From Ostpolitik to Reunification

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.

List of tables; Preface; Note on text; Chronology; Introduction; 1. The Second World War and its aftermath, 1945-1974; 2. Ethnic Germans; 3. Berlin; 4. The Federal Republic of Germany's relations with the German Democratic Republic; 5. INF, Afghanistan and the post-Afghanistan period; 6. Assessment of the Federal Republic of Germany's relations with the Soviet Union, 1974-1982; 7. The Federal Republic of Germany's political relations with the Soviet Union after 1982; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index.