The Uprising In East Germany, 17th June 1953

The Uprising in East Germany on June 17th 1953 was the first real workers' demonstration in East Europe post war. Only by using Soviet arms that it was suppressed. Compared with the Poland and Hungarian revolution of 1956, the Uprising in June owned something be various. First, it happened in German Democratic Republic-which had broke away its original road, meanwhile was still different from other People Democracy countries, history and nationalism played role in the uprising . Secondly, it come across just after the death of Stalin, Soviet top leaders were fighting for power as well as changing policy. The special political background had effect on the generation, resolution of this event and GDR political alteration, to some extent also influenced the power fight in Moscow. Thirdly, the uprising has something to do with American East Europe strategy and Soviet policy toward GDR.As a great deal of related archival disclosures recently, we have a chance to make study on it. This passage try to make use of these documents , on the base of west scholars' research, to talk about the background, causes, course and affection of this revolt, as well as to discuss how both the west and Soviet reacted. This thesis will consist of four chapters.Chapter I: East Germany under the Occupation of Soviets. In order to present the background of event and reveal the role of historical factors, this chapter will mainly talk about the political and economy in Soviet Occupation Zone before the Uprising happened.Chapter II: The Origins of the Uprising in June 17^th 1953. Mainly discuss why the uprising happened on June 17^th 1953 and what fused it. In July 1952, SED began "Planned Socialism Construction" under Ulbricht, which brought GDR into crisis. The death of Stalin and policy-change of Soviet provided workers good chance to speak their mind, especially the "New Course" which carried out in GDR hastily. The fuse of the uprising is Work Norms. Beginning with a demonstration for economic right of construction workers, ended with a mass revoltChapter III: The Break and the Course of Uprising. This chapter is the core of my thesis, is composed of 5 parts. The first two parts talk about the strike and demonstration on June 16^th as well as the uprising on June 17^th. I'd like to try my best to reveal the whole course as clear as possible. The last 3 parts will talk about how SED, Soviet and West countries reacted.Chapter IV: The Influence of Uprising on June 17^th 1953. This chapter will talk about two things. First, how did uprising influence the power fight and economic policies of GDR. Ulbircht got rid of his disadvantage and won in the fight because of the uprising. Secondly, Soviet changed both their international and union policy toward East Germany. Soviet gave up exploitation policy, transformed to admit GDR as a full-sovereignty country and supply GDR with economic aid.The East Germany uprising was of historical meaning in the first years of cold war. Studying on it, we can not only get it better and more precisely, but also contribute to understand the situation of East Germany in earlier years after the war and the relation between Soviet and GDR.