Sowjetisierung oder Neutralität? Optionen sowjetischer Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland und Österreich 1945-1955

The present volume attempts, for the first time, a systematic comparison of the Soviet occupation policies in Austria and Germany after 1945. The question of why Austria was able to retain its sovereignty and achieve the withdrawal of occupation troops in 1955, while, in the same year, Moscow definitively cemented its doctrine of the existence of two German states, is the focal point of this study. The contributed articles examine, on the one hand, the often very similar procedures and policies implemented by the occupying power in the two zones while, on the other hand, inquiring into the fundamental differences in circumstances that initially prevailed after the war. At the same time, the dynamics of the interaction between the two areas in the process of their evolution is not ignored.