De små båtarna och den stora flykten : Arkeologi i spåren av andra världskrigets baltiska flyktbåtar

Sammanfattning: The Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were occupied no less than three times during the Second World War. Faced with a reign of terror, the threat of deportation, and compulsory conscription, over 30,000 people fled over the Baltic Sea to Sweden. On their arrival in Sweden, most escape boats were confiscated by the authorities and in 1945 were returned to the Soviet Union.This study, which began as an attempt to find out about the Baltic escape boats that ended up in Sweden, is inspired by a foreign boat in a small fishing harbour on the island of Gotland. My curiosity was piqued when I caught sight of the boat and heard that it had probably been an escape boat.The purpose of this thesis is to establish which, if any, Baltic escape boats survive in Sweden, in which contexts they remain, and to review their state of preservation, as well as to answer the question of their significance for the memory of the escape. It is an archaeology of the escape and its aftermath, based on the surviving escape boats – what the boats say about the escape, what happened to them afterwards, and how people relate to them and their historical legacy today.The study looks at 35 boats that have been described as Baltic escape boats in various contexts. It shows that they are found in a multitude of environments and in a range of different states of preservation. The boats illustrate experiences that few other source materials can convey, in a manner pertinent to the archaeological understanding of flight. In addition, the boats are rare traces of an earlier Estonian coastal culture eradicated by the second Soviet occupation.One of the most important outcomes of the study is the documentation from the survey and examinations carried out. Few of the boats were known outside their local context. A national compilation has been lacking, which has impeded research and ultimately our understanding of the breadth and complexity of the Swedish historical landscape when it comes to ship remains.