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Title: Europe opposed unified Germany: Soviet memos
Source:
SMH
URL Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/europe- ... oviet-memos-20090911-fkxk.html
Published: Sep 12, 2009
Author: Paola Totaro
Post Date: 2009-09-16 00:44:14 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 59
Comments: 1
DOCUMENTS smuggled out of Russia and made public for the first time reveal Britain and much of Western Europe opposed the reunification of Germany. The message was delivered privately - but off the record - to the Kremlin by Margaret Thatcher. According to the notes, translated from Russian and published in The Times yesterday, the then British prime minister held a frank discussion with president Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow just two months before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The meeting was not fully reported at the time. Mrs Thatcher told Mr Gorbachev the destabilisation of Eastern Europe and the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact was not in the West's interest. She noted the enormous change sweeping Eastern Europe but insisted the West would not push for its ''decommunisation'', pledging the security of the Soviet Union would not be threatened. ''We do not want a united Germany,'' the notes record her saying. ''This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.'' The translations published by The Times are expected to spark a heated debate among historians and political analysts. Mrs Thatcher admitted what she said privately differed from official communiques from the West. The cache of about 1000 documents detailing Politburo discussions were copied from those held by Mr Gorbachev's personal foundation and smuggled to London by a young researcher just before they were sealed into state archives in the early 1990s. The records reveal in minute detail how the dramatic events of 1989 affected the Russians. They unveil the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by Britain and France to get the Soviet Union to oppose German unification. The Kremlin records are a fascinating and vivid insight into the drama and messy global response to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The Russians had accepted they could no longer afford to prop up East Germany yet they knew how important it was to their own interests. Mr Gorbachev was determined not to authorise yet another military crackdown in the east. The Russians even discussed demolishing the Berlin Wall themselves. Kremlin notes of a discussion on November 3, 1989 - six days before the wall was opened - read: [KGB chairman Vladimir] Kryuchkov: ''Tomorrow 500,000 people will come out on the streets of Berlin and other cities.'' Gorbachev: ''Are you hoping that Krenz [East German party boss] will stay? We won't be able to explain it to our people if we lose the GDR. However, we won't be able to keep it afloat without [West Germany].'' [Foreign Minister Eduard] Shevardnadze: ''We'd better take down the wall ourselves.''
Poster Comment: Another conservative icon revealed to be a fraud.
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#1. To: X-15, *libertarians* (#0)
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If one doesn't fit neatly into some government category, they're different and must be fixed.-jethro tull
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