The 1972 Memorandum to the United Nations and its repercussions: Émigré politics and Soviet Estonian dissent during the ‘era of stagnation’ |
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Authors: | Lars Fredrik Stöcker |
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Institution: | Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden |
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Abstract: | The Estonian dissidents’ Memorandum to the United Nations, drafted as a call for national self-determination in 1972, set new standards for the émigré community’s campaigns. Although its political message was initially dismissed as utopian, the subsequently emerging cooperation between émigré and homeland activists via intricate courier networks significantly strengthened the authority of Estonian voices in the West. By the early 1980s, the political alliances across the Iron Curtain eventually bore fruit. The Memorandum’s core demands reappeared in political debates on Baltic issues on both sides of the Atlantic, foreshadowing the massive Western support for the Baltic cause during the Singing Revolutions. |
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Keywords: | Cold war East–West relations dissent in the Estonian SSR émigré politics non-recognition doctrine United Nations |
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