the final document produced at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Finland in 1975. The conference attempted to ease tensions between the Soviet and Western camps of the Cold War by opening channels of communication and promoting cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe. The act committed its signatories to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its citizens and formally recognized the national borders that had solidified in the aftermath of World War II. Although Western allies focused on the human rights provisions, the Soviet Union took the act to be a Western recognition of Soviet control in Eastern Europe.