The People's Democracy
West Berlin received the latest reports of unrest in Eastern Germany a great deal more calmly than London; and to the immediate question of whether a popular revolt is likely to overthrow the East German Government, the answer must clearly be no. The trouble came to a head when it was announced from the satellite Ministry of the Interior that " considerable groups of hostile organisations " working for " American and West German secret services " had been " smashed." This followed on a series of unofficial reports that the People's Police were making massed drives against saboteurs, that " People's Policemen " had been murdered in the woods around Cottbus by Polish and Czech refugees working with East German " guerillas," that workers in key industrial plants around Berlin were being arrested, tried and punished for " sabotage." Robbed of sensationalism and wish- ful thinking, this would seem to add up to two main facts. The first is that, ever since the revolt of June 17th, Russia and her German satellite government have been pursuing, exposing, inventing " ringleaders " on whom they can pin responsibility for that revolt, partly for purposes of security but mainly in order to substantiate the myth that the revolt was not spon- taneous but organised—preferably by Western agents. For Messrs. Malenkov and Grotewohl this is an indispensable myth; the one thing a People's Democracy cannot admit is that the people, of their democratic free will, rebelled in force against their government. The second fact is that the genuinely spontaneous forces which came to the surface on June 17th al 0 still, just below the surface, alive in Eastern Germany. The murders at Cottbus were real enough and so was the man-hunt -conducted by the People's Police in the surrounding woods. This does not mean that a liberation movement is in being. But it does mean that Malenkov may have been reminded of the fact that his days in Berlin could be numbered.
Previous page
