February 25, 1947

1947The formal abolition of Prussia is proclaimed by the Allied Control Council, the Prussian government having already been abolished by the Preußenschlag of 1932.^[†]

The abolition of Prussia occurred on 25 February 1947 by decree of the Allied Control Council, the governing authority of post-World War II occupied Germany and Austria. The decision was grounded in the view that Prussia had long embodied the most reactionary and militaristic elements within German political life. As the engine of German militarism and a key promoter of authoritarianism and expansionist policies, Prussia was seen as fundamentally incompatible with efforts to rebuild Germany as a peaceful and democratic state, and its dominance in German affairs had contributed directly to the wars of aggression that devastated Europe. By dismantling Prussia, the Allies aimed to eradicate the institutional structures most responsible for German aggression. This abolition referred strictly to the political entity of Prussia, not to the expulsion of ethnic Germans from East Prussia between 1945 and 1950.

1947Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct Béla Kovács—secretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders' Party—and deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament. His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.^[†]

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, abbreviated as NKVD, was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) secret police organization, and thus had a monopoly on intelligence and state security functions. The NKVD is known for carrying out political repression and the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin, as well as counterintelligence and other operations on the Eastern Front of World War II. The head of the NKVD was Genrikh Yagoda from 1934 to 1936, Nikolai Yezhov from 1936 to 1938, Lavrentiy Beria from 1938 to 1946, and Sergei Kruglov in 1946.