UDC

394(430).087+355.355(47)1945/1949

Authors

Dmitriy G. Balashov
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov; prosp. Lomonosova 2, Arkhangelsk, 163002, Russian Federation;
e-mail: balashov.db@yandex.ru

Abstract

Based on the documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, this paper deals with the policy of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany that was aimed to combat unemployment in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SOZ) during 1945–1949. No studies have been done previously on the efforts of Soviet military authorities to provide employment for Germans during that period. This article identifies the causes of unemployment growth in post-war Germany, ways of tackling it and results. Among key priorities of the Soviet Military Administration were covering the reparation shipments to the USSR and providing allowances to the Soviet troops stationed in Germany. The mobilization of labour along with the command-and-control methods in SOZ economy were designed to reconstruct the industry and infrastructure destroyed during the war. These processes generated a growing demand for skilled workforce. As mass unemployment declined, it led the social stratification of German society toward proletarianization. When the Cold War started in 1947, Sovietization of Germans became irreversible. From then on, state bodies took full control over their employment and social support. At the same time, measures for providing manpower became a prerogative of German labour and social development authorities working under the supervision of the Soviet Military Administration. East Germany’s economy was recovering and growing steadily. The author points out that the measures taken to fight unemployment in post-war Germany are still relevant in the post-crisis periods of modern society.

Keywords

East Germany, Soviet Military Administration in Germany, Soviet Occupation Zone, Soviet occupation policy, alleviation of unemployment

References

1. Drucker P.F. The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York, 1939. 276 p.
2. Boldyrev R.Yu., Nevskiy S.I., Plumpe W. Reparatsionnaya politika v otnoshenii Germanii [War Reparations Policy in Relation to Germany 1941–1947]. Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya, 2016, no. 6, pp. 51–65.
3. Boldyrev R.Yu., Nevskiy S.I. Sovetskaya reparatsionnaya politika v Germanii v 1945–1953 gg. [Soviet Reparation Policy in Germany 1945–1953]. Voprosy istorii, 2017, no. 3, pp. 49–69.
4. Boldyrev R.Yu. Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya politika v Germanii, 1945–1949: ekonomicheskiy aspekt [Soviet Occupation Policy in Germany, 1945–1949: Economic Aspect]. Saarbrücken, 2011. 254 p.
5. Kopstein J. Chipping Away at the State: Workers’ Resistance and the Demise of East Germany. World Politics, 1996, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 391–423.
6. Petrov N.V. Formirovanie organov nemetskogo samoupravleniya i sovetizatsiya Vostochnoy Germanii [Formation of German Self-Government Bodies and Sovietization of East Germany]. Zakharov V.V. (ed.). Sovetskaya voennaya administratsiya v Germanii i nemetskie organy samoupravleniya 1945–1949 gg. [Soviet Military Administration in Germany and German Self-Government Bodies in 1945–1949]. Moscow, 2006. 759 p.
7. Cherednikova A.Yu. Protsessy sotsial’noy transformatsii i vovlechennost’ zhenshchin v politicheskuyu zhizn’ strany: Germaniya 1919–1949 gg. [The Processes of Social Transformation and Women’s Involvement into the Political Life of the Country: Germany in 1919–1949]. Korneva L.N. (ed.). Sbornik nauchnykh statey. Ser.: Germanskie issledovaniya v Sibiri [Collected Papers. Ser.: German Studies in Siberia]. Kemerovo, 2015, pp. 97–105.
8. Boldyrev R.Yu., Nevskiy S.I. Denezhnye reformy v poslevoennoy Germanii (1948): podgotovka, provedenie, itogi (Chast’ 1) [Nevsky S.I. Monetary Reforms in Post-War Germany (1948): Preparation, Implementation, and Results (Part 1)]. Ekonomicheskaya politika, 2014, no. 5, pp. 38–65.