From Ostpolitik to Reunification: West German-Soviet Political Relations since 1974

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.