Description
Book SynopsisCombines interviews with international figures - including Mikhail Gorbachev - with insights gleaned from declassified archives in East Germany and her own understanding of Russian-German relations. This book shows how German strength and Russian weakness have governed the delicate dance of power between unified Germany and democratized Russia.
Trade Review"Stent combines a detailed account of Soviet politics and decision-making up to German unification with thoughtful reflection on why this thoroughly unimagined outcome came about. The prose and tale are highly readable, not least because the gap between the scale of the stakes involved and the drift and lameness of Soviet foreign policy is so stunning. But Stent does not stop here. She traces the Russian-German relationship since unification and ponders the place of both countries in a very different Europe."--Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs "[A] concise, well-written, and illuminating study... Professor Stent is one of the few American scholars who combine expertise on Russia and on East and West Germany... She has made the most of all these strengths to produce a fine, readable, concise yet comprehensive history... A well-rounded and well-researched account of the crucial Soviet-German side of the story."--Stephen F. Szabo, Survival "Excellent... Understanding the historic transformation of the German-Russian relationship is reason enough to read Ms. Stent's intelligent and perceptive book... Yet the more compelling reason to read it is for its history."--Frederick Kempe, Wall Street Journal "This is a book that helps to unravel the puzzle of how the Cold War's unlikely end came about, and suggests directions for future archival research of how a unified Germany and a post-communist Russia emerged, without anybody paying for these astounding transformations with their lives."--Jeffrey Herf, The New Republic "A highly accessible and valuable account of the German-Russian relationship. Well researched and enhanced by interviews with leading participants, this book's ability to bring order to the complexities of a history marked by so much tragedy and so much potential will be appreciated by students and scholars alike."--James M. Goldgeier, Slavic Review "Angela E. Stent deftly takes the reader through the complex events that led to the German reunification. It was never as inevitable as it seemed in retrospect... Much delicate diplomatic work was necessary, and Stent expertly chronicles the twists and turns and the interplay of interests."--Ralph Amelan, The Jerusalem Post
Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations and Transliteration1Comrades in Misfortune: The USSR and Germany, 1917-197032Prelude to Unification: Moscow and Bonn in the Detente Era183Rethinking the German Question: Gorbachev and the Two Germanies, 1985-1988414Wir Sind Ein Volk: Germany Unites745United Germany and NATO: The Kremlin Decides1096Implementing Unification: Russia and Germany, 1992-19971517National Identity and Foreign Policy after Communism1858Russia and Germany in the New Europe2049Russia and Germany in the Twenty-First Century233Notes247Bibliography281Index293
