An end in sight for the nuclear-era? : A qualitative study of Swedish newspapers’ opinions about the dissolution of the Soviet Union 1991

The Soviet Union was the great enemy of Western civlisationen during the cold war. Sweden was not part of the cold war. Despite that Sweden had more in common with the Western powers. The country had more cultural, economic and political similarities with them. The purpose of this study was to examine how Swedish newspapers wrote about the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. I have also examined whether they expressed a fear of Russia. The newspapers that were included in the study were: Norrkensflamman (socialistic), Aftonbladet (social democratic), Arbetet (social democratic), Dagens Nyheter (independent), Expressen (liberal) and Svenska Dagbladet (conservative). The results showed that Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet had a western and eurocentric international outlook. Aftonbladet and Arbetet also had a western and eurocentric international outlook but were more critical of the western powers. Norrskensflamman was the only newspaper that supported the Soviet Union. They also saw the capitalist world as the great enemy. Russian fear was expressed in Arbetet, Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen. Arbetet thought the rest of the world should demand that Russia abolishing all their nuclear weapons. Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen saw Russia’s political system as threat to the west. Svenska Dagbladet also suspected that Russia should attack their neighbours in the future