Pariahs, partners, predators : German-Soviet relations, 1922-1941

This revealing study sheds new light on the long-term relationship between Germany and the USSR, stretching from the early years of the Weimar Republic to the cataclysmic events of 1941. Nekrich explores how Germany and the Soviet Union - as "pariah" states, condemned and ostracized by the Great Powers - collaborated to regain their political and, especially, military power. He demonstrates, in particular, Stalin's abiding interest in the "German card, " and the diplomacy of "predation, " by which in 1939-1941, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany set about a methodical dismemberment and annexation of the smaller states of east-central Europe. According to Nekrich, the enmity between Germany and the Soviet Union has been greatly exaggerated. Drawing upon a wealth of archival sources (including much from recently declassified Russian archives), Nekrich explores the clandestine military collaboration for training, arms testing, and the manufacture of poison gases that continued to the beginning of the Hitler era.