The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949

In 1945, when the Red Army marched in, eastern Germany was not occupied but liberated. This, until the recent collapse of the Soviet Bloc, is what passed for history in the German Democratic Republic. Making use of newly opened archives in Russia and Germany during the 1990s, the author reveals what happened during the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany from 1945 through 1949. His book offers a comprehensive look at Soviet policies in the occupied zone and their pratical consequences for Germans and Russians alike - and, ultimately, for postwar Europe. In rich and lucid detail, it captures the mood and the daily reality of the occupation, the chaos and contradictions of a period marked by rape and repression, the plundering of factories, the exploitation of German science, and the rise of the East German police state. Never have these practices and their place in the overall Soviet strategy, particularly the political development of the zone, received such thorough treatment.