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2008

Americans in the gulag

    The little-known story of US citizens trying to escape the Depression

    Mountainous Kolyma, only a few hundred miles west of the Bering Strait, is the coldest inhabited area on earth. During Stalin’s rule, some 2 million prisoners were sent there to mine the rich deposits of gold that lie beneath the rocky, frozen soil. In 1991, when researching a book about how Russians were coming to terms with the Stalin era, I travelled to the region to see some of the old camps of Kolyma, legendary as the most deadly part of the gulag, some of whose survivors I had interviewed. In a country beset by shortages of building materials, all of the hundreds of former prison camps accessible by truck had long since been stripped bare. The only ones still standing were those no longer reached by usable roads, and to see them you had to rent a helicopter.Read More »Americans in the gulag

    Varför är behovet av hjältar så stort just nu?

      ’Olyckligt det land som har behov av hjältar’ sa Brechts Galileo Galilei. Kännetecknande för många intellektuella och konstnärer, men även för vanliga människor efter andra världskriget var och är en stor skepticism mot hjältar. Efter att fascismen och stalinismen hade missbrukat hjältekonceptet väckte hjältedyrkan ofta mest avsky. Miljontals soldater hade mist livet och lämnade åtskilliga civila offer bakom sig. Hjälten förekom som superhjälte i serieteckningar och film eller som anti-hjälte i litteraturen. Men som konkret förebild? I alla fall i Västtyskland, där jag växte upp, var hjältar inte särskild populära.Read More »Varför är behovet av hjältar så stort just nu?

      Tidens Tribunal

        Historiker som ogärna vill diskutera moralen i Sveriges hållning under andra världskriget glömmer ofta att det var något redan samtiden gjorde. Och att även ett frikännande är ett domslut.. I den nyutkomna antologin “Säkerhetspolitik och historia” skriver statsvetaren och ambassadören… Read More »Tidens Tribunal

        Raoul Wallenberg’s Lost Inheritance

          There has long been speculation about what Raoul Wallenberg inherited from the estates of his paternal grandparents, Gustaf and Annie Wallenberg. Gustaf died in 1937, Annie in 1952. New documents discovered in Stockholm Stadsarkiv (City Archive) [1] and described here for the first time, show that had Raoul returned from his imprisonment in the Soviet Union, he would have been quite well off. Raoul’s disappearance in 1945, however, ultimately led to forfeiture of his share of Annie Wallenberg’s fortune. Read More »Raoul Wallenberg’s Lost Inheritance

          Why not a Word about Raoul Wallenberg?

            Historic truth is undoubtedly a most elusive substance and all historians face difficult choices. But authorized biographies carry an enhanced risk of avoidance and outright self-censorship. The biographies of Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, written by two leading Swedish scholars – Håkan Lindgren and Ulf Olsson – , are no exception; in particular, with respect to one of the most controversial subjects in Wallenberg family history, the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg in the Soviet Union in 1945.Read More »Why not a Word about Raoul Wallenberg?

            Prologue to Budapest: Raoul Wallenberg and Special-Metall Förening

              To researchers of the Raoul Wallenberg case, the years between Raoul Wallenberg’s return from Israel (then Palestine) in 1936 and his departure for Budapest, remain full of question marks regarding his personal and professional activities. We know he threw himself in a number of business ventures which did not yield great success. He also owned a small printing house (AB Tryck) which appears to have remained operational while he was in Budapest, but which faced difficulties in turning a profit.Read More »Prologue to Budapest: Raoul Wallenberg and Special-Metall Förening

              Sweden refuses to press Russia for Key Files in the Raoul Wallenberg Case

                In spite of the sharply worded conclusions by two Swedish Commissions – the Swedish-Russian Working Group from 2001 and the Eliasson Commission from 2003 – that Russian efforts to investigate Raoul Wallenberg’s fate in the Soviet Union have been deeply flawed and evasive, the Swedish government has shown no urgency to ensure that researchers can review material deemed vital for clarifying the circumstances of Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance in Russia.Read More »Sweden refuses to press Russia for Key Files in the Raoul Wallenberg Case