ABSTRACT
Vyacheslav Molotov was an unlikely peacemaker with a background as Stalin’s brutal henchman, yet in 1954 it was he who started the long journey to Helsinki by proposing a European security conference. His aim was to neutralise Germany, consolidate the new Soviet empire, and drive the Americans out of Europe. By the time the conference reached Helsinki in 1975 it had been turned around by Western negotiators to achieve the opposite; committing the Americans to Europe, weakening the Soviet empire, and eventually helping to liberate Eastern Europe. That is the central paradox of the story.
