Russians at Work With “Iron Broom” in Germany

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 269, 14 November 1945, Page 10

Russians at Work With “Iron Broom” in Germany

Reports of tho Russians’ efforts to make eastern Germany a sphere of Soviet influence in a politico-economic besides a military sense are contradictory. They agree that the entire social structure in eastern German already has changed almost beyond recognition, but there is much less agreement about the precise methods and motives of Russian policy. One of the more dispassionate surveys of what is going on beyond the Elbe and Oder is given by a writer who has just returned from there, in an article in the British periodical, the Economist. The Economist’s correspondent says that Russian policy is still confused by a dilemma. On tho one hand, there are still relics of a desire for revenge, which was the driving force behind the Red Army, embittered by tho sufferings and humiliations inflicted on Russia by Hitler’s Reich, and fired by the cumulative effect of Moscow’s'propaganda. On the other hand, there is the fact that German Communist workers came out to assist the Red Army in the final assault against Berlin. There is also tho Berlin intelligentsia, torn between fatalism and tho uncertain hope that tho Russians may see some advantages in reconciliation with defeated Germany. “The orgy of rovengo is not confined to individual acts by Russian soldiers,’*' says the writer. “At one point, dismantling of German factories and railways and the despoiling of German farms threatened to turn the land east of the Elbe into an economic desert. All but 20 or 30 per cent, of the cattle was either slaughtered by the German Army, killed during hostilities' or re moved to Russia. * ‘ Paradoxically, despite their fear and dejection, the Germans in the Russian zone are regaining some of their habitual feeling of superiority. “They stare with amazement and amusement at Russian soldiers tossing dismantled precision tools or delicate pieces of optical machinery into lorries and horse-drawn carts like sacks of potatoes. “They notice with ill-hidden sa%isfaction the incredible poverty and haggardness of Russian visitors.” On the Job.

But the writer emphasises that it would bo wrong to deduce that the Russian occupation presents the only picture of unmitigated gloom, and adds:

“Now that the fit of destructive revengefulness is nearly over, the Russian Military Government is getting down to tho task of trying to rehabilitate what is left of eastern Germany.

“The railways do run. Municipal services and public utilities have been restored. Rubble is being cleared from the streets perhaps quicker than that vl other zones. “Industries that have not been dismantled—the coal and potash mines, the famous Leuna works and some Zeiss factories —already are working some of them at full pressure. Coal is being imported from Polish Silesia. “The Russians supply civilians with meagre food rations from stocks gathered by the Red Army detachments tfrom fields deserted by the Junkers and peasants. 4 ‘ There are some definite attractions for the German intelligentsia. The artistic life of Berlin and tho provinces is being revived, primarily through Russian encouragement.

•‘Theatres and concert lialls arc packed. German newspapers in the Russian zono are more vivid and better produced than in other zones. “But it is remarkable to what a ■mall extent the Russian Military Government has gained from transplanting Russian totalitarian methods to Germany.

“There are four political parties—liberal. Democrats, Christian Social Union, Social Democrats and Communists. “Each party has its headquarters in Berlin and a network in the provinces. Each succeeds in speaking in its ovfii idiom, although it does not dare to differ explicity from the views deemed •constructive’ by Marshal Zhukova’s entourage. “Although the German civilian administration is organised formally on the basis of equal representation for all four parties, Communists arc in key positions everywhere. “Yet the multi-party system is more than mere window-dressing. The parties are not allowed to engage in public polemics, but representatives do express views and exert pressure on the German civil administration. “All leaders, from the Right to the Left, agree that their organisation is handled more or less correctly by the Bovict commanders.” Return Land. The writer goes on to emphasise that it would not bo wise to underrate fSe extent of German popular response to social reforms that are taking place east of the Elbe, although it is accompanied by an undercurrent of cautious reserve. Half the Junkers’ estates hitherto used by the Red Array as food bases are now being handed back to the Germans for distribution among farm labourers, landless peasants and Germans expelled from the eastern marshes. It is planned to hand back all estates within two months —but not necessarily to their former owners. The redistribution is being carried out, in a rough and ready manner. Two hundred acres is the maximum size of a farm regardless of soil fertility. No compensation is being paid to former owners. Only estates belonging to churches or “active anti-Nazis” are exempted from confiscation. The Economist’s writer concludes: “No matter how the redistribution is carried out, it will have a profound effect on German social history, even though it will lower food production in the immediate future. “What is now being socially obliterated is a stratum which was the prop of Jhe Hohenzollern Empire and which reasserted itself through Marshal Hinienburg. Nationalisation of industry has also been initiated in Thuringia and fcaxony, old strongholds of German Communism. “All these sweeping reforms are more than a process of de-Nazification; they represent not merely a political purge but a profound and probably lasting social upheaval. “In short, ruin and upheaval are adding to confusion and turmoil. But the future historian perhaps will say that in 1945 the iron broom of Russia swept away the rubble of feudal survivals in eastern Germany.”