Sweden, the USSR and the early Cold War 1944–47: declassified encrypted cables shed new light on Soviet diplomatic reporting about Sweden in the aftermath of World War II

In March 1946 the Soviet government decided to radically revise their policy towards
Sweden. The Soviet demand, ever since November 1944, for the total extradition of
the approximately 30,000 Baltic refugees in Sweden was suddenly dropped and a
number of measures were taken by Moscow to accomplish a rapprochement between
the two countries. On the basis of recently declassified Soviet encrypted diplomatic
correspondence between the Soviet mission in Stockholm and the Soviet foreign
ministry for the years 1944–1947, this article analyses the way in which the Soviet
envoy to Sweden, Il’ia Chernyshev, represented Swedish affairs before his superiors in
Moscow, and how these representations may have contributed to Moscow’s decision
to revise its policy towards Sweden.