The acquiring of the independence of the Finnish state and the aggrandizement of Romania (1917-1918) are part of the same process of nation and state-building which occurred during the last phase of the World War I when some of the main belligerents were weakened by the war and gradually capitulated while others emerged from the conflagration as winning powers. The previous nation-building process has also many parallels occurring predominantly over the latter half of the 19th century. Although shaping their main cultural and domestic political patterns in a fairly different milieu, the fact remains that the two nations will soon find themselves caught in the middle of the same tussle of military giants that has characterized the World War II. The two countries reacted by trying to use to their best advantage this hopeless international environment, experiencing also a re-discovery of each other as two nations trashed to the history garbage by Hitler and Stalin, then to be resuscitated against each other by each of the two tyrants. When the ashes of the war choked up, the two countries found themselves partly by their own merits and faults, partly as a result of the international climate in a different situation. Romania slipped down into Moscow’s sphere of influence and became a people’s democracy while Finland retained her social fabric intact paying instead the price of foreign policy submission. Yet, with Romania’s re-emergence on the international arena in mid-1960s and with the international environment gradually changing following Stalin’s death, especially during the Thaw, the relations between Romania and Finland have improved. A Romanian Government top official’s shed of flowers to a Finnish foe of Soviet Union, the flow of Finnish tourists to Romanian resorts, the Romanian substantial participation into the Helsinki process have all contributed to a reinvigoration of the relations between the two states. All these achievements were swept by neo-Stalinist dictatorship and underdevelopment in Romania. The bridge building between the two nations only re-started in the aftermath and as a consequence of the 1989 Romanian revolution. The Romanian European integration had much to do with Finland: both the start of the accession negotiations to the EU and the end of the process under the commissariat of Mr. Olli Rehn represented two cornerstones of Romania’s successful road on the way of EU integration. When Finland on December 31, 2006 passed the baton of EU integration to Germany, the Romanians were celebrating her EU integration and Olli Rehn was in Bucharest.

Seminar

Bridge building between far-off European nations: Romania and Finland during the 20th century

June 3, 2008

The Embassy of Finland in Romania

’Grigore Gafencu’ Study Center for the History of International Relations

Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania

Organizing Committee:

Reader Dr. Silviu Miloiu, Chair of Organizing Committee, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Humanities

Ph.D. Candidate Bogdan Mihai Dumitrescu, researcher, ‘Grigore Gafencu’ Research Centre for the History of International Relations

Ph.D. Candidate Iulian-Nicusor Isac, researcher, ‘Grigore Gafencu’ Research Centre for the History of International Relations

Ph.D. Candidate Oana Laculiceanu, researcher, ‘Grigore Gafencu’ Research Centre for the History of International Relations

Dr. Cezar Stanciu, researcher, ‘Grigore Gafencu’ Research Centre for the History of International Relations 

Tuesday 3 June

10.00 – 11.00 Registration of the participants - (Conference Center, House K, Address: Maior Alexandrescu St., no. 39)

11.00 - 11.45 Conference Center, House K, Address: Maior Alexandrescu St., no. 39

Opening Speeches

Reader Silviu Miloiu

Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Humanities

Chair of the Organizing Committee

H.E. Neagu Udroiu, former Romanian Ambassador to Finland and Estonia

Romania and Finland: close in peacetime and wartime

Mr. Antero Inkari, Counsellor, The Finnish Embassy in Romania

Coffee break

11.45 – 12.00

12.00 - 14.00 (Conference Center, House K, Address: Maior Alexandrescu St., no. 39)

Keynote Session

Chair:

Neagu Udroiu

Kalervo Hovi

Poland, Finland and Romania. Cooperation and Parallelisms

Bogdan Schipor

Two victims for one goal. Romania and Finland in British policy in autumn 1939

Silviu Miloiu

Diverging their destinies. Romania, Finland and the September 1944 armistices

Elena Dragomir

Reshaping foreign policy. Romania and Finland’s cases in the context of the CSCE’s opening. A comparative analysis

Tuomas Hovi

Tradition and history as building blocks for tourism: the Middle Ages as a modern tourism attraction

Florin Anghel

Romanian diplomatic projects at the Baltic Sea during the interwar period: Romania and Latvia

14.00 – 14.15

Book Presentations:

Neagu Udroiu, Zapezi din Miazanoapte

Europe as viewed from the margins. From World War I to Present

eds. Silviu Miloiu, Ion Stanciu and Iulian Oncescu

Raoul Bossy, Marturii finlandeze si alte scrieri nordice despre romani

ed. Silviu Miloiu

Nicolae Iorga, Tari scandinave: Suedia si Norvegia. Note de drum si conferinte

ed. Silviu Miloiu

15.00 – 16.30

Launch

16.00 – 18.00 Excursion in Targoviste

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS