The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe

Based on extensive archival research, the contributions in this collection examine the nuances of neutrality leading up to and during the Cold War. The contributors demonstrate the importance of the Soviet Union to the neutral states of Europe during the Cold War and vice versa.

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe examines how the neutral European countries and the Soviet Union interacted after World War II. Amid the Cold War division of Europe into Western and Eastern blocs, several long-time neutral countries abandoned neutrality and joined NATO. Other countries remained neutral but were still perceived as a threat to the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Based on extensive archival research, this volume offers state-of-the-art essays about relations between Europe’s neutral states and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and how these relations were perceived by other powers.

Introduction, Peter Ruggenthaler and Aryo Makko

PART I. Theories and Practices of Neutrality in Cold War Europe

Chapter 1: Austria’s Neutrality—Myth versus Reality, Franz Cede

Chapter 2: Swedish Neutrality, 1949–1991, Olof Kronvall

Chapter 3: Swiss Cold War Neutrality: Undisputed Principle of Foreign Policy, Thomas Fischer

Chapter 4: Neutrality as Compromises: Finland’s Cold War Neutrality, Johanna Rainio-Niemi

PART II. The Neutrals in Soviet Policy from Stalin to Gorbachev

Chapter 5: Swedish Neutrality: The View from Moscow, Alexey Komarov

Chapter 6: Soviet Attitudes to Finnish Neutralism, 1947–1989, Kimmo Rentola

Chapter 7: A Hidden Danger for the Eastern Bloc? Neutral Austria in Soviet Policy from 1955 to the End of the Cold War, Peter Ruggenthaler

Chapter 8 The Soviet Union and Neutral Switzerland: Concerns and Hopes in 1989, Olga Pavlenko

PART III. The Soviet Union in the Policies of the European Neutrals

Chapter 9: Old Fears, New Realities: Sweden and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Aryo Makko

Chapter 10: From Aspiration to Consummation and Transition: Finnish Neutrality as Strategy in the Cold War, Kari Möttölä

Chapter 11: Indefinite Coexistence? Austria, the Soviet Union, and Ostpolitik after 1968, Maximilian Graf

Chapter 12: “Always Hit Back Right on the Kisser?”: The Soviet Union in Swiss Foreign Policy during the Cold War, Sacha Zala, Thomas Bürgisser, and Thomas Fischer

PART IV. Departures from the Eastern Bloc to Neutrality

Chapter 13: Soviet-Yugoslav Relations, 1948–1955: From Conflict to Rapprochement, Andrei Edemskii

Chapter 14: The Neutrality of Hungary during the 1956 Revolution, Csaba Békés

Chapter 15: Albania: Exploiting Relevance and Irrelevance during the Cold War, Robert C. Austin

Chapter 16: The USSR and Yugoslavia’s Policy of Nonalignment, 1955–1980, Nadia Boyadjieva

Chapter 17: How Could the Nonaligned Save Yugoslavia?: The 1989 Summit of the Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade and the Breakup of Yugoslavia, Tvrtko Jakovina

PART V. Western Perspectives on Neutrality and Neutral-Soviet Relations

Chapter 18: The United States and Neutrality in Scandinavia, Jussi M. Hanhimäki

Chapter 19: United States and Austrian Neutrality during the Cold War, Günter Bischof

Chapter 20: The United Kingdom and the European Neutrals during the Cold War, Anne Deighton

Chapter 21: France, the European Neutrals, and the USSR, 1947–1981, Nicolas Badalassi

Chapter 22: Neutrality in the Cold War: Views from West Germany, Andreas Hilger

Chapter 23: NATO and the Neutrals on the Flanks: Finland, Sweden, and Yugoslavia, Milorad Lazic and Magnus Petersson

PART VI. Conclusions

Chapter 24: The USSR and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe, Mark Kramer