level of research on the history of Sino-Soviet relations in eastern Asia |
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| Die Sowjetunion und die Ereignisse in Ungarn im Herbst 1956 |
© The American Hungarian Federation |
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The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nation wide revolt against the Communist government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. Its roots are to be found in the endeavor of the then-Hungarian government to implement a series of political changes in order to bring about the modernization of the Socialist system. The uprising revealed the insecurity and vulnerability of the structures of classic Socialism. Against this background, Valeri Vartanov highlights the key moments of the crisis as well as the characteristics of the Soviet involvement. Analyzing the time between 1956 and 1957, the author concludes that the Hungarian Uprising can be divided into three stages according to the degree of escalation and the participation of the Soviet Union.
Read the Russian original 
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