Sovershenno sekretno: Moskva-Berlin, 1920-1933: Voenno-politicheskie otnosheniia mezhdu SSSR i Germaniei, and: Sovershenno sekretno, Alians Moskva-Berlin 1920-1933 gg. (Voenno-politicheskie otnosheniia SSSR-Germaniia) (review)

Abstract

The special relationship between the Soviet Union and Weimar Germany after the Rapallo Treaty of 1922 was an important feature of European interwar history. In the 1950s, memoirs, eyewitness reports, and German archives began to shed light on the origins of the Rapallo period in Russian-German relations. Recently, the opening of the Russian archives has further enriched our knowledge on the Soviet-German military cooperation. Thanks to Sergei Alekseevich Gorlov, a Russian diplomat 1 and specialist (kandidat istoricheskikh nauk) on Russian/Soviet-German relations, we now have a vivid presentation of the ties between the Red Army and Reichswehr. Gorlov's work also shows the importance of German investments in Russia for the emerging Soviet military-industrial complex, and he gives a detailed description of the political, diplomatic, and military links between the two international "outsiders" in the 1920s-early 1930s. Gorlov presents much new knowledge based on scrupulous research in Russian archives, including political, diplomatic, military, and foreign-trade repositories. He makes good use of published German and other documentaries on foreign policy, and proves familiar with the Western literature in the field.