Paths to Russia: From War to Peace

As the representative of Deutsche Bank, Christians in 1969 helped engineer Germany's first postwar economic deal with the Soviet Union, a country he had invaded 25 years earlier as a lieutenant in Hitler's Wehrmacht. Later, as chairman of Deutsche Bank's board of directors, he loaned billions to the Soviets to construct the Siberian gas line and the Yamal pipeline. These multilateral projects were criticized by the Reagan administration, which the author attributes to parochial shortsightedness, charging that America grossly overestimated the volume of Germany's trade with the U.S.S.R. Christians's lively, opinionated memoir provokes the reader, whether he is discussing an encounter with ``the Russian Henry Moore,'' sculptor Vadim Sidur, admiring Gorbachev as a radical reformer or offering astute commentary on the ``tunnel vision'' of Soviet bureaucrats. In a foreword, Schmidt, former West German chancellor, defends Christians's fiscal and diplomatic maneuvers. (Jan.)