Simo Mikkonen
Biographic Data
| ID | 6325002 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simo Mikkonen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simo |
| FAMILY NAME | Mikkonen |
| SIGNATURE | MIKKONEN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Jyväskylä |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4104-534X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Minority Networking Behind the Iron Curtain
This article examines the role of the Petrozavodsk Finnish Theater (PFT) in cultural exchanges between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1965 to 1985. As the only professional Finnish-language theater outside Finland, PFT occupied a unique position within Soviet cultural diplomacy. Despite lacking the prestige of major ensembles and the ideological weight of propaganda groups, PFT was allowed to tour Finland six times, an exceptional frequency fo…
Presenting Soviet Music
The 1984 Helsinki Festival introduced Finnish and international audiences to contemporary Soviet composers via what was perhaps the largest repertory of contemporary Soviet music in the West up to that point. The week of concerts did not include any premieres, but several works by Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and Denisov that were performed during the festival were recent compositions that had received only a few performances at that point. And yet, t…
Overcoming a Cold War Mindset
This article examines how a music festival in a regional Finnish town managed to overcome concrete and imagined Cold War limitations to become a venue for sustained encounters between Soviet and Western musicians starting in the mid-1960s. It explains how the Jyväskylä Summer Festival, which began in 1956 as one of the first festivals of its kind in the Nordic countries, acted as an intermediary and managed to secure contracts for several high-pr…
Kansainvälistymisen haaste
Toista maailmasotaa seuranneiden vuosikymmenten aikana ihmisten liikkuvuus lisääntyi merkittävästi kietoutuen yhteen laajentuvan korkeakoulutuksen kanssa. Käsittelemme tässä artikkelissa kansainvälisiä stipendiohjelmia ja opetusministeriön roolia Suomen sodan jälkeisessä kansainvälistymisessä. Tarkemmin sanottuna tarkastelemme suomalaisen opiskelijavaihdon kehittymistä kylmän sodan kehikossa, erityisesti opetusministeriön ja ulkoministeriön näkök…
Kulttuuridiplomatian näkökulma kylmään sotaan
Ylen dokumenttisarja Kylmän sodan Suomi herätti alkuvuodesta 2022 runsaasti keskustelua lähihistorian muistamisesta, tutkimuksesta ja kansallisesta historiakuvastamme. Kylmä sota on näkynyt myös ajankohtaisissa maailmanpolitiikkaa käsittelevissä analyyseissa viimeistään Venäjän ja Georgian vuoden 2008 sodasta lähtien. Sota lisäsi Venäjän ja lännen välisiä jännitteitä ja herätti pohdintoja kylmän sodan uudesta tulemisesta. Venäjän Ukrainaan kohdis…
Networking the Russian Diaspora
Networking the Russian Diaspora is a fascinating and timely study of interwar Shanghai. Aside from the vacated Orthodox Church in the former French Concession where most Russian émigrés resided, Shanghai today displays few signs of the bustling settlement of those years. Russian musicians established the first opera company in China, as well as choirs, bands, and ensembles to play for their own and other communities. Russian musicians were the co…
Interference or friendly gestures? Soviet cultural diplomacy and Finnish elections, 1945–56
In autumn 1944, the Soviet Union and Finland made peace, beginning a complete restructuring of their relations. As a result, Finland became the most important target country in the capitalist West for Soviet cultural diplomacy. The USSR sent numerous top artists to Finland for extensive tours. One objective was to support a peaceful image of the USSR, but, at the same time, these operations were to support the electoral successes of Finnish Commu…
The Role of Finnish Leftists in Soviet–finnish Artistic Exchanges During the Late Socialist Period
The article examines artistic exchanges between the USSR and Finland from the viewpoint of the Finnish left. After WWII, Finland was in a difficult geopolitical position; although not occupied by the USSR, it received little support from the West and so remained an independent capitalist democracy, with little foreign leverage. The Soviet influence was felt in many areas, and throughout the Cold War, Finland received many more world-class Soviet …
Exploring Culture in and of the Cold War
The Cold War used to be portrayed as a global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even if this image has been challenged many times, the main images that come to mind when speaking of the Cold War, are often linked to superpower rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States, the threat of a military conflict, and nuclear armament. These images have proved tenacious regardless of scholarship underlining cooperation ac…
Entangled East and West
Despite increasing scholarship on the cultural Cold War, focus has been persistently been fixed on superpowers and their actions, missing the important role played by individuals and organizations all over Europe during the Cold War years. This volume focuses on cultural diplomacy and artistic interaction between Eastern and Western Europe after 1945. It aims at providing an essentially European point of view on the cultural Cold War, providing f…
Marina Frolova-Walker, Stalin’s Music Prize
Although the title and the cover of Stalin’s Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics might suggest otherwise, make no mistake: this is not a book about Stalin. Although he remains an obsession in popular literature on Soviet music, scholars mostly use Stalin as a marketing gimmick. Yet, the cover featuring Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid’s painting The Origins of Socialist Realism, combining Dadaist art with socialist realism, was not chosen …
Conference ‘East-West cultural relations
The conference on cultural diplomacy and relations between East and West (broadly understood) gathered 120 scholars to the wintry Central Finland to discuss and share the most recent contributions
Pauline Fairclough, Classics for the Masses
In the shadow of technology
The study of the cultural Cold War and East–West interaction outside diplomacy and high politics has emerged as an important research field during the last two decades. With a few exceptions, however, scholarly interaction has been overshadowed by other forms of interaction. Existing research has mostly paid attention to technological exchange and to espionage, which was at times connected with scientific exchanges across the Iron Curtain. This a…
Beyond the Divide
Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West t…
Beyond the Divide
Beyond the divide
"Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West …
Exploiting the Exiles
This article discusses the abortive U.S. government effort to organize Soviet émigrés after World War II. After years of a lack of interest on the part of both the United States and the Soviet Union, Soviet émigrés and émigré politics came to the fore with the onset of the Cold War. The U.S. government sought to use émigrés in political and psychological warfare against the Soviet bloc. The many studies that have looked at Cold War-era psychologi…
Mass Communications as a Vehicle to Lure Russian Émigrés Homeward
After the millions of wartime displaced citizens had been forcibly returned to the Soviet Union after the Second World War, the Soviet Union inaugurated a new type of campaign in the mid-1950s to get all the remaining Soviet citizens and former émigrés from Soviet occupied areas to migrate back. In this campaign, the Soviets used all the means of mass communication they were able to produce, especially radio combined with the press and direct con…
Backlash of the Free World
The Soviet-sponsored World Festival of Youth and Students brought an exceptional number of US citizens to Helsinki in the summer of 1962. The event was made important by the fact that it took place in neutral territory. Furthermore, this event briefly made Helsinki a centre of extensive Cold War operations. This article examines the background and impact of this festival in the larger context of the Cold War and international relations. The timin…
Exploiting the Exiles
This article discusses the abortive U.S. government effort to organize Soviet émigrés after World War II. After years of a lack of interest on the part of both the United States and the Soviet Union, Soviet émigrés and émigré politics came to the fore with the onset of the Cold War. The U.S. government sought to use émigrés in political and psychological warfare against the Soviet bloc. The many studies that have looked at Cold War-era psychologi…
In the shadow of technology
The study of the cultural Cold War and East–West interaction outside diplomacy and high politics has emerged as an important research field during the last two decades. With a few exceptions, however, scholarly interaction has been overshadowed by other forms of interaction. Existing research has mostly paid attention to technological exchange and to espionage, which was at times connected with scientific exchanges across the Iron Curtain. This a…
Mass Communications as a Vehicle to Lure Russian Émigrés Homeward
After the millions of wartime displaced citizens had been forcibly returned to the Soviet Union after the Second World War, the Soviet Union inaugurated a new type of campaign in the mid-1950s to get all the remaining Soviet citizens and former émigrés from Soviet occupied areas to migrate back. In this campaign, the Soviets used all the means of mass communication they were able to produce, especially radio combined with the press and direct con…
Backlash of the Free World
The Soviet-sponsored World Festival of Youth and Students brought an exceptional number of US citizens to Helsinki in the summer of 1962. The event was made important by the fact that it took place in neutral territory. Furthermore, this event briefly made Helsinki a centre of extensive Cold War operations. This article examines the background and impact of this festival in the larger context of the Cold War and international relations. The timin…
Mass Communications as a Vehicle to Lure Russian Émigrés Homeward
After the millions of wartime displaced citizens had been forcibly returned to the Soviet Union after the Second World War, the Soviet Union inaugurated a new type of campaign in the mid-1950s to get all the remaining Soviet citizens and former émigrés from Soviet occupied areas to migrate back. In this campaign, the Soviets used all the means of mass communication they were able to produce, especially radio combined with the press and direct con…
Backlash of the Free World
The Soviet-sponsored World Festival of Youth and Students brought an exceptional number of US citizens to Helsinki in the summer of 1962. The event was made important by the fact that it took place in neutral territory. Furthermore, this event briefly made Helsinki a centre of extensive Cold War operations. This article examines the background and impact of this festival in the larger context of the Cold War and international relations. The timin…
Exploiting the Exiles
This article discusses the abortive U.S. government effort to organize Soviet émigrés after World War II. After years of a lack of interest on the part of both the United States and the Soviet Union, Soviet émigrés and émigré politics came to the fore with the onset of the Cold War. The U.S. government sought to use émigrés in political and psychological warfare against the Soviet bloc. The many studies that have looked at Cold War-era psychologi…
Beyond the Divide
Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West t…
Beyond the Divide
Beyond the divide
"Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West …
In the shadow of technology
The study of the cultural Cold War and East–West interaction outside diplomacy and high politics has emerged as an important research field during the last two decades. With a few exceptions, however, scholarly interaction has been overshadowed by other forms of interaction. Existing research has mostly paid attention to technological exchange and to espionage, which was at times connected with scientific exchanges across the Iron Curtain. This a…
Conference ‘East-West cultural relations
The conference on cultural diplomacy and relations between East and West (broadly understood) gathered 120 scholars to the wintry Central Finland to discuss and share the most recent contributions
Pauline Fairclough, Classics for the Masses
Exploring Culture in and of the Cold War
The Cold War used to be portrayed as a global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even if this image has been challenged many times, the main images that come to mind when speaking of the Cold War, are often linked to superpower rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States, the threat of a military conflict, and nuclear armament. These images have proved tenacious regardless of scholarship underlining cooperation ac…
Entangled East and West
Despite increasing scholarship on the cultural Cold War, focus has been persistently been fixed on superpowers and their actions, missing the important role played by individuals and organizations all over Europe during the Cold War years. This volume focuses on cultural diplomacy and artistic interaction between Eastern and Western Europe after 1945. It aims at providing an essentially European point of view on the cultural Cold War, providing f…
Marina Frolova-Walker, Stalin’s Music Prize
Although the title and the cover of Stalin’s Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics might suggest otherwise, make no mistake: this is not a book about Stalin. Although he remains an obsession in popular literature on Soviet music, scholars mostly use Stalin as a marketing gimmick. Yet, the cover featuring Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid’s painting The Origins of Socialist Realism, combining Dadaist art with socialist realism, was not chosen …
Interference or friendly gestures? Soviet cultural diplomacy and Finnish elections, 1945–56
In autumn 1944, the Soviet Union and Finland made peace, beginning a complete restructuring of their relations. As a result, Finland became the most important target country in the capitalist West for Soviet cultural diplomacy. The USSR sent numerous top artists to Finland for extensive tours. One objective was to support a peaceful image of the USSR, but, at the same time, these operations were to support the electoral successes of Finnish Commu…
The Role of Finnish Leftists in Soviet–finnish Artistic Exchanges During the Late Socialist Period
The article examines artistic exchanges between the USSR and Finland from the viewpoint of the Finnish left. After WWII, Finland was in a difficult geopolitical position; although not occupied by the USSR, it received little support from the West and so remained an independent capitalist democracy, with little foreign leverage. The Soviet influence was felt in many areas, and throughout the Cold War, Finland received many more world-class Soviet …
Networking the Russian Diaspora
Networking the Russian Diaspora is a fascinating and timely study of interwar Shanghai. Aside from the vacated Orthodox Church in the former French Concession where most Russian émigrés resided, Shanghai today displays few signs of the bustling settlement of those years. Russian musicians established the first opera company in China, as well as choirs, bands, and ensembles to play for their own and other communities. Russian musicians were the co…
Kansainvälistymisen haaste
Toista maailmasotaa seuranneiden vuosikymmenten aikana ihmisten liikkuvuus lisääntyi merkittävästi kietoutuen yhteen laajentuvan korkeakoulutuksen kanssa. Käsittelemme tässä artikkelissa kansainvälisiä stipendiohjelmia ja opetusministeriön roolia Suomen sodan jälkeisessä kansainvälistymisessä. Tarkemmin sanottuna tarkastelemme suomalaisen opiskelijavaihdon kehittymistä kylmän sodan kehikossa, erityisesti opetusministeriön ja ulkoministeriön näkök…
Kulttuuridiplomatian näkökulma kylmään sotaan
Ylen dokumenttisarja Kylmän sodan Suomi herätti alkuvuodesta 2022 runsaasti keskustelua lähihistorian muistamisesta, tutkimuksesta ja kansallisesta historiakuvastamme. Kylmä sota on näkynyt myös ajankohtaisissa maailmanpolitiikkaa käsittelevissä analyyseissa viimeistään Venäjän ja Georgian vuoden 2008 sodasta lähtien. Sota lisäsi Venäjän ja lännen välisiä jännitteitä ja herätti pohdintoja kylmän sodan uudesta tulemisesta. Venäjän Ukrainaan kohdis…
Overcoming a Cold War Mindset
This article examines how a music festival in a regional Finnish town managed to overcome concrete and imagined Cold War limitations to become a venue for sustained encounters between Soviet and Western musicians starting in the mid-1960s. It explains how the Jyväskylä Summer Festival, which began in 1956 as one of the first festivals of its kind in the Nordic countries, acted as an intermediary and managed to secure contracts for several high-pr…
Presenting Soviet Music
The 1984 Helsinki Festival introduced Finnish and international audiences to contemporary Soviet composers via what was perhaps the largest repertory of contemporary Soviet music in the West up to that point. The week of concerts did not include any premieres, but several works by Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and Denisov that were performed during the festival were recent compositions that had received only a few performances at that point. And yet, t…
Minority Networking Behind the Iron Curtain
This article examines the role of the Petrozavodsk Finnish Theater (PFT) in cultural exchanges between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1965 to 1985. As the only professional Finnish-language theater outside Finland, PFT occupied a unique position within Soviet cultural diplomacy. Despite lacking the prestige of major ensembles and the ideological weight of propaganda groups, PFT was allowed to tour Finland six times, an exceptional frequency fo…
Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics (10 works) · History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Economic history (6 works) · Cold war (5 works)