The formula “end of the Cold War” conveyed an erroneous idea. For centuries the relations between “East” and “West” were characterized by antagonism. In the 1990s determined attempts were undertaken to overcome the polarity. Western Europe and the US responded favorably to the desire of Central/Eastern Europe and of Russia to integrate themselves into Western institutions and organisms defined by democracy and market economy. However, the force of existing mental realities — such as the fear of Russia in Central/European states or Russia`s clinging to its imperialist past and failure to handle its economy and finances well – proved to be stronger than the idealistic intentions formed in 1989–90 on both sides of the divide.
Keywords: End of Cold War, “East and West”, 1990s.
Essay by
Tilo Schabert
September 18, 2024
This text gives a glimpse of a hitherto unknown design discourse during the Cold War – from both sides of the Iron Curtain – by exploring the 1975 Congress of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), held in Moscow. Sweden sent a big delegation to Russia. More than forty of the small country’s top designers and influencers participated, which was more than twice as many as usual to these international design congresses. Thanks to reactions published about the events in journals on design in Sweden and in the Soviet Union, archival material, and the author’s own interviews with the delegates from Sweden who participated in Moscow, as well as one-off exclusive backstage witnesses from the local staff of the host organization during the ongoing congress, Moscow 1975 is experienced through the eyes of contemporary witnesses. The essay gives new insights into the world congress in design and illustrates the international atmosphere during the Cold War.
By
Margareta Tillberg
June 22, 2022
Around 20 researchers met in the Polish city of Kalisz for two days in mid-October, to present their on-going projects exploring issues related to artists in the political systems of the countries of Central Europe after 1945.
By
Camilla Larsson
February 25, 2020
Christer Lokind: DC-3:an. Kalla krigets hemlighet [The DC-3: the secret of the Cold War]. Stockholm: Medströms bokförlag, 2014.
By
Thomas Lundén
May 13, 2015
When it comes to art museums in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, ownership is an especially loaded issue that continues to bring out new skeletons from its closeted past. Ludwig’s gigantic art collection, consisting of some 50,000 artworks, came into being because of his goal of inscribing himself into the future of art history.
By
Margaret Tali
October 20, 2014
+ Beate Feldmann Eellend: Visionära planer och vardagliga praktiker: Postmilitära landskap i Östersjö-området (Visionary plans and everyday practices: post-military landscapes in the Baltic Sea region). Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in Ethnology 7, 2013. 157 pages, ill.
By
Fredrik Nilsson
May 6, 2014
Baltic Worlds was one of the organizers of the seminar on the breakup of the Soviet Union during the “Global Week” at the University of Gothenburg in November. Here a report from the seminar 2Armageddon Averted: Insiders’ Reports from the Dissolution of the Soviet Union".
By
Johan Öberg
December 21, 2011
By matching agent lists with agent reports from the Stasi archives, Professor Almgren, who is affiliated with Södertörn University, has delved deeper into issues relating to particular individuals than the Swedish security police have.
She has established the incompetence of the Swedish security police and their inability to uncover threats to Sweden at the time.
By
Anders Björnsson
September 14, 2011
At the exact time that voices in the Swedish public debate increasingly questioned obstacles to women’s participation in professional work on an equal footing with men, the opposite tendency could be observed in Soviet Russian debates. Here an excerpt from a paper presented at the Aleksanteri Institute’s ninth annual conference.
By
Helene Carlbäck
February 24, 2010
Cybernetics was created in the Soviet Union in the ’50s; it celebrated technical progress as the future of mankind. Cybernetics proceeded from the encounter between human and machine.
Essay by
Slava Gerovitch
February 11, 2010
Issue 2024, 4: 
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, CentralAsia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.