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June 18, 1953

Report, Anton Plenikowski, 'Events in the Apparatus of the Local Government Agencies'

Plenikowski reports on municipal councils and local officials who participated in the uprising.

June 26, 1953

TASS on Voice of America Broadcast Citing Radio Liberation Appeal to Soviet Military in Germany

This document is the transcript of a VOA broadcast citing part of the Radio Liberation program mentioned in the 25 May TASS bulletin.

June 25, 1953

TASS on Radio Liberation Broadcast to Soviet Military in Germany during June 1953 East German Revolt

This TASS bulletin containing the transcript of a Radio Liberation broadcast urging Soviet forces stationed in East Germany to “return to the barracks” was sent to top Soviet officials. Radio Liberation, later to be renamed Radio Liberty, went on the air in March 1953.

August 25, 1953

Stenographic Transcript of Conference with the Delegations that Returned from the GDR

Report of a Moscow delegation on their impressions of the situation in East Germany. They describe grievances at the root of the June 17 uprising and make suggestions for improvements to the GDR factory system.

June 19, 1953

National Security Council Report, NSC 158, 'United States Objectives and Actions to Exploit the Unrest in the Satellite States'

Recommendations adopted by the National Security Council at the suggestion of the Psychological Strategy Board on covert actions to be undertaken in the Soviet Satellite States. Authorized by the National Security Council, NSC 158 envisaged aggressive psychological warfare to exploit and heighten the unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The policy was endorsed by President Eisenhower on June 26, 1953.

June 2, 1953

USSR Council of Ministers Order, 'On Measures to Improve the Health of the Political Situation in the GDR'

Council of Ministers of the USSR Order to improve the political and economic situation in GDR

June 17, 1953

Report from A. Grechko and Tarasov in Berlin to N.A. Bulganin, 11:00 p.m.

The demonstrations in Berlin and several other cities had been stopped. Grechko and Tarasow came to the conclusion that "the provocation was prepared in advance, organized, and directed from Western sectors of Berlin." The losses of the strikers in the whole territory of the GDR had been: 84 people killed and wounded, 700 men arrested.

June 18, 1953

Report from A. Grechko and Tarasov to N.A. Bulganin, 2:30 p.m.

The authors state that Berlin was calm, but there were a few demonstrations in some smaller GDR cities. The authors referred to military intelligence information according to which the US 7th Army and the 12th Air Force Army were put on alert in the US zone at 5.30 a.m. on June 18. But the alert state for the 7th Army was canceled after three hours.

July 1, 1953

Telephonogram from Miroshnichenko and Lunkov to Semenov, [early July 1953]

On 17 June, the Soviet military had stopped all cross-sector travel, causing widespread resentment among many East Germans who worked in the Western sectors or crossed them on their way to work. Under pressure from the East German population in the days following the uprising, SED leaders and local Soviet High Commission officials urged Semenov, then in Moscow for the Extraordinary CPSU Plenum, to normalize the traffic situation in Berlin. Semenov, following Molotov’s orders, informed Ulbricht that the question of free movement across the sector border “must be decided by the [German] comrades themselves, taking the situation into account.” On 7 July, tram and metro traffic between the sectors in Berlin was restored.

June 2, 1953

Cable from Major General Wilton B. Persons to Col. Robert L. Schulz Explaining the Department of State’s Views on the New Course

The U.S. state department comments on East German announcement to ease government policies following the East German Uprising. They believe the Soviet Union intends to compromise with Western powers on Germany before the rearmament of the Federal Republic through the European Defense Community plan.

Pagination