Soviet people
The Russian Germans between de-Stalinisation and emigration
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The history of the Russian Germans in the 20th century can only be understood when examined in the context of Soviet history. Repression and discrimination, as well as the integration of Germans into Soviet society after Stalin’s death, were variations of a – frequently tragic – Soviet “normality”. To date, however, this dimension has hardly featured at all in the version of the history of the Russian Germans supported by academics and the general public. Thus an important common element of the Russian Germans, who emigrated to Germany in their hundreds of thousands during the 1990s, is overlooked.
(Osteuropa 9-10/2017, pp. 137–151)