The uprising in the GDR against the USSR: how many victims. Berlin Crisis Workers' uprising in the GDR 1953

On May 14, 1953, the 13th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED adopted a decision on a 10% increase in output rates in order to combat economic difficulties. At the previous salary, the workers had to work 10% more. The increased rates led to wage cuts of up to 25%. Against the backdrop of a constant decline in living standards, this decision provoked discontent.

On May 13 and 16, 900 workers went on strike at a steel plant in Leipzig. Small strikes were held at construction sites and other enterprises in Berlin. The actions gradually acquired a political character.
June 9 - The steelworkers in Hennigsdorf went on strike against higher production rates. The administration of the enterprise appointed a bonus of 1000 marks for identifying the leaders of the strike, five of them were arrested.
June 12 - workers of the people's enterprise "Justus Pertes" in Gotha, in protest, unfolded all the portraits of the leaders of the GDR to face the wall.
June 13-14 - the workers demanded the abolition of the increase in production rates and the reduction of prices in the state retail trade by 40%. At many private enterprises, again returned to their former owners, the workers arranged real holidays.
On June 15, in Berlin, the first strikes began among the builders of prestigious buildings on Stalin Alley.
On June 16, numerous gatherings of demonstrators were observed in the center of East Berlin. They tore down propaganda posters and chanted "Down with the SED"
On the morning of June 17, a general strike began in Berlin. Already at 7 o'clock, a crowd of 10,000 gathered on Strausberger Platz. A huge column of steelworkers moved from Hennigsdorf through the French sector to the center of East Berlin. By noon, the number of strikers in the city had reached 150,000.

Although the Soviet leadership foresaw the possibility of popular indignation in the GDR, it nevertheless came as a surprise to such a rapid and powerful development of an armed uprising. On the night of June 16-17, Walter Ulbricht, Otto Grotewohl and Minister of State Security Wilhelm Zeisser met in Karlshorst with High Commissioner Vladimir Semyonov and the commander of the occupying forces Andrei Grechko to discuss and prepare the possible use of the police and the army. It was provided only for Berlin
At about 10 a.m. on June 17, Semyonov called the SED Central Committee, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo had just begun, and for security reasons called the entire leadership to Karlshorst. At 11:45 a.m., he announced to the German comrades that Moscow had demanded a state of emergency. Around noon, Soviet tanks were thrown against the protesters.










.

At 11:35, the tanks took up positions in the Wilhelmstrasse area and moved towards Potsdamer Platz. Shortly thereafter, the first shots were fired. The demonstrators shouted "Ivan, get out of here!" "Home, home!" "Ivan, go home!" The seriously wounded were sent to hospitals in West Berlin. At the same time, there were almost no attacks by demonstrators on Soviet tanks and soldiers. The well-known photographs of young people throwing stones and bottles at tanks or trying to damage radio antennas on Leipziger Strasse show the exception rather than the rule.











From 13:00 on June 17, 1953, a state of emergency is declared in the Soviet sector of Berlin.
1. All demonstrations, meetings, rallies and other gatherings of more than three people in the streets and squares, as well as in public buildings are prohibited.
2. Any movement of pedestrians and vehicles is prohibited from 21:00 to 05:00.
3. Violators of this order are punished according to the laws of war.





According to updated data from the Center for Historical Research in Potsdam, the number of victims confirmed by sources is 55 people, of which four are women. About 20 more deaths have not been investigated.
According to the command of the GSVG on June 20, during the anti-government demonstrations in the GDR, 33 of the rioters were killed and 132 people were injured

On June 17, 1953, an uprising broke out in the GDR. The protesters seized buildings, demanded a change of power and higher wages. Soviet tanks were greeted with the slogan "Russian Ivan, go home!". Some of the demands of the demonstrators were met.

Unpopular Decisions

In July 1952, the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Walter Ulbricht, proclaimed a course towards "the planned construction of socialism." He assumed the continuation of militarization, the intensification of the class struggle (arrests were carried out among Christian and liberal democrats), as well as the accelerated development of heavy industry.

All these changes were reflected both in the general standard of living and in the work of industries that produced consumer goods. Small business was eradicated, everyday goods could only be obtained by cards.

The first strikes began already in May 1953. On May 13 and 16, 900 workers went on strike at a steel plant in Leipzig, and strikes took place at other factories. The demands of the strikers gradually took on political overtones.

A significant impetus for the start of protest actions was the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee of the SED on a 10% increase in output standards, that is, East German workers were now supposed to work 10% more, while wages were reduced by a quarter.

Gummy Riot

The 1953 uprising is also sometimes referred to as the "gummy riot". Due to the fact that back in April 1953, there was a shortage of sugar, jam (jam) and jam in the shops of the GDR. The authors of the book Soviet Union in local wars and conflicts ”Sergey Lavrenov and Igor Popov wrote that jam sandwiches were a traditional type of breakfast among the Germans and the loss of jam from the counter was met with indignation.

When the protests among the Germans were reported to Moscow, they did not complicate the translation and simply wrote that the Germans were indignant because of the lack of marmalade.

From German, the word Marmelade can be translated as marmalade, and as jam, and as jam.
It is clear that such a reason for discontent could only cause bewilderment among Soviet officials, so these "calls" were not given due attention. In addition, Stalin died in March - there were more serious reasons for concern in the Union. The leadership of the USSR turned out to be unprepared for the events of June 17.

Beria vs Molotov

On May 27, 1953, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov nevertheless brought the question of the situation in the GDR to a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

At this meeting, it was decided not to force the construction of socialism in the GDR too much, but at the same time to adhere to the "hard line". The conclusion was drawn: without the presence of Soviet troops, the existing regime in the GDR is unstable.

Everyone was struck by the speech at this meeting of the Minister of the Interior Lavrenty Beria. He said: "We only need a peaceful Germany, and whether there will be socialism or not, we don't care." It was also then that Beria first voiced the idea of ​​German unification, saying that a united Germany, albeit united on a bourgeois basis, would become a serious counterweight to US influence in Western Europe.

Molotov met this statement of Beria with hostility, saying that "refusal to create a socialist state in Germany would mean disorientation of the party forces not only in East Germany, but throughout Eastern Europe generally.

And this, in turn, will open the prospect of capitulation of the Eastern European states to the Americans.”

As a result, Beria will be recognized as the main culprit of the Berlin events. Before that, he personally ordered the recall to Moscow of the commissioner of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs for Germany and his deputies, and also cut the number of employees of his ministry in the GDR by seven times.

"Goatbeard must go!"

On the morning of June 17, 1953, a massive strike began. Columns of workers headed for the East Berlin shopping center, where they began to put forward their demands. From the initial slogans of raising wages and lowering production standards, the protesters quickly moved on to political slogans, to demands for free elections and the unification of Germany.

Slogans against the leadership of the GDR were popular: "Beard, belly and glasses - this is not the will of the people!" (Bart, Bauch und Brille -das ist nicht des Volkes Wille!) and "Goatbeard must go!".

By this time, the total number of demonstrators reached 100 thousand people. Clashes broke out with the police and SED workers. In Berlin, not a single representative of the government came out to the protesters. The police and Soviet troops began to disperse the demonstration.

Criminal demonstrators

There were also strikes and demonstrations in other East German cities and regions. Their centers were primarily the Central German industrial region with the cities of Bitterfeld, Halle, Leipzig and Merseburg and the Magdeburg region, in lesser degree- the regions of Jena-Gera, Brandenburg and Görlitz. Active meetings were held in Magdeburg, Görlitz and Dresden.

In Magdeburg, demonstrators stormed the Neustadt detention center and released 211 prisoners, among them ordinary criminals. They immediately joined the aggressive part of the protesters. In total, about 1,400 prisoners were released from 12 German prisons. Between 3 and 4 million East Germans took part in the popular unrest. According to recent studies, demonstrations and strikes took place in at least 701 settlements in the GDR.

"Russian Ivan, go home!"

Soviet tanks from the 12th Panzer and 1st Mechanized Divisions appeared on the streets of Berlin. At the forefront of the conflict was the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces, which from May 26, 1953 was headed by Colonel General Grechko.
Moscow's instruction was one: to act "firmly and resolutely." Molotov later recalled the events in June 1953: “Beria was in Berlin to suppress the uprising - he did well in such cases. We had a decision to use tanks. I remember that they decided to take drastic measures, to prevent any uprising, to suppress it in the most merciless way. Let the Germans rise up against us?! Everything would have swayed, the imperialists would have stepped in, it would have been a complete failure.”

Already on the morning of June 17, in order to block the border with West Berlin, Lavrenty Beria ordered several rifle companies that were in the capital at that time to be alerted and advanced to the indicated area.

Soviet tanks were greeted with slogans "Russian Ivan, go home." Martial law and a state of emergency were introduced in Berlin.

In total, 16 divisions took part in the suppression of unrest. In Berlin alone there were three divisions with 600 tanks. On the evening of June 17, about 20,000 Soviet soldiers and 15,000 barracks police officers were active in the city.

Under the onslaught of tanks, the demonstrators had to leave the government quarter, but the situation still left much to be desired. The most important enterprises did not work. Even the text of the order on the introduction of a state of emergency had nowhere to print, since the printing houses were on strike. Only after driving a tank into the yard of the printing house did they manage to start printing.

"Help" Western partners

The demonstrators in East Berlin were supported by the authorities of the western sectors of the city, the FRG itself and a number of Western European states. According to Soviet intelligence, on the eve of the mass demonstrations in June, the number of American and British troops in the FRG increased by 12,000 people.

With the beginning of the rallies, tanks, armored personnel carriers and other heavy military equipment began to massively gather within the borders of the GDR. The American radio station "RIAS" also moved to the border, and a widespread propaganda campaign was launched against the "socialist order" in the GDR.

The Supreme Commissar of the USSR in the GDR, Vladimir Semenov, informed Moscow: “S-47 military transport aircraft fly over a number of Soviet facilities daily at low altitudes, from which leaflets containing hostile attacks on the Soviet Armed Forces and socialist construction in East Germany are dropped.”

However, they were ready for NATO military intervention in the USSR. The Minister of State Security of the Soviet Union, Ignatiev, and the Minister of Defense, Marshal Vasilevsky, in 1952 approved a plan of action against American and NATO strategic military bases in the event of war or out of control local conflicts. The plan provided that the first action in the event of a military conflict in Europe should be the destruction of the communications of the NATO headquarters.

Victims and results

As is usually the case, the official figures of the GDR on the victims of June 17 (25 people) were underestimated, while the figures given in the West (507 people) were overestimated.

According to the Center for Historical Research in Potsdam, the number of victims, confirmed by sources, was 55 people. About 20 deaths were never investigated.

In a report by Vladimir Semenov to Moscow, it was reported that by November 5, 1953, 1,240 "participants in provocations" had been convicted by the GDR courts, including 138 former members of Nazi organizations and 23 residents of West Berlin. By the end of January, this number increased to 1526 convicts: 2 were sentenced to death, 3 to life imprisonment, 13 to terms of 10-15 years, 99 to terms of 5-10 years, 994 to terms of 1-5 years and 546 for periods up to one year.

The results of the uprising were twofold. On the one hand, the USSR reduced the percentage of reparations, the workers were returned to the production standards, wages remained the same, and in 1954 the occupation regime was even lifted. On the other hand, Ulbricht's position only strengthened, he got the opportunity to carry out purges among his opponents, and people continued to flee to the FRG.

"Events of June 17, 1953 in the GDR" are the so-called economic demonstrations of workers in June 1953 in East Berlin, which developed into a political strike against the government of the GDR throughout the country.
Soviet tank IS-2 in Leipzig, June 17, 1953
After the 17 June uprising
by order of the Secretary of the Writers' Union
leaflets were distributed on Stalinallee,
which stated that the people
Lost the trust of the government
And he could only get it back with double the work.
Wouldn't it be easier for the government
Disband the people
And choose a new one?
Bertolt Brecht "Decision" (Die Lösung, 1953)


Protesters trample on a portrait of Stalin
Brecht's poem, written in the summer of 1953 under the impression of the June events, found in the writer's papers after his death in 1956 and first published in the West German newspaper Die Welt in 1959, accurately revealed and reflected the essence of the tragic confrontation between society and power in the former Soviet Union. German occupation zone. The June uprising of 1953 became a symbol of a deep crisis of legitimacy in which the ruling elite of the GDR found itself and the “building of socialism” it planned.


Protesting workers on the streets of Berlin
On June 16, Berlin construction workers gathered in front of the government building of the GDR in a spontaneous protest and called for a general strike the next day. The call was heard throughout the country - not least thanks to West Berlin radio stations.


The June uprising of 1953 in the GDR was truly nationwide. It was attended by about a million people in more than 700 cities and towns in East Germany. Starting as a social protest on the streets of Berlin, the uprising in a matter of hours grew into mass demonstrations against the communist dictatorship throughout the country. Strikes and demonstrations were accompanied by political demands for freedom, democracy and the unification of Germany.


In several regions, power passed into the hands of the rebels. Euphoria reigned everywhere, it seemed that nothing could save the regime in East Berlin from collapse. Indeed, the local authorities had long lost control of the situation by the time Soviet tanks appeared in the very center of Berlin.


The frightened party elite of the GDR sought refuge in the military headquarters of the Soviet occupation forces in the Karlhorst district of Berlin. With the introduction of a state of emergency and the involvement of Soviet tanks, the uprising was eventually brutally crushed.


At least 50 dead and an unknown number of injured demonstrators were victims of violence (since information about the uprising remained classified in the GDR for many years, the exact number of dead and injured has not yet been established).

In the days and months that followed, some 15,000 people were arrested, and by 1955 more than 1,800 political convictions had been handed down. Some prisoners appeared before the Soviet military tribunal and were sentenced to executions or imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag on the basis of Article 58 of the USSR Criminal Code (therefore, petitions for the rehabilitation of victims of unjust sentences had to be submitted after the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Russian prosecutor's office).


The June uprising in the GDR in 1953 was the first popular protest against the communist dictatorship in the Eastern Bloc. It was followed by the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968, which shared much of the fate of the East German protest.
In official Soviet science, the events of June 17 were defined as a "fascist sortie", and Russian historiography has not yet developed a definition; unlike Western colleagues who write about a "workers'" or "people's uprising", Russian historians mainly use the wording "the events in the GDR on June 17, 1953".

Plan:

Introduction

• 1 Causes and preconditions of the crisis
  • 1.1 "Planned construction of socialism"
  • 1.2 April price increase
  • 1.3 "New Deal"
  • 1.4 Increasing production rates
• 2 Crisis
  • 2.1 The start of the strike
  • 2.2 June 16 events
  • 2.3 Events on 17 June
Notes

Introduction

Mass anti-government demonstrations in Berlin on June 16-17, 1953, commonly known collectively as the "Berlin Uprising" were the first step of the Events of June 17, 1953 in the GDR.

1. Causes and preconditions of the crisis

1.1. "Planned construction of socialism"

In July 1952, at the II Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, its general secretary Walter Ulbricht proclaimed a course towards the "planned construction of socialism", which amounted to a consistent Sovietization of the East German system: measures against small proprietors and private trade, mass nationalization of enterprises. At the same time, the traditional territorial division was radically reformed (14 districts were introduced instead of 5 historical "lands"). According to the Soviet model, heavy industry developed intensively, 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 such a situation, there was a mass exodus of residents to the western zone, primarily highly qualified personnel - a “brain drain” (only in March 1953, 50 thousand people fled), 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 crushed and arrested in their entirety.

However, Stalin's death in March 1953 suspended the pressure of power and led to the weakening of Soviet control: the Soviet Control Commission was disbanded, replaced by the High Commissioner.

1.2. April price increase

In April 1953, two months before the uprising, there was an increase in prices for public transport, clothing, shoes, baked goods, meat, and foods containing sugar. At the same time, the shortage 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 the testimony of a participant in those events, even then this caused a wave of indignation among the German workers. . The indignation over the rise in the price of marmalade met with bewilderment and misunderstanding among the Soviet leadership, who had no idea about the role of marmalade in the nutrition of German workers, and was perceived as a "marmalade riot". In Russian historical literature, there is a thesis that the beginning of the development of the crisis of 1953 in many respects was precisely the “marmalade riot”. But most Russian historians, like historians of other countries, do not use the term "marmalade riot".

1.3. "New Deal"

Continuing the course of liberalizing its policy after Stalin's death, on May 15 the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs presented a memorandum to the leadership of the GDR demanding an end to collectivization and an easing of repression. On June 3, the leaders of the GDR were summoned to Moscow, upon their return from which they announced (June 9) the cessation of the planned construction of socialism, proclaimed the "New Deal", publicly admitted that mistakes had been made in the past, to improve the supply of the population, they planned to slow down the pace of development of heavy industry, a number of economic measures were canceled, which caused sharp discontent among the population.

1.4. Increasing production rates

At the same time, the earlier decision of the Central Committee of the SED “on raising the output standards for workers in order to combat economic difficulties” was not canceled. This decision to increase the norms by 10% (and in some areas - up to 30%) of the output was adopted 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 the workers to raise output standards. It thanks all the workers who raised their standards for their great patriotic cause. At the same time, it responds to the wish of the workers to revise and raise the standards.

The increase in norms was supposed to be introduced gradually and completed by June 30 (on the birthday of W. Ulbricht). This caused another strong discontent among the workers.

The leadership of the (communist) trade unions, theoretically called upon to guard the interests of the workers, also spoke out in support of raising the standards. In the historical literature, it is argued that an article in defense of the course to increase output standards that appeared on June 16, 1953 in the trade union newspaper Tribuna was the last straw that overflowed the cup of popular discontent.

2. Crisis

2.1. The start of the strike

After the workers received their wages and found deductions in it, as for a flaw, fermentation began. On Friday, June 12, among the workers of a large Berlin construction site (a hospital in the Friedrichshain district), the idea arose to go on strike. The strike was scheduled for Monday 15 June. On the morning of June 15, the builders of Friedrichshain refused to go to work and general meeting demanded the abolition of higher rates.

2.2. June 16 events

On the morning of June 16, a rumor spread among the workers that the police were occupying the hospital in Friedrichshain. After that, about 100 builders from the construction sites of elite party housing on Stalin Alley moved to the hospital in order to “free” their colleagues. From there, the demonstrators, who were joined by part of the hospital builders, already in the amount of 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, approached the House of Ministries on Leipzigerstrasse by noon. The demonstrators, in addition to lowering production rates, demanded lower prices and the dissolution of the People's Army. A rally began in front of the House of Ministries. Minister of Industry Fritz Selbmann, who addressed the strikers, tried to calm the crowd and promised the return of the previous production standards (the corresponding decision was immediately made at an emergency meeting of the government); 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. After that, the demonstrators marched to the construction sites of Stalin Alley, calling for a general strike and for the following morning to gather for a protest rally on Strausberger Square. Cars with loudspeakers were sent to calm the crowd, but the demonstrators managed to take possession of one of them and use it to spread their own appeals.

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 owners of the station, who demanded not to interfere in what was happening and limit themselves to dry reporting on events. The demands were reduced to four points: 1. Restoration of the old wage norms. 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 are fighting not only for the social rights of the workers, but for the general human rights of the entire population of the eastern zone. Join the movement of East Berlin builders and take your places on the Strausberger Platz!” .

RIAS transmissions played an important role as a catalyst. Bar himself still believes that if it were not for RIAS, everything could have ended on June 16th. Thanks to these broadcasts, news of the events in Berlin and plans for the 17th spread throughout East Germany, in turn inciting the workers there to protest.

At the same time, there is an opposite Western point of view that the RIAS radio station, on the contrary, betrayed the rebels, reporting the failure of the rebellion 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.

2.3. Events June 17

On the morning of June 17 in Berlin, the strike was already general. The workers who gathered at the enterprises formed columns there and headed to the city center. Already at 7 o'clock, a crowd of 10,000 gathered on Strausberger Square. By noon, the number of demonstrators in the city had reached 150,000. 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 Walter Ulbricht gained great popularity: “A beard, a belly and glasses are not the will of the people!” "We have no other goal - Goatbeard must go!" Slogans were also put forward against the occupying forces: "Russians, get out!" However, the anti-Soviet slogans enthusiastically put forward by the inhabitants of West Berlin who joined the demonstrators did not find much support among the East Berliners.

Border signs and structures on the borders of the Soviet and western sectors of the city were destroyed. The crowd smashed the police stations, the buildings of the party and state bodies and newsstands that sold the 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 the 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 was hastily evacuated to Karlshorst under the protection of Soviet troops. The city actually ended up in the hands of the participants in the unrest.

There are secrets in the history of international relations that are suddenly revealed in a different political situation and in a different historical era. "Color revolutions" in the post-Soviet space suggest the key to unraveling the long-past events of the Cold War period.

One of the most illustrative and striking is the speech of the population of the GDR in the summer of 1953, which received the name "workers' uprising".

On June 12, 1953, a massive buy-up of shares in 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, also 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. The territory of the GDR was introduced a large number of intelligence officers, including the armed ones.

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

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

During the demonstrations, specially trained groups, which were operatively controlled from West Berlin, showed particular activity. The demonstrators got 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 the famous German love of order, ordnung, worked, whether the memory of the defeat in the war was too close, or there were other reasons that we have no idea about, but only the tension suddenly began to subside.

The organizers of the June speech failed to achieve the main goal - 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 work standards).

At many enterprises of the SED, it was possible to quickly organize armed guards, which from July 1953 existed as "military squads of the working class."

Mass demonstrations quickly declined, the authorities seized the initiative, and already on June 24 a mass rally of youth in support of the socialist authorities took place in Berlin. 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, it is possible not to build far-reaching assumptions in the field of the German mentality or social psychology Germans. The firm and resolute position of the Soviet Union played a decisive role in thwarting the June coup. 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". In accordance with this statement, the units of the Soviet Army stationed in Germany acted.

The command of the group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany, headed by the commander-in-chief, General of the Army 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 parts of the 12th Panzer, 1st Mechanized and other divisions were introduced into Berlin. Commandant of the Soviet sector Major General P.A. Dibrov, by his order, introduced martial law in Berlin, motorized rifle and tank units of the GSOVG were also concentrated in Leipzig, Halle, Dresden, Frankfurt an der Oder, Gera and Potsdam.

The demonstration of military force and the presence of political will in front of our eyes 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 magnitude can be considered minimal. From June 17 to June 29, over 430,000 people went on strike in the GDR. 40 were killed. 11 policemen and party activists of the GDR 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, British and French) protested against the use of force by the Soviet side.

On June 26, in the districts of East Berlin, Kepenek, Mite and Friedrichshain, demonstrations of German workers, employees and youth were organized 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. The Soviet units left the German cities and towns and began planned combat training.

After the ball

The consequence of all these events was the intensification 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 occupation status was abolished, and this status was also removed from the Soviet troops, respectively. The control of the High Commissioner of the USSR in Germany over the activities of state authorities in the east of 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 dollars of reparations, transferred the last 33 enterprises under Soviet control. In addition, the Soviet side provided a loan and made additional deliveries of goods.

After the June events, certain changes took place in the life of the GDR. The leadership of the SED was updated, V. Pick was elected First Secretary. The post of General Secretary was abolished. Mass state and cooperative housing construction began, a wide network of boarding houses, sanatoriums and rest houses was created ... Well, and so on. The prerequisites for speeches 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 not the same in different cities. Along with the abandonment of work and demonstrations in many localities, there were real riots of the population and even attempts - partly successful - to release prisoners. In numerous places, the Soviet military was used to forcibly suppress the demonstrations.

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

Strikes were held at a number of enterprises even before June 17, 1953: "Fortschrittschacht" of the Wilhelm Pick Combine, Mansfeld (copper smelter) - April 17.

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

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 county capitals, 43 district centers, 105 other cities and towns, a total of 155 towns.

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

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

The number of prisoners released on June 17 - 2-3 thousand people; in some settlements - Weissenfels, Güstrov, Coswig, attempts to release failed, in others several prisons were opened at the same time. There are testimonies of witnesses from the cities: Bitterfeld, Brandenbugg, Kalbe, Eisleben, Genthin, Gera, Görlitz, Gommern, Halle, Jena, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Mersebur, Pretsch, Roslau, Sonneberg and Treptow.

The use of Soviet troops in 13 county capitals, 51 district centers, 57 other cities and towns, a total of 121 towns.

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

Centers of popular uprising: In addition to Berlin and its environs, the centers of demonstrations 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 regions 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 proportionately to the situation, and the soldiers did not fire blindly at the strikers or demonstrators, the number of killed and wounded - sadly for each individual victim - 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 members of the security forces were injured. Probably, these figures are underestimated, especially since they could not include the dead and wounded, who were transported on June 17 from East Berlin to West through the sector border. In West Berlin hospitals, 8 participants in the June uprising died of wounds.

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

Announcement of the military commander of the city of Magdeburg

I hereby inform you that Citizens Alfred Darch and Herbert Strauch have been sentenced by a court-martial to death penalty through execution for active provocative actions on June 17, 1953, directed against the established order, as well as for participating in bandit actions.

Military commander of the city of Magdeburg