The book "Deal with the Devil: German-Russian Relations between the First and Second World Wars" is a compact and extremely engaging presentation of the history of the Russian and German peoples, filled with events of historic proportions. With captivating dynamism and literary precision, Sebastian Hafner describes the twists and turns in relations between nations that sometimes fought each other, sometimes entered into alliances that represented a deal with the devil for each side. The book begins with Imperial Germany's support for the Bolshevik Revolution and concludes with the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the invasion of Poland in 1939, and Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.

The original German version of the book was published in 1968 and, at that time, covered the last 50 years of German-Russian relations. In 1988, Hafner's work was republished and abridged to cover the period between the First and Second World Wars, and it was this version that served as the basis for the present Russian translation.