Head of SMAD’s Propaganda Administration who drove the founding of the SED and the Sovietisation of eastern Germany
An economist trained in Leningrad, he joined the Communist Party in 1927. He went into hiding during the Great Terror, and his parents were repressed. In the war he headed the 7th department of several fronts’ political administrations. From October 1945 to September 1949 he headed the Propaganda (later Information) Administration of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany; fluent in German, he strongly backed Walter Ulbricht. He pushed the 1946 merger of the KPD and SPD and from 1948 the development of a separate state on Soviet lines. He fell from favour as it became clear that Stalin did not support his and Ulbricht’s plans for rapid socialisation, and in 1949, after accusations from counter-intelligence, he was recalled. He later taught economics at Leningrad University.
Activities and affiliations
- 1945–1949 Ideology and propaganda · Soviet Union
- 1941–1945 Military command · Soviet Union
- 1956– Scholarship and theory · Soviet Union
Career Timeline
- 1927Joined the Communist Party
- 1942–1945Head of the 7th department in front political administrations
- 1945–1949Head of SMAD’s Propaganda (Information) Administration
- 1949Recalled from Germany; promoted major general
- 1957Head of the department of economics of modern capitalism, Leningrad University