During our Vienna walks, we came across this monument (which was not recommended to us as a point of interest by any app), and stared at it, puzzled, trying to make sense out of it. It’s not like you won’t expect a wartime cemetery in Vienna, but what shocked us was the monument’s size. Somehow, I didn’t even hear about this monument, not exactly the size of Berlin’s Treptow memorial, but still massive. We were even more shocked after we read the sign saying the monument was erected in August 1945, when, as we already knew, the whole of Vienna was in ruins. We couldn’t imagine how anybody would invest that much resources in a monument at such a moment.
When we visited the Albertina museum, we learned that Austrian independence was only declared in 1955, and we realized that we didn’t know anything about that part of history, and why Austria was not made a socialist country after WWII. Somehow, we assumed that Austria was “in the western territory” and didn’t realize that, actually, there were Soviet troops that were there, and they were there for a while.
Since the House of Austrian History was closed on Tuesday when we tried to attend, I did some reading on the topic. From what I read, it seems like it was almost by accident. Yes, there was a Moscow Treaty of 1943, which technically didn’t allow the Annexation of Austria, but we all are aware of multiple cases when no treaty would stop Stalin. I also read that, since Austria (and Vienna) was divided into four parts, similar to Germany itself and Berlin, the Soviet Union couldn’t pursue direct annexation. In addition, the “Soviet” part of Austria didn’t have any significant economic value, and the Communist Party barely existed. So my understanding is that it was simply not the top priority for Stalin, so it remained in the “undefined” status until Khruschev was preparing for the XX Communist Party Congress.
In any case, lucky Austrians!
Hettie's Reflections 