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This chapter is based on previously classified archives and explores the role of business in the development of Swedish economic intelligence during the Cold War. It covers the embryonic organisational development within the Defence Staff during World War II and the subsequent reorganisations up to the formation of the East Economic Bureau (ÖEB) in 1959. The study shows that a common denominator for many business representatives and academic staff involved in the investigatory work was previous employment or training at the Industrial Research Institute (IUI). Two later eminent professors, Torsten Gårdlund and Erik Dahmén, were part of the early investigatory activities when the Swedish Employers’ Federation (SAF) supplied the financial support. During the early 1950s, the focus shifted from investigations of war economies towards macroeconomic information on the emerging planned economies. Under the leadership of the lawyer Jan Rydström, previously affiliated with several business interest organisations, the aspiration was for a broader investigatory agency. Consequently, discussions and negotiations were initiated with several interested parties, paving the way for the establishment of a formal yet secret economic intelligence organisation in 1959. In contrast to its precursors, the ÖEB became more independent from the Defence Staff, while it comprised a broad network of representatives from the defence organisation, government, export businesses, banks, and experts within the scholarly community.

En ubikvitet är någonting som är allestädes närvarande. Begreppet medrötter inom teologin har i överförd betydelse fått karaktärisera naturresurser som finns överallt i den ekonomisk-geografiska teoribildningen. Idag är benämningen en smula obsolet som konkret term i teorin menbrukbar som en metafor för saker som vi tar för givet, som bara är ellersom vi upplever finns överallt. Allestädes närvarande. Från Helmer till Klungan, från Missenträsk till Avaliden, från Umeå till Ammarnäs så finns alltid den allestädes närvarande gemensamma nämnaren ”skogen”. Vi bor i skogen. Skogen är det som omger oss i vår färd till eller ifrån– eller i våra liv på – en plats. Skogen har en särskild plats i vår västerbottniska historia och vårt sätt att prata natur. För att den finns där.

In this extensive and detail-rich monograph, Zsuzsanna Varga explores Hungarian agriculture during the Cold War. The so-called “agricultural miracle”, with a question mark, relates to the successful transfer of Western technology and know-how, which in the 1970s and early 1980s had transformed the Hungarian countryside, dominated by producer cooperatives, far from the Stalinist kolkhoz-type.

Detta är en redogörelse för hur de två svenska lantbruksråden Miles von Wachenfelt och Waldemar Silfverhjelm bedömde och rapporterade om den internationella jordbruksmarknadens förutsättningar och utveckling utifrån sina respektive placeringar i mellankrigstidens London och Riga. Samtidigt beskrivs den inledande historiska bakgrunden till hur lantbruksrådens uppdrag växte fram. Den turbulenta mellankrigstidens handelspolitiska problem berörs och framförallt lantbruksrådens bedömningar av marknadsläget för jordbruksprodukter, där den svenska smörexporten hade en specifik roll. Några rent personbiografiska aspekter på lantbruksrådens arbete och liv tas upp men det finns inte möjlighet att här ge en heltäckande bild av vare sig lantbruksrådens arbete eller de omfattande förändringar som uppstod på de marknader som de bevakade. Istället riktas uppmärksamheten mot lantbruksrådens uppväxt, utbildning och arbete i den svenska utrikesförvaltningen. När det gäller bedömningar av jordbruksmarknadens förändringar berörs främst England och Estland.

After World War II, the large-scale Soviet agricultural production model was spread into the satellite states of CEE (Central and Eastern Europe). In spite of this, planned economic agricultural production was far from homogenous. This diversity – appearing inside and outside the Soviet Union – is worthwhile exploring, here represented by two of the most (in relative terms) productive agricultural regions of the Soviet bloc. The authors thus compare the agricultural development from the 1940s up to the 1980s in Post-War Estonia; a Soviet Republic, and Hungary; a Soviet satellite state. The authors’ methodology is commonly known as encompassing comparison. Estonia was forced to become an integral part of the Soviet Union and a planned economy already in 1940, while Hungary – in theory – was able to remain as an independent state. In both cases, however, trade was re-oriented towards the CMEA-market. After Stalin’s death, and especially from the late 1950s, the eased conditions enabled states to deviate from the initial Stalinist model. Hungary did so in a more formal way because of the national political development after the Revolution of 1956 while Estonia had to find other informal ways of rejecting the centralised orders. The investigation shows that the Estonian kolkhozes and the Hungarian co-operatives, representing two forms of deviation from the Soviet kolkhoz model, were able to deviate by means of specific measures such as the personal impact from national politicians, as well as the neglect of centralised orders. The authors conclude that the main explanation for this was due to specific national institutional legacies, such as the landed property relations, work ethics, and market economy experiences. Both the formal and informal political resistance that was exercised provided motives for new thinking in agrarian organisation and management. This had long-term effects on Soviet agricultural policy from the mid-1960s.

This article explores the growth and development of the agricultural co-operative associations in Estonia from the 1860s up to the 1930s in a comparative fashion. The primary focus is on the expansion of dairy co-operative associations. Hence, the comparative approach puts Estonia in the light of the contemporary organisational development, foremost in the Nordic countries and Bulgaria and to some extent also related to the Latvian and Lithuanian development. It is shown here that the co-operative expansion taking place prior to the interwar independence was of major importance for the relative export success that took place in the 1920s, i.e. prior to the trade contraction during the inter-war depression. Several uniting developmental features are elucidated and discussed from the perspective of co-operative organisation and education, as well as the relations between the state and the co-operative associations. The 1930s here represents a period of deviation in relation to the Nordic countries because of the impact from the depression, the rise of authoritarianism and not least the expansion of state control, which preceded the formal Soviet occupation in 1940.   

This comparative study is based on two large surveys of privateland and forest owners in two Estonian counties. While more than half of Põlvamaa is covered with forests, Läänemaa has a potential for summer tourism and second homes. We explore different rationales for obtaining landed property and analyse the individual property holders’ relations to—and use of—landand forests. Based on the two interlinked restitution and privatisation processes from 1991 onwards, our surveys reveal two main rationales among the owners:emotional and economic. The owners’ relations to the property are connected with legacies from both the interwar independence and the Soviet period. In addition, different rationalities, ambitions and attitudes are also related to how the property was obtained. In spite of the demand for land, many resituated landowners have chosen to maintain or recreate family property, even if the property was not actively used. In both Põlvamaa and Läänemaa the emotional bonds to land are strong among the owners of restituted or inherited property, while this is a weaker factor among those who have obtained land or forest through privatisation.

Our survey among new land and forets owners in Põlva County in southeast Estonia focuses on the owner's different motives for obtaining land and forest property through restitution and privatization from 1992 on. In the light of the historical context presented, two clear-cut motives for obtaining property appear: emotional and economic. Based on the results from the survey we conclude that the emotional non-economic factors have been most influential for a majority of the landowners, regardless of if the actual property was restituted or purchased. The emotional bonds to landed property are related to the aspiration to regain and reposess family property and thereby related to a certain place affiliation. Another interpretation concerns the restrictions with regards to the spread of modern commercial forestry among the - foremost small-scale - property holders for which  the actual posession is around 12 ha each.