GDR Khrushchev event. Workers' uprising in the GDR
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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 production 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 promised to return 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 in the country. "socialism" according to the Soviet model. “They accepted 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, communists have suppressed the church through administrative measures.
The Germans responded with a mass exodus to the West. During 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, 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 made Ulbricht’s position only 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)
"Events of June 17, 1953 in the GDR" are the so-called economic protests of workers in June 1953 in East Berlin, which developed into a political strike against the GDR government throughout the country.
Soviet IS-2 tank in Leipzig, June 17, 1953
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?
Bertolt Brecht "The Decision" (Die Lösung, 1953)
Protesters trample Stalin's portrait
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. zone of occupation of Germany. The June uprising of 1953 became a symbol of the deep crisis of legitimacy in which the ruling elite of the GDR found itself and its planned “construction of socialism.” 
Protesting workers on the streets of Berlin
On June 16, Berlin construction workers gathered in front of the GDR government building for 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 1953 uprising in the GDR was truly nationwide. About a million people took part 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 German unification. 
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, local authorities had long lost control of the situation by the time Soviet tanks appeared in the very center of Berlin. 
The frightened party leadership of the GDR sought refuge in the military headquarters of the Soviet occupation forces in the Karlhorst district of Berlin. Through the introduction of a state of emergency and the deployment of Soviet tanks, the uprising was ultimately brutally suppressed. 
The victims of violence were at least 50 dead and an unknown number of wounded demonstrators (since information about the uprising remained classified in the GDR for many years, the exact number of dead and injured has still not been established). 
In the following days and months, approximately 15,000 people were arrested, and until 1955, more than 1,800 political sentences were handed down. Some prisoners appeared before a Soviet military tribunal and were sentenced to death 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 East German Juneteenth Uprising of 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 attack,” but in Russian historiography a definition has not yet been developed; Unlike their Western colleagues who write about the “workers’ or “people’s uprising,” Russian historians mainly use the formulation “events in the GDR on June 17, 1953.”
On June 17, 1953, an uprising began in the GDR. The protesters seized buildings and demanded a change of government and higher wages. Soviet tanks were greeted with the slogan “Russian Ivan, go home!” Some of the demonstrators' demands were met.
Unpopular decisions
In July 1952, the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Walter Ulbricht, proclaimed a course for the “planned construction of socialism.” It assumed the continuation of militarization, the intensification of class struggle (arrests were carried out among Christians 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 producing consumer goods. Small businesses were eradicated, everyday goods could only be obtained by cards.
The first strikes began in May 1953. On May 13 and 16, 900 workers went on strike at the Leipzig steel plant, and strikes took place at other factories. The demands of the strikers gradually acquired political overtones.
A significant impetus for the start of the protests was the decision of the plenum of the SED Central Committee to increase production standards by 10 percent, that is, East German workers now had to work 10 percent more, while wages were reduced by a quarter.
Marmalade Riot
The 1953 uprising is also sometimes called the "Marmalade Riot". Due to the fact that back in April 1953, there was a shortage of sugar, jam (jam) and preserves in GDR stores. The authors of the book “The Soviet Union in Local Wars and Conflicts” Sergei Lavrenov and Igor Popov wrote that sandwiches with jam were a traditional type of breakfast for the Germans and the disappearance 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 due to the lack of marmalade.
From German, the word Marmelade can be translated as marmalade, jam, or jam.
It is clear that such a reason for discontent could only cause bewilderment among Soviet officials, so these “bells” were not given due attention. Moreover, Stalin died in March - there were more serious reasons for concern in the Union. The USSR leadership turned out to be unprepared for the events of June 17.
Beria vs Molotov
On May 27, 1953, USSR Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov nevertheless brought the issue 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 a “firm line.” The conclusion was drawn: without the presence of Soviet troops, the existing regime in the GDR is unstable.
Everyone was amazed by the speech of the Minister of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria at this meeting. He said: “We only need a peaceful Germany, and whether there is socialism there 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 bourgeois principles, would become a serious counterweight to the influence of the United States in Western Europe.
Molotov met this statement by Beria with hostility, saying that “refusal to create a socialist state in Germany will mean disorientation of party forces not only in East Germany, but throughout Eastern Europe as a whole.
And this, in turn, will open up the prospect of capitulation of Eastern European states to the Americans.”
As a result, Beria will be recognized as the main culprit of the Berlin events. Prior to this, he personally ordered the recall to Moscow of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Commissioner 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 mass strike began. Columns of workers headed to the East Berlin shopping center, where they began to put forward their demands. From the initial slogans about increasing wages and lowering production standards, the protesters quickly moved to political slogans, to demands for free elections and the unification of Germany.
Slogans against the leadership of the GDR were popular: “A beard, belly and glasses are not the will of the people!” (Bart, Bauch und Brille - das ist nicht der Wille des Volkes) and “Goatbeard must go!”
By this time, the total number of demonstrators had reached 100 thousand people. Clashes began with the police and SED workers. In Berlin, not a single government representative came 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, and to a lesser extent the regions of Jena-Gera, Brandenburg and Görlitz. There were active rallies in Magdeburg, Görlitz and Dresden.
In Magdeburg, demonstrators stormed the Neustadt detention center and released 211 prisoners, including 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 research, demonstrations and strikes took place in no less than 701 localities in the GDR.
"Russian Ivan, go home!"
Soviet tanks from the 12th Tank and 1st Mechanized Divisions appeared on the streets of Berlin. At the forefront of the conflict was the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces, which was headed by Colonel General Grechko from May 26, 1953.
Moscow had only one instruction: to act “firmly and decisively.” Molotov later recalled about the events in June 1953: “Beria was in Berlin to suppress the uprising - he was great in such cases. We decided 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's say the Germans rebel against us?! Everything would have been shaken, the imperialists would have entered, it would have been a complete failure.”
Already on the morning of June 17, to block the border with West Berlin, Lavrentiy Beria ordered several rifle companies located in the capital at that time to be raised on alarm and moved to the indicated area.
Soviet tanks were greeted with slogans like “Russian Ivan, go home.” Martial law and a state of emergency were introduced in Berlin.
In total, 16 divisions took part in suppressing the 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 operating in the city.
Under the pressure 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. There was nowhere to print even the text of the order introducing a state of emergency, since the printing houses were on strike. Only after driving the tank into the courtyard of the printing house was it possible to begin printing.
"Help" from Western partners
The demonstrators in East Berlin were supported by the authorities of the western sectors of the city, Germany itself and a number of Western European countries. According to Soviet intelligence, even on the eve of the massive June demonstrations, the number of American and British military personnel in Germany increased by 12,000 people.
With the start of the rallies, tanks, armored personnel carriers and other heavy military equipment began to gather en masse within the borders of the GDR. The American radio station RIAS also moved to the border, and a broad propaganda campaign was launched against the “socialist order” in the GDR.
The USSR High Commissioner to the GDR, Vladimir Semenov, informed Moscow: “C-47 military transport aircraft fly over a number of Soviet objects every day at low altitudes, from which they drop leaflets containing hostile attacks on the Soviet Armed Forces and socialist construction in East Germany.”
However, NATO was ready for 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 directed against American and NATO strategic military bases in the event of war or local conflicts that got out of control. The plan provided that the first action in the event of a military conflict in Europe should be the destruction of communications at NATO headquarters.
Victims and results
As usually happens, the official data of the GDR on the victims of June 17 (25 people) were underestimated, and 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 could not be investigated.
Vladimir Semenov’s report to Moscow reported that by November 5, 1953, the courts of the GDR had convicted 1,240 “participants in provocations,” among whom were 138 former members of Nazi organizations and 23 residents of West Berlin. By the end of January, this number had increased to 1,526 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, production standards were returned to workers, 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 Germany.
After the death of J.V. Stalin, uncertainty spread in the SED, and the population began to hope for improved living conditions. Stalin's successors advised SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht in April 1953 to calm the tense situation.
Just two months later, on June 9, 1953, the SED Politburo adopted a decision called the New Deal and publicly acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the past. To improve supplies, a slowdown in the pace of development of heavy industry was prescribed. Many events that caused discontent were cancelled. The 10% increase in production standards scheduled for May 28, however, remained in force. Moreover, it was prescribed to organize intra-industrial discussions, during which workers were to receive an incentive to “voluntarily” increase their standards by 15%. These measures met with resistance. When on June 16, 1953, an article appeared in the trade union newspaper Tribuna in defense of increasing production standards, a public protest began. Construction workers on the Stalinallee stopped work and walked into the center of East Berlin. They were joined by thousands of demonstrators who, in front of the House of Ministries, began to demand the cancellation of the decision to increase standards, and then the resignation of the government. The cries demanding free elections grew louder. The next day, June 17th, a general strike was called. In this explosive situation, what went unnoticed was that the Council of Ministers reversed its decision. The way to resolve the political conflict was a strike.
On June 17, 1953, a wave of demonstrations, strikes and seizures of party and government institutions swept across East Germany. It all started with Berlin builders who erected luxury houses for the GDR nomenklatura on Stalin Alley, the central thoroughfare in the Soviet sector of the divided German metropolis. On June 16, 1953, construction workers spontaneously took to the streets to protest against a government decree raising labor standards by 10%. Strike committees that spontaneously arose at GDR enterprises held meetings, accepting petitions addressed to the government. The workers demanded the abolition of excessively high labor standards, free elections and freedom of speech. Very quickly the energy of social discontent turned into the element of political protest. Residents of other areas of the GDR learned about the events in Berlin through broadcasts from Western radio stations. The next day, the whole country was engulfed in unrest. Later, the workers learned that thousands of Soviet political prisoners had gone on strike in the camps near Norilsk and Karaganda as a sign of solidarity with them. The next day, the strikes developed into political demonstrations. Not only workers, but also representatives of other segments of the population took to the streets. They carried banners demanding the abolition of political censorship and the release of political prisoners, burned portraits of Stalin, Ulbricht and Grotewohl, overturned trams, trying to build barricades. By mid-day, the uprising had already engulfed hundreds of cities and communities. Local authorities were shocked and confused and hung up the phones, trying to get clear instructions in Berlin.
Until this time, Soviet soldiers were mostly still in the barracks, unaware of what was happening. Strange rumors reached the garrisons of the Group of Soviet Forces about Beria’s readiness to make concessions on the German issue. When the order was given to bring the troops into combat readiness, the superiors instilled in their subordinates: they must be careful and use weapons only if the enemy starts shooting first. But the German workers did not have weapons, so many soldiers were at a loss. The military leaders of the GDR also felt uncertain: whether Moscow would give the order to shoot at the saboteurs. The order finally came, and tanks rumbled through the streets of Berlin, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Jena and other cities. Soviet soldiers from the liquidation group refused to open fire on unarmed Germans who were trying to free political prisoners from prison. They were court-martialed and shot near Magdeburg a few days later. The democratic West betrayed the uprising by deciding not to interfere or quarrel with the Soviet Union.
The authorities declared a state of emergency, Soviet troops entered the cities. More than 1,000 enterprises and workers' collectives went on strike. In Bitterfeld, Görlitz and Hall, strike committees even seized city power. In East Berlin, tens of thousands of people spontaneously gathered in front of the ministerial complex on Leipziger Strasse. Throughout the country, the rebels stormed 250 party and government institutions, including 12 prisons, from which all prisoners were released. Among the latter were many peasants who opposed forced collectivization.
Western intelligence initially perceived the events of June 17 as the result of an out-of-control Soviet staging aimed at internationally promoting the issue of the reunification of Germany as a neutral state - as allegedly envisaged by Beria's plan. In principle, there was a reason to think so. Three months earlier, Stalin had died, and no one knew exactly what was happening in the Kremlin and what the next Soviet gestures might be. Many East German citizens probably thought the same way, hoping for a wind of change after the death of the dictator.
The Soviet military command introduced a state of emergency in 167 of the 217 administrative districts of the GDR. Within hours, Soviet troops and Stasi security forces crushed the uprising. More than a hundred demonstrators were killed.
On June 18, repressions began. The Stasi and the NKVD dealt with the rebels, they were arrested and thrown into prison.
The Berlin uprising ended on June 26. The authorities of the GDR brought up to 15 thousand citizens to trial for participation in the uprising. The government tried to present the workers' uprising as a fascist rebellion. About 2 thousand people were convicted, two were shot. Another 18 people were shot dead by Soviet soldiers for violating emergency laws. And for the Soviet Union, the Berlin uprising ended with the removal of Beria.
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 to transport 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 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, and 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 went 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 by 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
