How the Helsinki Final Act Changed My Life
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
For many years, the Helsinki Final Act, signed in 1975, appeared to be a victory for the communist regimes. They viewed the document as recognition of the division of Europe. Only at the end of the 1980s did it become clear that the Final Act’s recognition of human rights had served as a small hammer, chipping away at the concrete of the Soviet empire bit by bit. Yet the Final Act’s soft power was unable to prevent either the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan or the murderous actions of Serbian troops in Bosnia and Kosovo. The Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe averted neither Russia’s first attack on Ukraine nor the large-scale invasion in February 2022. When autocrats no longer even pretend to respect the law, the old formulas no longer work.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2025, pp. 57–66)