Hungarologische Beiträge 18. (Universität Jyväskylä, 2006)
Anssi Halmesvirta - Heino Nyyssönen: Editors’ Introduction
HUNGAROLOGISCHE BEITRÄGE 18 BRIDGE BUILDING AND POLITICAL CULTURES Editors’ Introduction Anssi HALMESVIRTA — Heino NYYSSÖNEN This collection of studies is a by-product of the research project Kádár’s Hungary – Kekkonen’s Finland, c. 1956 – 1989 financed by the Academy of Finland (2000 – 2003). It is mostly based either on original archival research and hitherto not consulted material and tries to approach the subject-matter from fresh point of view. Although historians have completed comparative studies1 and scholars from various disciplines have published essays on almost every aspect of contacts,2 an opportunity to dig deeper and encompass wider issues had arrived with a rise of a more critical attitude and freer access to the relevant archives in both countries. A more general rationale behind the research has been that the relations of small capitalist and socialist countries such as Hungary and Finland during the Cold War era are still a largely neglected field of historical study.3 They seemed to remain in the shadows of Great Power politics and ideological arms-wrestling over world supremacy. Hungary and Finland have been deemed as suitable examples of ‘politics of survival’ since both of them had not only a special modus vivendi relation to their big neighbour, the Soviet Union, but had cherished traditions of co-operation in many scholarly fields, broken only during and after World War II. Until 1956 contacts had already been revived and their extension was motivated by a pragmatic policy: the Hungarian leadership strived for more room to manoeuvre while showing off loyalty to Moscow whereas Finnish leaders struggled in between ‘finlandization’ and Realpolitik. Kádár’s and Kekkonen’s tasks were not easy ones, and they