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Next to Ringstrasse, you will find Schwarzenbergplatz square and two monuments. While the first shows Count Schwarzenberg you will see the Hero's Monument of the Red Army (photo) at the back of the square. In post World War II Vienna the statue was known as the pea king (things I learned during theThird Man Movie tour).
Near the end of World War II, Soviet forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were ordered by Joseph Stalin to capture Vienna, both for strategic military purposes and for use as a post-war bargaining chip with the Allies. After intense urban fighting, Vienna was captured by the Soviet Forces on 14 April 1945 The Allied occupation of Austria started on 27 April 1945 as a result of the Vienna Offensive and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955.
Subsequent to the Anschluss, Austria had generally been recognized as constituent part of Nazi Germany. In 1943 however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression, and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four occupation zones and jointly occupied by the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council.
At that time, the Russians regularly shipped mass supplies of dried peas to Austria. Today it is referred to as the Russian Monumen |