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The Soviet Occupation of Germany: Hunger, Mass Violence and the Struggle for Peace, 1945-1947 PDF

188 Pages·2013·1.2 MB·English
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The Soviet Occupation of Germany This is a major new account of the Soviet occupation of post-war Germanyand thebeginning oftheCold War.DrFilipSlaveski shows how in the immediate aftermath of war the Red Army command struggled to contain the violence of soldiers against German civilians and,atthesametime,feedandrebuildthecountry.Thistaskwasthen assumed by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG), whichwasestablishedtoimposeorderonthischaos.Itsattempt,how- ever, intensified the battle for resources and power among competing occupation organs, especially SVAG and the army, which spilled over fromthreatsandsabotageintofightingandshootoutsinthestreets.At times, such conflicts threatened to paralyse occupation governance, leaving armed troops, liberated POWs, and slave labourers free to roam. SVAG’s successes in reducing the violence and reconstructing eastern Germany were a remarkable achievement in the chaotic after- mathofwar. filip slaveski is an Honorary Fellow in History at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia. The Soviet Occupation of Germany Hunger, Mass Violence, and the Struggle for Peace, 1945–1947 Filip Slaveski UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107043817 ©FilipSlaveski2013 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2013 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN978-1-107-04381-7Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. For Sr Lieutenant I. N. Sychkov, who lost more in victory than in defeat dod 25.3.1946 Contents Listoftablesandmap pageviii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiv Listofabbreviations xvi PartI Theexplosionofviolence 1 1 TheSovietadvanceintoGermany 3 2 Inheritingwartimechaos 12 3 Bringingsoldierstoheelafterthewar 28 4 SVAG–armyconflictsin‘peacetime’ 44 5 Suicide,apathy,violence 61 6 ThemutedGermanresponsetoviolence 71 PartII Thebeginningsofpeaceandstability 85 7 ThestruggletofeedGermany 87 8 Thepoliticsoffoodandpeacefulprotest 103 9 BuildingtheSED 117 10 Theshiftinpolicyandendofchaos 127 Conclusion 147 Map 151 Bibliography 152 Index 165 vii Tables and map Table7.1 Landavailableper100people,1946(acres) page89 Table7.2 DailyrationentitlementsfortheSovietsectorin BerlinandDresden,August1945(calories) 91 Table7.3 Calorificentitlementsfornormalconsumers(NCs) andveryheavyworkers(VHWs),1946 93 Table7.4 The1947coal–foodcycle(tonnes) 94 Table7.5 Birth–deathcycleinBritishzone,1947 95 Table7.6 InfantmortalityratesinBritishzone,1946–7 95 Table7.7 MonthlyinfectionsrecordedinMecklenburg, 1945–6 101 Map1 Thepost-wardivisionofGermanyandland/province boundariesintheSovietoccupationzone.After E.F.Ziemke,TheU.S.ArmyintheOccupationofGermany 1944–1946.ArmyHistoricalSeries(Washington,DC: CenterofMilitaryHistory,UnitedStatesArmy,1990), backcover. 151 viii

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This is a major new account of the Soviet occupation of postwar Germany and the beginning of the Cold War. Dr Filip Slaveski shows how in the immediate aftermath of war the Red Army command struggled to contain the violence of soldiers against German civilians and, at the same time, feed and rebuild
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