In the final months of World War II, as Soviet troops fought their way into the heart of Germany, toward Berlin, a different kind of army trailed them. Although its members were riding army jeeps and carried pistols or submachine guns, their new oversized uniforms and lack of battlefield decorations betrayed recent civilians in them. These "trade-union officers" as they were known in the Soviet Army, represented various Soviet industries charged with the task of locating and removing to the USSR machinery and equipment from the occupied Germany. It should be noted that at the same time west of the demarcation line dividing occupied Germany, the United States had been "engaged in a systematic and wide-ranging program of intellectual reparations..." (172)
The activities of Soviet "trophy battalions" were officially started on February 21, 1945 by a decree No. 7563ss of the State Defense Committee, GKO. The document established permanent commissions at every Soviet Front (Army Group) occupying Poland and Germany and made these commissions responsible for the removal of industrial equipment and materials from both countries.
Within the 1st Belorussian Front, P. M. Zernov chaired such commission, which also included A. N. Baranov and N. E. Nosovsky. The commission oversaw 80 engineers and scientists.
On February 25, 1945, Joseph Stalin signed a decree of the State Defense Committee, GKO, No. 7590ss creating a Special "Trophy" Committee within GKO. It included G. M. Malenkov, N. A. Bulganin, N. A. Voznesensky, A. V. Khrulev and Lt. General F. I. Vakhitov, the head of Chief Trophy Directorate. At the beginning of the effort, General Vakhitov led the force of 40 "work battalions," which by September 1945 grew to 48 "trophy brigades," 23 of which were deployed in Germany, seven in Poland and six in Czechoslovakia. According to the same decree, all members of trophy commissions at different fronts became representatives of the Special Trophy Committee. (170)
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