Editing Karl Renner (section)

===Relationship with Nazism and Communism===
On 2 April 1938, Renner appealed to Austrians to vote ''yes'' in the 10 April [[1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum|plebiscite]] that legitimized the Anschluss; many Austrians followed his advice, and as a result, Austrians welcomed the Germans and [[Hitler]] himself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/austria/38.htm|title=Austria - THE ANSCHLUSS AND WORLD WAR II}}</ref> After the Anschluss, Renner offered to serve in the Nazi government during the [[Austria within Nazi Germany|occupation]], but his offer was declined. During the occupation, according to official Austrian figures, 51,500 Austrian Jews out of a total of 200,000 were killed in concentration camps, which, as documented during the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, had a disproportionately large number of Austrian guards.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/30/opinion/l-austria-welcomed-hitler-and-its-anti-semitism-persists-129701.html|title=Opinion &#124; Austria Welcomed Hitler, and Its Anti-Semitism Persists|newspaper=The New York Times|date=30 March 1985}}</ref>

On 29 March 1945, [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] commander [[Fyodor Tolbukhin]]'s troops crossed the former Austrian border at [[Klostermarienberg]] in [[Burgenland]].<ref name=E190>Eisterer 2009, p. 190.</ref> On 3 April, at the beginning of the [[Vienna offensive]], Renner, then living in southern [[Lower Austria]], established contact with the Soviets. [[Joseph Stalin]] had already established a would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's [[Communist Party of Austria#First Republic, Second World War, and resistance to Nazism|communists in exile]], but Tolbukhin's telegram changed Stalin's mind in favor of Renner.<ref name=BO>Bordjugov 2005.</ref>

On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies,<ref name=S174/> instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from [[Nazi Germany]] and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the [[First Austrian Republic]].<ref name=S174/> Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over.<ref name=E196>Eisterer 2009, p. 196.</ref>

[[File:Мирные будни в послевоенной Вене-5.png|thumb|Soviet troops in the [[Schönbrunn Palace]] gardens, 1945]]
Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by [[NKVD]] bodyguards.<ref>Petrov 2009, p. 259.</ref> One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including the crucial seats of the [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Austria)|Secretary of State of the Interior]] and the [[Education in Austria|Secretary of State for Education]], was staffed by Austrian Communists.<ref name=S174/> The Western allies suspected the establishment of a [[puppet state]] and did not recognize Renner.<ref name=S174>Bischof, p. 174.</ref> The British were particularly hostile,<ref name=S174/> and even American President [[Harry S. Truman]], who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin,<ref name=S175>Bischof, p. 175.</ref> denied him recognition. However, Renner had secured multi-party control of the government by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not designating the Secretary of State.

Historian Harold Green commented: "But for Renner's having gained Soviet support for creating a Social Democratic Austrian Republic - and his establishing it at record speed after the Nazi collapse - Austria might have shared Germany's post-war fate and spent several decades divided into a Communist East Austria and a Democratic West Austria, with Vienna as a divided city like Berlin."<ref>Harold M. Green, "The Swift Creation of Post-War Austria" in Dr. Nathan E. Field (ed.) "1989-2009: A Retrospective Look, Twenty Years After the End of The Cold War"</ref>