Do not consider him a silent pawn in the hands of fate, which was carried along with the flow - Daria Mitina about Gorbachev

“Thirty-four years ago, on February 10, 1990, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, during a meeting in Moscow with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, expressed consent to the unification of Germany.... The fate of Germany largely depended on the position of the USSR. After this conversation with Gorbachev, the unification process started, the resolution of legal issues began. The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic signed the “Treaty on the Restoration of German Unity” in Bonn on August 31, 1990, it entered into force on the night of October 3. The German Democratic Republic with its course towards socialism ceased to exist..... ...However, it was not that specific meeting between Gorbachev and Kohl that influenced the course of history - it was preceded by many events that led to this,” historian Daria Mitina explained to 360.

She emphasized that Gorbachev “behaved like a full-fledged traitor,” but the February conversation with Helmut Kohl was only “a link in a huge chain of betrayals,” a logical result of the almost six-year policy of the Soviet leadership aimed at destroying the socialist bloc and ultimately leading to the collapse of the USSR.

“The problem is not what happened at the specific meeting on February 10, 1990. <…> Then, unfortunately, as a result of the policies of the sold-out Soviet leadership led by Gorbachev, little could be changed. In Germany, after the events of 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and so on, public opinion was determined that Germany would be united and the Iron Curtain would fall. This entire set of myths and cliches was introduced into the heads of the population of the eastern bloc of socialist countries, people's democracies, including as a result of the treacherous policies of the Soviet leadership. But in 1990, no matter what Gorbachev said, no matter how he behaved at the meeting with Helmut Kohl, the process had already been launched. This snowball rushing down the mountain was unstoppable” (Daria Mitina).

She explained that the entire policy of the Soviet leadership since 1985 was aimed at destroying the socialist bloc, “the forcible closure of the socialist project,” which generally justified itself. Socialism collapsed not under the pressure of natural causes, but in a violent, voluntaristic way. This was preceded by a series of so-called velvet revolutions throughout the Eastern European socialist bloc. By 1990, German society was ideologically prepared for further events, the historian believes.

“The Germans were taught for many years in a row that it was the policy of the Soviet leadership that was preventing their united people, who longed for unification, from uniting. But this was objectively not the case. After World War II, Germany was divided into capitalist and socialist states, and it was not an artificial division - it was a natural process, a natural result of the war,” Mitina explained.

She urged not to consider Gorbachev “a silent pawn in the hands of fate, carried along with the flow” - in her opinion, he deliberately pursued a policy to eliminate the USSR and the entire socialist bloc of Eastern Europe.

Daria Mitina emphasized that the division of the Germans has still not been overcome. Between the two parts of Germany there remained a difference in ideology, social status, and sentiments.

“It is enough to at least look at the election results in these two parts of Germany (which still remain parts, despite the lack of borders): it seems that the same parties are operating, the same state policy, but completely different sympathies, moods, until now the difference in living standards has not been leveled out,” the interlocutor told 360.

According to her, it is capitalist society that creates “artificial barriers” between people."

https://360tv.ru/tekst/mir/kakuju-rol-sygral-gorbachev-v-obedinenii-germanii/