Soviet control commission
The Soviet Control Commission ( SKK ) was a monitoring and management institution of the Soviet occupying power over the leadership of the German Democratic Republic . It existed from October 10, 1949 to May 28, 1953.
Their legitimacy was based on the agreements that the victorious powers had made in the Potsdam Conference (July 17 to August 2, 1945). According to this, after a transitional period , the military government should formally transfer its tasks to German administrative bodies to be formed. It replaced the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), which had previously exercised sole administrative power in the Soviet occupation zone . With the establishment of the German Democratic Republic on October 7, 1949, the prerequisites were given to replace the military government.
However, that in no way meant that the GDR government could make independent decisions. The Soviet Control Commission could exert influence at any time. She could specify decisions to be made or revise decisions made. It controlled both the government of the GDR and the state governments . It is considered to be the decisive power instance in the early GDR.
The commander-in-chief of the group of Soviet occupation troops in Germany , Army General Vasily I. Chuikov , was appointed head of the SKK . The SKK was supposed to supervise the implementation of the agreements reached at the “Potsdam Conference” as well as the other resolutions of the four powers in the GDR. She also had to represent the interests of the Soviet Union in the GDR. But it also supported the SED in its measures against internal and external political opponents.
High Commission of the Soviet Union in Germany
After the death of Josef Stalin , the SKK was converted into the "High Commission of the USSR in Germany" on May 28, 1953 and operated under this name until March 1954. The previous political advisor to General Chuikov, Vladimir Semenovich Semenov , has been appointed High Commissioner .
On September 20, 1955, the USSR established the "complete sovereignty " of the GDR by a Council of Ministers resolution. The office of the Soviet High Commissioner was repealed in a further legal act and an assistance pact was also concluded between the two countries, represented by Nikolai A. Bulganin and Otto Grotewohl . In fact, the USSR continued to exercise a control function, which after the dissolution of the SKK and the High Commissariat was mainly exercised by the embassy of the USSR in the GDR and secured by the continued presence of Soviet troops in the GDR .
The extent to which Soviet rights of penetration continued to exist in the GDR in a legally valid form until 1991, analogous to the Allied rights of reservation and Article 2 of the revised Germany Treaty in the FRG, regardless of the Soviet de facto exercise of power, is the subject of difficult historical investigations into the opening appropriate archives, especially in Moscow.
literature
- The SKK statute. On the history of the Soviet Control Commission in Germany from 1949 to 1953. A documentation . ( compiled on behalf of the Institute for Contemporary History and introduced by Elke Scherstjanoi), Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-11333-1 .
- Siegfried Prokop : June 17, 1953. Historical myths and historical processes. Concepts - contemporary witnesses - chronicle of events (= booklets on GDR history; vol. 81), Berlin 2003.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günther Heydemann : The SBZ and GDR research in the Institute for Contemporary History , in: Horst Möller , Udo Wengst (Ed.): 50 Years Institute for Contemporary History. A balance sheet , Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56460-9 , pp. 469-486, here p. 479.
- ↑ Klaus Schroeder : The SED State - Party, State and Society 1949–1990 , 1998, p. 131 f.