The re-united ‘bourgeois-democratic' Germany on the pattern of the Weimar republic — this was the Soviet blueprint for resolving the German question as of late May-early June 1953 (see Doc.1). A month later a subject of a German unity was first tuned down (Doc.2) and eventually vanished altogether from the Soviet political agenda (Doc.3) Why this sea-change? In an introductory article an attempt is made to pinpoint the reasons and motives of the Soviet leadership in making such a sharp turn. In commentator’s view, it was the explosive events in East Germany in June 1953 that played a crucial role in this context. Further transformations in the Soviet treatment of the German question — up to the early 90s — are addressed to in a final part of the article.