paths to russia: from war to peaceby f. wilhelm christians

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Paths to Russia: From War to Peace by F. Wilhelm Christians Review by: Fritz Stern Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), p. 188 Published by: Council on Foreign Relations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044760 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 20:19 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Affairs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:19:22 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Paths to Russia: From War to Peaceby F. Wilhelm Christians

Paths to Russia: From War to Peace by F. Wilhelm ChristiansReview by: Fritz SternForeign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), p. 188Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044760 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 20:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:19:22 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Paths to Russia: From War to Peaceby F. Wilhelm Christians

188 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

defence minister for six years and at the Treasury for five. A clever man

and accomplished writer, he knows the world scene and makes shrewd, sometimes devastating, remarks about notables of the time. Of Dick

Crossman he writes: "A Machiavelli without judgment is a dangerous colleague." Timely observations are also thrown in: "I have rarely found

soldiers, sailors and airmen to be as bloody-minded as journalists and

politicians." He has led a full life as a centrist-Labourite and, even in the shadow of Thatcherism and amidst the self-destructive battles of his own

party, a life enjoyed, with great gusto for the arts and just a touch of wonderment about his own luck and engaged contentment. This is a

valuable account, instructive and entertaining, if just a mite too lovingly long.

PATHS TO RUSSIA: FROM WAR TO PEACE. By F. Wilhelm Christians. New York: Macmillan, 1991, 236 pp. $24.95.

A preeminent German banker and pragmatic practitioner of Ostpolitik, before it became government policy in the late 1960s, reviews his dealings with the Soviets, including negotiations concerning the controversial pipe line from near the Arctic circle to central Europe. Writing in the summer

of 1990, Christians was still hopeful that prudent Western help?princi pally German within a European or an Atlantic framework?could help Gorbachev to deal with huge political and economic issues. Helmut Schmidt provides an illuminating preface, briefly describing the evolution of his own thoughts and feelings about Russia from his school and army

days to his chancellorship, when he sought to deal with the dangers and

possibilities of the Soviet presence in Europe.

THE WESTERN COMMUNITY AND THE GORBACHEV CHAL LENGE. Edited by Armand Clesse and Thomas C. Schelling. Baden Baden: Nomos, 1989, 408 pp.

A collection of papers prepared for a conference in December 1988, the eve of the annum mirabilis. Valuable because leading academics and political actors from the West and the U.S.S.R. analyze the economic and strategic challenges?as well as those in foreign affairs?that have remained at the

heart of Gorbachev's efforts and the West's responses.

BEFORE THE STORM: MEMOIRS OF MY YOUTH IN OLD PRUSSIA.

By Marion, Countess D?nhoff. New York: Knopf, 1990, 204 pp. $22.95. A childhood on a historic East Prussian estate recalled decades later by

a leading German writer-publisher, esteemed in her own country, east and west alike. The book is a picture of both privilege and austerity, depicting in exemplary detail the values and habits of this still-feudal life?a life remote from our own and close to nature and its seasons, moods and

beauty. It is a portrait of a region and a society, with affection and

detachment, by someone who was from the beginning anti-Nazi and who was forced to flee on a seven-week trek on horseback before an advancing Red Army that burned the ancient estate to the ground. The countess has

been a foremost force in promoting a permanent reconciliation between

Poles and Russians, who now inhabit her native East Prussia. Her final sentence sums up her feelings about her ancient home?about life:

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:19:22 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions