ABSTRACT
Germany has always loomed large in Soviet policymaking. The perceived need to woo the Germans became even more imperative when the Soviet leader saw his hopes for American disengagement from Europe frustrated and decided to wage a sustained political struggle against the West. During Mikhail Gorbachev's Bonn visit in June 1989, the Soviet leader expressed himself on the German problem with much reserve. The East German leaders' apprehensions must have been aggravated further by unofficial Soviet statements opposing the central European status quo. Soviet opposition to German unification rested on the premise that the German Democratic Republic was both willing and able to continue as a state on its own. When the Soviet leaders had decided not to oppose German unification any longer, they accepted that the Germans were to be given full leeway with regard to decisions on the intra-German aspect.
