Öststatsforskningens uppgång och fall

Abstract

In Sweden Soviet Studies were labelled according to geography. The communist states were called Öststater, “Eastern States”. A department for Öststatskunskap (Knowledge of Eastern States) and Öststatsforskning (Research on Eastern states) was established at Uppsala University. The purpose was to educate the Russian language students of the school for interpreters of the Swedish Army and to encourage research by “foxes” (Berlin) on the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the department in Uppsala was re-named Östeuropastudier. It gave courses on the “Eastern States” for undergraduate students in the social sciences. It was later reorganized. The scope was limited to research and education on the former republics of the Soviet Union. The department was renamed The department of Russian and Eurasian Studies. Here scholars of the “hedgehog” variety thrive. The “foxes” work at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, The Swedish Defence University and The Swedish Defence Research Agency.