[37] This competitive advantage helped to keep USIA enterprises afloat despite their mounting obsolescence. Officers almost always sympathized with their long-suffering soldiers over civilians. Adolf Hitler's secret mission to Otto Skorzeny during the Ardennes Counteroffensive would rely on deception, employing English-speaking troops in US Army uniforms and equipment. The stationing of troops in Austria provided international legitimacy for a continued Soviet military presence in Hungary and Romania. [101] The West erroneously thought that the Soviets valued Austria primarily as a military asset, when in reality it was a purely political issue. A neutral Austria had an additional benefit to the Soviets by creating a gap in NATO's German and Italian front line, which would complicate NATO's existing military plans. If you appreciate our work, help keep Eurozine free and independent by supporting us with a monthly or single donation. The fire seemed to become a living entity, changing course at will, consuming everything in its path, and generating a heat that melted glass and cutlery and turned bricks to ash. [4] Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over.[5]. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council. In the first letter to his family, on May 12, he wrote: "(It is) terrible when I recall the hopelessness of existence in captivity, especially during the last two months which I spent in a stone torture chamber (zastenka). Why did Austria become independent after ww2? - YourProfoundInfo Carafano 2002, p. 188 "reduced to skeletal commands. The question as to why the Soviets finally decided to abandon their military presence in eastern Austria in the spring of 1955 and to agree to a negotiated withdrawal has preoccupied historians ever since. The commandat the level of army groups and Moscowfrequently issued orders reminding the troops that attacking civilians was impermissible, promising harsh penalties for perpetrators. Forschungsstand, Quellenlage und Fragestellungen". 1: Beitrge; Vol. The main strategic importance of Austria to the Soviet Union is as a focal area for communications in Central Europe. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130info@nationalww2museum.org 1996. propaganda). Repression against civilians harmed the Red Army's reputation to such an extent that on 28 September 1945 Moscow issued an order forbidding violent interrogations. Alfred Ableitinger/Siegfried Beer/Eduard G. Staudinger (Wien 1998). Why the Soviet Union Permitted Austria to Be Free: A Long - SMU [17][18] At the same time, the Soviet governors resisted the expansion and arming of the Austrian police force. Cf. When, however, the December Conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers broke down over Germany the Soviet Union grasped at the opportunity of keeping the Austrian discussions alive, and the subsequent negotiations of the Deputies in the spring of 1948 clearly indicated that they were now prepared to envisage the conclusion of a Treaty, with its corollary of the withdrawal of the occupying forces. ", Steininger 2008, p. 101, cites Eisenhower's letter to, Steininger 2008, p. 123, refers to chancellor Schuschnigg's visit to. Figl's government, the Chambers of Labor, Trade and Agriculture, and the Austrian Trade Union Federation (GB) temporarily resolved the crisis in favor of tight regulation of food and labor markets. Lewis, pp. Administration for Soviet Property in Austria - Wikipedia [32] The first allied talks on Austrian independence were held in January 1947, and deadlocked over the issue of "German assets" in Soviet possession. [52] Figl's government declared that the food riots were a failed communist putsch, although later historians said this was an exaggeration. Bailey, p. 148, wrote "65% of pre-war yield", not actual post-war output. It did not lose any territory, despite Yugoslavias claims to Carinthia, a province in the south of the country. [91], The death of Joseph Stalin and the Korean Armistice Agreement defused the standoff, and the country was rapidly, but not completely, demilitarized. The Administration for Soviet Property in Austria, or the USIA ( Russian: , ) was formed in the Soviet zone of Allied-occupied Austria in June 1946 and operated until the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1955. The annexed excerpt from one of these impressive estimates by the British Joint Intelligence Committee from the summer of 1948 bears witness to this type of sagacity. The Soviet Union and Europe after 1945 | Holocaust Encyclopedia Moreover, the frontline troops were placed under much stricter control in encampments and barracks after the war. After all, it was the birthplace of the man, Hitler, who had provoked World War II and the worst war in human history. [96], In January 1955, Soviet diplomats Andrey Gromyko, Vladimir Semenov and Georgy Pushkin secretly advised Vyacheslav Molotov to unlink the Austrian and German issues, expecting that the new talks on Austria would delay ratification of the Paris Agreement. [75], Chancellor Julius Raab, elected in April 1953, removed pro-Western foreign minister Gruber and steered Austria to a more neutral policy. South Tyrol was returned to Italy. The coalition of Christian Democrats (VP) and Social Democrats (SP),[26] backed by 90% of the votes, assumed control over the cabinet and offered the position of Federal Chancellor to Christian Democrat Julius Raab. [109], Soviet rule and reestablishing Austrian government. Dean Acheson, then the Secretary of State (pictured), and his wife paid an official visit to Austria. But officers responsible for the discipline themselves led the way in plundering, and in some cases, they also attacked women. [90] The strike intensified the militarization of Western Austria, with active input from France and the CIA. It seems probable therefore that the Soviet Union is no longer relying so much on this particular channel of influence as on normal Russian methods of political pressure, propaganda and infiltration. Raelynn J. Hillhouse, "A Reevaluation of Soviet Policy in Central Europe: The Soviet Union and the Occupation of Austria", In: Eastern European Politics and Societies 3/1 (1989) 83-104. As they closed in on the Third Reich, the Soviet soldiers committed hundreds of thousands of sexual assaults, robberies, and murders. In: International Organization 41 (Winter 1987), 27-60; Kurt Steiner, "Negotiation for an Austrian State Treaty". Image courtesy of Voennyi Albom (a Russian-language website) and Sputnik News. [86] Gendarmes were trained primarily as an anti-coup police force, but they also studied Soviet combat practice and counted on cooperation with the Yugoslavs in case of a Soviet invasion. In: Zeitgeschichte 28/2 (2001) 114-129. countries. [71] But ultimately they were responsible for the creation of the vast monopolistic public sector of the economy (and thus politically benefiting the Socialists). In this light, the Soviet governments adherence to the Moscow Declaration of 1943, guaranteeing Austrias independence, was correct, as the Kremlins failure to create a communist client state as it did in East Germany was restrained. While Western archives became available to serious research in the mid-1970s, at least partial access to Soviet and satellite archives became a possibility, albeit uncertain, only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bordjygov, Gennadij et al. As ever, the so-called "f. Calling Nazi propaganda a lie, the instruction went on to appeal to troops not to conflate Austrian civilians with German occupiers. The Soviet occupation of Austria, 1945-1955 | Eurozine [58] The Austrian government regarded financial aid to the Soviet zone as a lifeline holding the country together. The most critical was the issue of food. [47], Austria finalised its Marshall Plan program in the end of 1947 and received the first tranche of Marshall Plan aid in March 1948. [Link] Why did the soviets leave austria? : r/HistoriansAnswered - Reddit Oliver Rathkolb, "Politische Propaganda der amerikanischen Besatzungsmacht in sterreich 1945-1950. The hate campaign did not completely go away, but the most vehement anti-German propagandists, such as the widely popular military journalist Ilia Ehrenburg, were criticized in the Soviet civilian and military press for going too far.Soviet propaganda also began to emphasize that the ordinary Germans (and Austrians) were not responsible for the Nazi crimes.The change in propaganda tone was aimed at differentiating ordinary Germans from the Nazis, to encourage Soviet soldiers to treat civilians more correctly. Proudly carry the glorious title of a Red Army warriorlet your conduct cause respect everywhere for the Red Army.. By now, the body of available literature in the former Soviet Union enables a significant level of insight into the thinking, planning, and decision-making of the Soviet authorities, both in the Kremlin and in the Soviet administration, both military and civilian, stationed in Austria. Since post-war Austria became neutral country, all the allied forces withdrew from it. Perhaps most significantly, occupation troops became comprised of more disciplined and better-trained troops, most of whom were from the NKVD. Austria was occupied by the UK, the US, France & the Soviets - Reddit In Austria, there were hundreds of thousands of slave laborers out of 5 million Soviet citizens the Nazis had taken to the Third Reich from conquered territories. The Soviets left in Vienna the large Soviet War Memorial and to the new government a symbolic cache of small arms, artillery, and T-34 tanks; the Americans left a far greater gift of "Stockpile A" assets. Their products were in high demand in post-war Europe. Stanley, "Great Britain and the Austrian Question", 1938-1945, PH.D. Thesis, University of London 1975, a decade later, Robert Knight, "British Policy toward Occupied Austria", 1945-1950, Ph.D. Thesis, University of London (LSE) 1986 and Gnter Bischof, "Between Responsibility and Rehabilitation: Austria in International Politics 1940-1950", Ph.D., Harvard University 1989. [104] But it proceeded as had been agreed in Moscow and on 15 May 1955 Antoine Pinay, Harold Macmillan, Molotov, John Foster Dulles, and Figl signed the Austrian State Treaty in Vienna. The idea behind this policy was that it would alleviate the suffering of the population of the war-torn Soviet Union at the expense of enemy populations. Wolfgang Mller, "Die gescheiterte Volksdemokratie: Zur sterreich-Politik von KP und Sowjetunion 1945 bis 1955". By this time Paris Agreements were ratified by France and Germany, although the British and Americans suspected a trap[99] of the same sort that Hitler had set for Schuschnigg in 1938. Subscribe to know whats worth thinking about. This change in policy may be regarded as being due firstly to the realisation that the present situation in Austria is working out progressively less well for the Soviet Union, and that the advancement of their aims through the continuation of the occupation regime has been halted. [42] Popular and official protests continued through 1946. The Korean War experience persuaded Washington that Austria might become "Europe's Korea"[81] and sped up rearmament of the "secret ally". There will be a holiday on our street!, Soviet troops understood their arrival into the Third Reich as their victory and the time to inflict their own justice. In the words of Boris Slutskii, a major in the 3rd Ukrainian Front who went on to have a distinguished literary career after the war, In Styria [an Austrian province], justice reigned, and every soldier felt himself to be its executor and guardian.. The Kremlin proposed to spread oil shipments over six years through 1961, taking 50% of Austrian output, but at the request of Austria the schedule was extended to 10 years (to 1965) Sergeev. Manfried Rauchensteiner/Robert Kriechbaumer (Wien 2005); Der sterreichische Staatsvertrag: Internationale Strategie, rechtliche Relevanz, nationale Identitt, ed. [25] Movement of occupation troops ("zone swap") continued until the end of July. The Soviet leadership agreed in 1941 upon the restoration of Austria as an independent state within pre-1938 boundaries, separate from Germany and free of any confederated bonds, for example with Bavaria or Hungary, as envisioned by Winston Churchill. Freed from a camp in late April, he joined the 2nd Ukrainian Front. Throughout the war, the Soviet leadership sustained the armys morale through vicious anti-German hate propaganda, which given the Axis genocidal conduct in the Soviet Union, resonated powerfully with the rank and file. The journalists were whisked out of the room and down . 2: Dokumente, ed. The wild looting and, particularly, sexual assaults were crimes from below that violated the standing policies. What was missing until recently were the archives of the Soviet Element of the Allied Commission for Austria (SCSK) and the documentation for most of the Soviet military units and commands stationed in Austria from 1945 to 1955. [38] The Austrian government feared paramilitary communist gangs sheltered by the USIA[39] and scorned it for being "an economy of exploitation in colonial style. the police) and of education (i.e. For years, it said, propaganda in Nazi Germany terrorized Austrians with atrocities committed by Soviet soldiers. Whithan, Donald Robert; Whithan, Florentine (1991). By continuing to use the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Cf. Siegfried Beer summarizes the new perspectives on this history gained after the opening up of Russian state archives. [36] The USIA was weakly integrated with the rest of the Austrian economy; its products were primarily shipped to the East, its profits de facto confiscated and its taxes left unpaid by the Soviets. Why did the Soviets pull out of Austria so quickly after World - Quora [82] The B-Gendarmerie knowingly hired Wehrmacht veterans and VdU members;[83] the denazification of Austria's 537,000 registered Nazis had largely ended in 1948. On these consultations of KP leaders with a representative of the Soviet Politbureau cf. Why the Soviet UnionPermitted Austria to Be Free: Long-Standing Mystery Solved On May 15, 1955 the Governments of France, the Soviet Union, the UnitedKingdom and the United States, after long years of negotiations, signed withAustria the treaty ending the four zone occupation of that country which hadbegun ten years before. It paved the way for the joint invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that September. By 1955, when the Red Army pulled out of the country, the Soviets had arrested 2,400 Austrians, 1,250 of whom were prosecuted for everything from war crimes to everyday criminal activity. In the long run, the Declaration meant that Austria would emerge as an independent state. As cited in Tweraser 1995, p. 93. let your conduct cause respect everywhere for the Red Army.[12] The Red Army lost 17,000 lives in the Battle of Vienna. The negotiations set a model of building consensus between elected and non-elected political elites that became the basis of post-war Austrian democracy,[49] known as Austrian Social Partnership and Austro-corporatism. A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949 (Cambridge 1995); and Jan Foitzik, Sowjetische Militradministration in Deutschland (SMAD) 1945-1949. Rolf Steininger, 1955: "The German Question and the Austrian State Treaty. sterreich im Schatten von deutscher Frage und Kaltem Krieg 1938-1945 (Innsbruck 2005). In: Austria in the Nineteen Fifties (=Contemporary Austrian Studies 3, 1994) 39-78; and Gerald Stourzh, "The Austrian State Treaty and the International Decision Making Process in 1955". There is a debate among historians whether Soviet conduct in Austria was as bad as in Germany, and the preponderance of evidence indicates that it was not, although it was similar. I now only regret that I wasnt able to show in the battles for our Motherland that which I thought about the entire time that I was in captivity. The early international historical writing on the period of the First Cold War in Austria, roughly coinciding with the occupation decade, was undertaken by two Americans, one of whom had himself been a member of the Allied administration of Austria. What about the Soviet attitude towards a treaty with Austria leading to a withdrawal of Allied occupational troops? [95] Eisenhower, in particular, had "an utter lack of confidence in the reliability and integrity of the men in the Kremlin the Kremlin is pre-empting the right to speak for the small nations of the world". The signatures of 150,000 South Tyroleans did not alter the decision. Austrians also avoided the fate of the Volksdeutsche, ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe who were expelled to Germany or rounded up and deported to the Soviet Union for slave labor. There is, however, no reason to believe that she has prepared to abandon Austria completely. Cf. [24], The Potsdam Agreement allowed confiscation of "German external assets" in Austria, and the Soviets used the vagueness of this definition to the full. Among these were: Vladimir O. Pechatnov, "The Big Three after World War II: New Documents on Soviet Thinking about Post-War Relations with the United States and Great Britain" (=Cold War International History Project Working Paper 13/1995); Vojtech Mastny, Kremlin Politics and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years (New York 1996); and Vladislav Zubok/Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (Cambridge, MA 1996). 271. Its price permanent Austrian neutrality was enacted in the Austrian parliament on 26 October 1955.30 This memorable date has since become the Austrian national holiday. All rights reserved. Soviet Union invades Poland. Such soldiers were also viewed suspiciously by the Stalinist regime for having been in captivity, and by acting aggressively against the enemy they demonstrated loyalty to the system. [44] Food remained the worst problem. [8] In the following weeks the British surrendered over 40,000 Cossacks who had fled to Western Austria from Soviet authorities and certain death. The directive declared that Austria was Hitler's first victim and that the Red Army had entered the country to liberate it and annihilate the German Army. "[73] Austria received nearly $1 billion through the Marshall Plan, and half a billion in humanitarian aid. This was the dominant policy in the treaty negotiations through 1947. Even figures such as Karl Renner, an Austrian socialist politician who was the provisional prime minister of the first post-Nazi government appointed by Joseph Stalin, welcomed the Anschluss. The devastation continued as more than a million troops fought heavy battles across Austria. Many in the US State Department saw the Austrian State Treaty as Austria undertaking a voluntary decision to become another Switzerland. If anything could have stopped the rampage, it would have been the consistent implementation of the harshest penalty, the death sentence for the perpetrators. How Soviet occupation policy in Austria took shape warrants more attention. The Soviet Union released Austrian prisoners at a much faster rate than the Germans, but the last Austrians were not released until 1955. In: Diplomacy and Statecraft" 3 (1992) 494-522. These people, liberated by the Red Army, frequently led the way in looting and in attacking civilians. Eisterer 2009, p. 201: 2to 2.5 billion U. S. dollars. On September 17, 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the "fine print . [60] It benefited some trades such as metallurgy but depressed others such as agriculture. Soviet Union - Countries, Cold War & Collapse | HISTORY They were matched by keen observers in Western capitals, who quickly learned to realistically assess Soviet motives and policy. The Netherlands and Ireland were the second and third with 10.8% and 7.8%. The new government was formed by the coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, the traditional center-left and center-right Austrian parties. Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by NKVD[a] bodyguards. Wolfgang Mueller, "Soviet Plans and Policies for Austria's Transition to Socialism, 1945-1955". The military and political leaders were not concerned with the fate of enemy civilians. But Adenauer made sure it was not to become a model for Germany.32, Economically and financially, the value of Austrian reparations had by then diminished dramatically. After the Soviet Union had relieved Austria of the need to pay for the cost of their reduced army of 40,000 men,[75] the British and French followed suit and reduced their forces to a token presence. The planned withdrawal of American food subsidies spelled a sharp drop in real wages. Lewis, p. 144: "962 million dollars in Marshall Aid". At first, Austria had to pay the whole occupation bill; in 1946 occupation costs were capped at 35% of Austrian state expenditures, equally split between the Soviets and the Western allies.[34]. How the Soviet Union's collapse explains the current Russia - NPR Arkhipov felt his friends pain. USIA was facing bankruptcy and the cost of occupation to the tune of 36 million Austrian shillings annually since 1953 may have made the leaving easier. [33][52], In June 1947, the month when the UNRRA stopped shipments of food to Austria, the extent of the food crisis compelled the U.S. government to issue $300 million in food aid. [61] American planners deliberately neglected consumer goods industries, construction trades, and small business. They had long since recognised that Austria was not to be incorporated into the Soviet postwar empire, not even by gradual means. Gnter Bischof/ Josef Leidenfrost (Innsbruck 1988); sterreich 1945-1955. Cf. Why not create an East Austria? [20][2] Until the end of July 1945 none of the Western allies had first-hand intelligence from Eastern Austria (likewise, Renner's cabinet knew practically nothing about conditions in the West). The election held on 25 November 1945 was a blow for the Communist Party of Austria which received a bit more than 5% of the vote. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union is due to gain a valuable asset in the spheres of oil extraction and exploration (amounting to some 60 per cent and 50 per cent respectively of the total area in Austria). In: Jahrbuch fr Historische Kommunismusforschung 2005, 141-170. In: Austrian History Yearbook 38 (2007) 208-228. The number of troops greatly diminished, from around 700,000 during the Vienna Strategic Offensive to 150,000 in 1946, and 50,000 when the occupation ended in 1955. Dokumente aus russischen Archiven, ed. During World War II, the Kingdom of Hungary was a member of the Axis powers. In reality, the war began taking a heavy toll on the population only in late 1944 and early 1945, as the American and British bombings became increasingly devastating. Michael Gehler, "State Treaty and Neutrality. Communist attempts to forge a merger of the two leftwing parties were steadfastly resisted by the Socialist Party (SP) leadership from early on. Although they committed many crimes everywhere, they looted and raped most intensely in Austria. Ukraine - Nazi Occupation, Soviet, Genocide | Britannica The particular question of German assets, which so long proved the main obstacle to the conclusion of a Treaty, and was apparently the chosen instrument of Soviet economic and political penetration, has declined in importance owing to the unsuccessful operation by the Russian authorities in Austria of the factories, etc., which they have seized, and to the alternative prospects offered to Austrias economy by the European Recovery Programme. Initially, the Soviet holding company USIA accounted for about 30 per cent of the industrial output of the zone, at the peak of its operations controlling about 10 per cent of the Austrian workforce, altogether some 50 000 employees. In the spring of 1952 Stalins (in)famous notes on the neutralisation of Germany also revived the issue of the State Treaty with Austria. The Wehrmachtdrafted more than 1.3 million Austrians between 1938 and 1945, 242,000 of whom never came back home. Soviet commanders in the field issued orders to troops to discourage criminal conduct as soon they entered Austria. Austria is also of importance to the Soviet Government as a western-minded country in which their victory has given them a military footing, and as a potentially valuable channel for their political infiltration of Western Europe. Throughout 1946, the average Viennese was consuming 25 percent fewer fats and meat and 75 percent less bread than in 1937. Coincidentally with the Second Control Agreement, the Soviets changed their economic policy from outright plunder to running expropriated Austrian businesses for a profit. Austrian diplomats seized on the opportunity to build alliances with Western governments, and the ground was prepared for Austrias reintegration into western Europe. As well, all administrative and legal measures since 1938 would be ignored. By then, Moscow must have come close to the end of its illusion of a peaceful transition to Socialism in Austria with the KP as its vanguard.28. Berg, p. 169. There was new agreement on the difficult questions of German property in Austria and on Austrian reimbursements in connection with the Danube Navigation Company (DDSG) and Soviet oil interests. After a long battle during which the Soviets stopped the Germans at Lake Balaton, he wrote that he had been listening to music on Radio Moscow with his friend Stepan. [92] Finally, the Soviets replaced their military governor with a civilian ambassador. other words, Austria was not divided into the same sort of occupation zones. Hungarian leader Mikls Horthy and German leader Adolf Hitler in 1938.

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