I.M. Maisky and the problems of German reparations (1943-1945)

The article is devoted to the work of the famous Soviet diplomat I.M. Maisky as the head of the Commission established by the Government of the USSR to develop a program of reparations from Germany. The Commission began its work in November 1943, members of the Commission were engaged in determining the amount of reparations and methods for their preparation. The results of this study were reported by I.M. Maisky at the Crimean Conference of the Heads of the three great powers. The main provisions of the Soviet reparations program were the following: the payment of reparations in kind (removal of industrial equipment in Germany and commodity supply), the total amount of reparations from Germany was determined as $ 20 billion, then - 10 billion of which being the share of the USSR. The inter-Allied Reparations Commission was represented at the Yalta Conference was established, where the Soviet side by Maisky. His attempts to convince the United States and Britain to accept the Soviet proposals were unsuccessful. In the future, the reparations issue was discussed at the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference in August 1945, Stalin and Molotov made concessions to Western powers and abandoned the main provisions of the Soviet reparations program. Along the United States and the United Kingdom to in their turn agreed the new western border of Poland on the Oder and Neisse. But it was Maisky who was found responsible for the failure of Soviet program of reparations, who was dismissed from the diplomatic service.

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