the GDR, “I must confirm that forrnmany people their GDR identity has becomernmore stable now after it’s all overrnthan ever before.” Adds WolfgangrnThicrsc, deputy chairman of the SocialrnDenrocrats and an Ossie, ” I’he Germansrnare now just beginning to realize howrndifferent they have beconre from eachrnother.”rnOssics arc tired of what they view asrnan “occupation” or even an Anschlussrnh the West, and some have started tornorganize so-called “Committees for Justice”rnoutside the existing political structure,rnhiitiators of this movement includerna Christian Democrat and thernleader of the Party for Democratic Socialismrn(successor to the SKD). Otherrnfounders include authors, a bishop, arnformer West Berlin mayor, and otherrnleading figures from culture and politics,rnmost (but by no means all) ofrnwhom come from the former GDR.rnThese committees have been roundlyrndenounced by the major parties inrnBonn, who charge that the committeesrnare a front organization for communistsrnthat will deepen the divisions betweenrnEast and West rather than help overcomernthem. The fact is, however, thatrnEast and West have been growing furtherrnapart instead of coming togetherrnsince reunification, and the formationrnof these committees is a somewhat belatedrnrecognition of this development,rnwhich the established parties have large-rn1′ ignored. The key to improving thernsituation, I am convinced, lies in makingrnleaders and opinion-makers in the Westrnaware of the deepening division takingrnplace in German society. The only majorrnpolitician who has recognized this isrnthe governor of Brandenberg, who calledrnthe committees “a warning card for thernparties in Bonn.” It is surclv no coincidencernthat just after their formation, thernireuhand announced a ncyv policy givingrnpreference to investors from the East ifrntheir bid to buy a company is as high asrna Western bid.rnA respected journalist who has justrnwritten a book on this problem, PeterrnBender, has come to the conclusionrn”that the Great Powers no longer dividernGermany, the Germans are doing itrnthemselves. We don’t live in two statesrnany more, but we do live in tyvo societies.”rnPeople in the East have not forgottenrnthe rcpellant aspects of life in thernGDR, though understandably the harsherrncontours of “earlier” life have softenedrnas thev recede into the past. Yet itrnwould be a mistake to attribute all therndiscontent merely to a “GDR-nostalgia.”rnAs I heard more than one personrnsay, “Earlier I couldn’t travel to the Westrnbecause it wasn’t allowed. Now I can’trnbecause I don’t have the time or thernmoney. I don’t see that as an improvement.”rnHamilton Beck is an assistant professorrnof German at Wabash College inrnCrawfordsville, Indiana.rnLetter From thernBalticsrnby John LukacsrnCold ComfortrnAmbling through the Museum of thernHistory of the City of Helsinki I findrnmyself in a small projection room whererna film about the history of Helsinki duringrnthe last 70 years is shown. It isrnpoignant and telling. There are shotsrnfrom the late 1930’s of young, smiling,rnlarge-boned Finnish women in theirrnlorrg white skirts, chatting at the trolleystopsrnor pushing their babies in prams,rnduring the relentlessly pale Nordic summerrnof 1939. Then the Russian bombsrnstart falling: the Winter War. Thernsound of air raid sirens; the fires cracklingrnthrough dark walls and windows onrnDecember nights, their blaze more sinisterrnirr these black-and-white picturesrnthan on color film. Then the stream ofrnrefugees from the lands the Russiansrnhave taken. Then the Second WorldrnWar. More bombs. Hospital scenes.rnThen the slow rebuilding. All throughrnthis not one critical word about the Russians,rnwhich is remarkable as well as rare,rnsince the history of small nations is everrnso often suffused with the history ofrntheir (often legitimate) complaints.rnThe Einns are an admirable peoplern(except when they are drunk, but thatrnis a different story). They are stolid,rncourageous, civic-minded, patrioticrnrather than nationalistic. They havernmany reasons to hate Russians and torndwell on their injustices; yet they arc notrninclined to do anything of the sort. ThernRussians, including Stalin, knevy that.rnIn turn, what the Einns do not knowrnabout the Russians may not be worthrnknowing. That is yvhy Einland, alonernamong the western neighbors of the SovietrnUnion, could remain independentrneven during the worst years of the ColdrnWar. John Kennedy, who ought to havernknown better, asked a Einnish diplomatrnin 1961: “What puzzles us Americans, isrnwhy the Soviet Union has allowed Einlandrnto retain her independence.”rnWhat is puzzling is Kennedy’s ignorance.rnLater in the 1960’s and 1970’srncame American propaganda and fearrnabout “Einlandization”—that is, the potentialrntemptation of Western Europeansrnto insure their security and wellbeingrnby voluntarily restricting some ofrntheir independence vis-a-vis Russia, a larnEinland. “Einlandization,” of course,rnwas an idiotic term from the beginning.rnThe Einns knew that independence, inrnthe life of a state or of an individual, isrninseparable from self-discipline, from arnknowledge of one’s own limits. I oftenrnsaid to myself then: if only the UnitedrnStates itself were “Finlandized”—thatrnis clean, reliable, homogeneous, modest,rnhonest, well-educated, knowing itsrnown limits of national well-being andrnsecurity, uninterested in and disinclinedrnto rhetorical, let alone political or military,rnverrtures beyond these limits.rnSome of the Soviet archives are nowrnopen. I talk with a Einnish scholar whornshows me photostats of secret conferencesrnwith Stalin, with Stalin’s handwritingrnon the margin. Here is one ofrnthem. It is 1945; Stalin won the war;rnEinland is potentially under his thumb.rnHe receives a pro-Soviet delegation inrnthe Kremlin: Einnish communists, fellow-rntraveling intellectuals, etc.rnHertta Kuusinen, a leading Einnishrncommunist: “You won the war. We admirernRussians.” Stalin: “We did not dornit alone. We have our faults. But, yes,rnRussians are stubborn and tough. Sornare you. Einland is a poor country, fullrnof swamps and forests. But you built arnstate for yourselves, you fought for it.rnEinnish people: village people, not likernBelgians. Belgians: cultured people.rnThey gave up. Had Belgium consistedrnof Finns they would have fought.” Later,rnto a Finnish general in civvies: “Whyrndon’t you wear your uniform? You haverna great little army.”rnThis is the Stalin whom the most respectedrnAmerican scholars of the SovietrnUnion still describe as a “revolutionaryrnfanatic.” Even Robert Tucker and RobertrnFEBRUARY 1993/39rnrnrn