Russia at war 1941-1945

1) The Nazi Party and all its organisations are dissolved.

2) Within forty-eight hours all members of the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the police and members of the public services must register. Within three days, all members of the Wehrmacht and the SS must register, too.

3) All public services in Berlin must be resumed immediately, and food shops and bakeries must open.

4) Within twenty-four hours all food reserves exceeding five days' consumption

must be declared.

5) Banks must be closed and all accounts frozen.

6) All arms, ammunition, wireless sets, cameras, cars and petrol must be handed

over to the Russian authorities.

7) All printing machinery and typewriters must be registered.

8) No one must leave their dwellings between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. But theatres,

cinemas, restaurants and churches may remain open till 9 p.m.

The entire population, except old people and women with small children was mobilised for work. Men had to return to their regular jobs, or do "heavy work" like repairing bridges and dismantling factories; women had to clear away the rubble, pile up billions of bricks, and bury the thousands of corpses rotting among the ruins. Only those registering for work (apart from the above exceptions) were entitled to a ration card. The distribution of ration cards began on May 8, but the lower-category ration cards were less than

adequate. The black market began to flourish right away, and many Russian soldiers

swapped food for all kinds of more or less valuable objects. There was real famine among those who had nothing to exchange for food. This was particularly true of Berlin and Dresden.

The dismantling of factories— Trophäenaktion ("Operation Booty")—began at once. The Siemens plant near Berlin was completely emptied of machinery during the very first

days of the Russian occupation, and the same happened to many other places. It was done under the direction of engineers who had come from Russia, and the military authorities were not too pleased about it.

Within a month of the German capitulation of Berlin, some kind of order had been

introduced into the complete chaos. On June 5 the Allied Control Council was formed, and, on June 9 Marshal Zhukov announced the setting up, under his authority, of the

SMA, the Soviet Military Administration for Eastern Germany. Even before that, General Berzarin, the commandant of Berlin had set up an administration of sorts in the capital.

This was followed, on June 10, by Marshal Zhukov's Order No. 2 permitting the creation of "democratic and anti-Fascist parties" acting, of course, under Russian control. On the very following day the German Communist Party, headed by Pieck and Ulbricht,

declared itself in favour of the Sonderweg—a "particular German way": We believe that it would be wrong to impose the Soviet system on Germany, since

this would not correspond to the present development of the country... Instead, we are in favour of a democratic anti-Fascist régime and a parliamentary republic

guaranteeing the people democratic rights and freedoms.

A similar line was taken by the SPD, the Socialists, several of whose leaders—notably Fechner, Grotewohl and Gniffke—were shortly to declare themselves in favour of a

united Socialist-Communist Party, which, within a year, was to become the SED

{Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands). The SMA also permitted the constitution of bourgeois parties—the Catholic CDU and the liberal LDP—provided these entered a

united anti-Fascist Front. This anti-Fascist bloc was to be formed on July 14, 1945.

In 1945, not only the bourgeois parties and the Socialists, but also the German