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Abstract
In the years 1941–1948, thousands of people escaped across the Baltic Sea from eastern Europe to Sweden, primarily from the Baltic states but also from the USSR. On the basis of newly declassified Soviet correspondence through encrypted cables between the Soviet foreign ministry and the Soviet legation in Stockholm for the years 1944–1947, this article addresses the Soviet-Swedish diplomatic negotiations over a number of these refugees. The article also asks whether the 1947 Andrei Vyshinskii note on Raoul Wallenberg should be understood not only as a Soviet attempt to put an end to the Wallenberg case, but also to acquire a change in Sweden’s handling of Soviet requests for the extradition of refugees.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank David Hamilton and three anonymous reviewers for valuable advice. Generous funding for this article has been provided by the Swedish Government’s grant for independent research on Raoul Wallenberg.
Notes
1. All Soviet documents referred to in this article are filed in the Russian foreign ministry’s archive (Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii, or AVPRF). All UD documents are stored in the archive of the Swedish Foreign Ministry in the Riksarkivet (RA).
2. See for example the police report on the arrival of 16 Polish refugees in Gotland in RA. UD. P 40 J, 5 October 1939, and the notification by the Polish mission in Stockholm regarding the arrival of nine Polish refugees in RA. UD. P 40 I, 27 October 1939. According to a report by the Swedish diplomatic mission in Lithuania (of 17 October 1939) approximately 16,000 Polish refugees had arrived in Lithuania. An additional 100,000 Polish refugees were located in the Vilna region, which in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet additional protocol was to be ceded to Lithuania. See RA. UD. P 40 J.
3. “Memo for the foreign minister”, RA UD, P 40 R, 26 September 1945.
4. “Memo on Baltic refugees in Sweden” (signed by Minister of Social Affairs, Gustav Möller), RA. UD. P 40 R, 30 November 1945.
5. On the Soviet policy on refugees, see Elliot, Citation1992, pp. 341–59. Memorandum of conversation (Söderblom/Dekanozov), RA. UD, HP 1 Er, nr. 184, 12 December 1944, and memorandum of conversation (Söderblom/Lozovskii) RA. UD, P 40 R, nr. 275, 5 June 1945.
6. Memorandum of conversation, RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 238, 18 May 1945. See also protocol from the meeting of the Advisory Board on Foreign Affairs, 28 September 1945. RA. UD. A 2, vol. 5–6.
7. On the Soviet 1946 policy change regarding Baltic refugees in Sweden, see AVPRF, f. 0140, op. 31, d. 5, p. 133, ll. 14–20, 30 March 1946 and AVPRF, f. 0140, op. 31, d. 5, p. 133, ll. 21–23, 31 March 1946.
8. There are several reports from the Swedish Marine Command on arriving refugees throughout 1945; see for example RA. UD. P 40 R, 16 April (14 Estonians in Slade), 29 April 1945 (nine Latvians and three Germans in Ystad), 30 April 1945 (11 Latvians in Kalmar), 8 May 1945 (eight Latvians in Ystad), 8 May 1945 (144 militaries from Riga in Ystad), 31 October 1945 (17 Latvians in Ljugarn). See also Memorandum of conversation regarding the trawler Merituul, RA. UD. P 40 R, 21 January 1948, and Report of the State Security Police RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 255, 25 February 1948.
9. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 460, nr. 611, 13 May 1946.
10. The Soviet Foreign Ministry, Narodnyi kommissariat innostrannykh del, (NKID).
11. See for example AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 459, nr. 542, 27 April 1946, AVPRF, f. 059 op. 16, p. 73, d. 460, nr. 611, 13 May 1946, and AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p.73, d. 461, nr. 1050, 29 August 1946. Chernyshesv succeeded the legendary Soviet envoy to Sweden (between 1930–1945) Aleksandra Kollontai in July 1945.
12. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 462, nr. 1318–1320, 26 September 1946.
13. The Commission investigating the Swedish government’s handling of the Wallenberg case, the so-called Eliasson Commission, offers a detailed account of rumors and disorientation. See the Commission’s report Ett diplomatiskt misslyckande (A Failure of Diplomacy).
14. This negotiating behavior was reported in RA. UD. HP 80 nr. 335, 30 April 1946, RA. UD. P 2 EuI, nr. 150, 25 July 1945, RA. UD. P 2 EuI, nr. 634, 12 December 1946, and RA. UD. P 2 EuI, nr. 655, 30 December 1946. See also Ingemar Hägglöf’s memo of conversation with Chernyshev in RA. UD. HP 1 Er, 17 December 1945.
15. Makarova was addressed on four occasions in talks on Wallenberg (see note 12). She was, however, also addressed at a great number of meetings when Wallenberg was not under discussion. See for example Soviet approaches in RA. UD. P 40 R, 17 January 1945, RA. UD. P 40 R, 20 April 1945, RA. UD. P 40 R, 20 August 1945, and RA. UD. HP 80 Ct, nr. 30, 8 March 1946.
16. See A Failure of Diplomacy, 367–96.
17. The NKID, established in 1923, was renamed in March 1946 as Ministerstvo innostrannykh del (MID).
18. See note 12 above.
19. In 1942 the Soviet mission approached UD asking to be briefed whenever a Soviet refugee arrived in Sweden (see RA. UD. P 40 J, 1 September 1942). The Soviets also asked for information regarding cases of Soviet citizens escaping from refugee camps in Sweden (see RA. UD. P 40 J, 9 August 1944).
20. In response to the Swedish demand of 11 February 1952 (RA. UD. P 2 EuI) that Wallenberg should be returned, the Soviets reiterated the message of the Vyshinskii note on five occasions before handing over the Gromyko memorandum (on 16 April 1952, 16 July 1953, 18 December 1954, 5 March 1955 and 19 March 1956 (see A Failure of Diplomacy, pp. 762–66.)
21. RA. UD. P 2 EuI, nr. 306, 18 August 1947.
22. Undén was appointed foreign minister in July 1945.
23. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 350, 392–394, 10 April 1947.
24. “Memo for the foreign minister”, RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 190, 26 September 1945.
25. RA. UD. HP 1 Er, 31 August 1944.
26. RA. UD. P 40 R, memo, 4 December 1944.
27. “Priem shvedskogo poslannika S. Sederblioma”, 26 January 1945, in AVPRF, f. 0140, op. 30, p. 129.
28. “Utdrag av protokoll, hållet inför länsstyrelsen i Södermanlands län å kronohäktet i Nyköping” in Rådhusrättens i Nyköping dombok i brottmål 1946, A I, AC:44, RA, Landsarkivet Uppsala.
29. This was Kollontai’s last official act of her 15-year tenure as Soviet envoy to Sweden. She returned to Moscow a mere three days later, on 18 March. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 15, p. 66, d. 386, nr. 602, 17 March 1945. Günther allegedly got the impression from Kollontai that the USSR was not particularly interested in having the five sailors extradited. See Engzell’s letter to Söderblom, RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 118, 21 April 1945. Judging from the Soviet mission’s pursuance of the case throughout the coming year, this most probably did not reflect the Kremlin’s position on the matter. The Head of UD’s political division, Sven Grafström, notes in his diary that Kollontai had “a tendency to downplay all difficulties and thereby have her interlocutors making more concessions than anticipated. In fact, it had always turned out that what [she] has downplayed has often been the absolute conditions of the Kremlin from which no departures whatsoever would be made” Grafström (Citation1989) p. 691. The case with the five sailors seems to have been an example of this.
30. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 15, p. 66, d. 387, nr. 705, 31 March 1945.
31. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 15, p. 67, d. 388, nr. 1268–1270, 30 May 1945.
32. Memorandum of conversation, RA. UD, P 40 R, nr. 392, 11 August 1945.
33. Memorandum of conversation, RA. UD, P 40 R, 22 November 1945.
34. The following summary of witness accounts is founded on the Nyköping Municipal Courts’ documentation of the court proceedings in Rådhusrättens i Nyköping dombok i brottmål 1946, A I, AC:44, RA, Landsarkivet Uppsala.
35. See lieutenant-commander Ivanov’s testimony, 4 in dombok.
36. RA. UD. P 40 R and HP 22 I/Ryssland, nr. 190, 12 October 1944.
37. See for example testimonies by Vladimir Abrosimov (10), Konstantin Arzamasov (25), Alexander Teterin (28), Kirill Vasiliev (30), Ivan Svetosarov (34), Nikolai Panov (38) and Alexander Sidorov (40) in the memo “Interrogations with Russian citizens”, in dombok.
38. Letter from the Head of the Marine Division C. Beskow to the Heilborn law firm, 2 April 1946 in dombok.
39. See testimonies by Nikolai Iakovlev (2), Paol Nadiezhdenkov (26) and Konstantin Ivanov (31) in dombok.
40. Alexander Sifarov and Arzamasov spent the night in the crow’s nest of 89 and both emphasized that they would have heard gunshots had there been any (6 and 25 in dombok).
41. See Nikolai Panov’s testimony (38 in dombok).
42. Ibid. Similar thoughts on the fate of Iakovlev and Akulov were voiced by the witness Nikolai Iakovlev (2 in dombok).
43. Panov’s testimony, see 39 in dombok.
44. See for example testimonies by Alexander Sifarov (7), Boris Cherepanov (14), Nadiezhdenkov (27) and Ivanov (32 in dombok).
45. See for example, “De fem ryssarna inför rätta idag”, Södermanlands läns tidning, 12 April 1946.
46. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 459, nr. 457–460, 31 March 1946. Chernyshev most probably had the following four articles published in Södermanlands läns tidning in mind when making his complaints; “Alla fruktade alla i den ryska marinen”, 17 April 1946, “De häktade ryssarna tillåtes förebringa sin motbevisning”, 27 March 1946, “De fem ryssarna höras på nytt”, 23 April 1946, and “Motvilliga ryssar skulle bli tvingade hem från Sverige”, 25 April 1946.
47. Memo Undén, R 70 Er, 29 April 1946. See also AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 459, nr. 555–556, 30 April 1946.
48. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 460, nr. 786, 787, 17 June 1946.
49. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 460, nr. 826–827, 23 June 1946.
50. It remains unclear who provided Chernyshev with this highly sensitive information from the Cabinet’s internal deliberations. In a talk with Chernyshev on 3 July, Myrdal denied that the matter had ever been discussed by the Cabinet. Myrdal can therefore most probably be excluded as the source. See cipher from Stockholm to Swedish mission in Moscow in RA. UD. HP 64 Er, nr. 161, 9 July 1946.
51. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 460, nr. 859, 1 July 1946.
52. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 461, nr. 982–984, 26 July 1946.
53. On the Granovskii case, see Statens utlänningskommission (SUK), hemliga arkivet, vol. f 4:7. Kassavalvsdossier 237 and Granovskii (Citation1962).
54. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 74, d. 462, nr. 1426, 13 October 1946.
55. Memorandum of conversation, RA. UD. P 40 J, 17 October 1946.
56. RA. UD. P 40 J, nr. 236, 22 November 1946.
57. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 463, nr. 1566, 15 November 1946.
58. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 57, d. 463, nr. 1061, 17 November 1946.
59. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 57, d. 463, nr. 1583–1585, 19 November 1946.
60. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 57, d. 463, nr. 1610, 24 November 1946.
61. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 463, nr. 1617–1621, 24 November 1946.
62. Ibid.
63. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 463, nr. 1611–1613, 24 November 1946.
64. Ibid.
65. On the Kobli case, see SUK, hemliga arkivet, vol. F2A:78. Kontrolldossier Kobli, Verner filed at RA.
66. Interrogation with helmsman Gustav Adolf Freibusch in Kontrolldossier.
67. Police report from 23 November 1944 in Kontrolldossier.
68. Letter from the Chernov at the Consular Department of the Soviet mission in Stockholm, 23 November 1944 in Kontrolldossier.
69. See Kobli’s application on 23 November 1944 for residence permit in Stockholm in Kontrolldossier.
70. Police report 23 November 1944, 4, in Kontrolldossier.
70. http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/6dec_lange_kobli.pdf. The cipher can be found at this address.
72. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 16, p. 73, d. 462, nr. 1318–1320, 26 September 1946.
73. AVPRF, f. 059, op, 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 602–603, 21 June 1947.
74. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 625, 25 June 1947.
75. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 650, 651, 1 July 1947.
76. On the Semenchenko case, see dossier Semenchenko, SUK, hemliga arkivet, vol. F2A:183, and SUK, kanslibyråns arkiv F1 AC:19123 filed in RA.
77. Semenchenko’s testimony in police report nr. 545, 24 July 1947, in dossier,p. 22.This could explain why the Minister of Internal Security Viktor Abakumov’s name appears on the list of recipients on two of the encrypted cables addressing the Semenchenko case. See also Matz, Citation2013, p. 357.
78. Dossier, p. 16.
79. Dossier, p. 18.
80. There were several Soviet trawlers at Lindholmen at this point. According to Semenchenko, there were at least another three Soviet trawlers.
81. Semenchenko’s testimony in dossier, p. 21.
82. Ibid. pp. 11–23.
83. Ibid. pp. 24–27.
84. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 774, 25 July 1947.
85. Ibid.
86. See letter from Engzell to Bazarov, 12 September 1947 in dossier.
87. Philipp’s book accused the Soviets of having imprisoned Wallenberg, and castigated the Swedish US for having gravely mishandled the matter (Philipp Citation1946).
88. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 725, 16 July 1947, and AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 730, 17 July 1947.
89. AVPRF, f. 059, op. 18, p. 54, d. 351, nr. 728–729, 17 July 1947.
90. RA. UD. P 40 R, 15 December 1947.
91. RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 181, 3 January 1948.
92. RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 156, 4 February 1948.
93. RA. UD. P 40 R, nr. 42, 25 February 1948.
94. RA. UD. P 2 EuI, 10 April 1947.
95. RA. UD. P 40 J, 23 November 1946.
96. Ibid. and Erlander (Citation2001), p. 149.
97. See the FSB memo “Tol’ko dlia svedeniia Shvedskoi storony – Otvety tsentral’nogo arkhiva FSB Rossii na voprosy ekspertov S. Berger i V. Birshteina po delu Raoulia Vallenberga”, in UD. P 2 EuI, 2 November 2009.
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Johan Matz
Johan Matz was awarded a PhD in 2001 by the Department of Government, Uppsala University. He was Secretary to the Commission on the Swedish handling of the Raoul Wallenberg case (the Eliasson Commission) (SOU 2003:18) and Secretary to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Swedish Parliament (2003–2011). He is currently a researcher at the Centre for Russian Studies and Eurasian Studies (UCRS), University of Uppsala. In 2012, Matz was granted access to Soviet encrypted cables between the Soviet Legation in Stockholm and the Soviet Foreign Ministry for the years 1944–1947. He has published in Journal of Intelligence History, International History Review and Cold War History.