German Soviet Research Articles

Political Religions and their Images: Soviet communism, Italian Fascism and German National Socialism

This article discusses the role of images within political religions, focusing on Soviet communism, Italian Fascism and German National Socialism. It first examines the role of the cult of the leader within political religions, and explores the subjectivity and malleability of the representation of these figures; it finds that the communist leader cults were more sophisticated than their fascist counterparts. It then looks into the role of specific emblems such as the hammer and Sickle, the bundle of switch, the Swastika. Finally it explores the use of parades and festivals by political religions as ways to eliminate the individual and create the collective person.

German influence in USSR

In June 1945 this author was one of the organizers of the, first in the postwar history, Soviet–German institute RABE. The main task of its activity was to study the history of the German rocket technology developments and rebuild the technology of the long range ballistic missiles V-2. This work was supported by the Soviet military authorities and also by the Soviet government. In the Turingia region of Germany a big institute, “Nordhausen”, was established, in which Soviet and German specialists jointly worked on the rocket technology problems. In November 1947 a big group of German specialists was transferred to the Soviet Union. All the works in Germany were cancelled. German specialists took part in the preparation and running of the flight test of rocket V-2 in October–November of 1947 on Kapustin Yar test range. Until the beginning of the 50s a big group of German specialists worked in the daughter institute of the leading Soviet research institute on rocket technique, NII-88, under the management of Helmut Grettrupe, one of the former von Braun employees. They worked out the design of ballistic missiles of range up to 800 km with principally new guidance system. Germans also took part in the development of the technology of fluid rocket engine production. In 1952–1953 German specialists returned to Germany and rocket technology in the USSR matured independently. The Soviet and German scientists cooperation resumed in 1960s after manned space flights were started. The author was one of the leading participants in those joint works.

Power, interests and trust: explaining Gorbachev’s choices at the end of the Cold War

This article argues that the end of the Cold War can be told as a story of the development of trust. Despite its centrality as a political concept, trust has only recently received focused attention in the field of international relations. Development of trust cannot be reduced to changing relationships of power or redefinitions of interests but requires communicative elements. The argument is demonstrated through a comparison of German–Soviet and Japanese–Soviet relations at the end of the Cold War. The key point is that trust and the lack of it, respectively, were a major factor in the profound transformation of the former relationship and led to stalemate in the latter.

Contact Lenses: Explaining U.S.-Russian Military-to-Military Ties

Despite uncertainties in U.S.-Russian diplomatic relationships, military-to-military contact programs between the two states continued to flourish and were supported by senior military officers on both sides until the Spring 1999 bombing of Serbia put them on hold. This article argues that these programs in fact serve clear mission-related goals for both military organizations. Both sides value the training and military education the programs provide; the Russian side values the opportunity for expressing "voice," or influence, in international security arrangements despite a decline in state power; and, perhaps most important in an era of uncertainty, both sides value the "transparency," or information-sharing, opportunities provided, especially since stability is enhanced when each side's capabilities and intentions are showcased. After describing the current programs in depth and exploring senior officers' opinions about their benefits, the article concludes by showing that surprisingly similar benefits resulted from an earlier instance of military-to-military cooperation, that of secret Soviet German interactions in the 1920s, despite immense differences in the purposes and structures of the two eras.

Late Modern

The Waning of ‘Old Corruption’: The Politics of Economical Reform in Britain, 1779–1846. By Philip Harling Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past. Volume 1: Conflicts and Divisions. Edited by Pierre Nora and Lawrence D. Kritzman A Jew in the French Revolution: The Life of Zalkind Hourwitz. By Frances Malino The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive, 1797–1806. By Brendan Simms Napoleon's Irish Legion. By John G. Gallaher The Dissenters. Volume II: The Expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity. By Michael R. Watts Fearful Realities: New Perspectives on the Famine. Edited By Chris Monash and Richard Hayes The Homicidal Earl: The Life of Lord Cardigan. By Saul David John Bull's Other Homes: State Housing and British Policy in Ireland, 1883–1922. By Murray Fraser A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo‐American Social Christianity, 1880–1940. By Paul T. Phillips Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual. By Richard English Michael Collins: The Secret File. Edited by A. T. Q. Stewart The Life of Edvard Beneš 1884–1948: Czechoslovakia in Peace and War. By Zbynek Zeman with Antonin Klimek Futurism and Politics: Between Anarchist Rebellion and Fascist Reaction, 1909–1944. By Günter Berghaus His Father's Son: The Life of Randolph Churchill. By Winston S. Churchill What Happened Where: A Guide to Places and Events in Twentieth‐century History. By Chris Cook and Diccon Bewes From Belloc to Churchill: Private Scholars, Public Culture, and the Crisis of British Liberalism, 1900–1939. By Victor Feske The War from Within: German Working‐class Women in the First World War. By Ute Daniel The Great War 1914–1918. By Spencer C. Tucker The Irish Guards in the Great War: The First Battalion. By Rudyard Kipling Germany 1916–1941. By E. J. Feuchtwanger Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine 1918–1948. By A. J. Sherman Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German–Soviet Relations, 1922–1941. By Aleksandr M. Nekrich The Struggle for Power: Russia in 1923. By Valentina Vilkova Mussolini. By Jasper Ridley Mussolini and the British. By Richard Lamb Brethren in Adversity: Bishop George Bell, the Church of England and the Crisis of German Protestantism, 1933–1939. Edited by Andrew Chandler British Policy and the Refugees, 1933–1941. By Yvonne Kapp and Margaret Mynatt The Blueshirts and Irish Politics. By Mike Cronin Atlantic Roulette: A Merchantman at War, 1940. By Morris Beckman In the Combat Zone: Special Forces since 1945. By Robin Neillands Industrial Policy in Britain 1945–1951: Economic Planning, Nationalisation and the Labour Governments. By Martin Chick Youth in Britain since 1945. By Bill Osgerby The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3. By Humphrey Carpenter The Cold War: An International History, 1947–1991. By S. J. Ball

Reform, “Rebirth” and Regret: The Rise and Decline of the Ethnic-German Nationalist Wiedergeburt Movement in the USSR and CIS, 1987–1993

In early 1989, the Soviet Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) All-Union Society. An umbrella-organization originally designed to protect and advance ethnic-German interests in the USSR, the “Rebirth” Society adopted the most effective legal means by which it could confront the regime—namely, political dissent based on Lenin's notion of national self-determination. The “Rebirth” movement evolved in this context and represented the fifteenth-largest Soviet nationality numbering more than two million in the 1989 Soviet census. By 1993, official membership in the “Rebirth” Society included nearly 200,000 men and women. Ironically, at the very moment the Soviet Germans became more politically conscious, the Soviet Union and the ethnic-German community were disintegrating.

German Russian Newspapers in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1728–1990

In the fall 1989 issue of Heimatliche Weiten, the semiannual Soviet German literary journal, a bibliographical article by Victor Herdt, “Verzeichnis der russland- und sowjet-deutschen Zeitungen (1728–1989),” lists more than 150 German-language newspapers published in Russia and the Soviet Union. The entries are limited to German Russian newspapers and exclude those of other ethnic Germans, such as the Baltic, Bessarabian, or urban Germans, who differ from the German Russians in origin, culture, and history.

East German Higher Education Policies and Student Resistance, 1945–1948

Those who opposed Communist rule in East Germany often did so because Communism in practice strongly reminded them of the fascism they had experienced in the Third Reich. The new East German regime was also one that attempted total control of people's lives; therefore it became natural to describe it as totalitär. Most sensitive to the similarities between the old and new regimes were university students. They displayed stronger direct opposition to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the years from 1946–1949 than any other social group. This is reflected in the political battles that were fought in universities during these years, leading to SED election failures in the elections of the postwar years: 1946/47 and late 1947. The latter were the last freely contested elections in East Germany until 1989. It is also reflected in the disproportionate number of students arrested by Soviet and East German authorities in the early postwar years.

Soviet–East German Relations after World War II

There was more conflict between the Soviet and East German leaderships in the early cold war period than is generally known. East German hard-liners used the weakness of their regime’s hold on powe...

Soviet Yiddish and Soviet German: Different Words for the Same World

L'A. analyse l'impact differentiel du milieu sovietique sur l'innovation lexicale dans les varietes sovietiques de deux langues germaniques, le yiddish et l'allemand. Il constate que la population parlant yiddish emprunte facilement des neologismes russes sovietiques ainsi que des structures syntaxiques et morphologiques, tandis que les Allemands sovietiques ont une attitude envers l'allemand standard beaucoup plus conservatrice et puriste. Il explique cette difference par l'isolation de la population allemande, sa non exposition aux transformations sociales et demographiques, ainsi que par des facteurs typologiques propres a l'allemand et une planification linguistique modeste

The Soviet Germans

The Soviet Germans

Infamous encounter? The Merekalov-Weizsäcker meeting of 17 April 1939

AbstractThis article uses recently released documents from the Soviet diplomatic archives to examine the Merekalov–Weizsäcker meeting of April 1939. It argues that these documents show that western historians have been mistaken in assuming that this meeting was the occasion for Soviet signals of a desire for détente with Nazi Germany. The significance attached to the meeting in this respect is part of the cold war myth that the USSR's negotiations for a triple alliance with Great Britain and France in the spring and summer of 1939 were paralleled by secret Soviet–German discussions which eventually lead to the Nazi–Soviet pact of August 1939. The article seeks to demolish those elements of the myth that concern the Merekalov–Weizsäcker encounter and to present an alternative interpretation of the provenance and meaning of the so-called political overture by the Soviet ambassador at the meeting.

Politics and nationality in contemporary Soviet-Jewish emigration, 1968-89

Part 1 Survey of Soviet Jewish history - precursors of the emigration movement: the early Soviet period Stalinism, 1930-1953 the roots of anti-zionism and anti-semitism in the post-war period contemporary status of Jewish culture. Part 2 The birth of the Jewish emigration movement: post-war revival of Jewish national consciousness emigration policy prior to 1968 the birth of the contemporary emigration movement and the Soviet response the anti-zionist campaign of the 1970s The Soviet exit visa application process the education tax. Part 3 Post-zionist emigration: the drop-out phenomenon - causes and effects application related obstacles to emigration visa application denials under international law the Helsinki final act the second decade - the halting of emigration, 1980-86 a new beginning, perestroika emigration during 1987-1989 Part 4 Soviet Germans - a brief history an introduction to their emigration: German immigration to Russia early nationality policy and the Soviet Germans World War II and its aftermath Chancellor Adenauer's visit to Moscow the Soviet German experience since 1965 a comparison of Germans, Jews, and their emigration. Part 5 The domestic context of Soviet emigration policy: Soviet Jewish emigration policy - 1970-1973 Soviet Jewish emigration policy - 1974-1979 Jewish and German emigration - 1980-1986 Gorbachev's objectives and post-1986 emigration.

The Regional Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is roughly equivalent in size to the North Sea. Like the North Sea, is has an excellent oil prone source rock present over most of the area. In the entire Baltic Sea about 40 wells have been drilled. During the 1980s, exploration was carried out in the Soviet, Polish, and East German sectors of the Baltic Sea by Petrobaltic. Twenty-eight wells were drilled, 14 of which tested hydrocarbons. Two wells have been drilled in Danish waters and 11 in Swedish waters - all dry holes. Most of the Baltic Sea is included in the Baltic syneclise. In the deepest part of the basin a full Paleozoic and Mesozoic section is present. Major structural features are associated with reactivation of old basement faults. Most hydrocarbon discoveries are associated with structural arches. Exploration targets are Cambrian sandstones and Ordovician and Silurian reefs. The major discoveries are the B3 field in Poland and the D6 field offshore Lithuania and Kaliningrad, both of which have in-place reserves of around 100 million bbl. The Teisseyre-Tornquist line to the southwest represents the plate boundary between the East European platform and Europe. Repeated strike slip movements along this zone result in a complex patternmore » of extensional and compressional features in the Danish and German sectors. Primary exploration targets include Permian carbonates and sandstones as well as older zones. Gas has been tested in the German sector onshore.« less

Soviet perceptions of economic conditions during the period of stagnation: Evidence from two diverse emigrant surveys

Soviet reality and emigrant surveys THE SOVIET INTERVIEW PROJECT (SIP) interviewed 2793 former Soviet citizens in the early 1980s who had emigrated to the United States from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. A second wave of 700 interviews was conducted in the mid-1980s. SIP respondents were from medium to large cities from European republics and hence represent a sample of urban, European residents. Some 86% of SIP respondents were Jewish according to some definition of the term.1 SIP respondents answered questions on their life in the Soviet Union (in the last normal period of life in the Soviet Union) prior to the disruptions caused by the decision to emigrate. The German Soviet Interview Project (GSIP) interviewed 516 former Soviet citizens who had emigrated to the Federal Republic between 1979 and 1983. GSIP respondents also answered questions about their last period of normal life in the Soviet Union prior to the emigration decision. GSIP respondents are of German background who qualified as 'late emigrants' (Spataussiedler) according to Soviet and German definitions. GSIP respondents were from both urban and rural areas, and the majority lived outside the European USSR. The two sets of interviews with former Soviet citizens shed perspective light on living conditions in the Soviet Union. Both surveys focus on life in the Soviet Union and not on the processes of emigration or assimilation. Although the SIP and GSIP surveys were conducted roughly five years apart, modal respondents in both surveys cite 1977-78 as their last period of normal life in the Soviet Union. Hence, the interviews describe life in the Soviet Union as the Brezhnev era was drawing to a close-the period now referred to in the Soviet press as the 'period of stagnation' (period zastoya). The late Brezhnev era provides the essential baseline for understanding the perestroika phenomenon. Presumably, the Soviet leadership had its own perceptions of economic conditions during this period and was becoming increasingly influenced by public concerns about deteriorating economic conditions. Evaluating economic performance during the period of stagnation continues to be difficult because biased performance indicators continued to be generated by the statistical

IMPROVING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AMONG THE GEODETIC COMMUNITY

Recent activities of the Soviet, Polish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Czechosiovakian and East German geodetic communities are discussed in a report on the 16th Conference of Representatives of Scientific-Technical Societies for Geodesy and Cartography (Socialist Countries). Work both within the individual countries and in collaboration with other member states is described and possibilities for strengthening international linkages are outlined. The present and future role of East European socialist countries in international nongovernmental organizations is examined as well. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA 22308 from: Geodeziya i kartografiya, 1988, No. 9, pp. 47-49.

The Soviet Germans: Past and Present

The Soviet Germans: Past and Present

The Military Factor in East German Soviet Policy

The Soviet military appears to be losing its privileged position within the Soviet national security apparatus. As long as Gorbachev continues to have the upper hand in Moscow, the Kremlin's generals will be in for hard times. Assuming this trend continues, it could have the unexpected effect of enhancing the role of the German Democratic Republic's military contribution to the Warsaw Pact. In turn the East German political leadership's long-term goal of using the military factor to influence Soviet behavior has advanced. The more reliable and more modern its armed forces, the greater the likelihood the East Germans will be able to translate this advantage into leverage—even if it is very limited—in dealing with the Soviets in other areas.

The Environment and Marxism-Leninism: The Soviet and East German Experience

The Environment and Marxism-Leninism: The Soviet and East German Experience

The Soviet Germans: Past and Present. By Ingeborg Fleischhauer and Benjamin Pinkus. Edited wth an introduction by Edith Rogovin Frankel. New York: St. Martin's, 1986. 185 pp. Maps. Tables. $29.95, cloth.

The Soviet Germans: Past and Present. By Ingeborg Fleischhauer and Benjamin Pinkus. Edited wth an introduction by Edith Rogovin Frankel. New York: St. Martin's, 1986. 185 pp. Maps. Tables. $29.95, cloth. - Volume 46 Issue 2