Suchergebnisse

The focus of this research is on Finland's role in Soviet Union's calculation of its foreign policy between 1920 and 1930. This was the first decade of both Finnish independence and of Soviet power in Russia. This book answers questions about the objectives of Soviet foreign policy in Finland, on the contacts used by the Soviet legation to obtain information, and on how well the Soviets understood Finland's objectives. People interested in Finland and in Russian perspectives with regards to foreign policy and neighbouring countries will find much new in this book because it relies on formerly unpublished Russian archival material to form the basis for charting Soviet objectives in Finland. The book shows that the Soviets primarily observed Finland in a larger regional context along with other states on its borders in the Baltic Sea region. The global objectives of the revolution and the Soviet Union, but also the domestic political situation in both countries, are reflected on this framework. The period was characterized by forced collectivization in the Soviet Union and, in Finland, by the rise of the right-wing Lapua Movement that emerged at the onset of the Great Depression, laying the foundations for the most severe crisis in the relations during 1929–1930 when the issues surrounding these events destabilized simultaneously the society and political decision-making in both countries

The focus of this research is on Finland's role in Soviet Union's calculation of its foreign policy between 1920 and 1930. This was the first decade of both Finnish independence and of Soviet power in Russia. This book answers questions about the objectives of Soviet foreign policy in Finland, on the contacts used by the Soviet legation to obtain information, and on how well the Soviets understood Finland's objectives. People interested in Finland and in Russian perspectives with regards to foreign policy and neighbouring countries will find much new in this book because it relies on formerly unpublished Russian archival material to form the basis for charting Soviet objectives in Finland. The book shows that the Soviets primarily observed Finland in a larger regional context along with other states on its borders in the Baltic Sea region. The global objectives of the revolution and the Soviet Union, but also the domestic political situation in both countries, are reflected on this framework. The period was characterized by forced collectivization in the Soviet Union and, in Finland, by the rise of the right-wing Lapua Movement that emerged at the onset of the Great Depression, laying the foundations for the most severe crisis in the relations during 1929–1930 when the issues surrounding these events destabilized simultaneously the society and political decision-making in both countries.

Konstantinos Katsoudas, "A Dictatorship that is not a Dictatorship". Spanish Nationalists and the 4th of August The Spanish Civil War convulsed the international public opinion and prompted most foreign governments to take measures or even intervene in the conflict. Greek entanglement either in the form of smuggling war materiel or the participation of Greek volunteers in the International Brigades has already been investigated. However, little is known about a second dimension of this internationalization of the war: the peculiar forms that the antagonism between the two belligerent camps in foreign countries took. This paper, based mainly on Spanish archival sources, discusses some aspects of the activity developed in Greece by Franco's nationalists and the way Francoist diplomats and emissaries perceived the nature of an apparently similar regime, such as the dictatorship led by general Metaxas. The main objectives of the Francoist foreign policy were to avoid any escalation of the Spanish civil war into a world conflict, to secure international assistance for the right-wing forces and to undermine the legitimacy of the legal Republican government. In Greece, an informal diplomatic civil war broke out since Francoists occupied the Spanish Legation in Athens and Republicans took over the Consulate in Thessaloniki. The Francoists combined public and undercover activity: they worked hard to achieve an official recognition of their Estado Nuevo, while at the same time created rings of espionage and channels of anticommunist propaganda. The reason of their partial breakthroughs was that, contrary to their Republican enemies, the Nationalists enjoyed support by a significant part of the Greek political world, which was ideologically identified with their struggle. Francoist anti-communism had some interesting implications for Greek politics. An important issue was the Francoist effort to reveal a supposed Moscow-based conspiracy against Spain and Greece, both considered as hotbeds of revolution in the Mediterranean, in order to justify both Franco's extermination campaign and Metaxas' coup. Although this effort was based on fraudulent documents, forged by an anti-Bolshevik international organization, it became the cornerstone of Francoist and Metaxist propaganda. General Metaxas was the only European dictator to invoke the Spanish Civil War as a raison d'etre of his regime and often warned against the repetition of Spanish-like drama on Greek soil. Nevertheless he did not approve of Franco's methods and preferred Dr. Salazar's Portugal as an institutional model closer to his vision. For Spanish nationalist observers this was a sign of weakness. They interpreted events in Greece through the disfiguring mirror of their own historic experience: thus, although they never called in question Metaxas' authoritarian motives, the 4th of August regime was considered too mild and soft compared to Francoism (whose combativeness and fanaticism, as they suggested, the Greek General should have imitated); it reminded them the dictatorship founded in Spain by General Primo de Rivera in 1920s, whose inadequacy paved the way for the advent of the Republic and the emergence of sociopolitical radicalism. Incidents of the following years, as Greece moved towards a civil confrontation, seemed to strengthen their views. ; Konstantinos Katsoudas, "A Dictatorship that is not a Dictatorship". Spanish Nationalists and the 4th of AugustThe Spanish Civil War convulsed the international public opinion and prompted most foreign governments to take measures or even intervene in the conflict. Greek entanglement either in the form of smuggling war materiel or the participation of Greek volunteers in the International Brigades has already been investigated. However, little is known about a second dimension of this internationalization of the war: the peculiar forms that the antagonism between the two belligerent camps in foreign countries took. This paper, based mainly on Spanish archival sources, discusses some aspects of the activity developed in Greece by Franco's nationalists and the way Francoist diplomats and emissaries perceived the nature of an apparently similar regime, such as the dictatorship led by general Metaxas. The main objectives of the Francoist foreign policy were to avoid any escalation of the Spanish civil war into a world conflict, to secure international assistance for the right-wing forces and to undermine the legitimacy of the legal Republican government. In Greece, an informal diplomatic civil war broke out since Francoists occupied the Spanish Legation in Athens and Republicans took over the Consulate in Thessaloniki. The Francoists combined public and undercover activity: they worked hard to achieve an official recognition of their Estado Nuevo, while at the same time created rings of espionage and channels of anticommunist propaganda. The reason of their partial breakthroughs was that, contrary to their Republican enemies, the Nationalists enjoyed support by a significant part of the Greek political world, which was ideologically identified with their struggle. Francoist anti-communism had some interesting implications for Greek politics. An important issue was the Francoist effort to reveal a supposed Moscow-based conspiracy against Spain and Greece, both considered as hotbeds of revolution in the Mediterranean, in order to justify both Franco's extermination campaign and Metaxas' coup. Although this effort was based on fraudulent documents, forged by an anti-Bolshevik international organization, it became the cornerstone of Francoist and Metaxist propaganda. General Metaxas was the only European dictator to invoke the Spanish Civil War as a raison d'etre of his regime and often warned against the repetition of Spanish-like drama on Greek soil. Nevertheless he did not approve of Franco's methods and preferred Dr. Salazar's Portugal as an institutional model closer to his vision. For Spanish nationalist observers this was a sign of weakness. They interpreted events in Greece through the disfiguring mirror of their own historic experience: thus, although they never called in question Metaxas' authoritarian motives, the 4th of August regime was considered too mild and soft compared to Francoism (whose combativeness and fanaticism, as they suggested, the Greek General should have imitated); it reminded them the dictatorship founded in Spain by General Primo de Rivera in 1920s, whose inadequacy paved the way for the advent of the Republic and the emergence of sociopolitical radicalism. Incidents of the following years, as Greece moved towards a civil confrontation, seemed to strengthen their views.

Ympäristökysymys ja aseveliakseli on tutkimus suomalaisen kaupunkiympäristön politisoitumisesta. Väitöskirja vastaa kysymykseen miten ympäristöstä tuli politiikkaa? piirtämällä tarkan kuvan neljästä ympäristön politisoitumisen vuosikymmenestä 1960-luvulta lähtien, kasvukonsensuksesta ympäristökiistoihin. Tamperelaisia ympäristökiistoja ja paikallista politiikkaa käytetään teoksessa laboratoriona, jossa tiivistyy laajempia suomalaisen lähihistorian muutostrendejä. Paikallisten ympäristöongelmien synty kietoutuu muuttuvan yhteiskunnan arvostuksiin ja puhetapoihin sekä sukupolvien välisiin jännitteisiin. Erityisesti teos analysoi jännitteitä, joita voimistuva ympäristöliikehdintä synnytti haastaessaan Tampereella pitkään vaikuttaneen valtakoalition, ns. aseveliakselin, paikallisen hallintatavan. Ympäristökysymys ja aseveliakseli sukeltaa ympäristön politisoitumiseen viiden tamperelaisen tapauksen kautta: 1. Pyynikin moottoritiehanke (1959 - 1974) 2. Näsijärven saastuminen ja vedenoton siirtäminen Roineeseen (1960 - 1972) 3. Kauppahallin virastotalon purkamiseen liittynyt kiista (1972 - 1983) 4. Epilän kivihiilivoimalahankkeeseen liittynyt kiista (1981 - 1984) 5. Tampellan alueen kaavoituskiista (1989 - 1995) Tapaukset kertovat ympäristöongelmien yhteiskunnallisesta muotoutumisesta ja oman aikansa toiveista, tavoitteista ja ristiriidoista. Ympäristön pilaantumisen ja -suojelun nousu yhteiskunnalliseksi kysymykseksi liittyy kiinteästi Suomen ja Tampereen sodanjälkeiseen kehitykseen ja vaurastumiseen, jonka kääntöpuolena ympäristöhaittoja voidaan pitää. Useamman paikallisen tapaustutkimuksen yhdistäminen paikallisen hallintatavan analyysiin tuo uuden näkökulman ympäristöongelmien ja paikallisen poliittisen kulttuurin historiallisen rakentumiseen. Ympäristöongelmia käsitellään yhteiskunnallisina ongelmina, joille toimijoiden väliset jännitteet ja määrittelykamppailut sekä erilaisten vaatimusten esittäminen ovat ominaisia. Politisoitumisen analyysissä tukeudutaan sosiologi Pierre Bourdieun ja politiikantutkija Kari Palosen käsitteisiin. Politisoitumisen käsitteellä ei viitata puoluepolitiikkaan, vaan pikemminkin vakiintuneiden ajatus- ja toimintamallien kyseenalaistumiseen. Tutkimus etenee teoreettisten ja metodologisten lähtökohtien kautta tapaustutkimuksiin, joiden lomassa taustoitetaan ympäristöliikehdinnän historiaa paikallisella tasolla. Tapausten jälkeen käsitellään paikallisen hallintatavan teoreettista näkökulmaa ja paikallisen hallinnan historiallisia muotoja Tampereella. Ympäristön politisoituminen tapahtui Tampereella vaiheittain. Ensimmäiset ympäristöliikehdinnän merkit näkyivät Tampereella ns. ympäristöherätyksen myötä 1960- ja 70-luvun taitteessa. Ympäristöliikkeen jakautuminen oikeisto-vasemmisto -ulottuvuudella kuitenkin jarrutti ympäristöjärjestöjen kasvua 1970-luvun puolivälissä. Vuosikymmenen lopulta lähtien alkoi uusi ympäristöprotestien vaihe. Jännite suoraviivaisen johtajakeskeisen hallintavan ja uusien, rauhan aikana kasvaneiden sukupolvien edustajien ­ kuten vihreän liikkeen ­ välillä kävi ilmeiseksi paikallisissa ympäristökiistoissa 1980-luvun alusta alkaen. Tämä jännite huipentui tutkimuksen viimeisessä tapauksessa, Tampellan kiistassa 1980- ja 90-lukujen taitteessa. Sosiaalidemokraattien ja Kokoomuksen muodostaman kunnallispolitiikan valtakoalition, aseveliakselin, näkökulmasta ympäristöprotestit näyttäytyivät vastustuksena, ei uutena yhteiskunnallisena kysymyksenä. Väitämme, että tämä johtui sekä aseveliakselin historiallisesti muodostuneista arvostuksista ja suhtautumistavoista että tamperelaisen politiikan kentän jakautumisesta aseveliakselikoalition ja sen vastustajien välillä. Nämä tekijät vaikeuttivat ympäristökysymysten nostamista paikallisen päätöksenteon piiriin ja supistivat ympäristöliikehdinnän toimintatilaa. Ympäristön politisoituminen ilmeni Tampereella useammalla ulottuvuudella, joista ensimmäisenä voi pitää ympäristöherätyksen synnyttämää uutta tulkintakehystä. Se antoi kaikupohjaa paikallisille ympäristön muuttamista politisoiville vaatimuksille. Luonto politisoitui ympäristöksi ja ympäristö politisoitui yhteiskunnalliseksi protestiksi ja kritiikiksi, joka ilmeni vaatimuksina paikallisissa ympäristökiistoissa. Toiseksi politisoiminen liittyi yksittäisten ympäristön muutoksia koskevien suunnitelmien kyseenalaistamiseen. Tätä tapahtui Tampereella 1970-luvulta alkaen ja selvemmin 1980-luvun ympäristökiistoissa. Määrittelykamppailut koskivat esim. Kauppahallin virastotalon tapauksessa paitsi talon purkusuunnitelmia, myös talon esteettistä arvoa kaupunkimaisemassa. Tampereen kasvoja voimakkaasti muuttanut modernisaatiokehitys ei enää näyttänytkään väistämättömältä. Samalla voidaan puhua myös laajemmasta kaupunkimaiseman muutosten kyseenalaistumisesta. Ympäristöherätys ja yksittäiset tapahtumat kuten Verkatehtaan purkaminen 1970-luvun lopulla muuttivat tamperelaisten tapaa katsoa kaupunkiaan. Kolmanneksi kiistoissa nousi esiin tiedon ja asiantuntemuksen politiikka. Tiedon politiikka ilmeni selvästi 1980-luvun kiistoissa, joissa (tieteellisen) tiedon ja asiantuntijuuden rooli kyseenalaistui. Kauppahallin virastotalon kiistassa kyseenalaistettiin rakennusten huonokuntoisuuden kriteerit. Epilän voimalakiistassa politisoitui asiantuntijoiden tuottama tieto voimalavaihtoehtojen edullisuudesta. Tampellan kiistassa kriisiytyi kaupunkisuunnittelijoiden asiantuntemus ja rooli yleisen edun vaalijoina. Neljäs politisoitumisen ulottuvuus koskee yksittäisten kysymysten toimintavaihtoehtojen kyseenalaistamisen laajenemista koskemaan koko paikallista hallintatapaa ja paikallista poliittista kulttuuria. Selvimmin yksittäiseksi hallintatavan kyseenalaistumisen tapaukseksi muodostui tutkimuksessamme Tampellan tapaus, jossa suuret rakentamissuunnitelmat ja paikallisten poliittisten eliittien toimintamallit joutuivat ennen näkemättömän kritiikin kohteeksi. Paikallinen hallintatapa ei kyseenalaistunut vain ympäristökysymysten vaikutuksesta, mutta ympäristökonfliktit näyttäytyvät kiinnostavina teollisuuskaupungin perinteiden rapautumista ilmentävinä tapahtumina. Viidenneksi ympäristön politisoituminen kosketti laajemmin kaupungin habitusta ­ kaupunkimaiseman, paikallisen perinteen ja itseymmärryksen tasoilla. Kyse ei ole vain ympäristökohteista vaan laajemmin paikallisesta kulttuurista ja identiteetistä. Paikalliset ympäristöliikkeet toimivat kuten yhteiskunnallisilta kaupunkiliikkeiltä voidaan odottaa: ne synnyttivät konflikteja ja muuttivat osaltaan kaupungin merkityksiä. Kaupungin habituksen muutokseen liittyy selvästi perinteisen tamperelaisen ns. savupiipputeollisuuden hiipuminen. Jälkiteollistuvan kaupungin ympäristökonfliktit olivat sekä tämän yhteiskunnallisen murroksen indikaattoreita että sen katalysaattoreita. Teollisuuskaupungin traditioiden kyseenalaistuminen voidaan nähdä osana laajempaa yksinkertaisen modernin projektin kritiikkiä. Tutkimus perustuu laajaan asiakirja- ja lehtiaineistoon sekä ympäristökiistojen ytimessä vaikuttaneiden kansalaisaktivistien ja paikallisten päättäjien haastatteluihin. Paikallisen historian kuvauksessa on käytetty sekundaarilähteitä ja haastatteluja, tapaustutkimukset perustuvat pääasiassa lehti -ja asiakirja-aineistoihin ja haastatteluihin. Tapausten käännekohtia on lisäksi analysoitu määrällisellä sisällönerittelyllä sekä diskurssi -ja argumentaatioanalyysin keinoin. ; ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND THE "BROTHERS IN ARMS AXIS" POLITICISATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN TAMPERE FROM 1959 TO 1995 This study examines the politicisation of the environment in the context of one Finnish locality, Tampere. It is a study on the politics of the environment, i.e. the historical developments and contestations that preceded the institutionalisation of environmental policy. The politics of the environment is examined at the local level in the context of the tension between the rise of environmentalism and the traditions of local politics and governance. The locality of Tampere, thus provides a laboratory for understanding how environmentalism took place and what kind of tensions it caused. Theoretically the study draws on both sociology and political science. The theoretical frame is set by combining Kari Palonen s terminology of politics and Pierre Bourdieu s theory of action. Politicisation is a central notion in the study. It is understood as a process of questioning the rules of the game, i.e. claiming something to be playable and contingent. In Bourdieu s terms this implies a process of questioning the givenness of the doxa and provoking orthodox arguments from the political elite. Politicisation may take place at different scales, from the local disputes to broader patterns of governance and political culture. The central research question was the following: ·How has the environment become politicised at the local level? This question was divided into the following questions: ·What events have contributed to the politicisation of the environment? ·What kinds of disputes and actor coalitions emerged in these events? ·How did the patterns of local governance influence the definition of environmental problems? And, vice versa, how did the environmental problems effect local governance? ·What was the role of environmental movements in the politicisation of the environment? The research was carried out in the form of five case studies, all in the same locality, touching on different aspects of environmental issues, and covering the temporal scope of the study, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The cases studied were the following: 1. The Pyynikki highway construction plan (1959-1974) 2. The pollution of lake Näsijärvi by a local pulp plant and the moving the municipal water intake to lake Roine (1960-1972) 3. The dispute over the planned demolition of the old Jugendstil Office block in the city center (1972-1983) 4. The dispute over the plan to build a coal power plant in Epilä (1981-1984) 5. The conflict over the planning of the Tampella industrial area in the city center (1989-1995) The cases cover the time from the pre-history of environmentalism, i.e. when the environment was still a non-issue, through the rise of environmentalism (the so called environmental awakening ) to the institutionalisation of environmental issues in the 1990s. The research data comprised sources on local history including archives and official documents, newspaper materials and 35 interviews of local actors. Methodologically, the study was structured in relation to different levels: 1) in the context of local history (secondary sources on local history and interviews), 2) the case studies ­ using thick description ­ out of which, 3) detailed instances of discourse analysis, especially argumentation (or claims-making ) were extracted. Environmental problems were studied in a contextual constructivist frame as social problems constructed in processes of claims-making, involving argumentation and discursive struggle. Local environmental movements were studied as urban social movements whose activities affect the collective production of the city while being aimed at contesting and challenging the prevailing social order. The local movements in Tampere were key actors in politicising the environment, contributing to a change whereby previously undisputed environmental change and related social practices were no longer seen as inevitable or normal. Movements created new meanings not only for their participants, but for the larger community, also extending beyond the time frame of their most active presence. Since the late 1960s, the rise of environmentalism became manifest through locally based movements and organizations. The purely scientific orientations of local conservationist associations were challenged by more socially and politically oriented civic activities and associations. An important milestone was the founding of Pirkanmaa nature conservation association in 1969. Since 1970, environmentalism gathered momentum with rapidly growing membership figures and local initiatives. It soon suffered, however, from ideological divisions in the mid-1970s, as the radical left-wing students took over the nature conservation association. The divisions started to recede when the Koijärvi bird lake conflict (in Forssa) marked the rise of the Finnish green movement. This had its effect in Tampere as well: the ideological divisions between right- and leftwing environmentalists were reconciled in the early 1980s, which marked the beginning of an active period of environmental contestation. The emergence of the Finnish Green movement in the 1980s made such contestation increasingly visible at the local level. In Tampere, the first greens were elected in the local council in 1984. During the different disputes beginning from the 1970s, but especially in the 1980s, environmental protest challenged local political traditions and political culture, especially the traditions of the local governance. In Tampere, the scene of local politics in Tampere had virtually ever since the Second World War been dominated by a particular, unofficial institutional arrangement, which was commonly known as the brothers-in-arms axis. Adopted in the mid-1950s, the notion referred to the co-operation between the conservative National Coalition party and the Social Democrats in local politics and municipal government. This coalition was held together through a shared habitus based on wartime experiences and held a promise of welfare. The brothers-in-arms axis became an important player in local politics in the 1960s when the central figures of the coalition gained important position in city government. The study examines both the processes that enabled the stabilization of this co-operation into a local growth regime and those that have, especially since the 1980s, contributed to its weakening. The politicisation of the environment was a novelty in the modernist political landscape of Tampere. In the eyes of the governing coalition, however, environmental protest was perceived as mere opposition, not as a new issue on the agenda. We argue that this was due to the local traditions of an industrial city, divided between left and right ­ and a political sphere divided between the brothers-in-arms coalition and the communists, which allowed little space for new social movements. Environmental protest, however, was not the only factor to challenge the regime. The regime was also weakened through the loosening of ideological division s between the left and the right, as the communists had gradually lost political ground. The politicisation of the environment gathered momentum in the late 1970s when the growth of Tampere had slowed down and when there was a growing discrepancy between the mode of governance and its increasingly postindustrial social environment. This tension, and the inertia of the closed style of governance, became visible in the Tampella dispute in 1989, the biggest local environmental conflict to date. The politicization of the environment took place at different levels. It happened both at the level of individual disputes as alternatives were demanded to the straightforward mode of local planning, but it also expanded into a broader critique of local governance. Furthermore, we argue that the politicisation of the environment was not only an agent-driven phenomenon, since it depended on the cultural resonance of claims presented in local disputes. The study allows us to indicate critical events in the politicization of the environment. These were events sine qua non, i.e. events that set the stage and sensitized local actors for future contestations. The demolition of the old broadcloth factory (Verkatehdas) in 1976 and the dispute over Tampella were critical events in this sense. The former was retained in the memory of then activists-to-be and the latter both signaled the crisis of the closed-style decision-making and served to stabilize the local greens as a credible political alternative. Finally, the contestations, together with the restructuration of the locality, resulted in altering the modern industrial habitus of the city.