Retracing The Iron Curtain: A 3,000 Mile Journey Through The End And Afterlife Of The Cold War, Phillips - B+

                     This "is the story of how the continent of Europe gained and lost an Iron Curtain, and of how it learned but then seemingly forgot important lessons about openness and liberty." The British author and Russian scholar took this four month  journey in 2019.

                     The trip begins at Kirkenes in Finnmark on the Barents Sea at the Norwegian-Russian border. In WWII, the Germans occupied the town before they were expelled by the Soviets in 1944. In 1968, the USSR threatened the peace with NATO with menacing military exercises. Today, it is a tranquil border crossing, although the Russian side is home to much of the nuclear powered submarine fleet. And, the local newspaper/website critical of Russian policy is prohibited in Russia.

                     Porkkala, Finland is on the Gulf of Finland just west of Helsinki and north of Tallinn, Estonia. At that point, the Gulf is only 40 kms. wide and quite shallow. Fearing a maritime barrier, the Soviets occupied  Porkkola under a 50 year lease right after WWII. Using German POWs, the Soviets constructed a major naval base. Soon after Stalin's death, the USSR returned the city in exchange for a 20 year promise from Finland to not join NATO or ally with the US. 

                    When traveling east from Helsinki, Vyborg is the first city on the Russian side. It had been Finn, but was annexed by the USSR in 1944. It is one of the nicer cities in Russia, and is a place where older people reminisce about the Soviet Union, and even about Stalin. Reviving the cult of the dictator is part of Putin's domestic policy. 

                     In Riga and Liepaja, Latvia, memories are pre- and post- the freedom that came in the early 1990's. For many older people , particularly the Russian minority, life back then was pretty good. For ethnic Latvians, who remember their people being deported to Siberia, their right to fish in the Baltic being taken away, and their boats burned, there is nothing but disdain for the past. The younger Russians are bilingual, and at ease in a democracy.

                     Sweden was neutral, had no border with the USSR, but it was extremely anxious about the Soviets, particularly when it came to its large island in the Baltic, Gotland. Strategists referred to the 'Gotland Gambit,' in which the USSR would seize the island as a bargaining chip. "How to make Gotland unattractive to would be Soviet invaders was an issue that constantly concerned Stockholm." The coastline was restricted and the island was heavily fortified. The only incident was a 1961 defection by a small fishing boat captain.

                    To the west, the Germans on the Danish island of Bornholm surrendered to the Soviets in 1945 after a heavy bombardment and significant fighting. Their occupation was benign but they appeared to be in no rush on them part of the Soviets to leave. Fortunately, they departed in the spring of 1946. Its proximity to Poland and E. Germany made it an attractive destination to seek asylum. The most famous case was a Polish pilot who landed a MIG-15 on the island. NATO set up one of its most important listening posts on Bornholm.

                   Rugen is a small island off the German coast. A five mile long partially completed cement barracks was started by the Germans, and completed by the E. Germans after the war. It was used as a holiday retreat for retired military personnel. Germany was unique in that it was the only country divided by the Iron Curtain. The largest checkpoint between the two Germanys was in the north at Helmstedt-Marienborn, where both autos and passenger trains were subjected to communist paranoia at its worst. Of course, the wall in Berlin was the most prominent and was well known the world over. From 1961-1989, West Berlin was a backwater,"a seedbed for fringe lifestyles." It was a place with high tolerances for alternative living, heavy pot use, and uniquely, the only place in the country where men were exempt from military service. On the other side, there "was the monolithic official culture the GDR imposed."  Two of America's most famous speeches were made at the Wall by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. Its breaching on Nov. 9, 1989 was one of the signal moments of the century.

                 In 1951 Czechia, at the border town of Aps a few hundred yards from Bavaria, a passenger train crashed through the barrier bringing a handful of families to freedom. Czechoslovakia was unique in the communist world, as it had never been part of the Russian Empire, and did not have occupying Soviet troops until 1968. Bratislava, Slovakia was the closest city behind the curtain to the free world, only three kms. from Austria. Just outside the city is a vast missile complex built in the 1970's.

                  An hour west of Bratislava on the Danube is Vienna. It was occupied by the Soviets prior to the the four party occupation that lasted for a decade. Notwithstanding Berlin and its tensions, the shared occupation worked in Vienna, likely because there was less emotion among the occupiers than in Berlin, home of the Reich. The occupation ended in 1955 because Khrushchev wished to limit overseas spending and withdrew Soviet troops in exchange for neutrality.

                   Sopron, Hungary was the site of the August 1989 Pan-European Picnic. As ties were loosening around Europe, the plan was to cut the barbed wire separating Austria and Hungary. Six hundred E. Germans appeared and rushed the border in the largest escape of the Cold War.

                  Gorizia, Italy and Gorica, Slovenia are one city, divided by the Iron Curtain for decades. The division went through the city's train station and cemetery. Since Yugoslavia was not as beholden to the USSR, the border was only loosely enforced, allowing people on either side to travel freely back and forth. Trieste, just 45 kms. to the south is the city with which Churchill rhetorically concluded the Iron Curtain in his famous speech in 1946. "From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic..." was not accurate geographically, but oratorically was  brilliant. The city's port was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's window to the Adriatic and still feels more Austrian than Italian. Isolated on a rocky coast, Trieste and its surrounding countryside were declared a Free City at war's end. It didn't work, and the city wound up in Italy and much of the countryside in Yugoslavia.

                 The Corfu Channel separates Albania from Greece.  In 1946, Albanian mines sunk two British ships. From the Greek side, the CIA and MI-6 repeatedly failed in their attempts to unsettle the Hoxha regime.

                 Azerbaijan is 2500 kms. from Greece. As the USSR was falling apart, Azeris and Armenians began fighting in the southwest Caucasus. With so much going on, Gorbachev freed the autonomous region of Nakhchivan, the first piece of the empire to depart. A brief bus ride brings one to the Turkish border where Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran and Turkey come together, and this story ends.

                 The author's primary conclusion is that there was a surprising amount of 'Ostalgie,' warm remembrances by many of the communist past. Stability and equality, which for many along the border is not readily available, are the attractions. Ever since I read 'Balkan Ghosts' by Kaplan three decades ago, I've enjoyed these rambling travelogues.