Euro-Russian Entente

This book explores the origins, evolution, and limits of the “Euro-Russian entente” in the crucial transition period from perestroika to the consolidation of the Russian Federation, and from the European Single Market project to the emergence of the European Union.

Drawing on extensive archival research and a wide range of secondary sources from both Eastern and Western Europe, the volume reassesses the political-diplomatic, socio-economic, military, technological, and cultural dimensions of this pivotal moment in Euro-Russian relations. By foregrounding contingency, plurality of actors, and the interplay between ideas, institutions, and material constraints, it demonstrates that the failure of a deeper partnership was not preordained, but instead the outcome of a complex process in which ambitious projects of convergence coexisted with structural divergence. The volume thus provides a historically grounded framework for understanding not only the missed opportunities of the past, but also the deeper roots of the tensions that continue to shape relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation today.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of Cold War, contemporary European history, Russian and Soviet studies, European integration, and international relations, as well as policymakers and general readers.

Elena Dundovich is Full Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Pisa. She is an expert in the Stalinist terror and the gulag, the Soviet foreign policy and the relations between the Soviet Union and Europe, and has published several books, chapters and articles on these topics. She co-founded Memorial Italia, which has worked in collaboration with the Moscow-based human-rights organization Memorial.

Simone Paoli is Associate Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Pisa. He is an expert in the history of European integration, with particular attention to social, cultural and migration-related issues, and to EU external relations. He recently served as Scientific Director of the research project Ten Years of Hopes for a New Europe: Moscow and Brussels from 1985 to 1994.