Item COLD WAR 11/3 - Transcript of interview with Communist Party member Wolfgang Leonhard, 1996

Typescript transcript of interview with Wolfgang Leonhard, member of the German Communist Party working with Walther Ulbricht to establish a communist controlled administration in Soviet occupied Berlin, 1945-47, instructor at the Academy of the Socialist Unity Party Karl Marx, Zehlendorf, 1947-1949, worked for International Broadcasting of Radio Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1949, Professor of History at Yale University, 1966-1987, relating to Leonhard's employment as a radio announcer on Radio Broadcast, National Committee Free Germany, a Moscow based radio station pretending to be a German opposition, anti-Nazi radio station, 1944-1945; Leonhard's ten years in the USSR, 1935-1945; the hope amongst the population of Moscow, USSR, that the Soviet regime would become more liberal after the defeat of Germany, 1944-1945; Leonhard's inclusion in the 'Ulbricht group', the founder members of the German Socialist Unity Party, 1945; Leonhard's journey from Moscow to Berlin, Apr-May 1945; the destruction and the living conditions in Berlin, 1945; the establishment of a new governing administration in Berlin, with the inclusion of democratic party candidates but with communists in key positions, 1945; the creation of a new German Communist Party, the Socialist Unity Party, within a democratic framework, 1945-1946; the use of pro-communist propaganda in Berlin, 1945-1946; the arrival of the Western Allies in Berlin, Jul 1945; the brutal behaviour of Red Army troops towards German civilians in Berlin, 1945; the removal of industrial plant and equipment by the Soviets from occupied Germany as war reparations, 1945; the de-nazification programme employed by the Western Allies in occupied Germany, 1945-1946; the employment of former Nazis as informers for the NKVD (Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) in the Soviet zone of occupation, Germany, 1945-1946; the operations of the NKVD in Berlin, Germany, 1945-1946; the impact of the use, by the USAAF (US Army Air Force), of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 6 and 9 Aug 1945, on relations between the USSR and the Western Allies, 1945; the rejection of the Marshall Plan by the USSR, [Aug] 1947; the foundation of the German Socialist Unity Party, Apr 1946; the process of unification between the German Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, Oct 1945-Apr 1946; the exclusion and removal of Social Democrats opposed to unification with the Communists, 1945-1946; the Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949; the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau), an organisation to co-ordinate Communist Party activities throughout Europe, Jun 1948; the ejection of democratic councillors from the Berlin City Council by Communist activists, 6 Sep 1948; Leonhard's opinion of Josip 'Broz' Tito, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, 1945-1953, and President, 1953-1980; Leonhard's decision to escape from the Soviet zone of Germany and his journey to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Mar 1949; the arrests and trials in the East German Socialist Unity Party for anti-Soviet activity, 1949; the character and leadership of Walther Ulbricht, Secretary of the East German Socialist Unity Party, 1950-1971; Leonhard's experience and opinion of the communist system in Yugoslavia, 1949-1970; Leonhard's decision to settle in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1950; the threat to Stalinism posed by Tito's rule in Yugoslavia, 1948-1953; the construction of the Berlin Wall, Aug 1961. 53pp