ABSTRACT
In the Moscow Declaration of I November 1943, the Soviet Union and the Western Allies had agreed to liberate Austria from Nazi influence and to restore it as an independent democratic state. Nevertheless, the political aim to strengthen communist influence and to prepare Austria’s political transition to socialism remained unchanged. The Soviet authorities in Austria were to learn that Renner’s and the other parties’ policy in several cases was directed outright against the communists’ interests. The political transition to socialism was planned to be peaceful. Soviet political aims were limited by other goals and considerations of Soviet policy. Regardless of the Soviet goal to create a communist-led government in Austria and to transform the country into a people’s democracy, the solution of a partition of Austria seems to have been unacceptable to the Kremlin. The “dual” nature of Soviet foreign policy made it possible to pursue Realpolitik and ideology at the same time.
