Selected excerpts from Khrushchev's concluding speech at a conference of Warsaw Pact leader, focused on the building crisis over the status of Berlin.

This memorandum of conversation between the Head of the Far East Department in the East German Foreign Ministry Liebermann and Chinese Ambassador Peng Guangwei refers to China's intention to establish diplomatic relations with West Berlin. The East German side stresses the fact that countries such as Hungary and Bulgaria also established diplomatic relations with West Berlin taking into considerations the conditions posed by the international law and that China should do the same.

This is a memorandum of a conversation between the first secretary of the Soviet embassy in East Berlin, Rodin, and the director of the West Berlin Press Office, Günter Struve, with regard to China's intention to establish a trade representation in West Berlin. Apart from stressing that by initiating diplomatic relations with West Berlin, China is not implicitly acknowledging the existing international agreements, Rodin makes clear that East Germany will not rescind the rules on obligatory currency exchange for citizens of Western states.

This is a memorandum on a conversation reflecting the differences of opinion between the head of the China Desk in the East German Foreign Ministry and the First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy Qi Huaiyuan with regard to the intended establishment of a Chinese trade representation in West Berlin. East Berlin is clearly concerned such a step might favor West Germany's alleged goal of winning sovereignty over West Berlin, in violation of the Four Power Agreement. Qi states that he does not understand the East German position, and that the activities of Chinese diplomats in West Berlin are in accordance with international law. He rejects the notion that these relations might conceivably harm the interests of East Germany.

Documents related to East Germany's protest against the intended establishment of a Chinese trade representation in West Berlin. The East German Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses that West Berlin cannot be regarded as part of West Germany. Therefore, by initiating diplomatic relations with West Berlin without considering the existence of the internationally acknowledged Four Power Agreement on Berlin between the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, China is deliberately acting against the interests of East Germany.

The demonstrations in Berlin and several other cities had been stopped. Grechko and Tarasow came to the conclusion that "the provocation was prepared in advance, organized, and directed from Western sectors of Berlin." The losses of the strikers in the whole territory of the GDR had been: 84 people killed and wounded, 700 men arrested.

An analysis written by the GDR's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the respective positions of European socialist states, socialist states in general, and NATO and other capitalist European states, on the organization of a European security conference, as well as guidance for carrying out the CSCE negotiations based upon an analysis of each side's perceived strengths and weaknesses

Telegram describing discontent of the German population living in East Berlin at the disruption caused by the restrictions imposed on intra-zones travel as a result of the events of 17 June 1953. The telegram recommends actions to be taken to improve the movement of people across the Berlin border.

In March 1953, Moscow had declined Ulbricht’s request for tightening up the sector border in Berlin, then the major loophole in the SED leadership’s efforts to seal off East Germany. In the aftermath of the demonstrations and unrest in Berlin, the SED leadership apparently tried to reintroduce the idea of increased “border security” in Berlin. Eager to salvage whatever was left of its political position as a champion of German unity, Moscow again held such measures as politically “disadvantageous” and “unacceptable.” Certainly, the Kremlin was also aware of the continued widespread resentment among the Berlin and GDR population which made any more restrictive measures a risky undertaking. Instead, the Soviets urged the SED to increase its “fight against hostile elements” in West Berlin—an issue that would become more and more the focus of Soviet attitude on Berlin.

Estimating the current situation and probable developments in East Germany through 1955.