The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949

Abstract

tensive use of American, British, and West German sources, some memoirs, interviews, and a variety of newspapers.The result is a richly detailed and fascinating account of the four and one half year occupation.The author argues that the Soviets did not occupy Germany with "specific long-range goals" in mind (465), let alone a detailed plan of action.Rather, the occupation was shaped largely by a complex mixture of opportunism, principle, "Bolshevik predisposition," (468) and conflict with the West.The Soviets wanted to edge out the Americans and the British for hegemony over the entire country, eliminate all traces of Nazism, guarantee the creation of a "democratic" and "antifascist" German state, and collect reparations.Perhaps most important, Moscow wanted to build popular support among ordinary Germans for its policies and those of the German Communists (KPD, after April 1946 the Socialist Unity Party, or SED).But