The Soviet military administration and East German elections, autumn 1946

Even before the capitulation of Germany in 1945 the Soviet Union had begun to make preparations for a step-by-step communist seizure of power in the t erritories it controlled. This paper shows that the elections in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) in autumn 1946 were part of this radical change. Unp ublished Russian documents provide evidence that Soviet military authoritie s had planned almost every detail of this campaign to ensure that the Socia list Unity Party of German (SED) headed the poll - and this was even more e vident after the crushing defeat of the communists in Hungary and Austria i n 1945. In any case the Soviets were determined that such defeat should not happen again due to Stalin's postwar plans to establish a predominantly co mmunist Germany.