teurs and strike ring-leaders and handed them over to the police.

Toward midday, the situation in Berlin's enterprises improved, although individual enterprises continue partial strikes. Capacity at electric power stations grew from 30% in the [early] morning hours to 70% by 11:00 a.m.

At 9:30 a.m. at the Brandenburg gates, employees of the people's police of the GDR were fired upon from the direction of West Berlin. The people's police made several shots in return, as a result of which one West Berlin policeman was killed.

Representatives of the intelligentsia took almost no part in the strikes and disturbances. Many well-known representatives of the intelligentsia spoke publicly stating their trust in the government and condemning the West Berlin provocateurs. Classes in schools and in institutions of higher learning [and] rehearsals in the theaters of Berlin continued in a normal fashion yesterday and today. At selected enterprises, engineers and technicians obstructed the cessation of work by strikers and convinced workers not to participate in the disorders.

West Berlin radio broadcast the speech by the Bürgermeister of the Kreuzberg district (American sector), [Willy] Kreßmann, who called upon the residents of East Berlin not to approach the border between East and West Berlin, since the Soviet Army had received orders to use their weapons. "We do not want to bear responsibility for your death," Kreßmann said.

In today's issue of Neues Deutschland, a letter from the Stalinallee construction brigade was published, calling on workers to start work again and to end the disturbances. The letter contained the following impermissible phrase: "Today the enterprises belong to us and it depends on us to force our leading colleagues to do what we need. The last two days at Stalinallee is evidence that we have not yet achieved that at all enterprises." We drew Ulbricht's attention to the impermissibility of such publications.

In the GDR, the situation continues to improve. Only isolated cases of disturbances are taking place. At some points, efforts to start demonstrations have been made. Workers at the Stralsund shipyard (900 persons) went on strike. In Halle, strikes are continuing at some factories. The strikers conveyed the following demands to the Soviet commandant through his representatives: Cancel martial law and withdraw troops from Halle, change the government, lower prices, and so on.

In Berlin, Magdeburg, Jena [and] Görlitz, the military commanders announced that death sentences had been carried out against the organizers of the disturbances (seven persons in all)."

[Source: AVP RF, f. 82, op. 41, por. 93, p. 280, l. 13-15. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie (CWIHP).]

Report from A. Grechko and Tarasov in Berlin to N. A. Bulganin,

18 June 1953, midnight

OPERATIONS DIVISION,

MAIN OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATION, GENERAL STAFF OF THE SOVIET ARMY

Top Secret (Declassified) Copy #6

To Comrade BULGANIN, N.A.

1. I am reporting on the situation on the territory of the German Democratic Republic and in the city of Berlin by 10:00 p.m. (Moscow time), on 18 June 1953.

1. Berlin is calm. The city's life is going on as usual. 2. There are still some strikes and rallies within some plants in the German Democratic Republic, namely in the following cities and towns: Görlitz, Dresden, Eilenburg, Riesa, Borna, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Staflfurt, Wernigerode, Rüdersdorf, Groß Dölln, Gera, Halle. Some groups of Germans, altogether of up to 1,500 people, in Dresden at 6:40 p.m. made an attempt to organize a demonstration and go to the prison. Those groups of Germans were dispersed by the actions of a tank company and a battalion of machine-gunners of the Soviet forces.

The group of bandits in Halberstadt set a shop of the "Economic Association" on fire. A group of 450 people in Drewitz attempted to rob shops. Order in Halberstadt and Drewitz has been restored by the actions of the [Soviet] troops. The workers of some of the plants in Leipzig have started working.

It is calm in other regions of the German Democratic Republic.

3. The units of the Group [of the Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany] have continued to perform their duties along the sectoral borders in the city of Berlin and to patrol in the other cities and towns of the German Democratic Republic.

There is no change in the disposition of the units of the Group.

4. According to incomplete information, 544 people were arrested and detained, 2 provocateurs were killed, 27 rioters were wounded on 18 June. A policemen of the GDR and 9 activists were wounded.

[The following is an excerpt from a telephonogram sent by V. Semenov and V. Sokolovskii in Berlin to V. Molotov and N. Bulganin on 19 June 1953 (received in Moscow at 1:20 a.m.) reporting on the situation in East Germany on the evening of 18 June 1953.]

"We are reporting on the situation in Berlin and the GDR on 18 June 1953 at 9:00 p.m. (Berlin time).

In the course of the day on 18 June the liquidation of the remains of the nodes of strikes and disturbances continued in Berlin and the GDR. In the streets of Berlin, full order was restored. There were no efforts to organize demonstrations or public addresses in the streets. The larger portion of the workers who were striking yesterday returned to work. Short partial strikes affected a small number of Berlin enterprises. On average, about 50-70% of workers worked in the enterprises. This is also explained by the fact that workers living in West Berlin could not come to work because of the halting of movement across the sector border.

The organs of the MFS of the GDR and our forces continued to expose the ring-leaders of yesterday's strikes. The necessary arrests were made. The state and party organs of the GDR are taking measures to restore the normal organization of work at all enterprises in East Berlin. The supply of food and indispensable goods to the populace is being achieved without interruption.

In the majority of the Republic's regions, order has been restored. Short strikes took place in individual enterprises in the Rostock, Erfurt, Leipzig, Halle, and Dresden districts. The overwhelming majority of the workers who were on strike yesterday returned to work. An enemy demonstration of about one thousand people, who headed for the jail and the railway, was organized in the evening in Dresden. Troops opened fire at the demonstration and it was dispersed. Among the demonstrators, one person was killed and others were wounded. In the other districts of the Republic, it was quiet today. In a number of places, workers were observed catching the provocateurs and handing them over to the police in keeping with the GDR Government's appeal."

[Source: AVP RF, f. 82, op. 41, por. 93, p. 280, II. 27-28. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie.]

[The following excerpt is from a telephonogram sent by V. Semenov and V. Sokolovskii in Berlin to V. Molotov and

N.A. Bulganin on 19 June 1953.156

"We inform you about the situation in Berlin and in the GDR at 11 o'clock in the morning of 19 June.

In Berlin and in the GDR, the overwhelming majority of striking workers returned to normal labor. Only the small remnants of strikes in some comparatively minor points throughout the Republic were left.

So, in the morning, 1200 workers in the "Pelse"

factory, Erfurt district, struck. The strike lasted for about one hour. There was a short partial strike at the factory "Lova" (city of Gotha). In Erfurt workers in the "RFT" factory (800 persons) struck during the morning, putting forward the demands - announce the names of those who were shot in Berlin;—we do not want war.

The organizers of the disturbances, seeing the failure of public speeches [vystuplenii] in Berlin and the large cities, are scattering their agents in small cities and villages where our troops are not stationed, trying to incite strikes and disturbances there. In particular, the fact has been established that enemy provocateurs have been sent from Potsdam to small cities, and also that enemy activists have been scattered from enterprises in large cities, where strikes have ended, to factories located in small villages and cities, where the German police is weak and our troops are not present. We are taking counter-measures, above all by mobilizing and sending activists of the SED and organizers from the districts and large centers to these localities.

In the district of Magdeburg strikes have started in the population centers of Staflfurt (about 1500 workers), Wernigerode (1500-2000 persons), [and] Burg (300-400 persons).

In the district of Halle, strikes are continuing in the Mansfeld copper-smelting complex, at the factory "Ifa" (up to 1000 persons), the boiler factory (1500-2000), and strikes have begun at some enterprises and mines in the regions of Sangerhausen, Eisleben.

In Berlin at almost every factory, normal order has been restored. Only at isolated enterprises are cases of partial strikes taking place.

In Berlin and in the Republic no efforts are being made to conduct demonstrations. Everywhere, normal life is quickly being restored.

During the night of June 18 and 19, the Soviet sector of Berlin was fired upon with cardboard shells filled with leaflets. At the border between the American and Soviet sectors, motor vehicles with loud-speakers appeared which called upon Germans not to irritate Russian soldiers and not to allow clashes with them.

Testimony by persons arrested by the organs of the MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] gives evidence of the very active organizing role of the American military in the disturbances in Berlin. Those who have been arrested testify that American officers personally gathered in large numbers West Berlin residents whom they had selected and gave them instructions to organize disturbances, arson of buildings, and other things, in East Berlin. At the same time the Americans promised to distribute weapons, bottles with flammable liquid for arson, etc., at Potsdamer Platz (the border between the American and English sectors and the Soviet sector of Berlin). As a reward, the American officers promised money, and for people who showed the greatest activism—a three-month holiday at resorts, and so on. American military personnel personally gave instructions from motor vehicles with loud-speakers

to the participants in the disorders at the House of the Government of the GDR on the border with the Soviet sector. In the provinces of the GDR there is also evidence of the dispatch there of American agents from West Berlin and West Germany. Further work on this issue is being done. We will inform [you] further of the details.

This morning we received a letter from three commandants of the Western sectors of Berlin addressed to the

representative of the SCC57 in Berlin, Dengin, in which they declare their protest against the measures taken by Soviet troops to restore order in the Soviet sector of Berlin, the halting of travel [soobshchenie] between the sectors, and categorically deny the assertion that "a certain Willi Göttling,58 killed after a spurious trial, was an agentprovocateur working for the intelligence service of a foreign government." The commandants demand "in the interests of the whole of Berlin, the quick removal of the severe limitations that have been placed on the populace and the restoration of free movement inside Berlin."

At 11:30 in the morning, American officers handed us the Deputy Prime-Minister of the GDR, the Chairman of the Central Administration of the Christian-Democratic

Union, Otto Nuschke.59 The representatives of the

German authorities in the Central Administration of the
CDU were present at the hand-over.

We will inform you about future events."

[Source: AVP RF, f. 82, op. 41, por. 93, p.280, II. 22-24. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie.]

[The following is an excerpt of a telephonogram by V. Semenov and V. Sokolovskii in Berlin to V. Molotov and N. A. Bulganin, sent on 19 June 1953 at 5:35 p.m., describing the alleged capture of infiltrating parachutists. 160

"In the region of Sangerhausen (45 kilometers west of Halle) on the night of 17 June 1953, a group of 6 parachutists was dropped.

On 19 June 1953, one of the parachutists was captured; at the preliminary interrogation he indicated that together with him, another five parachutists were dropped, as were weapons (5 carbines and a large quantity of grenades). Upon reaching the ground, they hid the weapons in a forest in the region of Sangerhausen. The captured parachutist also indicated that they were given a radio transmitter with which they were supposed to report on the uprisings. The basic task of the dropped parachutists was to participate broadly in the uprising and to incite the populace to rebellion.

The inquiry is continuing."61

[Source: AVP RF, f.82, op. 41, por. 93, p. 280, l. 31. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie (CWIHP)]

[The following excerpt is from a secret telephonogram sent by V. Semenov and V. Sokolovskii to V. Molotov and N. Bulganin on 19 June 1953 at 7:50 p.m., describing the situation in East German as of late afternoon that day.]

"We are reporting on the situation in Berlin and the GDR at 5 p.m. (Berlin time), on June 19.

In Berlin all enterprises are working at normal capacity. The number of workers who have reported to work is at 90-98 percent. Those who have not come to work are, by and large, workers who live in West Berlin. At the construction sites on Stalinallee, about 60% of workers reported to work.

In the morning there were isolated efforts by provocateurs to disorganize work at some enterprises and to call a strike. The provocateurs were arrested.

Life in East Berlin is proceeding normally.

The overwhelming majority of enterprises in the Republic are working without interruption. A number of enterprises, at which partial strikes were begun in the morning, have fully resumed work. [Public] transport is working punctually and without interruption. Order at all 29 Soviet joint-stock company (SAO) factories has been restored. At individual SAO enterprises, workers are requesting that they be allowed to work off on Sunday the time that was lost on June 17-18. In the Republic, only isolated enterprises are left at which comparatively small groups of workers are striking. During the day, a strike of about two thousand workers began at several enterprises in the city of Halberstadt. In the city of Freiberg (Chemnitz district), there was an effort by 500 persons to organize a demonstration, which was broken up by troops and German police. Today, with the occurrence of partial strikes, as a rule, political demands were not put forward, aside from demands for the release of arrested persons, the removal of armed guards at factories, and, more rarely, a change in the military situation.

At a series of enterprises, meetings and gatherings led by SED organizations were held.

The situation in the countryside, as before, is quiet. However, during these days a certain reduction has been noted in the supplies of agricultural produce given by peasants to the state. The peasants universally regard the events in Berlin with disapproval, expressing their fear that they can lead to war.

The West German Bundestag adopted a resolution on increasing the numbers of West German border police from 10 to 20 thousand men, which is linked to the events in the GDR."

[Source: AVP RF, f. 82, op. 41, por. 93, p. 28, ll. 25-26. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie (CWIHP).]

[The following excerpt is from a secret telephonogram sent by V. Semenov and V. Sokolovskii in Berlin to V. Molotov and N.A. Bulganin, 19 June 1953, midnight, reporting on the situation in East Germany as of 9:00 p.m. that day.62]

We report on the situation in Berlin and the GDR at 9 p.m. (Berlin time),

19 June.

In East Berlin, all is quiet.

In the course of the day, isolated efforts by enemy elements to incite [sprovotsirovat'] talk against the arrests of the ring-leaders of the disturbances of June 17-18 and the execution of Göttling were noted. At two factories, GDR flags were put at half-mast as a sign of mourning for the provocateurs who had been killed. At other enterprises, workers demanded the release of members of strike committees who had been arrested.

Organizations of the SED began to conduct meetings of workers at enterprises in East Berlin at which resolutions are being passed in support of the GDR government.

The residents of East Berlin, who were on West Berlin territory at the time of the disturbances, are returning home. In order to let these people through, we have opened three temporary checkpoints on the sector border.

The commandants of the Western sectors of Berlin issued a decree to the effect that any demonstrations in West Berlin can only take place after receiving permission from the commandants. The need for this decree is based on the situation which has arisen and on the preservation of security and order.

The situation in the GDR generally is quiet. Certain enemy speeches have the character of a protest against the punishment of the ring-leaders of the disturbances. Efforts were made to organize 15-minute demonstrations of silence as a sign of mourning for the provocateurs who have been killed. At the factory "Simag" in the city of Finsterwalde, thirty-five provocateurs conducted such a demonstration, although the majority of workers did not support it.

In a series of districts, meetings of regional SED activists have been conducted. At several activist sessions, demands for criminal indictments of members of the SED who took part in the disturbances were put forward.

In some villages, cases were noted in which leaflets had been distributed urging peasants not to supply produce to the government.

The mood of the populace has somewhat improved. Political demands put forward by workers, by and large, under the influence of enemy elements, have been put on the back burner. In Potsdam, workers say: "We do not want to strike, although many of our demands are just. We are waiting for these demands to be recognized."

We will inform [you] about future [developments]."

[Source: AVP, RF, f. 82,op. 41, por. 93, p. 280, ll.29-30. Translated by Benjamin Aldrich-Moodie.]

Report, I. Fadeikin63 to V. D. Sokolovskii, 19 June 1953

OPERATIONS DIVISION,

MAIN OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATION, GENERAL STAFF OF THE SOVIET ARMY

Top Secret (Declassified)

To Marshal of

Soviet Union Comrade SOKOLOVSKII, V.D. I am reporting that the situation in the country (Germany) is improving. The workers' strikes are over in the overwhelming majority of the GDR cities as of 5:00 p.m., June 18.

A minor number of enterprises have been on strike (LAS, the plant in Leipzig, the tool plant in Schmelna). Part-time strikes occurred in a number of other enterprises where personnel in the night shifts from 30% to 60% were to the close of June 18.

The meetings at the plants were stopped by the evening of June 18. Street demonstrations in the GDR cities and towns were not permitted during June 18.

The provocateurs and instigators had been actively withdrawn and arrested in Eastern Berlin and the Districts of GDR for June 18 and the night of June 19. The workers themselves have started participating in the exposing of the provocateurs and taking them into custody.

For instance, some workers arrested SIMON, an engineer, who had visited plant shops calling for a strike, in Köpenick (Berlin). Two provocateurs calling for a strike were detained by some workers at the High-Frequency Instruments Plant in Treptow.

The German People's Police revealed the gathering of provocateurs in MITROPA, the restaurant, and arrested 40 instigators, confiscating weapons from three of them on the evening of June 18. Twenty provocateurs were arrested at Alexanderplatz.

There have been some reports that workers at some plants (Railway-Carriage Repair Works in Weimar, et cetera), indicating that the strikes had been provoked by hostile elements, met and passed resolutions condemning themselves for their actions on 17 June 1953, and undertook to make up the lost working time next Sunday.

Many workers understood they had been misled by provocateurs and cursed the fascist thugs from Western Berlin.

The German People's Police arrested two persons in front of Cho, the restaurant, in the evening of June 18, who proved to be residents of West Berlin. The police action was welcomed by passers-by.

Relations between Soviet troops and Berlin residents have been improving on June 18. Our soldiers have been very disciplined during all of the events. It was possible to witness peaceful conversations between Soviet soldiers and German residents in the streets of Berlin by the evening of June 18.

As brought to light by now, the strikes were a protest

against the 10% rise in output quotas that the government had declared at some GDR industry enterprises on May 29-30. They continued on June 6-7. The construction workers on Stalinallee in Berlin started saying that they did not agree with the new output quotas and would declare a strike if needed.

The central leadership of the Free German Trade Union [League] and the SED CC knew about such feelings and opinions among working class people on June 15. However, timely preventive measures were not undertaken.

During the investigation it became evident that many West Berlin residents and members of West Berlin subversive organizations, [such as the] so-called "Fighting Group Against Inhumanity,”64 were among arrested provocateurs and instigators.

For instance, BEREND, Helmut, a German, an active participant in the uprising, was arrested in Dessau. He indicated during interrogation that a large group of instigators including himself had arrived in Dessau from the American Sector of Berlin during the night of June 17 and that they had been sent by the West Berlin Center of "Fighting Group [against Inhumanity]."

This is a typical example revealing that West Berlin authorities had been well-informed in advance about the actions in East Berlin on June 17. They had sent beforehand some West Berlin radio-commentators to democratic Berlin, where they were doing live radio-commentary in the places where clashes between East Berliners and the People's Police occurred on the morning on 17 June. RIAS, the West Berlin radio station, was continuously broadcasting that recorded commentary.

Some members of the GDR Government and SED CC had been displaying cowardice and bewilderment during the events. This is the most typical evidence of such behavior. WEINBERGER, the Minister of Transport and Farm Mechanical Engineering, and HENKST, the member of the SED CC, arrived in Rostock on the evening of 17 June. Negotiating with the strike committee of Varnav, the shipyard, on the morning of 18 June, they cowardly made many unrealistic promises to the strikers.

WEINBERGER signed a protocol in which he promised to raise salaries, to establish a new vacations system, to compensate workers for travel from residential areas to the enterprises, to pay for their staying apart from their families, etc. When the strike committee in their counter-suggestions was demanding the resignation of the GDR Government, releasing the convicts and canceling the state of emergency, WEINBERGER and HENKST did not reject those points while they were read in their presence on the radio to the workers at the plant. Speaking about their promises just after that, they said no word about the "provocative demands" of the strikers.

Moreover, WEINBERGER and HENKST made a decision regarding the release of two strike organizers arrested by police.

It is clear from secret service and official information

that some SED members took an active part in the delays and strikes. The interrogations of the arrested SED members have revealed that many of them were dissatisfied with the worsening living standard among the working people and justified their conclusions by referring to the SED Politburo's published admission of its mistakes.

The evidence of considerable dissatisfaction among the Party members has been the fact that about 100 people have quit their SED membership in the Cottbus district in the last two days.

The numerous secret service official and investigatory evidence has revealed that organizers and leaders of many strike committees at the GDR enterprises were executives of German trade-unions.

For example, among the four organizers of the strike at the public enterprise Wohnungsbau (Berlin), on June 17 who were arrested by the MfS GDR, the main part was played by the chairman of the local trade-union committee and the candidate-member of SED, a certain MIFS.

KOLSTER, the chairman of the plant's trade union committee, led the strike at the Electric Equipment Plant of the Soviet Joint-Stock Company in Treptow, Berlin (arrested).

VETSEL, the chairman of the plant's trade union organization, was in charge of the strike at the Optical Apparatus Plant in Rathenow, Potsdam District. It was he as well who headed the demonstration and called on the workers of other plants to join the strikers (VETSEL was arrested).

KULTUS, the leader of the Construction Workers Trade-Union in the Frankfurt [a. d. Oder] district, called on the workers to take to the streets and declared, "We are going to show our power and strive to get our demands fulfilled."

According to information by 5.00 a.m. on 19 June 1953, 2,930 organizers, leaders and participants of the strikes, provocateurs and instigators as well as persons who took part in armed attacks on the German People's Police units, prisons, courts, party and state institutions in Berlin, Brandenburg, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Halle, Görlitz, Jena and other GDR cities, were arrested.

Among the GDR MfS, People's Police, officers and democratically-inclined [East] German citizens, 7 were killed and 151 wounded.

According to information by 5.00 a.m. 19 June 1953, 21 rebels were killed in the armed clashes, and 85 were wounded.

Apart from 6 rebels caught and shot instantly by Soviet troops during the armed clashes, military tribunals sentenced 6 of the most active organizers and participants in the armed actions to be shot, including: 1 in Berlin, 2 in Magdeburg, 2 in Görlitz, and 1 in Jena.

The Military Council of the Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany confirmed the sentences which were carried out the same day, and it was announced by radio to the German population.