From Ostpolitik to Reunification: West German-Soviet Political Relations since 1974 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies, Series Number 85)

With the signing of the Moscow Treaty in 1970, West German-Soviet relations came to the forefront of world politics. Two decades later, the historic opening of the Berlin Wall and German reunification once again focused world attention on the Federal Republic's relations with the USSR. This book explores the development of this relationship from the perspective of West Germany. Dr Avril Pittman outlines the main events after the Second World War and then focuses on four issues central to this relationship in the 1970s and early 1980s. She explores family reunification and emigration rights for ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union; the central role of Berlin and the reasons why the city persisted as a serious bilateral problem; the triangular relations between West Germany, the Soviet Union and East Germany; and the significance of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan which led to a sharp deterioration in East-West relations. With the signing of the Moscow Treaty in 1970, West German-Soviet relations came to the forefront of world politics. Two decades later, the historic opening of the Berlin Wall and German reunification has once again focussed world attention on the Federal Republic's relations with the USSR. This timely book explores the development of this relationship from the perspective of West Germany. Dr. Avril Pittman outlines the main events after the Second World War and then focusses on four issues central to this relationship in the 1970s and early 1980s. She explores family reunification and emigration rights for ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union; the central role of Berlin and the reasons why the city persisted as a serious bilateral problem; the triangular relations between West Germany, the Soviet Union and East Germany; and the significance of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan with its ensuing sharp deterioration in East-West relations. In her concluding chapter, the author outlines recent events and assesses the extent to which they represent a continuity in West German-Soviet relations. This is the first book to examine the recent history of German-Soviet political relations. It will therefore be widely read by students and specialists of Soviet and German studies, European history and politics, as well as by diplomats and foreign correspondents.

This book explores the development of relations between West Germany and the Soviet Union. Avril Pittman examines from a West German perspective four issues central to this relationship in the 1970s and early 1980s. She looks at the position of ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union; the central role of Berlin; the triangular relationship among West Germany, the Soviet Union and East Germany; and the effects of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. In her concluding chapter, the author outlines the historic opening of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany and assesses the extent to which they represent a continuity in West German-Soviet relations.

Allied wartime co-operation was born out of the need to defeat the Axis Powers, Anglo-Russian military co-operation beginning in June 1941 when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and the United States becoming the Soviet Union's ally after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Avril Pittman. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.