The Stalin Cult in East Germany and the Making of the Postwar Soviet Empire, 1945–1961

385 Pages·2022·27.26 MB·English

by  Alexey Tikhomirov

The Stalin Cult in East
Germany and the Making
of the Postwar Soviet
Empire, 1945–1961
THE HARVARD COLD WAR STUDIES BOOK SERIES
Series Editor: Mark Kramer, Harvard University
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The Stalin Cult in East
Germany and the Making
of the Postwar Soviet
Empire, 1945–1961
Alexey Tikhomirov

Translated by Jacqueline Friedlander

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tikhomirov, Alexey, author.
Title: The Stalin cult in East Germany and the making of the postwar Soviet empire,
1945–1961 / Alexey Tikhomirov.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2022] | Series: The Harvard Cold War studies
book series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021060793 (print) | LCCN 2021060794 (ebook) | ISBN

9781666911893 (cloth) | ISBN 9781666911909 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Germany (East)—Politics and government. | Stalin, Joseph,
1878–1953—Influence. | Political leadership—Germany (East)—History. |

Communism—Germany (East)—History. | Political culture—Germany (East)—
History. | Political rehabilitation—Germany (East) | Post-communism—
Germany (East)
Classification: LCC DD283 .T55 2022 (print) | LCC DD283 (ebook) |
DDC 943/.1087—dc23/eng/20220105
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060793
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060794

∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For Cecilia

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 Father of the People, Face of the Nation: The Premodern and
Modern Foundations of Personality Cults 29
2 The Empire of Stalinism: The USSR and East Germany
after 1945 47
3 From the “Red Tyrant” to the “Liberator”: The Image of Stalin
in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany 73
4 “The Best Friend of the German People”: The Making of
the Cult Community in the GDR 141

5 “The Fierce Enemy of the German People”: The Personality
Cult and Iconoclasm in East Germany 241

6 “We Wanted to Make a God but He Turned Out to Be the Devil”:
The Politics and Practices of De-Stalinization in the GDR 269
Conclusion 307
Bibliography 317

Index 361

About the Author 369
vii

List of Figures
Figure I.1 Nazi propaganda poster showing Stalin as the
embodiment of the Jewish-Bolshevik threat, 1941–1944. 3
Figure I.2 “Stalin—This Is Peace!”: socialist propaganda of “the
best friend of the German people” in the GDR, 1952. 4
Figure I.3 GDR poster: “Working day of two worlds. Two
ways, two worlds—we have decided, German-Soviet
friendship means prosperity and peace.” Ca. 1950. 6
Figure 3.1 Red Army soldiers celebrating the victory. Early May 1945. 76
Figure 3.2 “Generalissimo I. V Stalin”: Unter den Linden, East
Berlin. 1945. 79
Figure 3.3 GDR poster: “Our path to peace and prosperity:
German-Soviet friendship ruins all the arsonist’s plans
to start a war.” 1950. 81
Figure 3.4 Including Ernst Thälmann’s cult in the Stalin cult:
a meeting about renaming the Krupp Factory in
Magdeburg as the Ernst-Thälmann-Werk. April 30, 1951. 83

Figure 3.5 Wilhelm Pieck, the president of the GDR, with a
birthday present—a bust of Stalin. January 3, 1950. 92
Figure 3.6 Anti-Nazi banner in the US sector of Berlin (Neukölln)

declaring “That was the reorganization of Europe. 4.5
million antifascists were brutally murdered in Auschwitz
alone! Eradicate Nazism, root and branch.” Summer 1945. 109
Figure 3.7 A column of marchers in a May First parade holding
portraits of the classics of Marxism-Leninism. May 1, 1953. 110
Figure 3.8 Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Pieck, and Otto Grotewohl
on the reviewing stand at the SED’s Fourth Congress,

held April 30–May 6, 1954. 113
ix