The Austrian State Treaty and the Bloc Politics of the Time (1945— 1955)

Abstract

The author presents an informative survey of the essential characteristics of the antagonism between the so-called Eastern and Western Blocs, and of the influence it had on the solution of two paramount European problems, that of Germany and Austria in the period between 1945 and 1935. The USA wanted to keep the capitalist social order in the part of Europe they had occupied, while the Soviet Union set out to introduce the socialist system in its own occupation zones, meeting, consequently, with various obstacles. It has not been quite cleared up yet who caused a delay of full ten years in making the Peace Treaty with Austria, and why. The article is concluded with a statement of the then Austrian Chancellor Mr Raab's, given shortly before the Treaty was signed in Vienna, saving that though Austria was well on the point of becoming free, it would also become a prisoner. The author adds that this is trne, because no-one can absolve Austria from the obligations imposed on her by the State Treaty; for the ancient moral principle of »pacta sunt servanda« is still valid.