Friends, today there will be a post about interesting and at the same time little-known events for the Russian-speaking reader that took place in Germany in the summer of 1953 - being in Germany, I could not ignore this story. What happened in East Germany these days? Soviet historiography at first called these events a “fascist putsch”, and closer to the eighties they simply bashfully kept silent - at that time Soviet citizens would have easily guessed that this was a real popular uprising directed against the oppressors who had seized the means of production and established their own orders - in fact , exactly what all Soviet mythology is built on.

The summer protests of 1953 swept, without exaggeration, all of Germany - in East Berlin alone, 150,000 thousand people took to the streets, demanding a normal life and humane treatment. And in the end, the Berlin demonstrators still won - however, this happened after the fall of communism in Europe.

First, a little history and a story about how it all began. After the end of World War II, East Berlin and part of Germany found themselves in the Soviet occupation zone, where “comrades from Moscow” began to build socialism at an accelerated pace. The construction of socialism under the leadership of the military administration and according to the Soviet model presupposed, first of all, a number of repressive measures - private property and small trade began to be eliminated, mass nationalization of enterprises began, mass dispossession and the creation of collective farms began on the Soviet model - in Germany they were called LPG ( Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft).

In addition, in 1946, under the leadership of the Soviet military administration, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was created, which exactly copied the Soviet CPSU of the Stalinist model. Persecution of the Protestant Church began, and a compulsory course of Marxism-Leninism was introduced in high schools and universities - in general, from the newly defeated Hitlerism, the Germans were plunged into Soviet-style Stalinism.

As a result of such activities, there were more and more prisoners in the prisons of the GDR, and less and less goods on store shelves; a card system was introduced in trade. In those stores where customers were sold without cards, prices were extremely high - in 1952, the average salary in the GDR was 300 marks, while a kilogram of sugar cost 12 marks, a kilogram of butter cost 24 marks, and a kilogram of pork cost 15 marks.

At the same time, workers were required to increase labor productivity, while their wages did not allow them to feed their families. The Germans had at hand the example of the successful Federal Republic of Germany, where people lived much better, and many fled there from the Soviet occupation zone, which further worsened the situation in the GDR - the best and most active fled beyond the Soviet occupation zone, from June 1952 to May 1953 312,000 people left, and the figure grew exponentially - more than 50,000 people left in May alone.

The East Germans expected that things would get better after Stalin's death, but this did not happen - he died in March 1953, and already in May the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany decided to further increase production standards - workers had to work 10-15% more while maintaining the same salary, which was already miserable. The leadership of the trade unions, theoretically, was supposed to protect the workers, but it was under the heel of the Soviet military, and said - “yes, that’s right, raising standards is correct.”

This was the last straw, after which a massive workers' uprising began in East Germany.

02. In East Berlin there is a whole avenue of prestigious “Stalin buildings,” which were erected in the late forties and early fifties; they are located on the current Karl Marx Allee, which in the fifties was called Stalin Allee. These luxurious houses were supposed to show the “triumph of socialism” and the “free life of the common people in East Germany,” but in fact these houses were built for the party nomenklatura, and they were erected (just like in the USSR) by half-starved workers who lived in barakah - those same simple people.

03. It was the builders of these very Stalinist buildings who were the first to rebel - they were probably the first to see with their own eyes how much the words about “universal equality and brotherhood” diverge from reality. The unrest began on June 15, 1953 - a delegation of workers drove a truck to the House of Ministries and demanded not to increase production standards - but instead of answering the facts, the workers were told that they were acting “on orders from West Berlin,” and in general “scoundrels and fascists.”

04. At the same time, the party leadership began to train agitators who were supposed to “explain” to the builders that working for free is very correct and communist. On June 16, some of the striking workers were closed on the territory of one of the Berlin construction sites, which immediately became known among the workers on Stalin Alley - the workers began to gather to go and free their friends.

05. As a result, a whole workers’ demonstration began on Stalin Alley, the number of participants in which quickly reached 10,000 people; workers walked along these streets among the rich new buildings erected by poor people for party officials. The workers loudly chanted: “Colleagues, join us! We want to be free people!”

06. A few hundred meters from Potsdamer Platz, close to the intersection with Leipzig Strasse, is the former Goering Aviation Ministry, which has housed Soviet ministries since 1949; the building became known as the House of Ministries. On June 16, 1953, at 2 p.m., a mass rally began in front of the House of Ministries - a crowd of workers came there from Stalin Alley, which was joined along the way by other workers - masons, plasterers, metallurgists, general workers, and railway workers.

07. Soviet propaganda called this speech a “fascist attack,” but in fact, not a single Nazi slogan was heard at the House of Ministries and not even anything bad was said about it (Soviet informants themselves wrote about this). The workers from Stalin Alley demanded that Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl come to them. "Down with exploitation!" Down with the government of hunger,” the demonstrators chanted.

08. The government did not take any action, and in the early morning of June 17, a general strike began in East Berlin. Tens of thousands of workers gathered at Strausbergplatz - on the central square, among those very nomenklatura “Stalinist” buildings, stood a crowd of half-starved and poorly dressed workers who erected all this splendor for the “communist masters.”

09. In the courtyards of Stalin Alley, workers tore down Soviet posters that called for working more and more, exceeding the standards. By noon, the number of demonstrators in the center of East Berlin reached 150,000 people.

10. Tens of thousands of people also came out to Alexanderplatz - Stalin Alley, which is now called Karl Marx Allee, leads directly to this square. People chanted "We don't want to be slaves, we want to be free people!"

11. The workers who gathered at Alexanderplatz demanded the same thing - an increase in wages, the creation of humane working conditions and the abolition of incredibly high production standards. The workers also put forward demands for the creation of truly independent trade unions that would defend their rights.

12. The authorities were not going to comply with the demands of the demonstrators, and army armored vehicles began to enter Alexanderplatz, Stalin Allee and other central streets of Berlin. Russian soldiers armed with rifles and machine guns sat on the armor. The equipment entered the center of Berlin in full combat gear, with an attached field hospital and a field kitchen.

13. Around noon on June 17, 1953, Soviet tanks were thrown at the protesters - this happened here, near the Zeichhaus building, which is located at the very beginning of Unter den Linden Boulevard.

14. Soon, near the Zeichhaus building, the tracks of one of the tanks crushed a worker - later a cross was erected at this place, and now inside the Zeichhaus there is a separate exhibition hall telling about the events of the summer of 1953 in Berlin.

15. The tanks took up combat positions around Zeichhaus, after which they moved to the Wilhelmstrasse area and to the Potsdamer Platz area. Soon after this, the first shots rang out - according to the stories, the soldiers shot mostly over their heads, but there were also casualties among the protesters.

16. According to eyewitnesses of the events and even Soviet “informants” who were among the protesters, there were no attacks by demonstrators on Soviet tanks; the protesters did not have any weapons, there were no Molotov cocktails or anything like that. Several photographs of the events of those years show several young people throwing stones at Soviet tanks - they were trying to damage the radio antenna, and this was rather an exception.

17. Meanwhile, a column of tanks moved from Zeichhaus along Unter den Linden Boulevard to the Brandenburg Gate - where mass demonstrations of German workers also took place.

18. Here is what geology student Erich Kulik, who found himself in the center of the column of demonstrators in those days, recalls about those events:

“At the corner of Friedrichstrasse I looked back for the first time. I was scared when I saw how many people had joined the column. Down the street, right up to the Brandenburg Gate, there was no crowd, the crowd grew and grew...

At the corner of Charlottenstrasse we suddenly heard the roar of approaching tanks and immediately saw demonstrators running away in panic. The head of our column now advanced slowly and cautiously. Tanks appeared on the bridge over the Spree. They increased the gas and moved straight towards us, three heavy tanks walking in a row, and armored cars along the sidewalk. I don’t know how the demonstrators managed to clear the street so quickly and where so many people were able to take refuge. I hid behind the Humboldt monument in front of the university entrance. In the blink of an eye, there was not a single free space left on the high metal fence behind me. The faces of the Russians sitting on the tanks were shining, they were smiling with all their might, waving at us and looking very friendly. The tanks, there were 15 of them, were followed by trucks with infantry, light artillery, a field kitchen and a hospital. Everything is like in war.

About six minutes later, when it was all over, people were still watching the retreating column of equipment. I went to the square in front of the Berlin Cathedral. Not long before this, the Russians had run over an old woman there. “She didn’t have enough strength to run to the side,” eyewitnesses said, “even though the car slowed down, it was too late. They quickly built a small brick tombstone at the scene of the incident, covered it with a black-red-gold flag, and placed a small wooden cross on top."

19. The Unter den Linden boulevard in those days was completely cut up by tank tracks - the military was traveling to the area of ​​​​the Brandenburg Gate to disperse the workers who had gathered there.

20. In parallel with the military, the East German police also worked - numerous barriers were installed in the city, the police tried to prevent the uprising from growing. Meanwhile, there was nothing “truly anti-Soviet” in it - workers at the factories organized strike committees and tried to take power into their own hands.

21. A significant event occurred near the Brandenburg Gate - the red flag that was flying on the gate suddenly flew down - two young people climbed up and threw the flag at the feet of the protesters.

22. Striking workers cordoned off buildings - 5 district offices of the Ministry of State Security, two district SED committees, dozens of police stations were under popular control. And perhaps the unification of Germany would have happened already in 1953, but Soviet tanks prevented the matter - they did not allow the protesting workers to do this and dispersed the demonstrators.

23. During the June events of 1953, more than 50 people died - the exact data on the dead is still unknown. 16 divisions took part in suppressing the uprising, of which three divisions with 600 tanks were in Berlin alone. Commissar Vladimir Semenov was appointed responsible for suppressing the uprising - according to him, Moscow demanded bloody reprisals against the workers, but he replaced Beria’s order to “shoot at people” with the order to “shoot over their heads.” Otherwise there could have been many more victims...

What was the outcome of the Berlin Uprising of 1953? As a result, German workers still received their rights, real trade unions and humane working conditions, and Germany became united - even if this did not happen in the summer of 1953, but in 1989.

And instead of an epilogue, I would like to place a poem by Bertolt Brecht dedicated to the 1953 uprising:

After the uprising of June 17
By order of the Secretary of the Writers' Union
Leaflets were distributed on Stalinallee,
In which it was reported that the people
Lost the government's trust
And he could only return it with double the work.
Wouldn't it be easier for the government?
Dissolve the people
And choose a new one?

Write in the comments what you think about this.

60 years ago, on June 15, 1953, construction workers at the Friedrichshain hospital in East Berlin refused to go to work and went on strike. The workers demanded that the increase in daily output standards be cancelled. On June 16, a rumor spread in the city that the police were occupying the hospital construction site. Builders from different places in Berlin, united in a large column, headed first to the trade union building, and then to the Ministry of Industry.

The minister who came out to the workers talked about returning to the previous production standards, but few people listened to him - speakers began to speak at the rally and put forward political demands: the unification of Germany, free elections and the release of political prisoners. The crowd of those gathered demanded the First Secretary of the SED, Walter Ulbricht, but he did not come. The workers moved to the Stalin Alley area, where elite mansions were being built for the new party bosses. Demonstrators took one of the cars with loudspeakers from the police and began to use it to call on people for a general strike. On the morning of June 17, about ten thousand people already gathered at Strausberger Square for a rally. The slogans of the demonstrators were: “Down with the government! Down with the People's Police! “We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be free!” The crowd began to destroy police stations, buildings of party and government agencies, burn kiosks with communist newspapers, and destroy symbols of communist power. This is how the famous Berlin uprising of 1953 began.

The reasons for the crisis in East Germany are the most commonplace - the Ulbricht government decided to build the so-called "socialism" according to the Soviet model. “They accepted it and decided” and the state machine started working: following the example of the “big brother”, peasants began to be forced into agricultural cooperatives (collectivization), industrial workers began to regularly increase standards and fine them for the slightest offense, and reduced wages. "The country is building a socialist future!" Neither the location of the country, nor the mentality of the Germans, nor the real possibilities of industry in a war-ravaged country were taken into account.

The recruitment of young people into the barracks police increased, and the principles of voluntariness were violated. The collection of taxes from private enterprises and peasants was accompanied by coercive measures, including bringing defaulters to criminal liability. Based on the law “On the Protection of National Property,” thousands of people were arrested and sentenced to 1-3 years for the slightest violation of the law. In the first half of 1953, 51,276 people were convicted of various forms of misconduct. Traditionally, the communists have suppressed the church through administrative measures.

The Germans responded with a mass exodus to the West. In the first half of 1953, 185,327 people fled from the GDR. The policy of prohibition and violence led to disruptions in the supply of food, basic necessities, fuel and energy to the population. On April 19, 1953, prices for products containing sugar were increased.

The events of June 1953 became a natural reaction to everything described above.

By the evening of June 17, the building of the Ministry of Industry was destroyed, the top leaders of the party, who almost ended up in the hands of the rebels, hastily evacuated under the protection of the Soviet military garrison in Karlhorst. The city was completely in the hands of demonstrators. Very quickly the uprising spread throughout the entire territory of the Republic. Strike committees were organized at factories, newspaper editorial offices and local SED committee buildings were seized. Hundreds of government buildings, prisons, the Ministry of Security and the Police Ministry were besieged and stormed. About 1,400 people were released. According to official sources, 17 SED functionaries were killed and 166 wounded. Between 3 and 4 million East Germans took part in the unrest.

To save their desperate situation, the party leadership of the GDR turned to the Soviet military command for help. The fundamental decision on armed intervention was made in Moscow on the evening of the 16th. At that time, there were about 20,000 Soviet troops on the territory of the GDR. Lavrentiy Beria urgently arrived in Berlin.

Soviet tanks and so-called units moved against the protesters. "people's police". A state of emergency was declared. Fire was opened on a crowd of demonstrators who tried to throw stones at tanks and break antennas. Clashes between demonstrators and Soviet troops and police continued until the evening of June 17, and began again the next morning. Shots were fired in Berlin until June 23.

According to official data in 1953, 55 people died, of which 4 were women and 6 teenagers between 14 and 17 years old. 34 people were shot on the streets, 5 were executed by the Soviet occupation administration, and two were executed by the GDR authorities. The authorities killed 5 people.

In 1990, documents were declassified, from which it followed that there were twice as many victims - about 125 people. It turned out that the Supreme Military Commissar received instructions from Moscow to exemplarily shoot at least 12 instigators and publish their names in the press. The first to be shot was 36-year-old artist Willy Goettling, a father of two children. Now modern German researchers say that the scale of repression was relatively small, considering the forces that the Soviet leadership deployed to suppress the uprising.

The uprising pretty much frightened Moscow and only made Ulbricht’s position stronger - he cleansed the ranks, got rid of the opposition in the party, and began to govern the country more harshly. On June 21, they canceled the decision to return the old production standards, then raised food prices. In 1954, the Soviet government abolished the occupation regime and the GDR gained sovereignty. The Berlin uprising of 1953 was the first popular uprising in the countries of the socialist camp, which was suppressed with the help of military force.

“It became clear to the rebels that they were left alone. Deep doubts arose about the sincerity of Western policy. The contradiction between big words and small deeds was remembered by everyone and benefited those in power. In the end, people began to settle down as best they could" (Willy Brandt, former German Chancellor)

In July 1952, at the Second Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, its General Secretary Walter Ulbricht proclaimed a course for the “planned construction of socialism,” which amounted to the consistent Sovietization of the East German system: measures against small owners and private trade, mass nationalization of enterprises. At the same time, the traditional territorial division was radically reformed (instead of 5 historical “lands”, 14 districts were introduced). According to the Soviet model, heavy industry was intensively developed, which led to a serious shortage of food and consumer goods, and propaganda blamed “speculators and kulaks” for the food crisis. Finally, the creation of the People's Army was announced, and militarization, combined with reparations, had a heavy impact on the country's budget: military spending accounted for 11% of the budget, and together with reparations - 20% of unproductive spending. In this situation, there was a mass exodus of residents to the western zone, primarily highly qualified personnel - a “brain drain” (50 thousand people fled in March 1953 alone), which, in turn, created new economic problems. Political and anti-church repressions also increased. In particular, two evangelical youth organizations, the “Young Community” and the “Evangelical Student Community,” were destroyed and arrested in full.
However, the death of Stalin in March 1953 suspended power pressure and led to a weakening of Soviet control: the Soviet Control Commission was disbanded, replaced by a High Commissioner.
In April 1953, two months before the uprising, there was an increase in prices for public transport, clothing, shoes, baked goods, meat and sugar-containing products. At the same time, the lack of sugar led to a shortage of artificial honey and marmalade, which served as one of the main components of the standard breakfast of most Germans. According to a participant in those events, this already caused a wave of indignation among German workers. The outrage over the rise in price of marmalade met with bewilderment and misunderstanding among the Soviet leadership, who had no idea about the role of marmalade in the diet of German workers, and was perceived as a “marmalade revolt.” In Russian historical literature there is a thesis that the beginning of the development of the crisis of 1953 was largely the “marmalade riot”. But most Russian historians, like historians from other countries, do not use the term “marmalade riot”.
Continuing the course of liberalizing its policies after Stalin’s death, on May 15, the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs presented the leadership of the GDR with a memorandum demanding an end to collectivization and a weakening of repressions. On June 3, the leaders of the GDR were summoned to Moscow, upon returning from which they announced (June 9) the cessation of the systematic construction of socialism, proclaimed the “New Deal,” publicly admitted that mistakes had been made in the past, and planned a slowdown in the development of heavy industry to improve the supply of the population. canceled a number of economic measures that caused sharp discontent among the population.
At the same time, the previously adopted decision of the SED Central Committee “to increase production standards for workers in order to combat economic difficulties” was not canceled. This decision to increase production standards by 10% (and in some areas up to 30%) of production was made at the plenum of the Central Committee on May 14, 1953 and published on May 28 in the following wording: “The government of the German Democratic Republic welcomes the initiative of workers to increase production standards. It "Thanks all the workers who have raised their standards for their great patriotic work. At the same time, it responds to the wishes of the workers to review and raise standards."
The increase in standards was supposed to be introduced gradually and completed by June 30 (W. Ulbricht’s birthday). This caused another strong discontent among the workers.
The leadership of the (communist) trade unions, theoretically called upon to protect the interests of workers, also spoke out in support of raising standards. The historical literature claims that an article in defense of the course to increase production standards that appeared on June 16, 1953 in the trade union newspaper Tribuna was the last straw that overflowed the cup of popular discontent.
After the workers received their salaries and discovered deductions in them, as for shortcomings, fermentation began. On Friday, June 12, the idea arose among workers at a large Berlin construction site (a hospital in the Friedrichshain area) to go on strike. The strike was scheduled for Monday 15 June. On the morning of June 15, Friedrichshain builders refused to go to work and at a general meeting demanded the abolition of the increased standards.
On the morning of June 16, a rumor spread among workers that the police were occupying the hospital in Friedrichshain. After this, about 100 construction workers from the elite party housing projects on Stalin Alley moved towards the hospital to “liberate” their colleagues. From there, the demonstrators, joined by some of the hospital builders, already numbering about 1,500 people, moved to other construction sites. Then the demonstration, which numbered up to 10,000 people, went to the building of the communist trade unions, but, finding it empty, by midday approached the House of Ministries on Leipzigerstrasse. The demonstrators, in addition to reducing production standards, demanded a reduction in prices and the dissolution of the People's Army. A rally began in front of the House of Ministries. Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann, speaking to the strikers, tried to calm the crowd and promised the return of previous production standards (the corresponding decision was immediately made at an emergency government meeting); but this was not successful. The speaker at the rally began to put forward political demands: the unification of Germany, free elections, the release of political prisoners, etc. The crowd called for Ulbricht or Grotewohl, but they did not appear. Demonstrators then marched towards the Stalin Alley construction sites, calling for a general strike and for a protest rally at Strausberger Square the following morning. Cars with loudspeakers were sent to calm the crowd, but demonstrators managed to take possession of one and use it to spread their own messages.
The West Berlin radio station RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) regularly reported on what was happening. At the same time, the journalists deliberately violated the instructions of the American station owners, who demanded that they not interfere in what was happening and limit themselves to dry reporting on the events. The editor of the radio station, Egon Bahr (later a prominent Social Democratic politician), even helped the strikers choose slogans and clearly formulate demands for broadcast on the radio.
The requirements boiled down to four points:
1. Restoration of old wage standards.
2. Immediate reduction in prices for basic products.
3. Free and secret elections.
4. Amnesty for strikers and speakers.
In the evening, the leader of the West Berlin branch of the German Federation of Trade Unions, Ernst Scharnovsky, in a radio speech, called on West Berliners to support the protesters: “Don’t leave them alone! They fight not only for the social rights of workers, but for the general human rights of the entire population of the eastern zone. Join the East Berlin builders movement and take your places on Strausberg Square!
RIAS transmissions played an important catalytic role. Bar himself still believes that if not for RIAS, everything could have ended on June 16. Thanks to these broadcasts, news of the events in Berlin and the plans for the 17th spread throughout East Germany, in turn inciting workers there to take action.
At the same time, there is an opposite Western point of view that the RIAS radio station, on the contrary, betrayed the rebels by reporting the failure of the uprising even before the head of the Soviet sector of Berlin declared a state of emergency, and this significantly reduced the intensity of the uprising.
On the evening of June 16, the West Berlin newspaper Der Abend also called for a general strike in the GDR.
On the morning of June 17 in Berlin there was already a general strike. The workers who gathered at the enterprises lined up in columns there and headed to the city center. Already at 7 o'clock a crowd of 10 thousand had gathered at Strausberger Square. By noon, the number of demonstrators in the city reached 150,000 people. The slogans of the demonstrators were: “Down with the government! Down with the People's Police! “We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be free!” Slogans directed personally against W. Ulbricht gained great popularity: “A beard, belly and glasses are not the will of the people!” “We have no other goal - Goatbeard must leave!” Slogans were also put forward directed against the occupying forces: “Russians, get out!” However, the anti-Soviet slogans, enthusiastically put forward by West Berliners who joined the demonstrators, did not find much support among East Berliners.
Border markers and structures on the borders of the Soviet and western sectors of the city were destroyed. The crowd destroyed police stations, party and government buildings, and newsstands selling communist press. Participants in the unrest destroyed symbols of communist power - flags, posters, portraits, etc. Police barracks were besieged; The rebels also tried to free prisoners from prison. The House of Ministries was destroyed; from there the crowd moved to the Friedrichstadtpalast theater, where a meeting of the SED activists was taking place, and the party leadership hastily evacuated under the protection of Soviet troops to Karlshorst. The city actually found itself in the hands of the riot participants.
The unrest spread throughout East Germany. In industrial centers, strike committees and workers' councils spontaneously arose, taking power in factories and factories into their own hands.
In Dresden, rioters seized a radio station and began broadcasting messages exposing state propaganda; in Halle, newspaper editorial offices were seized; in Bitterfeld, the strike committee sent a telegram to Berlin demanding “the formation of a provisional government composed of revolutionary workers.” According to the latest research, there were unrest in no less than 701 settlements in Germany (and this is apparently still an incomplete number). The official authorities of the GDR estimated the number of participants in the movement at 300 thousand. Other sources estimate the number of workers on strike at about 500 thousand, and the total number of participants in the demonstrations at 3-4 million out of a population of 18 million and 5.5 million workers (it should be borne in mind that peasants could not take part in the movement).
In total, 250 (according to other sources - 160) government and party buildings were besieged and stormed. The rebels occupied 11 buildings of district councils, 14 offices of the burgomaster, 7 district and 1 district committee of the SED; 9 prisons, 2 buildings of the Ministry of State Security and 12 police institutions (districts and stations) were seized, as a result of which about 1,400 criminals were released. According to official data, 17 SED functionaries were killed and 166 wounded.
Although Soviet troops were largely in control of the situation by June 17, there were also protests in the following days. Most of all on June 18, but in some plants until July. On July 10 and 11, workers went on strike at the Carl Zeiss company in Jena and on July 16 and 17 at the Buna plant in Schkopau. But the scale of the protest on June 17 was no longer reached.
The largest protests took place in the cities of Dresden, Görlitz, Niski and Riesa. According to the People's Police, there were strikes in 14 of the district's 17 districts.
In Dresden, about 20,000 people gathered in the squares of Theaterplatz, Postplatz, Platz der Einheit, in front of the Neustadt and main stations.
In Görlitz, workers formed a strike committee and systematically occupied the buildings of the SED, state security, mass organizations and the prison. The workers formed a new city government called the City Committee. Prisoners are released. As in Bitterfeld, political demands are formulated, including a revision of the eastern border of the GDR along the Oder-Neisse line. About 50,000 people took part in the demonstration. Only the declaration of a state of emergency and the use of Soviet occupation forces could stop the popular unrest.
Halle district was one of the centers of the uprising. All 22 districts reported strikes and protests. Along with the district capital, industrial centers such as Leuna, Bitterfeld, Wolfen, Weissenfels and Eisleben, but also smaller towns such as Quedlinburg and Köthen were strongholds of the protesters.
Of particular note is the industrial region of Bitterfeld, where a central strike committee coordinated the actions of 30,000 strikers. Purposefully, well-organized workers in Bitterfeld occupied the buildings of the People's Police, the city government, the State Security and the prison in order to paralyze the state apparatus. There were no clashes with the use of weapons for the reason that the head of the district police department Nossek visited the factories in Wolfen and Bitterfeld in the morning and ordered all types of weapons to be stored in weapons storage rooms and thereby effectively disarmed the factory security.
In Hull, 4 demonstrators were shot by police. Around 6 p.m., approximately 60,000 people gathered at the Hallmarkt market square in the city center. Soviet tanks dispersed the protesters.
From the town of Wajda, gun battles between armed miners and the Barracks Police (the predecessor of the National People's Army) are reported.
In the city of Jena, between 10,000 and 20,000 people gather. The buildings of the SED district administration, prison and state security are in the hands of protesters. After declaring a state of emergency at 4 p.m., Soviet occupation forces disperse the crowd. Despite this, large demonstration groups walk through the city center and call for the continuation of protests.
Magdeburg, along with Berlin, Halle, Jena, Görlitz and Leipzig, was one of the centers of events on June 17, 1953.
A protest procession of about 20,000 people formed around 9 a.m. and joined other demonstrators around 11 a.m. Protesters occupy the buildings of the SSNM and SED and the Volksstimme newspaper. Heavy and bloody clashes occur in front of the police headquarters and the prison. Two police officers and one state security officer were killed. The release of the prisoners failed due to the appearance of Soviet soldiers in front of the prison building, who used firearms and shot three demonstrators, including a 16-year-old girl. More than forty (some seriously) wounded demonstrators are recorded.
After lunch, the storming of the pre-trial detention center was successful and 211 prisoners, among them common criminals, were released. The military units stationed in Magdeburg were at that moment in summer camps. In the city there was only a commandant platoon and a military hospital. Events began with the arrival from the West. Germany armed with small arms people. In the GDR itself, only the Soviet Army had weapons. The NPA had not yet been created at that moment, and the people's police did not have weapons. The prison guards were armed only with shepherd dogs. The commandant's platoon managed to organize the defense of the army headquarters and the hospital and repel the attack of the rebels. Military units in summer camps were alerted and sent to the city. However, already on the way they were partially deployed and sent to the demarcation line to provide cover from invasion from the British occupation zone. Mostly motorized riflemen in armored personnel carriers and some tanks returned to the city. Initially, the troops were ordered not to open fire. However, soon a Soviet major was killed in an open armored personnel carrier by a shot from the attic. This was soon followed by permission to use weapons. After which the riots were stopped within a few hours. As soon as fire opened from some attic (the rebels were armed with rifles, machine guns and light machine guns), a tank was called in to fire a aimed shot at the attic. At this time, on the demarcation line, the troops were deployed for battle and dug in according to all the rules, as at the front. At that time, on the other side of the demarcation line, a Cossack unit of Russian emigrants was parading, probably with the goal of crossing the demarcation line and coming to the aid of the rebels. However, having discovered Soviet troops prepared for battle against them, the Cossacks left. There is no doubt that the actions of the rebels were directly directed and well coordinated with the command of the Western occupation forces. It should be especially noted that the East Germans at that moment officially did not have any weapons at all. Even hunting rifles. Even among the police during regular service. But in case of an emergency, they had weapons in storage. They were probably armed with these weapons during the suppression of the rebellion. The events in Magdeburg are described from the words of an officer who participated and witnessed the events.
The GDR government, in turn, turned to the USSR for armed support. In Berlin at that moment there were 16 Soviet regiments with a total number of 20,000 people; in addition, the government could count on a people's police force of 8 thousand people. The fundamental decision on armed intervention was made in Moscow on the evening of the 16th. At night, at the residence of the Soviet occupation administration in Karlshorst, the German delegation consisting of Walter Ulbricht, Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl and Minister of State Security Zeisser met with the Soviet High Commissioner V.S. Semyonov and the commander of the occupation forces Andrei Grechko and discussed with them the details of the actions against the rebels. USSR Interior Minister Lavrentiy Beria urgently flew to Berlin.
The Soviet military administration declared a state of emergency in more than 167 of the country's 217 administrative urban and rural districts (Kreise) on June 17th and 18th.
Around noon on June 17, police and Soviet tanks were deployed against the protesters. Demonstrators threw stones at the tanks and tried to damage their radio antennas. The crowd did not disperse, and Soviet troops opened fire. At 13:00 a state of emergency was declared. At 14-00 on the radio, Grotewohl read out a government message: “The measures of the government of the German Democratic Republic to improve the situation of the people were marked by fascist and other reactionary elements in West Berlin with provocations and severe violations of order in the democratic (Soviet) sector of Berlin. (...) Riots (... ) are the work of provocateurs and fascist agents of foreign powers and their accomplices from the German capitalist monopolies. These forces are dissatisfied with the democratic authorities in the German Democratic Republic, organizing for the improvement of the situation of the population. The government calls on the population: To support measures for the immediate restoration of order in the city and to create conditions for normal and calm work at the enterprises. Those responsible for the riots will be brought to justice and severely punished. We call on the workers and all honest citizens to seize the provocateurs and hand them over to government agencies. (...)".
Clashes between Soviet troops and riot participants and shooting continued until 19-00. The next morning there were again attempts at demonstrations, but they were harshly suppressed. Strikes, however, broke out again sporadically; in July there was a new rise in the strike movement.
On June 25, the Soviet administration announces the end of the state of emergency in the GDR except for Berlin, Magdeburg, Halle, Potsdam, Görlitz, Dessau, Merseburg, Bitterfeld, Cottbus, Dresden, Leipzig, Gera and Jena. On June 29, the state of emergency also ended for Dresden, Cottbus and Potsdam.
In July, a second wave of strikes began in several large enterprises. In the Boone mills, the July 15-17 strikes even exceed the June 17 strike. After this the situation stabilized.
Based on documents declassified in 1990, it can be concluded that at least 125 people died. In particular, the Soviet authorities sentenced 29 people to death. In general, the Soviet High Commissioner Semyonov received an order from Moscow to shoot at least 12 instigators with their names widely published; The first to be shot by the Soviet authorities was 36-year-old unemployed artist Willi Göttling, a father of two children. 100 people were sentenced by Soviet courts to terms ranging from 3 to 25 years, approximately a fifth of them were sent to Soviet camps, the rest were kept in GDR prisons. In total, about 20 thousand people were arrested, of which at least 1,526 were sentenced by German courts (apparently this is an incomplete figure): 2 - to death, 3 - to life imprisonment, 13 - to terms of 10-15 years, 99 - to prison terms 5-10 years, 994 - for terms of 1-5 years and 546 for terms of up to one year.
On the part of the authorities, 5 were killed and 46 policemen were wounded, 14 of them seriously. The total material damage amounted to 500,000 marks.
In the West, the number of victims was greatly exaggerated - for example, the figure was 507 killed.
Modern German researchers Joseph Landau and Tobias Sander note the relative moderation shown by the Soviet authorities in suppressing the unrest: “despite everything, the Soviet occupation power is not as unceremonious and bloodthirsty as the Western world claimed. The number of casualties could have been much higher if the rebels had been treated this way, given that the Soviets sent several divisions and several hundred tanks.”
The crisis itself did not weaken, but rather strengthened Ulbricht’s position. At that moment, there was strong opposition to Ulbricht and his Stalinist course in the SED (including the leadership), which had every reason to hope for support from Moscow. The crisis allowed Ulbricht to purge the party of his opponents, accused of passivity and social democratic deviation. Thus, by the end of the year, about 60% of the elected district committees of the SED were expelled.
Relying on unconditional Soviet support, the government demonstrated “firmness”: on June 21, the announced restoration of old production standards was canceled; in October prices were increased by 10-25%. On the other hand, the USSR hastened to reduce reparations demands (they now amounted to only 5% of the GDR budget), which improved the financial situation. However, the flight to Germany intensified: if in 1952 136 thousand people fled, then in 1953-331 thousand, in 1954-184 thousand, in 1955-252 thousand.
An immediate consequence of the crisis was also the end of the occupation regime in 1954 and the acquisition of sovereignty by the GDR.
Willy Brandt defines the psychological consequences of the crisis for the residents of the GDR in his memoirs as follows: “It became clear to the rebels that they were left alone. Deep doubts arose about the sincerity of Western policy. The contradiction between big words and small deeds was remembered by everyone and benefited those in power. In the end, people began to settle down as best they could.”
On July 15, 1953, the Minister of Justice of the GDR, Max Fechter, was expelled from the party, removed from his post as minister, and arrested due to “anti-party and anti-state behavior.” Three days later, the Politburo of the SED Central Committee decided to remove the Minister of State Security, Wilhelm Zeisser, from his post. He and the editor-in-chief of the Neues Deutschland newspaper were stripped of all party functions at the 15th plenum of the SED Central Committee (July 24-26, 1953).
On December 9, 1953, “Battle Groups” were created in response to the events of June 17. Their members took an oath to “defend the achievements of the state of workers and peasants with arms in hand.”

In the history of international relations there are secrets that are suddenly revealed in a different political situation and in a different historical era. “Color revolutions” in the post-Soviet space provide clues to the long-past events of the Cold War period.

One of the most significant and striking was the uprising of the population of the GDR in the summer of 1953, which was called the “workers’ uprising.”

On June 12, 1953, the mass purchase of shares of enterprises expropriated in the GDR was allowed in West Germany. In mid-June, Director A. Dulles, Special Advisor to the US Secretary of State for West Berlin E. Lansing-Dulles and Chief of Staff of the US Army, General Ridgway, went to West Berlin to direct the actions of the “workers’ uprising” on the spot. On June 17, the Minister for Internal German Problems J. Kaiser, the Chairman of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag H. von Brentano and the Chairman of the SPD E. Ollenhauer arrived here.

On the night of June 16-17, the RIAS radio station began broadcasting calls for organizing a general strike in the GDR. The German border guard was put on high alert. American tank units occupied the starting areas in Bavaria along the entire border with the GDR. A large number of intelligence officers, including armed ones, were brought into the territory of the GDR.

On June 17, 1953, many industrial enterprises stopped working in Berlin and other cities. Street demonstrations began. West German authorities provided transport for the transfer of demonstrators. They entered East Berlin in columns of up to 500-600 people. Even special American military sound broadcasting machines were used.

These speeches came as a complete surprise to the leadership of the GDR. Reports from the field spoke of a "continuing easing of tensions."

During the demonstrations, specially trained groups, which were promptly controlled from West Berlin, showed particular activity. The demonstrators had political slogans: the overthrow of the government and the liquidation of the SED.

Pogroms of party institutions and desecration of party and state symbols were organized. The crowd dealt with some functionaries of the party and state apparatus, activists of the labor movement. The street riots included arson and looting, as well as attacks on police stations and prisons. In Halle, the former commandant of the Nazi camp, E. Dorn, was released from prison.

Whether it was the famous German love of order - the Ordnung - that worked, whether the memory of defeat in the war was too close, or whether there were other reasons that we have no idea about, but the tension suddenly began to subside.

The organizers of the June uprising failed to achieve their main goal—the strikes and demonstrations did not develop into an uprising against the ruling regime. The bulk of the population distanced itself from political slogans, putting forward only economic demands (lower prices and working standards).

At many enterprises the SED managed to quickly organize armed guards, which since July 1953 existed as “fighting squads of the working class.”

The mass protests quickly subsided, the authorities seized the initiative, and already on June 24 a mass rally of youth took place in Berlin in support of the socialist government. On June 25, the Democratic Bloc expressed its confidence in the government of the GDR. People's police and state security officers acted decisively on his side.

However, there is no need to make far-reaching assumptions in the field of the German mentality or the social psychology of the Germans. The firm and decisive position of the Soviet Union played a decisive role in thwarting the June putsch. Our country declared that it “will not tolerate interference by imperialist states in the internal affairs of the GDR and will not allow a bloody civil war to break out.” The Soviet Army units stationed in Germany acted in accordance with this statement.

The command of a group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany, led by Commander-in-Chief Army General A.A. Grechko showed firmness and acted quickly and decisively. To block the border with West Berlin, several rifle companies were raised and moved to the indicated area. Then units of the 12th Tank, 1st Mechanized and other divisions were introduced into Berlin. Commandant of the Soviet sector, Major General P.A. By his order, Dibrov introduced martial law in Berlin; motorized rifle and tank units of the GSOVG were also concentrated in Leipzig, Halle, Dresden, Frankfurt-on-Oder, Ger and Potsdam.

The demonstration of military force and the presence of political will turned the tide. But there were unfriendly troops nearby, ready to come to the aid of the rebels, and there was a smell of a new big war!

As a result, the consequences for unrest of this scale can be considered minimal. From June 17 to June 29, over 430 thousand people went on strike in the GDR. 40 were killed. 11 GDR policemen and party activists were killed. 400 people were injured. Arrested and detained - 9530. 6 people from among the participants in the riots and pogroms were sentenced to death, four were shot (two in Magdeburg, one each in Berlin and Jena). Two sentences were not carried out - in the city of Görlitz.

On June 20, 1953, the commandants of the three western sectors of Berlin (American, English and French) issued statements of protest against the use of force by the Soviet side.

On June 26, demonstrations of German workers, employees and youth were organized in the East Berlin districts of Köpeneck, Miethe and Friedrichshain in support of the actions of the Soviet troops.

By July 1, 1953, the situation had generally returned to normal. Martial law was lifted in Berlin. Soviet units left German cities and towns and began planned combat training.

After the ball

The consequence of all these events was the strengthening of the split of Germany into two states and the involvement of these states, to a greater extent than before, in political and military confrontation.

In 1954, the status of occupation was abolished, and this status was also, accordingly, removed from the Soviet troops. The control of the USSR High Commissioner in Germany over the activities of government bodies in eastern Germany was terminated. The legal basis for the presence of Soviet troops was determined by the Treaty between the GDR and of September 20, 1955.

Later, assistance from the Soviet Union made it possible to improve the situation of people in the GDR. As a result of intergovernmental negotiations in August 1953 in Moscow, the Soviet Union freed the GDR from paying the remaining $2.5 billion in reparations and transferred the last 33 enterprises under Soviet control. In addition, the Soviet side provided a loan and made additional supplies of goods.

After the June events, certain changes occurred in the life of the GDR. The leadership of the SED was updated, V. Pick was elected First Secretary. The post of Secretary General was abolished. Massive state and cooperative housing construction began, a wide network of boarding houses, sanatoriums and holiday homes was created... Well, and so on. The prerequisites for protests like the “workers’ uprising of June 17, 1953” no longer arose.

Until the end of the 80s.

Type and scope of the uprising

The intensity of the popular uprising was uneven in different cities. Along with the abandonment of work and demonstrations in many localities, there were real uprisings of the population and even attempts - some of them successful - to release prisoners. In numerous places, the Soviet military was used to violently suppress protests.

Strikes: in 13 district capitals, 97 district centers, 196 other cities and towns, for a total of 304 towns.

At a number of enterprises, strikes were carried out even before June 17, 1953: Fortschrittschacht of the Wilhelm Pieck Combine, Mansfeld (copper smelter) - April 17.

FEB-Gaselan, Fürstenwalde - May 27. Kjellberg, electromechanical factory, Finsterwalde - May 28.

In the centers of the uprisings alone, a total of at least 110 large enterprises with 267,000 workers were on strike.

Demos: in 7 district capitals, in 43 district centers, in 105 other cities and towns, for a total of 155 towns.

Population uprisings: in 6 district capitals, in 22 district centers, in 44 other cities and towns, for a total of 72 towns.

Attempts to free prisoners: in 4 district capitals, 12 district centers, 8 other cities and towns, for a total of 24 towns.

The number of prisoners released on June 17 is 2-3 thousand people; in some settlements - Weissenfels, Güstrow, Coswig, liberation attempts failed, in others several prisons were opened simultaneously. There are witness statements from the cities: Bitterfeld, Brandenbugg, Kalbe, Eisleben, Gentin, Gera, Görlitz, Gommern, Halle, Jena, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mersebure, Pretsch, Roslau, Sonneberg and Treptow.

Use of Soviet troops in 13 district capitals, 51 district centers, 57 other cities and towns, for a total of 121 towns.

State of emergency was declared by the Soviet occupation authorities in 10 of the 14 districts, in 167 of the 214 districts of the Soviet zone.

Centers of popular uprising: The centers of demonstrations, in addition to Berlin and its surroundings, were primarily the Central German industrial region (with the cities of Bitterfeld, Halle, Leipzig and Merseburg) and the Magdeburg region, and to a lesser extent also the areas of Jena/Gera, Brandenburg and Görlitz. In all these cities, strikes began at large enterprises.

Victims of the uprising

Since the Soviet Army used weapons relatively proportionate to the situation, and soldiers did not fire blindly at strikers or demonstrators, the number of killed and wounded - however sad each individual victim was - was quite low. According to the Minister of State Security, 19 demonstrators and 2 people who did not take part, as well as 4 police and state security officers, were killed. 126 demonstrators, 61 non-participants and 191 security forces were injured. These figures are probably underestimated, especially since they could not include the dead and wounded who were transported on June 17 from East Berlin to West Berlin across the sector border. Eight participants in the June uprising died from their wounds in West Berlin hospitals.

It should be noted that figures are emerging that greatly exceed 267 killed among the rebels and 116 killed among the security forces and regime functionaries.

Announcement of the military commandant of the city of Magdeburg

I hereby inform you that citizens Darch Alfred and Strauch Herbert were sentenced by a military tribunal to death by firing squad for active provocative actions on June 17, 1953, directed against the established order, as well as for participation in bandit activities.

Military Commandant of the City of Magdeburg

60 years ago, the first mass protest in Eastern Europe against the Soviet model of socialism took place in the GDR.

Published archival documents lead to a sensational conclusion: the East Germans may have made a tragic mistake by being hasty and impatient. It is possible that Germany could have become a united and free state back in the mid-1950s, but the uprising tipped the scales in favor of the Moscow and Berlin “hawks.”

If in Hungary and Czechoslovakia reformist tendencies matured within the ruling parties, then in East Germany there was a classic spontaneous action “from below.” There was no protracted political struggle: everything was over in two days.

Western researchers write about a “workers’ uprising” or “people’s uprising,” while official Russian historians today prefer the neutral term “events in the GDR on June 17, 1953.”

One of the immediate reasons was the sharp increase in prices for sugar and, accordingly, for jam, without which the Germans, including low-income people, could not imagine breakfast.

The leaders and citizens of the USSR, not aware of this national peculiarity, considered that the Germans were going crazy. The misunderstanding was deepened by the fact that the word "jam" was inaccurately translated as "marmalade." The events were subsequently sometimes unofficially called the “marmalade riot.”

The older generation remembers them for the interruptions in railway tickets due to the fact that officers received orders to interrupt their vacations and immediately report to their units. Soviet newspapers bluntly called the participants in the performances “unfinished fascists,” and sitting at train stations at the height of the summer season, naturally, did not add sympathy to them.

Massive attack

East Germans had plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction besides jam.

On July 10, 1952, the pro-Moscow leader Walter Ulbricht, at the Second Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, proclaimed a course for the “planned construction of socialism,” which resulted in the fight against private trade, the accelerated development of heavy industry and collectivization in the countryside, only collective farms were called “cooperatives.” As a result, about half a million hectares of land remained unplanted in the spring of 1953.

Raising wages for unskilled workers, presented as concern for workers, led to a crisis in the consumer market, which propaganda blamed on “speculators and grossbauers” (the German equivalent of the Soviet “kulaks”).

At the request of the USSR, intensive construction of the People's Army began. Military spending in 1953 rose to 11% of the budget.

Political and especially anti-church repressions grew, in particular, almost the entire Lutheran youth organizations “Young Community” and “Evangelical Student Community” were arrested.

The difference in living standards was especially obvious given the then-open border with West Berlin. From January 1951 to April 1953, 447 thousand people “voted with their feet” against Ulbricht’s course, of which 50 thousand in March 1953.

In April, prices for bread, meat, sugar, clothing, shoes and public transport increased sharply.

On May 28, authorities announced an increase in production standards at factories, allegedly at the request of the workers themselves. People were especially angry at the clearly unsuccessful decision to coincide with June 30, Ulbricht’s 60th birthday.

Image caption The accelerated construction of socialism proclaimed by Walter Ulbricht (front row left) resulted in rising prices and empty store shelves

On June 9, a strike of steel workers began in Henningsdorf. The administration of the enterprise announced a reward of 1,000 marks for identifying the “instigators.” It is not known whether any money was paid to anyone, but five people were arrested.

On June 12, about 2.5 thousand factory workers in Brandenburg staged a rally demanding the release of their former owner from prison.

On June 15, hospital builders in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin did not show up for work. They were joined by colleagues engaged in the construction of luxury housing for the nomenklatura on the street, previously renamed Stalinallee.

The next day, about 10 thousand demonstrators in the morning moved to the building of the communist trade unions, and, finding it empty, moved to the House of Ministries on Leipzigerstrasse.

The rally began. In addition to lowering prices and maintaining old production standards, political slogans were heard: free elections, release of political prisoners, dissolution of the People's Army, unification of Germany.

At an emergency meeting of the government, it was decided to cancel the increase in standards, as announced by Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann, who spoke to the protesters, but they did not believe it, demanding a conversation with Ulbricht or Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl.

On June 17, a general strike began in Berlin. Gathering at enterprises, workers lined up in columns and walked to the center. About 150 thousand demonstrators carried homemade slogans: “Down with the government!”, “We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be free!”

Many posters were directed against Ulbricht personally: “Goatbeard must go!”

Party and government buildings, police stations, kiosks with communist press and separation structures on the borders of the Soviet and western sectors of the city were destroyed everywhere. The authorities fled to Karlhorst under the protection of Soviet troops. The city fell into the hands of the rebels.

Thanks to Western radio broadcasts, events in Berlin became known throughout the country. Tens of thousands of people took part in the unrest in Dresden, Halle, Magdeburg, Leipzig and other cities.

In total, about 160 government buildings, 12 police stations, and nine prisons were destroyed, from which about 1,400 people were released.

Tanks on the streets

There were 20 Soviet infantry and tank regiments stationed in Berlin alone.

On June 16, the GDR authorities turned to Moscow for military assistance. The decision was made in the evening of the same day.

On the night of the 16th to the 17th, Ulbricht and Grotewohl received assurances from the commander of the Soviet troops, the future Minister of Defense Andrei Grechko, and the Soviet High Commissioner in East Germany, Vladimir Semenov, that they would not be left in the lurch.

To lead the operation in the GDR, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrentiy Beria, who had the military rank of marshal, urgently flew out.

Around noon on June 17, several hundred units of Soviet armored vehicles, accompanied by units of the “people's police,” moved onto the streets of Berlin and other cities. Participants in the protests began throwing stones at the tanks, and Soviet soldiers opened fire.

At 13:00, Premier Grotewohl read out on the radio a decree introducing a state of emergency, which lasted until June 29.

By evening, Soviet troops, thanks to their overwhelming force superiority, almost completely took control of the situation. Attempts to hold demonstrations the next day were harshly suppressed. Strikes at individual enterprises continued in July, but no one dared to take to the streets anymore.

Victims

According to reports, 125 people were killed during the suppression of the unrest. Soviet military courts sentenced 29 GDR citizens to death and one hundred to various terms of imprisonment. About twenty of them were sent to Soviet camps.

The GDR authorities arrested about 20 thousand people, two were sentenced to death, 1,524 to imprisonment, including three for life.

On the regime side, five people were killed, 46, mostly police, were injured, 14 of them seriously.

A widely known story is that on June 28, 18 Soviet soldiers were executed in a forest near Magdeburg for refusing to shoot at an unarmed population. The names were named: Corporal Alexander Shcherbina, Private Vasily Dyatkovsky, Sergeant Nikolai Tyulyakov. Another 23 people were allegedly shot around the same time in a slaughterhouse in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. In 1954, a monument was erected to them in West Berlin.

Researchers have differing opinions regarding the reliability of these facts. A number of modern Russian sources directly call them “legends”.

The first to disseminate this information was the Soviet defector Major Nikita Ronshin.

In 2000, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of Russia stated that no documentary evidence of the execution of 41 servicemen had been found.

Little known details

According to available data, after Stalin's death, the Soviet leadership intended to abandon communist extremes in relation to the GDR, and perhaps even agree to its unification with the Federal Republic of Germany on the terms of turning Germany into a neutral state on the model of Austria and Finland.

Surprisingly, this trend came mainly from Beria.

On May 18, he invited his colleagues to consider the draft resolution of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “Issues of the GDR”, which contained, in particular, the words: “the main reason for the unfavorable situation is the erroneous course towards building socialism under current conditions”; “the Soviet side gave incorrect instructions on the development of the GDR”; “to abandon at present the course of building socialism in the GDR and creating collective farms”; "to review the measures taken by the GDR government to oust capitalist elements."

On May 28, the project was adopted. At the insistence of Vyacheslav Molotov, only one, but the key word was added to it: “from accelerated course towards the construction of socialism."

On June 11, the central organ of the Central Committee of the SED, Neues Deutschland, published an editorial about the “new course of the party.” The circulation was immediately sold out, copies were sold second-hand at 30 times their face value.

Image caption Trial of "agents of imperialism" (July 11, 1954)

The vague formulation about the “struggle for a united, peace-loving Germany” gave rise to the illusion that unification was a settled issue, Soviet troops were already leaving the country, the return of private property and a multi-party system would be announced any day now, and all that was needed was more pressure for the regime to collapse.

After the suppression of the uprising, there was no longer talk of any thaw.

Beria's position on the German issue soon became one of the accusations against him.

While in Poland and Hungary mass protests led to a change in leadership and partial liberalization, thanks to which these countries had long competed for the title of “the gayest barracks of the socialist camp,” then Walter Ulbricht ruled until his death in 1973, and tightened the screws even tighter.

Already on June 21, the restoration of old production standards and price reductions promised a few days earlier were canceled.

Ulbricht “purged” more than half of the district committee secretaries from the party, as well as the Minister of Justice, the Minister of State Security and the editor-in-chief of Noyes Deutschland. Justice Minister Max Fechter received eight years in prison for calling not to repress demonstrators and strikers.

In 1961, Berlin was divided by the Wall.

The East Germans had to wait another 36 years for change.