Austria-Russia Relations: Understanding Austria's Independence And History

Austria is not part of Russia. It is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of around 9 million.

Austria was occupied by the Allies and declared independent from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945. The country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955. It is a semi-presidential representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and a chancellor as head of government and chief executive.

Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living. The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995. It hosts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Interpol. It also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999.

Austria's neutrality and its relationship with Russia

Austria is not part of Russia. It is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Austria has been a neutral country since 1955, when it declared its permanent neutrality as a constitutional act of parliament. This was the direct consequence of the allied occupation by the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France between 1945 and 1955, from which the country was freed by the Austrian State Treaty of 1955.

Austria has maintained its neutrality since then, even after joining the European Union in 1995. It has, however, participated in UN-led peacekeeping and other humanitarian missions. Austria has also been a member of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995.

Austria's relationship with Russia goes back to the 16th century, when there were contacts between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Tsardom of Russia. The two countries became vital to European security as the Habsburgs expanded their domain south and east, and Russia south and west. Russia's entry into European affairs created a recurring alliance between the two countries, often directed against the Ottomans and France.

The two countries fought together during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. They also participated in the first and third Partitions of Poland. However, their relationship was strained during the Crimean War, when Austria maintained a policy of hostile neutrality towards Russia.

After the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917, the new Russian government began diplomatic efforts to terminate the war with the Central Powers, including Austria-Hungary. Diplomatic relations between Austria and the Soviet Union were established on 21 February 1924.

Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the Russian Federation, the successor state to the Soviet Union, continued to maintain a close relationship with Austria. Austria has long been a favourite country for Soviet (now Russian) commerce, banking, and espionage activities.

Austria has sought to maintain good relations and close economic cooperation with Russia, even after the drastic deterioration of Russia's relationship with the West following the 2014 Ukraine crisis. In 2016, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin's party.

Austria has publicly criticised Russian actions in Ukraine, but commercial ties between the two countries remain fairly intact, especially in the energy and finance sectors. In 2021, Russia exported $631 million worth of goods to Austria, with crude oil being the main item. Austria, on the other hand, exported $2.28 billion worth of goods, with medical products being the top item.

The Soviet occupation of Austria

Background

Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, with the overwhelming support of the Austrian population. After the Anschluss, Austria was an integral part of the Third Reich, with 700,000 people, or 10% of the population, joining the Nazi Party. The Wehrmacht drafted more than 1.3 million Austrians between 1938 and 1945, 242,000 of whom never returned home.

In June 1941, Hitler's regime launched a genocidal war against the Soviet Union. The aim of Operation Barbarossa was not only to eliminate the Soviet Union as a potential military threat but also to starve and enslave the European population of the country and turn it into a German colony. The Soviet Union lost 26.6 million people during the war, with most credible estimates for military losses ranging between 11.4 and 14.6 million.

The Soviet Occupation

In the winter of 1945, troops from the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, the two army groups at the southern end of the Soviet-German frontline, approached Austria's border from Hungary. After almost four years of brutal combat, the fighting in Hungary was some of the most brutal of the war, as the two Red Army groups, numbering around 1 million troops at the time, suffered 484,300 losses, including 140,000 killed or captured.

On 29 March 1945, Soviet commander Fyodor Tolbukhin's troops crossed the former Austrian border at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland. On 3 April, at the beginning of the Vienna Offensive, the Austrian politician Karl Renner, then living in southern Lower Austria, established contact with the Soviets. On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later, Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic.

On 1 May 1945, the Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss was overthrown by the Allies. On 8 May, the last German troops in Austria surrendered. The Soviets occupied only parts of Austria, including the capital, while the Anglo-American troops entered from Germany and Italy. Thereafter, France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union divided Austria into four occupation zones, much like they did in Germany.

Aftermath

Austria was governed by the Allied Commission for Austria. As stipulated in the Moscow Declaration of 1943, a subtle difference was seen in the treatment of Austria by the Allies. While Moscow treated Austria as a defeated Axis power, it adhered to the general line that Austria was a victim of Germany. Therefore, Austria avoided some of the worst aspects of Germany’s fate. It did not lose any territory, despite Yugoslavia’s claims to Carinthia, a province in the south of the country. Austrians also avoided the fate of the Volksdeutsche, ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe who were expelled to Germany or rounded up and deported to the Soviet Union for slave labour.

In 1955, Austria regained full independence and declared its perpetual neutrality.

The Allied occupation of Austria

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four occupation zones, jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council.

The first American troops crossed the Austrian border on 26 April 1945, followed by French and British troops on 29 April and 8 May, respectively.

The Soviets had already established a would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's communists in exile, but this changed when Soviet commander Fyodor Tolbukhin's troops crossed the former Austrian border at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland on 29 March 1945. On 3 April, at the beginning of the Vienna Offensive, the Austrian politician Karl Renner, then living in southern Lower Austria, established contact with the Soviets.

On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later, Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany, and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic.

On 29 July 1945, the British Eighth Army moved into Austria and became part of the occupation force. The new command maintained the gold crusader cross insignia of the Eighth Army.

On 9 July 1945, the Allies agreed on the borders of their occupation zones. Movement of occupation troops ("zone swap") continued until the end of July. The French and American zones bordered those countries' zones in Germany, and the Soviet zone bordered future Warsaw Pact states.

The Allied Council of four military governors convened for its first meeting in Vienna on 12 September 1945. It refused to recognise Renner's claim of a national government but did not prevent him from extending influence into the Western zones. Renner appointed vocal anti-communist Karl Gruber as Foreign Minister and tried to reduce Communist influence. On 20 October 1945, Renner's reformed cabinet was recognised by the Western allies and received a go-ahead for the first legislative election.

The election held on 25 November 1945 was a blow for the Communist Party of Austria, which received a bit more than 5% of the vote. The coalition of Christian Democrats (ÖVP) and Social Democrats (SPÖ), backed by 90% of the votes, assumed control over the cabinet and offered the position of Federal Chancellor to Christian Democrat Julius Raab. The Soviets vetoed Raab, because he had been a member of the austrofascist Fatherland Front during the 1930s. Instead, President Karl Renner, with the consent of parliament, appointed Leopold Figl, who was just barely acceptable to the Soviets.

The Soviets pulled out of the country in 1955, along with the Western Allies, in exchange for Austria's promises that it would remain neutral in the Cold War.

The Anschluss

The idea of a union was supported by many Austrian citizens, particularly those on the political left and centre. However, popular support for the unification faded with time. After Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, the desire for unification could be identified with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi "Heim ins Reich" ("back home to the realm") concept.

In early 1938, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty, to be held on 13 March. Hitler threatened an invasion and pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On 12 March, the day before the planned referendum, the German Army crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on 10 April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the Anschluss. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

The Austrian State Treaty

Negotiations over Austria's final status began in 1947, but were complicated by the breakdown of the wartime "Grand Alliance" and the emergence of the Cold War. The Soviet Union repeatedly delayed the completion of the treaty while it reconsidered what benefits it hoped to gain from the agreement. The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and the subsequent "peace offensive" by his successors in the Soviet Union helped to improve the climate for negotiations.

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