Summary:

Pauli Heikkilä, Unifying divided Europe. Estonian exiles in the European Movement 1948 – 1957.

This article (”Unifying divided Europe. Estonian exiles in the European Movement 1948 – 1957.”) looks at the exiled Estonian politicians in the United Europe movements in the early Cold War period. The article is primarily based on two Stockholm newspapers, Eesti Teataja and Välis-Eesti, along with several other publications. The important personal archives of August Rei and Aleksander Varma, leaders of the exiled government, are located at the Swedish National Archives in Stockholm and will be used in the next version of my research.

The ultimate goal of exiled Estonians was to restore their state’s independence. In order to promote this, connections with Western leaders were sought. Further, the European Movement appeared to be the best forum for informing the West about the harsh reality of the Soviet Occupation and creating international pressure against the Soviet Union. The European Movement was the only organization involving actors from the East and the West and this corresponded to the Estonian discourse of Europe as a whole. Therefore the European Movement was appreciated although its limited opportunities for decisive actions were recognized. East and West European interest in the European Movement declined as West European integration rapidly intensified through the ECSC and EDC, particularly after the January 1952 Eastern European Conference in London. As a result, Estonian exile foreign policy began to focus on Atlantic anti-communist organizations. By 1957, disappointment in the ability of European unification to regain Estonian independence became evident.