The last four years very different shocks fall on the integrated part of Europe persistently. Accidents in Europe’s relations with the USA have been added to these troubles recently. Combination of Brexit, migrant invasion, change of style America demonstrates in its communication with its allies as well as the prospects of the Ukrainian statehood implosion increasingly disturb the EU stability. Bewilderment of framework of a part of European countries’ overstressed association presents an unpredictable menace to security of the whole continent. The hollowing-out of relations and ties with Russia undertaken by the EU under joint American–German pressure enhances the progressing general crisis of the EU. Possibility to ensure a positive outcome of the present crises series in Europe depends on how soon the European politics will realize the vital necessity to restore reasonable basics of Europe-Russia interrelationship.

The irrefragable answer to questions regarding history of the last third of the 20th century will hardly be possible until all archives will be open. However, it is impossible to wait for that moment passively: in the rapidly changing world exact reference points for building of balanced relations of partners in Europe and all over the world are needed. The negative experience is useful, for people learn from mistakes (at least, theoretically). The human memory is short, selective and unreliable. The notes made in diaries immediately after events are more close to the truth. The evidences that reveal from within the original alignment of forces affecting destiny of people, countries and continents are the most valuable. The diary records related to the eve of the German Democratic Republic’s frontiers opening in November of 1989 are offered in the article.

The internal crisis in the German Democratic Republic was ripening for a long time, but the situation could not be defined as desperate. The Socialist United Party of Germany leadership and the government of the GDR had at their disposal rather powerful levers that allowed regulating the course of events. At the same time lack of a program of actions in the period upon resignation of Erich Honecker had disastrous consequences. Attempts to develop a new concept in a hurry and then to accommodate it with Moscow led to inadmissible waste of time. External and domestic forces that sought not to reform the GDR but to abolish it took advantage of that waste of time. Uncertainty of the middle-level party management in respect of their actions by the leaders of the Soviet perestroika had the additional destructive impact on the situation in the GDR. The toll for the GDR rang out at the moment when the confusion and lack of coordination in the highest echelons of power led to forced abolition of control over the line of demarcation between the capital of the GDR and West Berlin. It was precisely the moment when the countdown to the end of the GDR began.

Condition of Russian-German cooperation plays defining role in formation of international atmosphere in Europe. That was true for the first post-war years and remains to be true nowadays. In conditions when project of the Big Europe that involves the Russian Federation in transcontinental cooperation is not yet realized well-being of all European countries directly depends on character of relations between Moscow and Berlin that, in fact, is the capital of the European Union. Growing threat of terrorism only accentuates this connection. Upon terrorist attack in Paris France in cooperation with Russia has formed the basis of a wide international antiterrorist coalition. The principal question is: when the Federal Republic of Germany will join the coalition. Respective decisions seem to be made but the first and greatest difficulty consists of the fact that so far Berlin was geared exclusively to Washington and the USA does not hurry with taking part in ISIS routing.

The disappearance of the GDR from the political map of Europe over a quarter of century ago clearly marked the beginning of the process of destabilisation of the continent, which are now manifesting themselves in an especially dramatic way in Ukraine and around it. This alone necessitates a more thorough analysis of the history of the East German republic that, to a great extent, embodied the European ideas of peacefullness and social equity. The attempts to reduce the memory of GDR only to the «Stasi horrors» are inappropriate. Edward Snowden proved beyond any doubt that the secret services of the countries portraying themselves as the leaders of the world’s democracy have left Stasi far behind in terms of horrors. The 65th anniversary of the creation of GDR calls for a serious discussion on the main stages of her 40 year-long development from a zone of occupation to a respected member of the European family of peoples. For Russia this subject is especially relevant because it reminds that of one the basic human truths is that you cannot leave a friend in need if you do not want to find yourself on your own. The Russian-German cooperation remains the cornerstone of European peace. The preservation of the traditions of friendship that have always characterised the relationships between the Russians and East Germans is in the interests not only of Russia and Germany but those of the entire continent as well.

Twenty years ago the USSR which used to be a genuine great power (an not only in military respect) found itself at the crossroad. Premonitions of fundamental changes prevailed in the society. The Soviet diplomats were not the exclusion. The party and government leadership headed by Gorbachev exhausted the limit of the people’s trust. The authority pf the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and its President Boris Eltsyn was gaining momentum rapidly. In addition, an image of a democrat and a protector of the weak was skillfully and successfully modeled for Eltsyn. Among the ordinary citizens and diplomats there was a growing expectation that it was precisely the Russian politicians who would ensure a fresh start of the nation being and attain a more equitable organization of the society. Everybody would like to believe that in the prospect there was not the state’s disintegration but the renewal of the state’s image. Domestic concerns and anxieties somehow brought an oblivion of the necessity to care about friends in the countries of the Socialist community that in good order and consolidated manner went over to the camp of new «winners». The «jaunty» 1990s that brought Russia on the verge of collapse were about to start.

The tragic consequences of the Soviet Union disintegration that occurred 20 years ago are still not realized to the full. Those who in duty bound guarded the state interests (diplomats, the military, lawyers) suffered the most terrible blow. The author in his memoirs reconstitutes a picture of controversial emotions that the staff of the embassy in Berlin experienced in those years. The Soviet embassy in Berlin was one of the central points the drooping Soviet foreign policy activity. The Soviet concessions did not lead to reciprocal steps of the new-spring «winners» of the Cold War. Our hopes for a new place in the emerging post-confrontation world order proved to be mere illusions that burst as balloons. Creation of the Greater Europe promised to Gorbachev was moved to the misty future. The declaration of the state of siege imposed in Moscow by the State Committee for the state of emergency sounded as the trump of the forthcoming disaster.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was the most dramatic event of the 1989−1990 crisis in the German Democratic Republic. The opening of the border crossing points of the Wall for unimpeded passage that happened late night on 9 November 1989 was later called a peaceful revolution. However, GDR continued to exist after that event. That period that ended on 3 October 1990 is much less known even in Germany, let alone the rest of the world. The end of GDR was the beginning of a new world, in which we live now, and a better understanding of the circumstances of its disappearance means a deeper comprehension of the mechanisms that govern our existence today. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the unification of Germany, it would make sense to recall how it was prepared. Nothing was as easy as it seemed from afar. The notes from the diary of the then Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the USSR in the GDR will help reconstruct the history of that period, along with the publications of the press of that time, which was quite sensitive to all the turns in the course of the solution of the national problem of the Germans.

Apart from internal causes of the aggravation of the GDR crisis, there were also external ones. The FRG spared no effort to accelerate the unification by absorbing the weaker East German republic. The options of creating a new state for all Germans (this necessitated the adoption of a new constitution and a new name) or of having an all-German referendum, which could underline the democratic nature of the unification process, were rejected. Those who believed in the convergence of the two German states as equals looked to the USSR, an ally of the GDR. But the Soviet Union shifted to the support of the FRG position. And forgot its own security interest. It is only ten years later that the new FRG and the new Russia managed to establish equal relations of co-operation and understanding that are vital for the prosperity of the whole of Europe.

The crisis in the GDR had it own logic. After the opening of the Berlin Wall, the demand of the marchers to democratise the political life of the Republic were gradually replaced with the appeals to unite with FRG. The GDR population had an opportunity to see the living standards of West Germans, which were among the highest in the world, and they hoped that after joining the Deutsch Mark zone they would also be living like that. The issue of preserving the GDR independence was soon replaced with the terms of its surrender. Few were those who took the trouble to think of what would ultimately become of social safety nets, of an exemplary system of education, effective measures of support to families and mothers, and other achievements that GDR and its citizens were rightfully proud of.

This year, it will be exactly 20 years since the opening of the border between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany that took place on 9 November 1989. The world saw in this event mainly the «fall» of the Berlin Wall that for 28 years had divided East Berlin, the capital of GDR, from West Berlin that maintained the nature of a territory occupied by the victorious powers of World War II. The legal status of the border between the sectors in Berlin, theoretically considered to be within quadrilateral responsibility, was not equal to the status of the «Germano-German» border, which, from the outset, had been the border between the autonomous zones of occupation, that in 1949 became (with a number of caveats) independent states. The inclusion of the Berlin sector border in the decision taken by the GDR authorities in November 1989 to liberalise the regime of the crossing of the border with FRG by East Germans was an unforgivable international-law mistake that resulted in serious domestic political problems. By midnight 9 November, the situation at the Berlin Wall border-crossing points became explosive: crowds of GDR citizens demanded to be allowed to cross to West Berlin, while the border guards had not yet received any clarifications of the new border regime. Those dramatic events that nearly degenerated into armed violence are described in the journal notes of the then Minister-Counsellor of the USSR Embassy in Berlin that are complemented by the memoirs of other participants and eye-witnesses of this turning point in post-war history of Europe.

The 1948−1949 Berlin crisis was the first in the long line of post-war crises related to the former capital city of the German Reich that illustrated the unresolved status of the German issue and an unsatisfactory state of security in Europe. The immediate cause of the crisis was a unilateral currency reform in the three western occupation zones of Germany, which also covered West Berlin. The deeper cause, however, was the policy of the western capitals aimed at the partition of Germany and the inclusion of its western part in anti-Soviet political designs. Relevant decisions were made at a separate conference of Western powers in London (23 February — 6 March 1948), to which the Soviet Union had not been invited. The Soviet Union had few options to influence Western policies without taking recourse to force. One of them was West Berlin whose existence depended on the transportation lines linking it with the Western occupation zones of Germany. After the 20 March walk out of the Soviet representative from the Allied Control Council of Germany to protest the London decisions, the Soviet occupying authorities introduced «control and restriction» measures on the West Berlin transportation lines, which seriously hampered their use. After the entry into force of the unilateral currency reform in the western zones and in West Berlin on 20 June, the land and river transportation lines were totally closed. The air corridors, however, remained open, although it was relatively easy to make them impossible to use. This article explains why that was not done, and how the crisis was settled in May 1949 by a Soviet-US agreement.