Authors

Maria Khorolskaya¹;  ¹ Personal capacity, Russian Federation

Discussion

Germans and economic ties with Russia have an impact but are not likely to coherently explain Russlanverständnis. Moreover, Soviet-East-German Relations and politics of reconciliation appear to influence East German current perceptions about Russia.Analysis of media and official addresses during 1945-1990s shows that the victory over Nazi Germany dominated in soviet discourse with SED-lieders developing the concept that Germans were liberated from Nazi-regime. Study of official symbolic events showed that ascents in the East-German politics of memory has been shifting from the expression of gratitude to the pride of being the anti-fascist state. Also, for 40 years the number of soviet and east-German people-to-people contacts has increased.This suggests that elaboration of the Second World War history is GDR was conducted through the criticism of the Nazi-regime and accession to the soviet discourse of victors. It facilitated reconciliation with USSR since the East Germans did not recognize soviet victory as belittling of Germans and there was no need to discuss the culpability of common people for the war. People-to-people contacts, although they were officialy organized and controlled, shaped mutual understanding.