Christiane Hoffmann – the Soviet Union, Ukraine and shattered dreams

24 February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine. But on this day, Christiane Hoffmann receives further tragic news. One of her closest friends has taken her own life. Now she asks herself: Could it have been prevented? This is the question that preoccupies her in her conversation with Roger de Weck.

Her friend’s death, but also the war against Ukraine and Russia’s self-destruction? Sensitively observed and brilliantly written, Hoffmann’s book *Die Träume, die wir hatten* (The Dreams We Had) combines the memory of a special friendship with the history of German-Russian-Ukrainian relations, told from Christiane Hoffmann’s personal perspective. It does so in a way that leaves room for doubt and grief, for questions and ambivalence. In doing so, she restores the emotional depth to the debates about Russia that had been lost in the initial shock following the attack, whilst at the same time building bridges across the divides that this issue has created within society.