Simo Mikkonen
Music, Art and Diplomacy: East-West Cultural Interactions and the Cold War (Ashgate 2016): https://www.routledge.com/products/9781472468086
Beyond the Divide: Entangled Histories of Cold War Europe (Berghahn 2015):
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=MikkonenBeyond
Music and Power in the Soviet 1930s: A History of Composers’ Bureaucracy (Mellen, 2009) http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7678&pc=9
Phone: +358503088124
Address: School of Humanities
University of Eastern Finland
P.O. Box 111
FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland
Beyond the Divide: Entangled Histories of Cold War Europe (Berghahn 2015):
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=MikkonenBeyond
Music and Power in the Soviet 1930s: A History of Composers’ Bureaucracy (Mellen, 2009) http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7678&pc=9
Phone: +358503088124
Address: School of Humanities
University of Eastern Finland
P.O. Box 111
FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland
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Books by Simo Mikkonen
This volume focuses on cultural diplomacy and artistic interaction between Eastern and Western Europe after 1945. It aims at providing an essentially European point of view on the cultural Cold War, providing fresh insight into little known connections and cooperation in different artistic fields. Chapters of the volume address photography and architecture, popular as well as classical music, theatre and film, and fine arts. By examining different actors ranging from individuals to organizations such as universities, the volume brings new perspective on the mechanisms and workings of the cultural Cold War. Finally, the volume estimates the pertinence of the Cold War and its influence in post-1991 world.
The volume offers an overview on the role culture played in international politics, as well as its role in the Cold War more generally, through interesting examples and case studies.
started to become like them. In this book, we argue that the Cold War era saw not only the division of Europe into two warring camps, but that there were also a plenty of connections over the East-West divide. Instead of two separate histories of Europe, these connections speak for entangled histories, urging us to go beyond the binational orientation and examine simultaneous interaction of several countries, people, and organizations.
The research on the Cold War and related issues has expanded during the past twenty years, and today it is completely legitimate to study topics that were still unthinkable quite recently, like interaction and cooperation between Capitalist and Socialist worlds, or the cultural and social implications
of the conflict. Furthermore, there have also been an increasing
number of studies investigating how the Cold War affected the everyday life of ordinary citizens or whether the Cold War even mattered to them at all. Despite the emergence and current presentability of culturally and socially flavored Cold War research, much still remains unknown.
This volume seeks to alter the way in which intra-European Cold War–era connections are perceived. Previous focus on superpower relations in Cold War research has resulted in the emphasis of East-West division. It is true that, for much of the twentieth century, both the Soviet Union and the United States had a major impact on Europe in intellectual, political, and cultural terms; their mere existence troubled, excited, outraged,
and inspired people all over Europe. Often one superpower was seen as completely alien, while the other was considered as the savior of Europe. However, instead of being merely allies to superpowers, European countries were independent actors that harbored intentions and objectives beyond the superpower axis. These connections deserve more attention. For many of these countries, the relationships to countries on the other side of the Iron Curtain were often not so much about the Cold War as they were about normal dealings between two countries, and a number of these contacts were not new but originated from the prewar period. This kind
of interaction escapes the traditional conception of the Cold War, and this has likely been the reason why they have not been examined extensively outside national scholarship.
Papers by Simo Mikkonen
Kansallisoopperan kiertueen konteksti on kiinnostava. Vuonna 1979 uudelleen kiihtynyt kylmä sota oli kiristänyt idän ja lännen suhteet äärimmilleen ja ydinsodan uhka leijui ilmassa. Länsimaat olivat Afganistanin sodan alettua (1979) katkaisseet kulttuurivaihto-ohjelmansa Neuvostoliiton kanssa ja boikotoivat mm. Moskovan olympialaisia. Samaan aikaan Suomi vei aktiivisesti klassisen musiikin osaamistaan länteen. Sallisen Punainen viiva esitettiin Lontoossa 1979, Tukholmassa 1980 ja Zürichissa 1981. Myös New Yorkin Carnegie Hallin esitys vuonna 1983 varmistui ennen Neuvostoliiton kiertuetta. Kylmän sodan konteksti onkin tärkeä, kun tarkastellaan Kansallisoopperan tietä Bolšoihin. Ilman Afganistanin sotaa ja kiristyneitä suurvaltasuhteita Kansallisoopperalle tuskin olisi avautunut tällaista tilaisuutta.
Kiertueen toteutumiseen liittyy eri tasoilla tapahtunutta poliittista vaikuttamista ja verkostoitumista. Opetusministeriön rooli neuvotteluissa oli merkittävä. Opetusministeri Kalevi Kivistö neuvotteli periaatesopimuksen Kansallisoopperan kiertueesta Neuvostoliiton kulttuuriministerin kanssa vuonna 1979, joskin vierailun yksityiskohdat jäivät auki. Sopimukseen liitettiin myös Estonia-teatterin vuoden 1980 vierailu Helsinkiin. Estonia oli vieraillut Kansallisoopperassa kerran aikaisemmin, 1967.
Artikkelin fokuksessa on Kansallisoopperan Neuvostoliittoon suuntautunut yhteistyö. Keskeisenä tavoitteena oli päästä Bolšoihin, jonka nähtiin edistävän Kansallisoopperan ja suomalaisen kulttuurin kansainvälistymistä. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kiertueen suunnittelua, toteutumista ja jälkipuintia, sekä projektin laajempaa merkitystä. Yhdessä opetusministeriön kanssa Kansallisooppera oli vienyt suomalaista oopperaa maailmalle 1970-luvun lopulta lähtien. Kansallisoopperan Neuvostoliiton kiertueella kulkikin mukana merkittävä joukko poliitikkoja ja virkamiehiä. Artikkeli perustuu arkistoaineistolle ja kulttuurivaihdossa mukana olleiden haastatteluille. Erityisen paljon on käytetty Kansallisoopperan ja opetusministeriön arkistoa.
Shanghai Russians came to dominate the artistic scene especially in the 1930s and through WWII. Yet, instead of one community, Russians were far from united and there were several features dividing the community into smaller units. In addition to national and political lines, one factor was attitude towards Russia and Russian culture. Many in the artistic community had cosmopolitan outlook, mingling both, with other Europeans and Chinese, while others aimed at preserving what they considered to be genuine Russian culture, free from Bolshevist influences. This paper aims at presenting some conclusions about the role played by Shanghai Russians in the developing arts scene of Shanghai.
This paper is based on an extensive work with Russian language materials produced by Shanghai’s Russian community, gathered from archives and repositories around the world. Shanghai Russians established several magazines, journals and presses leaving hundreds of titles as a result.
ideology in general, it would soon become unfavorable when it became obvious that the West was able to provide social security and public health care systems, and that workers there were generally better off than those in the Soviet Union. Soviet propaganda and the appeal of the Soviet system were generally based on the assumed inequality and deprivation inherent in the capitalist system. The Great Depression was considered proof of the decline of capitalism and the rise of a more egalitarian communist system. However, the West managed to emerge after the Second World War economically stronger and with a more equal distribution of wealth, a fact that caused the Soviet Union great concern. Naturally, this had to be concealed from the Soviet public. The Soviet media usually depicted only strikes, race riots and all manifestations of worker malcontent in the West. One thing that had to be maintained in the Soviet Union was the belief that average people were better off there than in the
West. This was possible as long as contacts with the West remained at a minimum, as was the case during the Stalinist era. By the time Stalin died, however, the West had developed a sophisticated means of reaching over the Iron Curtain and engaging in the active dissemination of Western
values.
Even the initial article, ‘Sumbur vmesto muzїki [Muddle Instead of Music]’ was only on page three. Instead, it was the Ukrainian music festival, the dekada, in Moscow in March 1936 that principally turned the attention of the Soviet media
towards music. The idea that a festival of national music could be more important than Shostakovich’s disgrace may seem surprising. But by taking a broad approach to Soviet musical life in the middle of the 1930s, and trying to place
Pravda’s article ‘Muddle Instead ofMusic’ and those that followed it in context, I hope to explain why these articles were really written and what their true consequences were.My approach is broadly structural: that is, I perceive Soviet
musical life through the workings of organizations rather than focusing on individual composers. Although it is individuals who remain of central importance, it is often forgotten, especially with regard to music, that the Soviet Union was a country where official organizations mattered. In musical life, there were many events that cannot be fully understood unless perceived through the machinations of Soviet musical administration.1 This problem is especially acute with regard to Shostakovich and the general musical life of the 1930s,
and a full and proper understanding of the relationship between music and the Soviet state in the 1930s is still lacking in Western scholarship
Soviets’ willingness to send artists abroad was a calculation based on the Soviet leadership’s evaluation of the risks of high-profile defections balanced with the advantages of displaying Soviet talent and apparent goodwill. However doubleedged this ‘goodwill’ really was, Mikkonen concludes that it was nonetheless effective in promoting the idea of a peaceful Soviet Union abroad, as well as
initiating elements of cultural competition between East and West."
This volume focuses on cultural diplomacy and artistic interaction between Eastern and Western Europe after 1945. It aims at providing an essentially European point of view on the cultural Cold War, providing fresh insight into little known connections and cooperation in different artistic fields. Chapters of the volume address photography and architecture, popular as well as classical music, theatre and film, and fine arts. By examining different actors ranging from individuals to organizations such as universities, the volume brings new perspective on the mechanisms and workings of the cultural Cold War. Finally, the volume estimates the pertinence of the Cold War and its influence in post-1991 world.
The volume offers an overview on the role culture played in international politics, as well as its role in the Cold War more generally, through interesting examples and case studies.
started to become like them. In this book, we argue that the Cold War era saw not only the division of Europe into two warring camps, but that there were also a plenty of connections over the East-West divide. Instead of two separate histories of Europe, these connections speak for entangled histories, urging us to go beyond the binational orientation and examine simultaneous interaction of several countries, people, and organizations.
The research on the Cold War and related issues has expanded during the past twenty years, and today it is completely legitimate to study topics that were still unthinkable quite recently, like interaction and cooperation between Capitalist and Socialist worlds, or the cultural and social implications
of the conflict. Furthermore, there have also been an increasing
number of studies investigating how the Cold War affected the everyday life of ordinary citizens or whether the Cold War even mattered to them at all. Despite the emergence and current presentability of culturally and socially flavored Cold War research, much still remains unknown.
This volume seeks to alter the way in which intra-European Cold War–era connections are perceived. Previous focus on superpower relations in Cold War research has resulted in the emphasis of East-West division. It is true that, for much of the twentieth century, both the Soviet Union and the United States had a major impact on Europe in intellectual, political, and cultural terms; their mere existence troubled, excited, outraged,
and inspired people all over Europe. Often one superpower was seen as completely alien, while the other was considered as the savior of Europe. However, instead of being merely allies to superpowers, European countries were independent actors that harbored intentions and objectives beyond the superpower axis. These connections deserve more attention. For many of these countries, the relationships to countries on the other side of the Iron Curtain were often not so much about the Cold War as they were about normal dealings between two countries, and a number of these contacts were not new but originated from the prewar period. This kind
of interaction escapes the traditional conception of the Cold War, and this has likely been the reason why they have not been examined extensively outside national scholarship.
Kansallisoopperan kiertueen konteksti on kiinnostava. Vuonna 1979 uudelleen kiihtynyt kylmä sota oli kiristänyt idän ja lännen suhteet äärimmilleen ja ydinsodan uhka leijui ilmassa. Länsimaat olivat Afganistanin sodan alettua (1979) katkaisseet kulttuurivaihto-ohjelmansa Neuvostoliiton kanssa ja boikotoivat mm. Moskovan olympialaisia. Samaan aikaan Suomi vei aktiivisesti klassisen musiikin osaamistaan länteen. Sallisen Punainen viiva esitettiin Lontoossa 1979, Tukholmassa 1980 ja Zürichissa 1981. Myös New Yorkin Carnegie Hallin esitys vuonna 1983 varmistui ennen Neuvostoliiton kiertuetta. Kylmän sodan konteksti onkin tärkeä, kun tarkastellaan Kansallisoopperan tietä Bolšoihin. Ilman Afganistanin sotaa ja kiristyneitä suurvaltasuhteita Kansallisoopperalle tuskin olisi avautunut tällaista tilaisuutta.
Kiertueen toteutumiseen liittyy eri tasoilla tapahtunutta poliittista vaikuttamista ja verkostoitumista. Opetusministeriön rooli neuvotteluissa oli merkittävä. Opetusministeri Kalevi Kivistö neuvotteli periaatesopimuksen Kansallisoopperan kiertueesta Neuvostoliiton kulttuuriministerin kanssa vuonna 1979, joskin vierailun yksityiskohdat jäivät auki. Sopimukseen liitettiin myös Estonia-teatterin vuoden 1980 vierailu Helsinkiin. Estonia oli vieraillut Kansallisoopperassa kerran aikaisemmin, 1967.
Artikkelin fokuksessa on Kansallisoopperan Neuvostoliittoon suuntautunut yhteistyö. Keskeisenä tavoitteena oli päästä Bolšoihin, jonka nähtiin edistävän Kansallisoopperan ja suomalaisen kulttuurin kansainvälistymistä. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kiertueen suunnittelua, toteutumista ja jälkipuintia, sekä projektin laajempaa merkitystä. Yhdessä opetusministeriön kanssa Kansallisooppera oli vienyt suomalaista oopperaa maailmalle 1970-luvun lopulta lähtien. Kansallisoopperan Neuvostoliiton kiertueella kulkikin mukana merkittävä joukko poliitikkoja ja virkamiehiä. Artikkeli perustuu arkistoaineistolle ja kulttuurivaihdossa mukana olleiden haastatteluille. Erityisen paljon on käytetty Kansallisoopperan ja opetusministeriön arkistoa.
Shanghai Russians came to dominate the artistic scene especially in the 1930s and through WWII. Yet, instead of one community, Russians were far from united and there were several features dividing the community into smaller units. In addition to national and political lines, one factor was attitude towards Russia and Russian culture. Many in the artistic community had cosmopolitan outlook, mingling both, with other Europeans and Chinese, while others aimed at preserving what they considered to be genuine Russian culture, free from Bolshevist influences. This paper aims at presenting some conclusions about the role played by Shanghai Russians in the developing arts scene of Shanghai.
This paper is based on an extensive work with Russian language materials produced by Shanghai’s Russian community, gathered from archives and repositories around the world. Shanghai Russians established several magazines, journals and presses leaving hundreds of titles as a result.
ideology in general, it would soon become unfavorable when it became obvious that the West was able to provide social security and public health care systems, and that workers there were generally better off than those in the Soviet Union. Soviet propaganda and the appeal of the Soviet system were generally based on the assumed inequality and deprivation inherent in the capitalist system. The Great Depression was considered proof of the decline of capitalism and the rise of a more egalitarian communist system. However, the West managed to emerge after the Second World War economically stronger and with a more equal distribution of wealth, a fact that caused the Soviet Union great concern. Naturally, this had to be concealed from the Soviet public. The Soviet media usually depicted only strikes, race riots and all manifestations of worker malcontent in the West. One thing that had to be maintained in the Soviet Union was the belief that average people were better off there than in the
West. This was possible as long as contacts with the West remained at a minimum, as was the case during the Stalinist era. By the time Stalin died, however, the West had developed a sophisticated means of reaching over the Iron Curtain and engaging in the active dissemination of Western
values.
Even the initial article, ‘Sumbur vmesto muzїki [Muddle Instead of Music]’ was only on page three. Instead, it was the Ukrainian music festival, the dekada, in Moscow in March 1936 that principally turned the attention of the Soviet media
towards music. The idea that a festival of national music could be more important than Shostakovich’s disgrace may seem surprising. But by taking a broad approach to Soviet musical life in the middle of the 1930s, and trying to place
Pravda’s article ‘Muddle Instead ofMusic’ and those that followed it in context, I hope to explain why these articles were really written and what their true consequences were.My approach is broadly structural: that is, I perceive Soviet
musical life through the workings of organizations rather than focusing on individual composers. Although it is individuals who remain of central importance, it is often forgotten, especially with regard to music, that the Soviet Union was a country where official organizations mattered. In musical life, there were many events that cannot be fully understood unless perceived through the machinations of Soviet musical administration.1 This problem is especially acute with regard to Shostakovich and the general musical life of the 1930s,
and a full and proper understanding of the relationship between music and the Soviet state in the 1930s is still lacking in Western scholarship
Soviets’ willingness to send artists abroad was a calculation based on the Soviet leadership’s evaluation of the risks of high-profile defections balanced with the advantages of displaying Soviet talent and apparent goodwill. However doubleedged this ‘goodwill’ really was, Mikkonen concludes that it was nonetheless effective in promoting the idea of a peaceful Soviet Union abroad, as well as
initiating elements of cultural competition between East and West."
propaganda campaigns. Drawing on both Western as well as Soviet and Russian sources, he points both to long-standing traditions within the service (it was, after all, the oldest international broadcaster) as well as its transformations, particularly in the Khrushchev era as it sought to project the Soviet Union’s presence onto the world stage. Careful to place the USSR’s international services within their global reach and aims, he shows how the services targeted Europe in particular and adapted to a range of perceived threats and opportunities there.