Pia Koivunen
Pia Koivunen is senior lecturer in European and World history and adjunct professor in Russian history at the University of Turku, Finland. She received PhD at the University of Tampere in 2014. Her research interests include political and cultural history of the Cold War, the history of experience, the politics of memory, mega-events, museums and statues.
Currently, she lead a project Mission Finland. Cold War cultural diplomacy at the crossroads of East and West, funded by the Academy of Finland. (https://missionfinland.utu.fi/hanke/) Koivunen studies the politics of hosting mega-events in the USSR in the 1960s-80s, state visits between Finland and the Soviet Union as well as the politics of history and memory in the context of Lenin museums.
Address: Faculty of Humanities
School of History, Culture and Arts Studies
20014 University of Turku
Finland
Currently, she lead a project Mission Finland. Cold War cultural diplomacy at the crossroads of East and West, funded by the Academy of Finland. (https://missionfinland.utu.fi/hanke/) Koivunen studies the politics of hosting mega-events in the USSR in the 1960s-80s, state visits between Finland and the Soviet Union as well as the politics of history and memory in the context of Lenin museums.
Address: Faculty of Humanities
School of History, Culture and Arts Studies
20014 University of Turku
Finland
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Kylmän sodan varhaisina vuosina suomalaiset työläisnuoret matkustivat maailman nuorisofestivaaleille sosialistiseen Itä-Eurooppaan. Nuorille matkat olivat voimaannuttavia kokemuksia: kansojen, kielten ja kulttuurien kirjon kohtaaminen avarsi maailmankuvaa ja vahvisti ideologista yhteenkuuluvuudentunnetta.
Rauhanuskovaiset on kokemushistoriallinen tutkimus kansainvälisestä vuorovaikutuksesta kylmän sodan aikana. Se selvittää, keitä nuorisofestivaaleille matkanneet suomalaiset olivat, mikä heitä innosti mukaan ja kuinka he festivaalimatkat kokivat. Teos perustuu nuorisofestivaaleille osallistuneiden haastatteluihin, päiväkirjoihin ja muistelmiin sekä arkistoaineistoon.
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.