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Thursday, 15 May
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“The Helsinki Effect brushes the dust off the film reels and analyzes the diplomatic theater with formidable, ironic wit and a keen eye for the vanity and pettiness between the formal lines. But based on hundreds of hours of archival footage and newly declassified transcripts of high-level conversations, director Arthur Franck also uncovers how the Helsinki conference came to have a profound impact on the world – and how it resonates today in a troubled world, 50 years later.” (CPH:DOC)
Language: English
Runtime: 1hr 27m
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The Helsinki Final Act is arguably one of the most pivotal diplomatic achievements in European history. The 1975 agreement established the equality and territorial integrity of states, which in Moscow was interpreted as a great success. At the same time, however, the Helsinki document’s emphasis on Human Rights provided inspiration for both Charta 77 in Czechoslovakia and Solidarność in Poland – and, ultimately, the revolutions of 1989. Fifty years on, the Helsinki Debate on Europe focuses on a crucial piece of history told by contemporary witnesses from both East and West, who will also share their views on today’s orderless world.
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Friday, 16 May
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While Finland and Sweden are often seen as champions of democracy and human rights, their histories tell a more complex story when it comes to their treatment of the Sámi. In a session focussing on minority groups, input from Finland, Sweden and the European level will shed light on the experiences of minority groups, especially the Sámi people, through the lens of truth and reconciliation processes. And what about other communities? How is the Russian-speaking minority faring in Finland today?
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Literature is not only written and read in a social and cultural context, it also relates to this world in many and specific ways. This becomes particularly palpable in times characterized by turbulence and transformation. Literature creates worlds, it doesn’t just reproduce reality. However, stories and narratives can indeed describe and make visible historical, national and individual developments, sometimes even be part of such motions and contribute to change itself. What are the narrative strategies through which writers interact with a volatile world?
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Saturday, 17 May
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The relationship between Finland and Russia goes way back and history still influences both public debate and political practice. But other historical relations play a role as well, for example to Sweden and Germany. Similar patterns of historical experiences influencing current developments are visible throughout Europe. How do, for example, Germany’s or Poland’s historical relations to Russia play out today? How do Finland’s “good” and “profitable” connections to Russia – part of the so-called Finlandization – compare to Gerhard Schröder’s or Angela Merkel’s ambitions to make deals with Vladimir Putin? Or to the meanwhile infamous dictum Wandel durch Handel? And can newly non-neutral Sweden learn something from Polish history?
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The world regulated by the Helsinki Final Act (1975), the OSCE Paris Charter (1995), and the UN Charter (1945) is crumbling. Current conflicts – Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East after 7 October 2023 – have made the need for reform of the international system painfully obvious and the tectonic shift in US foreign policy implemented by the Trump administration adds insult to injury. But does that mean that we have to give up the idea of an order based on, for example, the Helsinki Accords? Or rather that we need to defend it even stronger? How can we get back to a rule-based order? What new spaces for negotiation can be formed in Europe and the world?
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Sunday, 18 May
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Hanaholmen, Hanasaarenranta 5, Espoo
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The Helsinki Debate on Europe in May 2025
The year 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, one of the most significant diplomatic achievements in European history. This was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
The 1975 agreement established the equality and territorial integrity of states, which in Moscow was interpreted as a great success. At the same time, however, the Helsinki document’s emphasis on Human Rights provided inspiration for both Charta 77 in Czechoslovakia and Solidarność in Poland – and, ultimately, the revolutions of 1989 and following years.
Fifty years on, the Helsinki Debate on Europe will not only discuss the values guiding international relations in the post-Cold War era, but also sound out the prospects of getting back to a rule-based world order. What new spaces for negotiation and regulation can be formed in Europe and the world? Is this at all an option in the current geopolitical constellation?
In any case, current conflicts – Russia’s war on Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East after 7 October 2023 – make the need for reform of the international system painfully obvious. For many this situation is revealing the hypocrisy in the European concept of universal values.
So, what does it look like, the world of tomorrow?
Finland is at the moment one of the places in Europe where the end of the post-Cold War order is most visible. Its history between east and west makes Finland’s recent social development and geopolitical choices a revealing litmus test, helping us to understand the tectonic shifts currently affecting Europe, from north to south.
From 15 to 18 May 2025, the Helsinki Debate on Europe will address all this and much more in public speeches and panel discussions, in literary readings as well as internal sessions and briefings. The event features leading Finnish and international writers, intellectuals, and representatives of both politics and civil society.
Events are in English. Admission is free but we recommend reserving tickets in advance.
After the Final Act.
What Now?
To proclaim the European security order for dead and void would play into the hands of exactly those who want to divide the world into spheres of influence and for whom minor states are at the mercy of major powers in a multi-polar system. So, how can the respect for the principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act be restored?
After the Final Act. What Now?
The Helsinki Debate on Europe, 15–18 May 2025
Finland is at the moment one of the places in Europe where the end of the post-Cold War order is most visible. Its history between East and West, between two empires – not as in Central Europe between Russia and Germany; or, earlier, in Southeast Europe, between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, but rather between Russia and Sweden – makes Finland’s recent social development and geopolitical choices a revealing litmus test, helping us to understand the tectonic shifts currently affecting Europe, from north to south.
The Helsinki Debate on Europe will provide the opportunity to follow up on several of the themes and questions raised during last years’ events in this series, not least the discussions about the influence of Russia on and in Europe. After more than half a century as a neutral state, Finland, reacting to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, quickly decided to join NATO and is since 4 April 2023 a full member of the alliance. What does this historical shift signify? One thing is sure, it marks the end of the “Finlandization” era, characterized by a rather unique form of realpolitik that from the outside was often looked upon as a kind of subservient compromise but at the same time contributed to Finland catching up with the economic standard of the rest of western Europe. Since 1945, for over half a century, Finnish leaders navigated between Russian and western power, a stance that profoundly influenced society and shaped cultural identity.
Fifty years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, the city is also the right place to take a closer view at the documents and principles that up until recently were guiding international relations. The accords negotiated and sealed in Helsinki in July and August 1975 established the equality and territorial integrity of states. In Moscow, this was interpreted as a great success, since it meant that the West finally accepted the new borders that had been drawn in Europe after the end of World War II. However, the wording also emphasized respect for human rights and fundamental political freedoms, which provided inspiration for both Charta 77 in Czechoslovakia and Solidarność in Poland, and thus contributed significantly to developments that culminated in the revolutions in Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Empire.
But what significance do this and other international treaties, such as the 1995 Paris Charter of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the 1945 UN Charter, or even the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have today? Not only Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine but also the inflamed conflict in Israel and Gaza have made the need for a reformation of these organizations painfully obvious.
Adding insult to injury, the profound shift in US foreign policy implemented by the Trump administration has further undermined traditional multilateral alliances and instead seems to advocate a world in which might is right. For those in Europe who didn’t see the danger coming, the spring of 2025 has been a brutal wake-up call.
However, to proclaim the European security order for dead and void would play into the hands of exactly those who want to divide the world into spheres of influence and for whom minor states are at the mercy of major powers in a multi-polar system. So, how can the respect for the principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act and other fundamental treaties be restored?
In short: What is the state of European and global formats for mediation, negotiation and regulation, how can they be established anew and on what common values can and should they be based? The fact that Finland in 2025 chairs the OSCE adds further to Helsinki being the ideal setting for such deliberations.
As a solid EU member state, Finland has meanwhile become something of a model in areas such as economic development and education. The fast transformation from a rural, underdeveloped country and an economy lacking technological prowess in the 1970s to the innovation powerhouse of today has made economists talk about “the Finnish miracle”. Recently, however, just as in many other EU states, the trend has been less encouraging: Finland’s economy has been in recession and the recovery is predicted to be slow.
In the years after the turn of the millennium, Finland scored very high in the international PISA studies and the world’s eyes were directed towards its educational system and radical reforms. Meanwhile, like in the case of the economy, the results have declined; here as well, following a general European trend.
The question remains, how will Finland deal with current and future challenges in these areas – politically and culturally? And what marks has the transformation success story left on art, literature, film, architecture? Have art and literature mirrored this development, even been part of forming a new Finnish identity and self-image? Is there a “transformation narrative”, and if so, what does it look like?
Finland is a predominantly ethnically homogeneous country with a dominant ethnicity of Finnish descent. Less than 10% of the population has foreign background, compared to 30% in neighbouring Sweden. However, there are notable minority groups in the form of Finland-Swedes, Sámi and Roma people, with important historical significance. Those whose native language is Russian amount to 1.7%, the largest linguistic minority in the country.
As of 2023, the birth rate dropped to its lowest level on record since 1776 with a total fertility rate of 1.26, which is one of the lowest in Europe. In 2024, the rate dropped even further, to 1.25. This shows that demography will be one of the main issues occupying Finland in coming decades. How can the challenges of a rapidly ageing society be met, especially if immigration is off the table as part of the solution?
In the 2023 general elections, the right-wing populist Finns Party (previously known as the True Finns) became the second largest party with 20% of the votes and has a strong position in the current four-party government coalition. As all right-wing populists, the Finns Party takes a strong stance against minorities, including historically established groups, such as Finland-Swedes or Sámi people, but above all towards new immigrants, notably from the Middle East or Somalia.
Notwithstanding Finland’s strong position in and commitment to both the EU and the Eurozone, the country also highlights some features that are far more nationalist and identitarian/nativist – ideas that are by no means limited to this small northern EU member. Is Finland becoming a European model in this respect as well?
Participants
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Arthur Franck
Arthur Franck is a documentary filmmaker from Helsinki. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2009, and has been making documentaries for over 15 years. His previous films have been selected to CPH:DOX, HotDocs, True/False, DokLeipzig and DocsBarcelona. Together with producer Sandra Enkvist he runs the production company Polygraf.
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Carl Henrik Fredriksson
Carl Henrik Fredriksson is a Swedish editor, essayist and translator living in Vienna. He is the Programme Director of Debates on Europe and co-founder of Eurozine, whose editor-in-chief and president he was until 2015. Fredriksson was also the editor-in-chief of Sweden’s oldest cultural journal Ord&Bild.
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Durs Grünbein
© Tineke de Lange
Durs Grünbein is considered one of the most important and internationally influential German poets and essayists. He was a guest of the German Department at New York University and the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. He has received numerous prizes for his work, including the Georg Büchner Prize, the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award and the Premio Internazionale NordSud of the Fondazione Pescarabruzzo. His books have been translated into several languages. He lives in Berlin and Rome and is a member of the German Academy of Language and Literature.
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Emma Puikkonen
© Meri Björn
Emma Puikkonen is a Finnish author and university lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Turku. She has written novels, librettos, performance texts, and creative writing guides. Her book “Eurooppalaiset unet” (2016), that explores questions of European identity, has been nominated for major literary awards such as the Finlandia, Nordic Council Literature Prize and Runeberg Prize. Puikkonen’s writing engages with pressing contemporary themes, with climate change playing a central role in her recent work. She has also received the WSOY Literary Foundation Award.
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Fredrik Löjdquist
Ambassador Fredrik Löjdquist is a Swedish diplomat and the first Director of the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS) at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs since 2021. From 2012 to 2017 he was the ambassador of Sweden to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and from 2018 to 2021 Sweden’s first ambassador and special envoy for countering hybrid threats. His main focus is European security.
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Hanna Smith
Hanna Smith is a Finnish expert on hybrid threats, Russia and Eurasia as well as great-power identity and geopolitics. She is a senior strategic adviser to the Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. Since 2018, she is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe and from 2017 to 2022 she was Director of Research and Analysis at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. Smith regularly comments on hybrid threats, Russia and international affairs in both Finnish and international media.
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Hannele Pokka
Hannele Pokka was a Member of Parliament and Minister of Justice in Finland. Being the fifth Governor of Lapland, she was the first woman to hold the office. Hannele Pokka is now chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concerning the Sámi People in Finland.
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Jaakko Iloniemi
Ambassador Jaakko Iloniemi is a former Finnish diplomat who has been awarded for his foreign policy achievements. Between 1965 and 1971 he served as Head of Department for Development Cooperation in the Finnish Foreign Service and was then promoted to Undersecretary for Political Affairs. Jaakko Iloniemi was also appointed as Ambassador to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) as well as the Finnish Ambassador to the United States.
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Jacques Rupnik
© Tomáš Vodňanský
Jacques Rupnik is a French political scientist, born in Prague. He is Research Professor at CERI-Sciences Po in Paris as well as visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. Since he joined CERI in 1982 he has been writing and lecturing about the politics of East-Central Europe and the Balkans and their process of European integration. In the 1990’s, he was an advisor to President Václav Havel. Executive director of the International Commission for the Balkans, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1995–1996) and main drafter of its report Unfinished Peace; member of the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (1999–2000) and co-drafter of The Kosovo Report (2000). He has also been an advisor to the European Commission and a board member of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague 2010-2017.
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Joachim von Puttkamer
Joachim von Puttkamer is Director of the Imre Kertész Kolleg and Professor of East European History at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. His research covers modern and contemporary Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak history, with a special focus on the history of democracy and on the politics of history and museums in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Johan Häggman
Johan Häggman graduated in political sciences from Åbo Akademi University in Finland and holds a master’s degree in international relations, currently working as policy advisor for the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). He has worked 22 years in Brussels, promoting multilingualism in different capacities and eight years for the European Commission. Häggman is co-author of several studies about minority languages, especially in the EU.
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Karl Schlögel
© Alfons Raith
Karl Schlögel is a German historian, writer and professor emeritus of East European History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). His books have been translated into many languages, including “Ukraine. Nation on the Borderlands” (2018), “The Soviet Century” (2021), “The Scent of Empires. Chanel No.5 and Red Moscow” (2022). He is a member of the German Academy of Language and Literature.
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Krister Stoor
© Umeå universitet
Krister Stoor has roots in Kiruna and its surroundings, Orusjohka, Laevas Sámi village, which deeply influenced his career: He is a member of the Swedish government Truth Commission for the Sámi people and a lecturer for Sámi Studies at Umeå University. For UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, Krister Stoor serves as an expert in the Swedish nominations for lists and register.
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Laura Kolbe
Laura Kolbe is Professor of European History at the University of Helsinki. She focuses on Finnish and European history, as well as urban and university history. Her latest research deals with urban governance and policy making in Helsinki and other Scandinavian capitals during the 21st century. Laura Kolbe is founder and former chair of the Finnish Society for Urban Studies and active as president of City of Helsinki History Committee.
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Martin Milan Šimečka
© Tomáš Benedikovič
Martin Milan Šimečka is a Slovak author and journalist. He is one of very few Slovak writers who published “samizdat literature” during communism. In November 1989, he co-founded the revolutionary movement Public against Violence. From 1999 to 2006 he was the editor-in-chief of SME, Slovakia’s leading daily newspaper, and later held the same position at the Czech weekly Respekt. Since 2016, he is a commentator at Dennik N, a newly founded daily newspaper in Slovakia.
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Monika Fagerholm
© Niklas Sandström
Monika Fagerholm is a renown Finland-Swedish novelist. Her books have been translated into 20 languages and she is the recipient of numerous literary awards, both in Finland and abroad, including the Runeberg Award (1995), the Swedish August Prize (2005), the Nordic Prize of the Swedish Academy (2016), and the Selma Lagerlöf Prize (2020). For her latest novel Vem dödade bambi (“Who killed Bambi”) she received the Nordic Council’s Literary Prize in 2019. She is also active as mentor to writers in Finland (in both languages) and in Sweden.
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Nataliya Gumenyuk
© Oleksandr Popenko
Nataliya Gumenyuk is a prize-winning Ukrainian journalist and author specialized in conflict reporting. She is a regular contributor to international media outlets, including The Guardian, The Atlantic and CNN. She is the founder and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab (PIJL). After the full-scale Russian invasion Gumenyuk with her team co-founded The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies, which documents war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia. She was also a co-founder and the head of independent Ukrainian Hromadske TV and Hromadske International.
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Olga Davydova-Minguet
Olga Davydova-Minguet holds a PhD in ethnology and is Professor in Russian and Border Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her main research interests fall within the intersections of migration, cultural, gender and transnational studies. She has studied immigration of Russian-speakers to Finland since the beginning of 2000s; one recent publication is “How to ‘Immigrate into History’: Russian Speakers in the Finnish Border Region and the Politics of Memory in Transnational Settings” (2024).
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Paweł Machcewicz
© Anna Machcewicz
Paweł Machcewicz is a historian, former professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences (2008 – 2017), and founding director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. He is the author of many books, most recently: “The War that Never Ends. The Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk” (2019).
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Peter Pomerantsev
Peter Pomerantsev is author, TV-producer and journalist for, amongst others, the London Review of Books, The Atlantic and The New Yorker. He concentrates especially on Russian disinformation and propaganda – most recently in “How to Win an Information War, The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler” (2024), but also in his first book, “Nothing is True and Everything is Possible” (2014), that won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize in 2016. He is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where he focuses on authoritarian propaganda and how to defeat it.
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Robin Harms
Robin Harms is a human rights expert currently serving as Principal Adviser and Head of Unit at the Finnish Non-Discrimination Ombudsman. Formerly Political Adviser to the Finnish Minister of Justice and Senior Officer at the Ombudsman for Minorities, Harms has a long-standing commitment to equality and anti-discrimination. Internationally, he has worked with the UN and OSCE in crisis management and human rights monitoring across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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Rosa Liksom
© Pekka Mustonen
Rosa Liksom is a Finnish writer born in Lapland. With her unconventional characters, she ranks amongst the most innovative contemporary authors in Finland – “Compartment Number 6” was rewarded with the most prestigious Finnish literature award in 2011, the Finlandia Prize; its screen adaptation won the Grand Prix in Cannes 2021. Besides writing, Liksom also paints and makes short films since 1985. She lives in Helsinki.
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Sergei Lebedev
© Tanja Draškić Savić
Sergei Lebedev is a Russian writer whose books have been translated into 25 languages. Following his parents’ path, in his young age Lebedev worked in geologist expeditions in the Far North of Russia and Central Asia. These were mainly former Gulag areas which remained uninhabited since the camps were closed in mid 60s. Since 2010 Lebedev has written six novels dedicated to the theme of the Soviet hidden past, the impact of Stalin’s repressions and its consequences in modern Russian life. The novels have been written through the lens of a family history and form a meta-novel which explores the Soviet totalitarian trauma. Since 2018, Sergei Lebedev lives in Potsdam, Germany.
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Sonja Biserko
© private
Sonja Biserko is the founder and chairperson of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. For 17 years, Sonja Biserko was a diplomat in ex-Yugoslavia and has written several books on Serbia’s political development, edited and prepared major editions on the 1990s wars in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia and the root causes of the country’s dissolution. Senior fellow at the US Institute for Peace (2001).
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Stefan Ingvarsson
© Utrikespolitiska institutet
Stefan Ingvarsson is a Swedish analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS). From 2015 to 2020 he acted as Cultural Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. Before that he worked as artistic director of the international festival Stockholm Literature at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. He is a board member of the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby.
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Vesa Rantama
© Pia Pettersson
Vesa Rantama is an editor, journalist and writer based in Helsinki. He is the current editor-in-chief of the oldest Finnish language cultural journal Nuori Voima and the Chair of Finnish Critics’ Association. His writing is regularly published by Helsingin Sanomat, the leading Finnish daily, and Suomen Kuvalehti, the leading weekly magazine, as well as internationally by Versopolis and Nordisk Tidskrift.
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Veton Surroi
Veton Surroi is a Kosovar journalist, writer and politician. He is the founder of the independent weekly KOHA and later the daily KOHA Ditore, which is still the leading daily newspaper in Kosovo. In 2000, he founded KTV, an independent national TV broadcaster. From 2005 to 2008 he was a member of parliament in Kosovo as president of the ORA Reformist party. Surroi was a senior negotiator at Rambouillet peace talks in 1999 and one of the four cosignatories of the Rambouillet accords for Kosovo. He was also a senior member of the Kosovo Negotiations Unity Team in the Vienna Negotiations (2005 – 2007) that brought the independence of Kosovo.
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Volker Weichsel
© Ole Witt
Volker Weichsel is a political scientist with a special focus on Central Eastern and Eastern Europe. He is the editor of the magazine OSTEUROPA, which explores the topics of politics, economy, society, and culture across all Eastern Europe and is published in Berlin. He is also a translator from Russian, French English and Czech. In the past, Weichsel has worked in the fields of European integration and international relations.
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Ylva Perera
© Suvi Elo
Ylva Perera is the literary editor of Hufvudstadsbladet, the biggest Swedish-language newspaper in Finland. She is currently on leave to finish her PhD in Comparative Literature at Åbo Akademi University. Her research concerns anti-fascism in Finland-Swedish literature from the 1920’s to the 1940’s, primarily in the prose of the writer Mirjam Tuominen. Perera is also a critic, essayist and novelist and lives in Turku, Finland.
Organizers
The Helsinki Debate on Europe is organized by the S. Fischer Foundation and the German Academy for Language and Literature, in cooperation with the Finnland-Institut and Hanaholmen, the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre.
Partners
Debates on Europe Helsinki is supported by the Federal Foreign Office, the Gottfried Michelmann Stiftung, the Hessisches Europaministerium and The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
