Mortal Embrace: Germans and (Soviet) Russians in the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

Historical Debates Surrounding German-Russian Relationship This special issue of Kritika spotlights episodes from primarily confrontational relationship between Germany and (Soviet) Russia in first half of 20th century. The multifaceted historiography to which it has given rise has significance beyond specific context of relationship itself, because two countries' history and their ties with each other are paradigmatic cases of aberrant developments and threats from within that face modern societies. (1) After World War II, there were two approaches--both of them decisively influenced by Cold War but potent nonetheless--to causes and phenomena of National Socialism and Stalinism. From field of political science arose totalitarianism theory, which considered totalitarian dictatorships as variants of modern mass society. (2) From another perspective, drawing on theories of modernization, historians and historically oriented social scientists created master narratives determined by developmental determinants that today might be subsumed under heading of path dependence. (3) Through decades, both approaches grew internally differentiated and experienced periods of rejection. After collapse of Soviet Union, they enjoyed a renaissance in a form enriched by cultural history. Beyond theories of totalitarianism, however, comparing two systems remains a challenge. (4) Moreover, although rejected since late 1980s, thesis of a German Sonderweg continues to exercise great attraction in regard to particular spheres of activity, such as continuities of German antisemitism (5) or militaristic organizational culture. (6) The older theories of German Sonderweg were entirely fixated on comparing Germany's development with West--that is, France, Great Britain, and United States. (7) Only since late 1980s was this one-sided orientation questioned through so-called Historikerstreit. Its initiator, Ernst Noite, launched a debate about supposed causal nexus between Bolshevism and National Socialism--to use a catchphrase, nexus between Gulag and Holocaust. The ensuing debates about singularity of Holocaust were marked by a lack of interest (as well as knowledge) among both West German historians and wider public about events east of Germany's borders and German involvement in what occurred there. (8) That Germany had interacted economically, politically, and culturally not only with West but with East as well was never problematized in Sonderweg discussions. Ernst Nolte's work on intellectual and political history forms an exception to extent that his studies on fascism, and even more his monograph on European civil war, addressed Germany's relationship with Western as well as Eastern Europe. (This also revealed, however, pitfalls of a narrowly intellectual- or political-history approach, which seemed a little old-fashioned even then.) (9) The Historikerstreit raised, avant la lettre, questions about mutual influences, about interactions, and about adaptations and transfers and transnationality that Ernst Nolte mostly answered wrongly or not at all. The history of German-Russian and German-Soviet relations and interactions actually has a considerable historiography of its own, but in historiographic mainstream it has always been received with only limited interest for the East. (10) The reasons are manifold and cannot be discussed here. (11) The vast literature that could be cited includes, for 20th century, historiography on debates and conflicts within Second International and communist and socialist movements after 1918, (12) on Berlin as Europe's Eastern Station, (12) role of fellow travelers in interwar period, (14) commitment of German historians and social scientists to creation of a new order, (15) history of prisoners of war in World War I (16) and, especially, World War II, (17) German occupation in both world wars, (18) and lastly Russians in Germany. …