East German Uprising, 1953

Eisenhower Concluded Neither U.S. Military Operations Nor Popular Uprisings Were Feasible in Soviet-Controlled Eastern Europe, Despite “Rollback” Rhetoric

Washington, D.C. February 28, 2017 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower ruled out military intervention in Eastern Europe early in his administration, despite campaign rhetoric about rolling back world Communism, according to a U.S. Defense Department draft history published today by the National Security Archive. Fear of provoking war with the Soviet Union drove the decision, the study finds, based on research in a variety of government and public sources.

Uprising in East Germany, 1953

Washington, D.C., June 15, 2001 – Forty-eight years ago, on June 17, 1953, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) erupted in a series of workers' riots and demonstrations that threatened the very existence of the communist regime.  The outburst, entirely spontaneous, shocked the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) and their Kremlin sponsors, who were still reeling from the death of Joseph Stalin three months earlier.  Now, a new National Security Archive document volume based on recently obtained and translated records from archival sources throughout the former Soviet blo

New Volume of Previously Secret Documents Sheds Light on the East German Uprising of June 1953

Newly published documents on the landmark worker-led uprising of June 1953 in East Germany show that the crisis was far more widespread and protracted than previously believed. The documents, obtained from the files of the former ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) of East Germany, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as well as other former Soviet bloc and American archives, also prove that the scale of the crackdown was much larger than official sources had indicated.