Stalin and Austria: New Evidence on Soviet Policy in a Secondary Theatre of the Cold War, 1938–53/55 (original) (raw)

Austria between West and East

1999

Austria is located in the heart of Europe. Historically, this was both an advantage and a disadvantage. At times, it was an advantage since Austria could serve as a gate between West and East. At times, it suffered from the political tensions stemming from the important geopolitical position. There has been a tension between a geo-economic orientation towards Western and Eastern Central Europe that has been a constant of her recent history. It seems to us that Austria's geo-economic and geo-political strategies have some interesting features to the Korean public since it was at the border between East and West in the era of the cold war. However, it is necessary to delve deeper into the past in order to understand the postwar policies. During the last days of the Habsburg Empire, Austria was economically clearly looking to the East. It struck the shaky World War I alliance with her Western neighbour, Germany in order to preserve her influence in Eastern Europe. The break-up of the Empire was quite dramatic for Austria. The ruling circles had to adapt economically and politically to the policies of a small state. Economically, Austria tried to maintain a zone of influence in the East. Politically, the ruling circles incessantly discussed the pros and cons of a Danubian Federation with the successor states to the empire and a closer alliance with Germany. Both options were aimed at preserving economic influence in the East European neighbouring states. From 1938 to 1945, Austria was merged with Nazi Germany. This merger was effected forcibly, but German Nazism had a mass following in Austria so that resistance to the merger was minimal. Due to this, Austria regained her sovereignty only in 1955. This was conditional on a declaration of political and military neutrality in the East-West conflict. At times, Austrian governments translated Austria into a political bridge between West and East while seeking greater economic integration with Western Europe, mainly Germany. With the end of the cold war, economic integration was followed by political integration into the European Union. At the same time, new economic possibilities emerged in the East. Austrian companies were quick to (re-)establish themselves in Eastern Europe. Politically, the Austrian government is, however, hesitating between functioning as a gate or a bulwark of the West towards the East. These phases of the Austria's geo-economic and geo-political strategies will be discussed in the article. At the end, we shall discuss the policy options for the future.

Austrian-Bulgarian relations during the cold war

2024

This collection of essays is based on a research project funded by the Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD) and the Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF), Number KP-06-Austria/8, which was carried out in 2021/23 at the Institute for Balkan Studies with a Centre for Thracology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, Bulgaria) and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War (Graz-Vienna, Austria). The volume consists of eight articles which are dedicated exclusively to the reappraisal of bilateral relations between Austria and Bulgaria during the Cold War. The ten distinguished scholars provide deep analyses of the complicated bilateral relations between a neutral state Austria and a member-state of the Soviet bloc – People’s Republic of Bulgaria tracing diplomatic, political, economic, trade, etc. relations during the bipolar international system after the World War II. All articles are based primarily on research work with Bulgarian and Austrian declassified archival collections available, but not limited to the following archives: Austrian State Archive /Archive of the Republic (ÖStA/AdR), Central State Archive of the Republic of Bulgaria (Tsentralen Dărzhaven Arkhiv na Republika Bulgaria, or CDA), Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria (Arkhiv na Ministerstvo na vănshnite raboti na Republika Bălgaria, AMVnR), Stiftung Bruno Kreisky Archive (SBKA).

The Development of Slovak-Hungarian Relations in 1939-1940 from a Soviet Aspect

Social Pathology and Prevention

, Edvard Beneš withdrew his former resignation from presidency and, as a former president of the state and the president of the republic, sent telegrams to the politicians of the great powers with the request to condemn the German invasion of his country. 1 As a consequence of the German advance, the state of Czecho-Slovakia was dissolved, the Germans established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and also Slovakia declared her independence on 14 March 1939. 2 Beneš could get, with recurring calls, several western states to condemn the German aggression but no serious steps were taken beyond the scope of diplomacy. Germany sent a memorandum to the Soviet government on 16 and 17 March 1939 on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet diplomacy felt the gravity of the situation and set its apparatus in motion. On 18 March 1939, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a document to the German ambassador in Moscow; they condemned the German steps in eight points and they declared that the Soviet government did not acknowledge either the Protectorate or the independence of Slovakia. 3 The Soviet administration put the blame for the situation on France and England as they sacrificed the small states of SouthWestern Europe in order to direct Nazi Germany towards the Soviet Union. After the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia the USSR became more concerned about her own safety, and therefore she increased her diplomatic activity in Eastern Europe. 4 Opening towards Slovakia seemed advisable now since their embassies in Vienna, Prague and later Warsaw closed or worked as consulates due to the German advance, which limited the possibilities to obtain information. They needed to feel the connections in Bratislava and Budapest. The Soviet interest increased and their activity became more intense after the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. 5 On 31 August 1939, Molotov gave a speech in which he said that

Between War Times: Upper Austria from 1918 to 1939

CRAACE Blog, 2018

To commemorate the centenary of the First Austrian Republic in 2018, the Upper Austrian regional gallery in Linz presented a cross-section of stylistic developments and institutional frameworks of fine arts produced in Upper Austria between the two World Wars. The exhibition was part of the historical exhibition Between War Times: Upper Austria from 1918 to 1939 at the Linz Palace Museum, which runs through to January 2019 with a focus on the federal state’s position in an Austria that suffered deeply from social and political upheavals in the 1920s and 30s, and was annexed to the Third Reich in March 1938. With these historical complexities discussed elsewhere, the exhibition in the gallery focused its efforts on painting, photography and the graphic arts of the region, paying no more than faint attention to socio-political developments.

Austria in the pages of the Bulgarian press during the 1950s

Papers of BAS Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 2, 139-151, 2022

The focus of the studies that examine the Bulgarian-Austrian relations during the Cold War falls on the main aspects of the economic, political and cultural domains. The topic of Austria in the pages of the newspaper Rabotnichesko delo (“Worker’s Deed”), which was the printed organ of the Bulgarian Communist Party, has not been a subject of any research until now. The chosen time frame makes it possible to follow both the policy of the Soviet Union towards Austria from the beginning of the Korean War until the death of Stalin, but also how the country’s image gradually changed on the pages of the Bulgarian press, again in relation to Kremlin’s tactics after 1956 against the background of Kremlin’s peaceful coexistence policy.

Austria at the crossroads:The Anschluss and its opponents

2013

Endgültig und restlos Ordnung machen! 122 CHAPTER 4 132 '...Auf so unsichere Kantonisten kann sich Oesterreich in seinem Daseinskampf nicht verlassen': Relations with the Social Democrats Eine staatsbejahende Partei? 134 'So reimen sich heute Nationalsozialismus und Marxismus in Österreich zusammen' 141 A United Front? 156 CHAPTER 5 165 'Hier wird auch der Nationalsozialismus sein "Halt" finden': Negotiations with the NSDAP 'Das, was in Nationalsozialismus…gut und gesund ist, das ist altes, christlichsoziales Programm' 167 Why negotiate? 188 All Roads Lead to Rome-The Search for Allies 203 CHAPTER 6 218 'Rückkehr nach Potsdam': The Prussian Paradigm 'It is a war of life and death, which will not be ended for a long time' 223 Hoch Hohenzollern! 237 Im Stechschritt zum Einheitstaat 244 CHAPTER 7 258 'Österreich hat das Reich schon in seinem Namen': Austria's German Mission