“How the Helsinki Final Act Changed My Life”

In the run-up to the Helsinki Debate on Europe, we will present articles by speakers and panellists. Published in cooperation with Eurozine, these texts address the core topics of the event: How did the Helsinki Accords, signed fifty years ago in the Finnish capital, help to promote democracy and shape the European security order? And what needs to be done today, when old western alliances seem to melt into air and Russia, with its war on Ukraine, has declared all past agreements null and void?

First out is Slovak author and journalist Martin M. Šimečka. To him, as a young Slovak dissident in 1975, the Helsinki Accords at first appeared merely to cement the repressive status quo. But he was proven wrong. In a powerful essay, mixing personal recollections with comprehensive analysis, Šimečka sheds light over both past and present.

Read Martin M. Šimečka’s “How the Helsinki Final Act Changed My Life” in Eurozine.

Photo: President Gerald R. Ford and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act on 1 August 1975. Source: NARA, CC BY-SA 2.0