Russia

When sport was a pawn in the Cold War

Simon Engel 17.08.2023 Should athletes participate in events held in countries at war or governed by authoritarian regimes? That is the perennial question. Politicians have no qualms about recommending that their sporting associations impose a boycott. However, sport is per se apolitical. That was the backdrop to the West’s boycotting campaign in the run-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Moscow, 19 July 1980.

The odyssey of the Greek freedom fighters

Murielle Schlup 18.04.2023 In 1823 around 160 Greek revolutionaries ended up in Switzerland, having been defeated and persecuted by the Ottomans. They escaped on foot on a route that took them via Odessa, Bessarabia, Poland and through German states to the border in Schaffhausen.
Greek refugees of the Ypsilantis troop, watercolour lithograph, 1823.

Two Swiss villages on the Black Sea

Petra Koci 25.03.2022 Ukrainians are fleeing westwards into the unknown, with some also heading to Switzerland. More than 200 years ago, Swiss settlers migrated east to Ukraine and established two Helvetic colonies: Zürichtal in Crimea. And Shabo near Odessa.
Zürichtal was renamed Zolotoe Pole – the golden field – in 1945.

Fleeing to Switzerland

Nada Boškovska 21.03.2022 The war between Russia and Ukraine is driving people westwards. But Switzerland is an old hand at helping refugees from Eastern Europe, as a look back at the past shows.
Hungarian refugees in Buchs, 1956.

Golden times in the East

Katrin Brunner 23.10.2020 The Thirty Years’ War devastated Europe. Though not involved in the war, Switzerland also suffered. Many people left the country, moving north, and also eastwards. Some emigrants, such as goldbeater Heinrich Schlatter, found a happier future in their new homelands.
Goldbeater’s workshop in the Stadtmuseum Schwabach.

Project 26

Claudia Moritzi 12.02.2020 In 1990, P-26 was uncovered. The mission of this clandestine cadre organisation was to whip up, strengthen and maintain the public’s spirit of resistance in the event of Switzerland being occupied.

Suvorov: An offensive goes awry in the high mountains

Severin Rüegg 09.08.2018 The diplomatic starting point is surprisingly complex and requires explanation: A Russian general coming from Italy, with the support of Austria, enters into battle against France in what is now Switzerland.

Revulsion and surveillance

Julia Richers 12.05.2017 Despite sympathy for the oppressive situation in tsarist Russia the political activities of the Russian revolutionaries and the young students in Switzerland was a constant source of resentment.