Download Gorbachev and the German Question: Soviet-West German by David M. Shumaker PDF

By David M. Shumaker

Traces the transformation of Soviet relatives with West Germany from 1985 to 1990 whereas hard perspectives that Gorbachev caved in to the West on German reunification. the writer provides fullest account up to now of the way Gorbachev translated new political considering into real coverage switch examines how inner and exterior elements interacted within the improvement of Soviet rules that helped remodel postwar Europe and describes the significance of public international relations. Graduate scholars, students, specialists, and policymakers attracted to Soviet and ecu politics will locate this analytical historical past and its use of English, Russian, and German-language resources and newly to be had memoirs of key Soviet individuals invaluable.

Upon taking place of work in 1985, Gorbachev inherited a Soviet international coverage rationale on punishing West Germany for its help of U.S. safeguard coverage. The Soviet elite quite often considered the Federal Republic of Germany as irresponsible and inherently competitive. yet via 1990 Gorbachev acceded to the veritable incorporation of East Germany into West Germany. Upon his advertising to management Gorbachev started to fight and connive to build a international coverage consensus round his evolving new imaginative and prescient of diplomacy. With each one political victory he and his supporters complicated extra profound adjustments in Moscow's exterior habit. accordingly, robust conservative forces established within the social gathering gear grew more and more against Gorbachev's reforms and particularly Moscow's new Germany coverage. but regardless of the family political expenditures, Gorbachev ultimately agreed to unification on phrases favorable to the West simply because he now not considered this final result as a hazard to Soviet pursuits. scholars of Soviet and eu politics, chilly conflict historians, and diplomacy experts will locate this analytical heritage and its use of English, Russian, and German-language resources and newly to be had memoirs of key Soviet members invaluable.

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Extra resources for Gorbachev and the German Question: Soviet-West German Relations, 1985-1990

Sample text

He is a modern communist leader who understands public relations. ” 94 According to East German records, the CPSU politburo went so far as to suspend temporarily all political contacts with the FRG. 95 The Soviet media published irate attacks on Kohl’s character and indignant promises that the USSR would not simply overlook Kohl’s election ploys. But the furious official reaction was only half the story. The Soviet response, for all its bluster, was surprisingly muted. The remarks by Shevardnadze did not appear in the Pravda version of the TASS report.

Even in this initial phase, Gorbachev was committed to an ambitious reform program. His intentions, though moderate and conventional compared to later years, necessitated a complex process of deception and political maneuvering. He was not yet politically secure enough to challenge openly those who controlled the formation of external policy. Yet the combination of a large personnel turnover and a limited liberalization of political communication combined to produce a significant change in the foreign policy-making process.

52 Malenkov’s espousal of significant changes in Soviet national security policy in the midst of the 1953 succession crisis provided Khrushchev with 26 Gorbachev and the German Question winning issues, even though Khrushchev apparently shared these views. 53 The new Soviet leader studiously avoided this danger by combining a continuation of Moscow’s traditional European security policies with a series of new foreign policy concepts and emphases. He addressed the contradictions in this strategy only when his domestic strength allowed.

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