The German-Russian Century
History of a Tangled Relationship

Stefan Creuzberger (Author), Elizabeth Janik (Translated by)

9781509565719, Polity Press

Hardback, published 27 March 2026

584 pages
23.4 x 16.3 x 5.6 cm, 0.998 kg

"Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was the largest in human history, its scale matched only by the brutality of its prosecution. For decades its consequences loomed over Germany, Russia and indeed the whole of Europe. It was, in a sense, the defining event of what Stefan Creuzberger argues might be considered 'the German-Russian Century.'"
The Wall Street Journal

"A vital work. It is a book that reminds us that while the past may be another country, the present bears its contours."
History Today

"In more than 500 pages of deeply researched yet readable history, Creuzberger opens a window on to an age-old enmity."
Ian Thomson, The Irish Times

"An intricate yet accessible overview… Creuzberger closes this timely study with an account of Germany's response to Putin's expansionism, and along with it, our renewed attention to the invasion corridors of the east."
Asymptote

"The entanglements between Russian and German history over the past century are legion and consequential. There were two World Wars, the Cold War, mutual occupations, forced deportations, atrocities on both sides, intercultural relations, the mix of populations, economic dependencies — the list of connections could go on and on. Crisply written, comprehensively researched, and engagingly presented, Creuzberger's new book is particularly relevant and important today, as we reflect on Germany's critical role in the playing out of the war in Ukraine."
Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University

"In this panoramic journey across a century of the German-Russian encounter, Stefan Creuzberger offers vivid and meticulously documented insights into Europe's most consequential relationship. An indispensable work for anyone interested in the history of the twentieth century or Russia's relations with the outside world today."
Benjamin Nathans, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

"Creuzberger'' book will be celebrated as a major work on global history and will have a lasting impact. It is a page-turner that will be indispensable at universities and think tanks as well as private bookshelves, and it will be eagerly read by people seeking to make sense of the world in which we live. Creuzberger is a trustworthy guide to some of the most controversial historiographical terrain we know of."
John Connelly, University of California, Berkeley

Germany and Russia: two countries whose turbulent and interlocking histories have profoundly shaped the world in which we live today. The long twentieth century was in many ways a German-Russian century. In 1917, imperial Germany became the birthplace of Russia's October Revolution, whose ideological radicalism shook the established order of states. With Hitler's seizure of power and the outbreak of World War II, Germany and Russia were thrust into violent conflict with one another. Defeating Hitler led Stalin's Red Army into the heart of Europe and Germany became the training ground for the Cold War, where two highly armed military blocs confronted one another for four decades. It was only with the collapse of the USSR that Germany was able to re-unify. Sustained efforts were made in the aftermath of the Cold War to normalize relations between Germany and Russia, but the renewed tensions precipitated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine show how fragile this relationship remains.

In The German-Russian Century the distinguished historian Stefan Creuzberger tells the remarkable story of this crucial relationship between two states and two peoples. He lays out the large ideological contexts of fascism and communism and patiently traces the efforts that each state made to confront and balance the power of the other, from the tense years leading up to the Second World War through the Cold War to the present day. He shows how each side often saw the other in terms of itself – how Stalin perceived Hitler as a fellow imperialist while Gerhard Schroeder was drawn to Putin as a modernizer and reformer seemingly similar to himself.

Engagingly written and magisterial in its grasp of high-stake issues as well as historical detail, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the historical forces that have shaped the modern world.

I. INTRODUCTION: EXCAVATING THE PAST


II. REVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
Prerevolutionary Lifeworlds
Tactical Respite: The Road to the October Revolution and Peace of Brest-Litovsk (1917/18)
'Arise, Ye Workers': Hopes for World Revolution
Caesuras in an Age of Radicalism: The Nazi Seizure of Power and the Dictators' Pact
Building Socialism in a Divided Germany, 1945–49
Diplomatic Transformations? Adenauer's Visit to the Soviet Union and Brandt's Moscow Treaty
Losing the GDR: The Kremlin and Reunification


III. TERROR AND VIOLENCE
Clash of the Empires: August 1914 and the 'Forgotten War' in Eastern Europe
From a Global Conflagration to Civil War: Fertile Soil for Radicalization
The Power of Ideologies? Totalitarian Encounters
'Friendship Sealed by Blood': Terror and Political Cooperation
Battlefield of the Dictators: The Ideological War of Annihilation
Victors and Vanquished: Flight, Expulsion, and Stalinist Terror in the SBZ/GDR
Flashbacks: Memory Culture and Totalitarian Violence


IV. DISTANCING AND RAPPROCHEMENT
Ambivalent Times: German-Russian Encounters in the Rapallo Era
Totalitarian Dictatorships: Stalin’s Overtures to Hitler and the Proxy War in Spain
Unnatural Alliance: From the Hitler-Stalin Pact to Operation Barbarossa
Coerced Cooperation: Reparations and Dismantling after Germany's Defeat
Trilateral Relations in the Cold War: Political Crises and Rapprochement, Economic Diplomats and Cultural Bridge Builders
Gorbachev's Perestroika: A Fraying Brotherhood and Easier Relations with Bonn
From Ostpolitik to Frostpolitik: Partnership and Confrontation in the Post-Soviet Era
Zeitenwende? Putin's War in Ukraine and the Germans


V. THE GERMAN-RUSSIAN CENTURY: SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE


Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Notes
Index

Subject Areas: History [HB]