The photo exhibition which RNH organised 23 August to 16 September 2013 at the National Library of Iceland on “International Communism and Iceland”, in cooperation with the National Library and the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland, has been widely reported. The government broadcasting service had an item about it in the evening television news 23 August, interviewing Dr. Mart Nutt, an Estonian member of parliament, who gave a lecture at the opening ceremony. The business newspaper Vidskiptabladid published 23 August an online interview with Dr. Pawel Ukielski, who gave a lecture at the opening ceremony. Vidskiptabladid also had a report 29 August on the photo exhibition, publishing some photos from it. Morgunbladid published a report 24 August on the exhibition, and an interview 9 September with Dr. Pawel Ukielski. In his two interviews in Iceland, Dr. Ukielski discussed the alliance of the communists and the Nazis during the first two years of 2nd World War, the Warsaw rising of 1944, the museum devoted to it, where he is deputy director, and his relationship with Lech Kaczynski, the President of Poland, who was very interested in keeping alive the memory of the victims of totalitarianism. Youtube has a short documentary, made by RNH, on the messages of Nutt and Ukielski and also with a sample of photographs from the exhibition.

The meeting which RNH organised with Icewise 30 August where Marta Andreasen, former Chief Accountant of the European Commission, spoke also made the news. The government broadcasting service had an item about it in the evening television news 30 August, interviewing Andreasen. Morgunbladid had an interview with Andreasen 31 August and published her talk in an Icelandic translation 3 September. There, Andreasen said about her experience in Brussels: “The lack of transparency and control on how taxpayers’ money was being spent literally amazed me, but not as much as the steadfast resistance to work on any improvement.” Morgunbladid also wrote an editorial about Andreasen’s message 2 September. Andreasen’s talk was broadcast on the small private television station INN. It can also be found on Icewise’s website, on Youtube, and here:

From left: Hallur Hallsson, Bjorn Bjarnason and Marta Andreasen. Photo: Octavio Otaño.

Marta Andreasen, former Chief Accounting Officer and Budget Execution Director at the European Commission, had a clear message at a well-attended meeting sponsored by RNH, Icewise and other associations, on where the EU is going, Friday 30 August 2013: Don’t Join. Andreasen was fired from her job when she criticized corruption and the many irregularities in the EU and refused to endorse its accounts. In her talk, she pointed out that the EU accounts had not been endorsed by auditors for the last eighteen years. Certified public accountants did not want to take responsibility for them. She asked what had happened to the enormous sums that Greece and Spain had received to reform their economies, because in 2008 the frailty of those economies had become apparent. Andreasen said that as a former high EU official herself, she knew that the EU was run by such officials, and not by the elected representatives of the peoples of Europe. She noted that when given the chance, voters had frequently refused to go along with further European integration, for example in the issues of the euro, a European constitution and the Lisbon treaty.

The nameless and non-responsible Brussels bureaucrats would like Iceland to join the EU, Andreasen said, because they welcomed a bigger and more powerful federation. They also were interested in the fertile fishing grounds around Iceland. It was unlikely, Andreasen thought, that European nations with large fishing fleets would accept a permanent exemption for Iceland from the Common Fisheries Policy which prescribes common access to natural resources. Andreasen is now a member of the European Parliament for the British Conservatives. She said, however, that unfortunately the European Parliament was little more than a rubber stamp for the Brussels bureaucracy. The only institution to show some independence was the European Council. The United Kingdom was also trying somewhat to contain the rapid growth of the Brussels bureaucracy. Andreasen has written a book about her experience, Brussels Laid Bare. Her visit to Iceland received a lot of attention: she was interviewed on the government television channel, and in the daily Morgunbladid. Her written paper can be downloaded here. The participation of RNH in this event was a part of the joint RNH-AECR project on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Communism”.

From left: Ukielski, Nutt and Gissurarson. Photo: Olafur Engilbertsson.

A photo exhibition, a part of the RNH-AECR joint project on “Europe of the Victims”, was opened at the National Library of Iceland 23 August 2013, the day designated by the European Parliament to be a Remembrance Day for the victims of totalitarianism. On this day, in 1939, Hitler and Stalin made the non-aggression pact which divided Central and Eastern Europe up between them and which started the 2nd World War. The exhibition is called “International Communism and Iceland”, with photographs from a recent book by Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson on the Icelandic communist movement 1918–1998. Olafur Engilbertsson and Sogumidlun were in charge of design.

At the opening ceremony, two guests from Central and Eastern Europe spoke. Dr. Mart Nutt from Estonia told the story of a small nation under Soviet yoke, suffering oppression and russification. Dr. Pawel Ukielski gave an account of the 1944 Warsaw Rising which the Nazis suppressed with extreme cruelty, while Stalin found it convenient to keep his army idly waiting at the other side of the Vistula River running through Warsaw. The audience intently watched the sometimes shocking images shown during his talk.

In an online interview with Vidskiptabladid, a weekly business magazine, Ukielski pointed out that the 2nd World War was not fought only between the West and the Nazis. The first two years of the War, Stalin and Hitler were allies, even if Stalin did not participate in the War. With the 1939 non-aggression pact they jointly assumed control of Central and Eastern Europe and did not become enemies until Hitler attacked Stalin in June 1941.

In an interview with the Icelandic government television channel, broadcast in the evening of 23 August, Nutt recalled that he had participated in the “Baltic Way” on 23 August 1989, when more than two million people had held hands and formed a living chain, from Tallinn to Vilnius, to demonstrate their will to see the Baltic states independent and free. In an interview with Morgunbladid 24 August, Nutt said that the Estonians were grateful for the sympathy and support that the Icelanders had shown the Baltic nations. After the event, Nutt met with former Prime Minister David Oddsson and gave him a miniature Estonian flag to commemorate that exactly forty years have passed since Oddsson, then a young law student, translated a book by Swedish-Estonian author Anders Küng, Estonia. A Small Nation under Foreign Yoke into Icelandic. Oddsson was Prime Minister in the summer of 1991 when Iceland became the first state to re-recognise the independence of the Baltic states.

The meeting hall was full to the brink, the guests including the Polish Ambassador to Iceland, some university professors, members of parliament and former government ministers, old anti-communist stalwarts of Vardberg, and also some people from the large Polish community in Iceland. Dr. Asgeir Jonsson, lecturer of economics at the University of Iceland, Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, member of parliament for the Independence Party, and Dr. Einar Stefansson, professor of medicine at the University of Iceland, contributed to the discussion after the two talks, before the exhibition was formally opened. Finally, RNH invited all the present to a reception on the National Library premises. One of the guests, Dr. Benedikt Johannesson, a mathematician and published of business reviews, blogged about the event. Vidskiptablaðið published a selection of photographs from the event, and the exhibition, 29 August. The National Library of Iceland, The Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland, and Vardberg, the Icelandic Atlantic Alliance, joined RNH in supporting and sponsoring this event.

Youtube has a short documentary about the comments of the two foreign guests, and a sample of photos on the exhibition:

Nutt Slides

Ukielski Slides