Allied-administered Austria

The Allied occupation of Austria started on 8 May 1945 with the fall of Nazi Germany and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955.

After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In 1943, however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression, and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four zones and jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council.

Whereas Germany was divided into East and West Germany in 1949, Austria remained under joint occupation of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union until 1955; its status became a controversial subject in the Cold War until the warming of relations known as the Khrushchev Thaw. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full independence on 15 May 1955 and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year.

Background

At the 1943 Moscow Conference, the Soviet Union, United States, and the United Kingdom had jointly decided that the German annexation of Austria would be considered "null and void". As well, all administrative and legal measures since 1938 would be ignored. The conference declared the intent to create a free and independent Austria after the war, but also stated that Austria had a responsibility for "participation in the war at the side of Hitlerite Germany" which could not be evaded.

1945–1946: first year of occupation

Soviet rule and reestablishing Austrian government

On 29 March 1945, Soviet commander Fyodor Tolbukhin's troops crossed the former Austrian border at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland.Eisterer 2009, p. 190. On 3 April, at the beginning of the Vienna Offensive, the Austrian politician Karl Renner, then living in southern Lower Austria, established contact with the Soviets. Joseph Stalin had already established a would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's communists in exile, but Tolbukhin's telegram changed Stalin's mind in favor of Renner.Bordjugov 2005.

On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic. Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over.Eisterer 2009, p. 196.

Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by NKVD bodyguards. One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including crucial seats of the Secretary of State of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Education, was staffed by Austrian Communists. The Western allies suspected the establishment of a puppet state and refused to recognize Renner.Bischof 2009, p. 174. The British were particularly hostile; even American President Harry Truman, who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin, denied him recognition.Bischof 2009, p. 175. But Renner had secured inter-party control by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not designating the Secretary of State.

As soon as Hitler's armies were pushed back into Germany, the Red Army and the NKVD began to comb the captured territories. By 23 May they reported arrests of 268 former Red Army men, 1,208 men, and 1,655 civilians. In the following weeks the British surrendered over 40,000 Cossacks who had fled to Western Austria from Soviet authorities and certain death. In July and August, the Soviets brought in four regiments of NKVD troops to "mop up" Vienna and seal the Czechoslovak border.

Soviet commanders on the ground ordered the troops to stop the crime as soon as they entered Austria. On April 4, 1945, the command issued a directive that was read to all soldiers on the front lines. The directive declared that Austria was Hitler's first victim and that the Red Army had entered the country to liberate it and annihilate the German Army. For years, it said, Propaganda in Nazi Germany terrorized Austrians with atrocities committed by Soviet soldiers. The directive called Nazi propaganda a lie and called on the military not to confuse Austrian civilians with German occupiers. The end of the file is:

“Be merciless towards German enslavers, but don’t offend the Austrian population. Respect their traditions, families, and private property. Proudly carry the glorious title of a Red Army warrior…let your conduct cause respect everywhere for the Red Army.”

The Red Army lost 17,000 lives in the Battle of Vienna. Soviet troops engaged in systematic sexual violence against women, beginning in the first days and weeks after the Soviet victory. Repression against civilians harmed the Red Army's reputation to such an extent that on 28 September 1945 Moscow issued an order forbidding violent interrogations. Red Army morale fell as soldiers prepared to be sent home; replacement of combat units with Ivan Konev's permanent occupation force only marginally reduced 'misbehaviour'.Eisterer, p. 194. Throughout 1945 and 1946, all levels of Soviet command tried, in vain, to contain desertion and plunder by rank and file. According to Austrian police records for 1946, "men in Soviet uniform", usually drunk, accounted for more than 90% of registered crime (in comparison, U.S. soldiers accounted for 5 to 7%). At the same time, the Soviet governors resisted the expansion and arming of the Austrian police force.Carafano 2002, p. 177.

French, British, and American troops

American troops, including the 11th Armored Division, crossed the Austrian border on 26 April, followed by French and British troops on 29 April and on 8 May, respectively. Until the end of July 1945 none of the Western allies had first-hand intelligence from Eastern Austria (likewise, Renner's cabinet knew practically nothing about conditions in the West).Eisterer 2009, p. 197.

The first Americans arrived in Vienna in the end of July 1945, when the Soviets were pressing Renner to surrender Austrian oil fields.Bischof 2009, p. 177. Americans objected and blocked the deal but ultimately the Soviets assumed control over Austrian oil in their zone. The British arrived in September. The Allied Council of four military governors convened for its first meeting in Vienna on 12 September 1945. It refused to recognize Renner's claim of a national government but did not prevent him from extending influence into the Western zones. Renner appointed vocal anti-communist Karl Gruber as Foreign Minister and tried to reduce Communist influence. On 20 October 1945, Renner's reformed cabinet was recognized by the Western allies and received a go-ahead for the first legislative election.Bischof 2009, p. 176.

Occupation zones

On 9 July 1945 the Allies agreed on the borders of their occupation zones. Movement of occupation troops ("zone swap") continued until the end of July. The French and American zones bordered those countries' zones in Germany, and the Soviet zone bordered future Warsaw Pact states:

* Vorarlberg and North Tyrol were assigned to the French Zone
* Salzburg and Upper Austria south of the Danube were assigned to the American Zone.
* East Tyrol, Carinthia, and Styria were assigned to the British Zone.
* , Lower Austria, and the area of Upper Austria, north of the Danube, were assigned to the Soviet Zone.
* Vienna was divided among all four Allies. The historical center of Vienna was declared an international zone, in which occupation forces changed every month.

In determining the occupation zones, the administrative changes made after the Anschluss were applied in the western zones (Steirisches Salzkammergut to Upper Austria and East Tyrol to Carinthia) and were disregarded in the Soviet zone (Vienna not enlarged and Burgenland re-established).

First general elections after the war

The election held on 25 November 1945 was a blow for the Communist Party of Austria which received a bit more than 5% of the vote. The coalition of Christian Democrats (ÖVP) and Social Democrats (SPÖ), backed by 90% of the votes, assumed control over the cabinet and offered the position of Federal Chancellor to Christian Democrat Julius Raab.Wollinetz 1988, p. 94. The Soviets vetoed Raab, because he had been a member of the austrofascist Fatherland Front during the 1930s and the Soviets, unlike the West, favored a policy of denazification. Instead President Karl Renner, with the consent of parliament, appointed Leopold Figl, who was just barely acceptable to the Soviets.Bischof 2009, p. 176. They responded with massive and coordinated expropriation of Austrian economic assets.

The Potsdam Agreement allowed confiscation of "German external assets" in Austria, and the Soviets used the vagueness of this definition to the full. In less than a year they dismantled and shipped to the East industrial equipment valued at around US$500 million. American High Commissioner Mark W. Clark vocally resisted Soviet expansionist intentions, and his reports to Washington, along with George F. Kennan's '' The Long Telegram'', supported Truman's tough stance against the Soviets. Thus, according to Bischof, the Cold War in Austria began in the spring of 1946, one year before the outbreak of the global Cold War.

On 28 June 1946, the Allies signed the Second Control Agreement that loosened their dominance over the Austrian government. The Parliament was ''de facto'' relieved of Allied control. From now on its decision could be overturned only by unanimous vote by all four Allies.Bischof 2009, p. 172. Soviet vetoes were routinely voided by Western opposition. For the next nine years the country was gradually emancipated from foreign control, and evolved from a "nation under tutelage" to full independence.Bischof 2009, p. 173. The government possessed its own independent vision of the future, reacting to adverse circumstances and at times turning them to their own benefit. The first allied talks on Austrian independence were held in January 1947, and deadlocked over the issue of "German assets" in Soviet possession.

Mounting losses

In late 1945 and early 1946 the Allied occupation force peaked at around 150,000 Soviet, 55,000 British, 40,000 American, and 15,000 French troops. The costs of keeping these troops were levied on the Austrian government. At first, Austria had to pay the whole occupation bill; in 1946 occupation costs were capped at 35% of Austrian state expenditures, equally split between the Soviets and the Western allies.

Coincidentally with the Second Control Agreement, the Soviets changed their economic policy from outright plunder to running expropriated Austrian businesses for a profit. Austrian communists advised Stalin to nationalize the whole economy, but he deemed the proposal to be too radical. Between February and June 1946, the Soviets expropriated hundreds of businesses left in their zone. On 27 June 1946, they amalgamated these assets into the USIA, a conglomerate of over 400 enterprises.Fraberger, Stiefel 2000, p. 75 It controlled not more than 5% of Austrian economic output but possessed a substantial, or even monopolistic, share in the glass, steel, oil, and transportation industries.Fraberger, Stiefel 2000, p. 76. The USIA was weakly integrated with the rest of the Austrian economy; its products were primarily shipped to the East, its profits de facto confiscated and its taxes left unpaid by the Soviets. The Austrian government refused to recognize USIA legal title over its possessions; in retaliation, the USIA refused to pay Austrian taxes and tariffs.Fraberger, Stiefel 2000, pp. 76–77. This competitive advantage helped to keep USIA enterprises afloat despite their mounting obsolescence. The Soviets had no intention to reinvest their profits, and USIA assets gradually decayed and lost their competitive edge. The Austrian government feared paramilitary communist gangs sheltered by the USIALewis 2000, p. 146. and scorned it for being "an economy of exploitation in colonial style." The economy of the Soviet zone eventually reunited with the rest of the country.

South Tyrol was returned to Italy. The "thirty-second decision" of the Council of Foreign Ministers to grant South Tyrol to Italy (4 September 1945) disregarded popular opinion in Austria and the possible effects of a forced repatriation of 200,000 German-speaking Tyroleans. The decision was arguably motivated by the British desire to reward Italy, a country far more important for the containment of world communism. Renner's objections came in too late and carried too little weight to have effect. Popular and official protests continued through 1946. The signatures of 150,000 South Tyroleans did not alter the decision. South Tyrol is today an Italian autonomous province ( Bolzano/Bozen) with a German-speaking majority.

Hunger

In 1947, the Austrian economy, including USIA enterprises, reached 61% of pre-war levels, but it was disproportionately weak in consumer goods production (42% of pre-war levels). Food remained the worst problem. The country, according to American reports, survived 1945 and 1946 on "a near-starvation diet" with daily rations remaining below 2000 calories until the end of 1947. 65% of Austrian agricultural output and nearly all oil was concentrated in the Soviet zone, complicating the Western Allies' task of feeding the population in their own zones.Bailey, p. 148, wrote "65% of pre-war yield", not actual post-war output.

From March 1946 to June 1947, 64% of these rations were provided by the UNRRA.Lewis 2000, p. 143. Heating depended on supplies of German coal shipped by the U.S. on lax credit terms.Gimbel 1976, p. 163. A 1946 drought further depressed farm output and hydroelectric power generation. Figl's government, the Chambers of Labor, Trade and Agriculture, and the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) temporarily resolved the crisis in favor of tight regulation of food and labor markets. Wage increases were limited and locked to commodity prices through annual price-wage agreements. The negotiations set a model of building consensus between elected and non-elected political elites that became the basis of post-war Austrian democracy,Lewis 2000, p. 149. known as ''Austrian Social Partnership'' and '' Austro-corporatism''.

The severe winter of 1946–1947 was followed by the disastrous summer of 1947, when the potato harvest barely reached 30% of pre-war output. The food shortages were aggravated by the withdrawal of UNRRA aid, spiraling inflation, and the demoralizing failure of State Treaty talks. In April 1947, the government was unable to distribute any rations, and on 5 May Vienna was shaken by a violent food riot.Lewis 2000, p. 147. Unlike earlier protests, the demonstrators, led by the Communists, called to curb the westernisation of Austrian politics.Lewis 2000, p. 148. In August, a food riot in Bad Ischl turned into a pogrom of local Jews. In November, the food shortage sparked workers' strikes in British-occupied Styria. Figl's government declared that the food riots were a failed communist putsch, although later historians said this was an exaggeration.Bischof 2009, p. 178.

In June 1947, the month when the UNRRA stopped shipments of food to Austria, the extent of the food crisis compelled the U.S. government to issue $300 million in food aid. In the same month Austria was invited to discuss its participation in the Marshall Plan.Lewis 2000, p. 145. Direct aid and subsidies helped Austria to survive the hunger of 1947 while simultaneously depressing food prices and discouraging local farmers, thereby delaying the rebirth of Austrian agriculture.Lewis 2000, p. 143.

Marshall Plan

Austria finalized its Marshall Plan program in the end of 1947 and received the first tranche of Marshall Plan aid in March 1948.Lewis 2000, p. 144. Heavy industry (or what was left of it) was concentrated around Linz, in the American zone, and in British-occupied Styria. Their products were in high demand in post-war Europe. Naturally, the administrators of the Marshall Plan channeled available financial aid into heavy industry controlled by the American and British forces.Bader, p. 160. American military and political leaders made no secret of their intentions: Geoffrey Keyes said that "we cannot afford to let this key area (Austria) fall under the exclusive influence of the Soviet Union." The Marshall Plan was deployed primarily ''against'' the Soviet zone but it was not completely excluded: it received 8% of Marshall plan investments (compared to 25% of food and other physical commodities). The Austrian government regarded financial aid to the Soviet zone as a lifeline holding the country together. This was the only case where Marshall Plan funds were distributed in Soviet-occupied territory.

The Marshall Plan was not universally popular, especially in its initial phase.Lewis 2000, p. 138. It benefited some trades such as metallurgy but depressed others such as agriculture. Heavy industries quickly recovered, from 74.7% of pre-war output in 1948 to 150.7% in 1951. American planners deliberately neglected consumer goods industries, construction trades, and small business. Their workers, almost half of the industrial workforce, suffered from rising unemployment.Bader, pp. 160–161. In 1948–1949, a substantial share of Marshall Plan funds was used to subsidize imports of food. American money effectively raised real wages: the grain price was about one-third of the world price, while agriculture remained in ruins.Williams, p. 122. Marshall Plan aid gradually removed many of the causes of popular unrest that shook the country in 1947, but Austria remained dependent on food imports.

The second stage of the Marshall Plan, which began in 1950, concentrated on productivity of the economy.Tweraser 1995, p. 93. According to Michael J. Hogan, "in the most profound sense, it involved the transfer of attitudes, habits and values as well, indeed a whole way of life that Marshall planners associated with progress in the marketplace of politics and social relationships as much as they did with industry and agriculture." The program, as intended by American lawmakers, targeted improvement in factory-level productivity, labor-management relations, free trade unions and introduction of modern business practices.Tweraser 1995, p. 94. The Economic Cooperation Administration, which operated until December 1951, distributed around $300 million in technical assistance and attempted steering the Austrian social partnership (political parties, labor unions, business associations, and government) in favor of productivity and growth instead of redistribution and consumption.

Their efforts were thwarted by the Austrian practice of making decisions behind closed doors.Tweraser 1995, p. 106. The Americans struggled to change it in favor of open, public discussion. They took a strong anti-cartel stance, appreciated by the Socialists, and pressed the government to remove anti-competition legislation. But ultimately they were responsible for the creation of the vast monopolistic public sector of the economy (and thus politically benefiting the Socialists).

According to Bischof, "no European nation benefited more from the Marshall Plan than Austria."Bischof 2009, p. 179. Austria received nearly $1 billion through the Marshall Plan, and half a billion in humanitarian aid.Eisterer 2009, p. 201. The Americans also refunded all occupation costs charged in 1945–1946, around $300 million.Eisterer 2009, p. 202. In 1948–1949 Marshall Plan aid contributed 14% of national income, the highest ratio of all involved countries. Per capita, aid amounted to $132 compared to $19 for the Germans. But Austria also paid more war reparations per capita than any other Axis state or territory.Fraberger, Stiefel 2000, p. 85. Total war reparations taken by the Soviet Union including withdrawn USIA profits, looted property and the final settlement agreed in 1955, are estimated between $1.54 billion and $2.65 billion (Eisterer: 2 to 2.5 billion).

Cold War

The British had been quietly arming gendarmes, the so-called B-Gendarmerie, since 1945 and discussed the creation of a proper Austrian military in 1947. The Americans feared that Vienna could be the scene of another Berlin Blockade. They set up and filled emergency food dumps, and prepared to airlift supplies to Vienna while the government created a backup base in Salzburg.Bischof 2009, p. 181. The American command secretly trained the soldiers of an underground Austrian military at a rate of 200 men a week. The B-Gendarmerie knowingly hired Wehrmacht veterans and Federation of Independents, VdU members; the denazification of Austria's 537,000 Nazi Party, registered Nazis had largely ended in 1948.

Austrian communists appealed to Stalin to partition their country along the German model, but in February 1948 Andrei Zhdanov vetoed the idea: Austria had more value as a bargaining chip than as another unstable client state. The continuing talks on Austrian independence stalled in 1948 but progressed to a "near breakthrough" in 1949: the Soviets lifted most of their objections, and the Americans suspected foul play.Bischof 2009, p. 180. The Pentagon was convinced that the withdrawal of Western troops would leave the country open to Soviet invasion of the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, Czechoslovak model. Clark insisted that before their departure the United States must secretly train and arm the core of a future military. Serious secret training of the B-Gendarmerie began in 1950Bischof 2009, p. 181. but soon stalled due to US defense budget cuts in 1951. Gendarmes were trained primarily as an anti-coup police force, but they also studied Soviet combat practice and counted on cooperation with the Yugoslavia, Yugoslavs in case of a Soviet invasion.Carafano 2002, pp. 185–186, 187.

Although in the fall of 1950 the Western powers replaced their military representatives with civilian diplomats, strategically, the situation became gloomier than ever. The Korean War experience persuaded Washington that Austria might become "Europe's Korea" and sped up rearmament of the "secret ally". International tension was coincident with a severe internal economic and social crisis. The planned withdrawal of American food subsidies spelled a sharp drop in real wages. The government and the unions deadlocked in negotiations, and gave the communists the opportunity to organize the 1950 Austrian general strikes which became the gravest threat since the 1947 food riots.Bader, p. 165; Williams, p. 115; Carafano 2002, pp. 196–197. The communists stormed and took over Austrian Trade Union Federation, ÖGB offices and disrupted railroad traffic but failed to recruit sufficient public support and had to admit defeat. The Soviets and the Western allies did not dare to actively intervene in the strikes. The strike intensified the militarization of Western Austria, with active input from France and the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA.Bischof 2009, p. 181. Despite the strain of the Korean War, by the end of 1952 the American "Stockpile A" (A for Austria) in France and Germany amassed 227 thousand tons of materiel earmarked for Austrian armed forces.Carafano 2002, p. 184.

Détente

The death of Joseph Stalin and the Korean Armistice Agreement defused the standoff, and the country was rapidly, but not completely, demilitarized. After the Soviet Union had relieved Austria of the need to pay for the cost of their reduced army of 40,000 men, the British and French followed suit and reduced their forces to a token presence. Finally, the Soviets replaced their military governor with a Ivan Ilyichev, civilian ambassador. The former border between Eastern and Western Austria became a demarcation line.

Chancellor Julius Raab, elected in April 1953, removed pro-Western foreign minister Gruber and steered Austria to a more neutral policy.Carafano 2002, p. 173. Raab carefully probed the Soviets about resuming the talks on independence, but until February 1955 it remained contingent on a solution to the larger German problem. The Western strategy of rearming West Germany, formulated in the London and Paris Conferences, Paris Agreement, was unacceptable to the Soviets. They responded with a counter-proposal for a pan-European security system that, they said, could speed up reunification of Germany, and again the West suspected foul play. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower, in particular, had "an utter lack of confidence in the reliability and integrity of the men in the Kremlin... the Kremlin is pre-empting the right to speak for the small nations of the world".

In January 1955, Soviet diplomats Andrey Gromyko, Vladimir Semyonovich Semyonov, Vladimir Semenov and Georgy Maksimovich Pushkin, Georgy Pushkin secretly advised Vyacheslav Molotov to unlink the Austrian and German issues, expecting that the new talks on Austria would delay ratification of the Paris Agreement.Sergeev 2001. Molotov publicly announced the new Soviet initiative on 8 February. He put forward three conditions for Austrian independence: neutrality, no foreign military bases, and guarantees against a new Anschluss.

Independence

In March 1955, Molotov clarified his plan through a series of consultations with ambassador Norbert Bischoff: Austria was no longer hostage to the German issue. Molotov invited Raab to Moscow for bilateral negotiations that, if successful, had to be followed by a Four Powers conference. By this time Paris Agreements were ratified by France and Germany, although the British and Americans suspected a trap of the same sort that Adolf Hitler, Hitler had set for Kurt von Schuschnigg, Schuschnigg in 1938. Anthony Eden and others wrote that the Moscow initiative was merely a cover-up for another incursion into German matters. The West erroneously thought that the Soviets valued Austria primarily as a ''military'' asset, when in reality it was a purely political issue. Austria's military significance had been largely devalued by the end of the Tito–Stalin split, Soviet-Yugoslav conflict and the upcoming signing of the Warsaw Pact.

These fears did not materialize, and Raab's visit to Moscow (12–15 April) was a breakthrough. Moscow agreed that Austria would be free no later than 31 December.Steininger 2008, p. 128. Austrians agreed to pay for the "German assets" and oil fields left by the Soviets, mostly in kind; "the real prize was to be neutrality on the Swiss model." Molotov also promised the release and repatriation of Austrian prisoners of war, Austrians imprisoned in the Soviet Union.

Western powers were stunned. British diplomat and signatory to the treaty, Geoffrey Arnold Wallinger, Geoffrey Wallinger reported to London that the deal "was far too good to be true, to be honest". But it proceeded as had been agreed in Moscow and on 15 May 1955 Antoine Pinay, Harold Macmillan, Molotov, John Foster Dulles, and Figl signed the Austrian State Treaty in Vienna. It came into force on 27 July and on 25 October the country was free of occupying troops.Steininger 2008, p. 131. The next day, Austria's parliament enacted a Declaration of Neutrality, whereby Austria would never join a military alliance such as NATO or the Warsaw Pact, or allow foreign troops be based within Austria. The Soviets left in Vienna the large Soviet War Memorial (Vienna), Soviet War Memorial and to the new government a symbolic cache of small arms, artillery, and T-34 tanks; the Americans left a far greater gift of "Stockpile A" assets.Carafano 2002, pp. 190–191. The only political spokesperson who was publicly upset about the outcome was West Germany, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who called the affair ("the whole Austrian scandal") and threatened the Austrians with "sending Hitler's remains home to Austria".

High commissioners

American zone:

*Mark W. Clark 5 July 1945 - 16 May 1947
*Geoffrey Keyes 17 May 1947 - 19 September 1950
*''Walter J. Donnelly 20 September 1950 - 17 July 1952
*Llewellyn Thompson 17 July 1952 - 27 July 1955

British zone:

*Sir Richard McCreery July 1945 - March 1946
*James Steele (British Army officer), Sir James Steele March 1946 - October 1947
*Alexander Galloway, Sir Alexander Galloway October 1947 - 1 January 1950
*Sir John Winterton 1 January 1950 - 1 August 1950
*Harold Caccia, Baron Caccia, Sir Harold Caccia 1 August 1950 - 5 February 1954
*Geoffrey Wallinger, Sir Geoffrey Wallinger 5 February 1954 - 27 July 1955

French zone:

*Antoine Béthouart 8 July 1945 - September 1950
*Jean Payart September 1950 - October 1954
*Jean Chauvel October 1954 - February 1955
*Roger Lalouette February 1955 - June 1955
*François Seydoux de Clausonne 3 June 1955 - 27 July 1955

Soviet zone:

Military Commander

*Fyodor Tolbukhin 13 April 1945 - July 1945

High Commissioners

*Ivan Konev July 1945 - 25 April 1946
*Vladimir Kurasov 10 May 1946 - 2 April 1949
*Vladimir Petrovich Sviridov 4 May 1949 - 7 June 1953
*Ivan Ilyichev 7 June 1953 - 27 July 1955

See also

* Aftermath of World War II
* Allied-occupied Germany
* American food policy in occupied Germany
* Soviet occupations
* ''The Third Man''

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* Bader, William B. (1966).
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* Thomas A. Bailey, Bailey, Thomas A. (1977).
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* Berg, Matthew Paul (2000). ''Caught between Iwan and the Weihnachtsmann: Occupation, the Marshall Plan and Austrian Identity'', in: Bischof, Günter et al. (2000).
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* Bischof, Günter (2009). ''Allied Plans and Policies for the Occupation of Austria, 1938–1955'', in: Rolf Steininger, Steininger, Rolf et al. (2009).
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* Bischof, Günter et al. (1996).
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* Bordjygov, Gennadij et al. (2005, in German).
Sowjetische Politik in Österreich 1945–1955: Einleitung zu den Dokumenten
', in: ''Sowjetische Politik in Österreich 1945–1955. Dokumente aus russischen Archiven''. Wien: The Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. . pp. 18–30

.
* Boyle, Peter (1990).
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* James Carafano, Carafano, James Jay (2002).
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* Eisterer, Klaus (2009). ''Austria under Allied Occupation'', in: Rolf Steininger, Steininger, Rolf et al. (2003).
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'. Transaction Publishers. .
* Fraberger, Ingrid; Stiefel, Dieter (2000). ''Enemy Images: The Meaning of Anti-Communism and its Importance for the Political and Economic Reconstruction in Austria after 1945'', in: Bischof, Günter et al. (2000).
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* Kindermann, Walter (1955).
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'. Life (magazine), 11 July 1955 (v. 39 no. 2), pp. 108–112.
* Gimbel, John (1976).
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* Komlosy, Andrea (2000). ''The Marshall Plan and the Making of the Iron Curtain in Austria''. in: Bischof, Günter et al. (2000).
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* Lewis, Jill (2000). ''Dancing on a Tight Rope: The Beginning of the Marshall Plan'', in: Bischof, Günter et al. (2000).
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'. Transaction Publishers. . pp. 138–155.
* Petrov, Nikita (2009). ''The Internal Troops of the NKVD in the System of Soviet Organs of Repression in Austria. 1945–1946'', in: Bischof, Günter et al. (2009).
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* Sergeev, Rostislav (2001, in Russian).
Kak byl dostignut proryv v avsriyskom voprose (Как был достигнут прорыв в австрийском вопросе)
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* Rolf Steininger, Steininger, Rolf (2008).
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'. Berghahn Books. .
* Rolf Steininger, Steininger, Rolf (2003).
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'. Transaction Publishers. .
* Tweraser, Kurt K. (1995). ''The Politics of Productivity and Corporatism: The Late Marshall Plan in Austria, 1950–1954'', in: Bischof, Günter et al.
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'. Transaction Publishers. . pp. 91–115.
* Wenzl, Bernhard (2017). ''An American in Allied-occupied Austria: John Dos Passos Reports on "The Vienna Frontier"'', in: Parker, Joshua and Ralph J. Poole.
Austria and America: 20th-Century Cross-Cultural Encounters
', LIT Verlag, pp. 73–80
* Williams, Warren (2007).
Flashpoint Austria: The Communist-Inspired Strikes of 1950
' (paid access). Journal of Cold War Studies. Summer 2007, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 115–136. Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
* Wilsford, Robert (1995).
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* Wollinetz, Steven (1988).
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*

Further reading

* Michael Hogan (academic), Hogan, Michael J. (1989).
The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1952
'. Cambridge University Press. .
* Whithan, Donald Robert; Whithan, Florentine (1991).
Salzburg under siege: U.S. occupation, 1945–1955
'. Greenwood Publishing Group. .

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allied-Occupied Austria
States and territories disestablished in 1955
World War II occupied territories
Allied occupation of Austria,
States and territories established in 1945
Austria–Soviet Union relations
Austria–United States relations
History of Vorarlberg
1945 establishments in Austria
1955 disestablishments in Austria