New book reveals events behind Iron Curtain
German publisher Peter Lang has released a 430-page collection of articles on the developments of Soviet Estonia in the context of the Cold War, edited by the University of Tartu Professor of Estonian Contemporary History and academician Tõnu Tannberg. 14 Estonian researchers wrote on the topic.
“The Soviet Union emerged as a victor from the Second World War in 1945 and quickly established its dominance in eastern Europe and almost completely subjected the countries of the region to its control," Tannberg described the emergence of the Iron Curtain. "Wartime cooperation with Western countries broke down and instead a new stand-off between world powers evolved – the Cold War which remained a significant factor in the world’s development until the end of the 1980s.”
According to Tannberg, the Soviet Union and its satellite countries, along with the Baltic states which had been reoccupied in 1944, were shut behind the Iron Curtain. In post-war Estonia, being cut off from the Western world caused extensive sovietization of society and muzzling of intellectual life, the suppression of resistance, repressions, and the implementation of Soviet command economy.
“Enforcing and later operating the authority of Moscow in the Eastern bloc countries and the Baltic states which were reoccupied at the end of World War II was a complicated, multi-faceted and at times even controversial course of events, which has not been covered substantially in historic research so far,” Tannberg said.
The book entitled "Behind the Iron Curtain. Soviet Estonia in the Era of Cold War" comprises 14 articles, which cover various aspects of the political, economic and cultural developments of Soviet Estonia during the Cold War.
The collection, which was compiled in the course of the target topic “Estonia during the era of the Cold War” and the project “Estonian war history in the context of world military developments”, financed by the Ministry of Defense, was published by the renowned German academic publisher Peter Lang.
Editor: M. Oll