The Moscow Treaty between the USSR and the FRG

Research agenda in the article was centered on the Soviet-West German relations in the years of 1970—1972, from the signing to the coming into force of the Moscow Treaty which constituted the most important document of the détente. Exposed were the attempts of the retrograde forces, first of all in the USA and in the FRG proper, to slow down the process of ratification of the Treaty — by employing, in particular, the methods of lumping together the different, unrelated issues («package deals»), of misinterpreting the Soviet positions on West Berlin, Common Market (European Economic Community), reparations, etc. Due attention was paid to the activities of the DDR diplomacy, sometimes inimical to the process of the ratification of the Treaty, as well as to the conflicts between the various institutions and actors in the FRG foreign policy community (Federal Chancery, Foreign Ministry, BND, Moscow Embassy et al.). Presented was the broad picture of the Soviet side’s activities in overcoming the sabotage of the Treaty by its opponents and in promoting the cooperation with the forces interested in the détente and in the development of the Soviet-West German relations. The article was based of the wide range of the primary sources from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and form the Political Archive of German Foreign Ministry. Also, the materials from the published documentary collections were used and analyzed

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