his command but discovered afterward that barely one-quarter of his
brigade had survived. He also resisted an NKVD (Soviet People’s
Commissariat of Internal Affairs) order from Alexander Orlov to
discharge a group of Yugoslav soldiers suspected of being enemy
agents. Zaisser’s insubordination did not result in his arrest, and he
was ordered back to the Albacete base, where military instruction
once again became his chief responsibility. In September, he was
elevated to the central command of all the international brigades,
but facing defeat the following summer, the Republican government
ordered their demobilization.
Returning to Moscow in early September 1938, Zaisser found that
two close associates from the M-apparatus, Hans Kippenberger and
Heinz Neumann, as well as his Soviet mentor Jan Karolvich Berzin
had fallen victim to Stalin’s purges. Nevertheless, he was able to
resume his earlier position as an editor and translator, and he became
a Soviet citizen in 1940. His most significant wartime activity began
in the spring of 1943 following the surrender of the German army at
Stalingrad. For the next three years, under the general supervision
of the NKVD, Zaisser assumed a leading role in the Antifa schools
aimed at turning German prisoners of war into communist activists,
first in Jushua, then in Krasnogorsk. He was also involved in plan-
ning for postwar Germany. As a member of the KPD’s working
group for military matters, he gave particular attention to the creation
of a peace movement within the Wehrmacht and a new armed activist
unit for the party.
Despite his numerous requests, his return to Germany was de-
layed until February 1947 (he complained of not being considered a
German because of his long association with the Soviets). A steady
ascent in the hierarchy of the Soviet occupation zone soon followed.
After initially heading the police force of Saxony-Anhalt, he became
deputy minister-president of Saxony in 1948 and in 1949 was ap-
pointed vice president of the German Interior Administration with
special authority over the Border Police and the Ready Units. On 8
February 1950—approximately six months after the founding of the
German Democratic Republic (GDR)—Zaisser was named head of
the newly created MfS. Although some in the East German leader-
ship, including Walter Ulbricht, would have preferred Erich Mielke
(who became Zaisser’s assistant), the Soviets wanted a more reliable512 • ZAISSER, WILHELM