Alongside bustling, burgeoning West Germany (pop. 52 million), the Soviet-rigged German Democratic Republic, with its grey, ruin-strewn cities and 17½ million sullen, shabby subjects, looks a sorry state. It is a poor thing, but Khrushchev's own. He is determined to hang on to it.
To the Russians, East Germany constitutes the most highly developed industrial base and concentration of working skills under Communist control. Quite apart from its key strategic importance as the position from which 22 Red army divisions maintain Soviet military dominance over the whole East European satellite world, this hapless, cheerless rump of a country has such invaluable...
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