This article examines Soviet–East German scientific ties in the second half of the twentieth century. The issue is explored using personal and professional correspondence between Eduard Winter (1896–1982), a historian from the GDR, and his Soviet colleagues. The study is based on an analysis of materials from Winter’s personal collection, housed in the Archives of the Berlin–Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. The identified sources make it possible to trace the everyday practices of scientific communication. The East German historian had a wide network of contacts with colleagues from the USSR, totaling over forty individuals. In this article, attention is limited to the “Leningrad circle” of E. Winter’s correspondents, which included literary scholars P.N. Berkov and G.N. Moiseyeva, Slavic historian A.S. Mylnikov, and chemist M.A. Bezborodov. The study established that the correspondence was primarily businesslike and focused on exchanging books and reprints of articles, discussing historiographic developments, clarifying archival references, and coordinating translations and publications. Another significant aspect of epistolary communication was the discussion of participation in collections and joint projects. The correspondence reveals that agreements were not always honored, and plans were sometimes disrupted due to excessive workloads. Personal issues rarely surfaced in E. Winter’s correspondence and served as a marker of trust, manifesting in situations of condolence and friendly support. E. Winter appears as a mediator between different, sometimes polar, scholarly traditions, simultaneously serving as their conduit and “exporter.” The study concludes by noting a “rift” between institutional and personal ties: it was personal contacts that ensured the stability, efficiency of exchange, and the participants’ engagement in the network of “socialist science”.
Eduard Winter; Soviet–East German scholarly relations; history of Soviet science; international intellectual relations; socialist science.