The Great Patriotic War and the way it is interpreted restricts contemporary Russian freedom of expression more than Putin, claims Dr Markku Kangaspuro, Director of Research at the Aleksanteri Institute

Dr. Kangaspuro's new project Constructing Russian Identity in the Media: Between the History of WW II and the Future of Europeanness will focus on the importance of those interpretations.

This and other new projects in the Aleksanteri News 1/2010 (PDF).

“During the Cold War, transferring technology through the Iron Curtain was difficult but far from impossible”, says Dr Sari Autio-Sarasmo, a senior researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute.

Finland played an important role in such technology transfers thanks to its position as a neutral state. The research project "Knowledge through Iron Curtain, lead by Dr Autio-Sarasmo has revealed that other small actors also were much more powerful than we have so far thought.

Read more in the Aleksanteri News 4/2009 (PDF).

While many Russians complain that there is widespread historical amnesia’ in their country, Russians in general actually remember the Soviet terror quite well.

The differences arise in the interpretation, says Dr Alexander Etkind, a renowned scholar in cultural studies from the University of Cambridge and a Visiting Fellow in the Aleksanteri Institute Visiting Scholar Programme in August and September 2009.

Read more in the Aleksanteri News 3/2009 (PDF).

Belarus is almost totally dependent on energy supplies from Russia, receiving almost 90 percent of its energy from Russia. In such cases, the receivers of energy are usually seen as passive recipients.

The reality, however, is much more complex, claims Aleksanteri Visiting Fellow Margarita M. Balmaceda, a renowned expert on energy issues in the post-socialist world.

Read more in the Aleksanteri News 2/2009 (PDF).

While most of us know of the Bausch & Lomb soft contact lens, few of us have heard of the Czechoslovak chemist Otto Wichterle. Still fewer know that he was the man behind the lens.

According to Riikka Nisonen-Trnka, the Iron Curtain was far from impenetrable: “Technology was transferred through the Iron Curtain, and not only from the West to the East but also, as in this case, from the East to the West.”

Read more in the Aleksanteri News 1/2009 (PDF).

"Denial of war crimes is not a failure to come to terms with the past but is part of the first seps in understanding the past. It is a sign that people feel something as negative and feel the need to justify", argues Aleksanteri Visiting Fellow Jelena Obradovic on the situation in contemporary Serbia in the second issue of the Aleksanteri Newsletter. (PDF)