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Excerpt from Von Braun and the Reds:

To understand properly the contribution of Wernher von Braun to the various ambitions of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, we must go back to the beginning. We must understand that by early 1945, reports of Soviet and Allied progress were in short supply at Peenemünde. Von Braun and his planning staff soon became under the impression that attempting to defect to the Americans would be futile, although in hindsight it has transpired that such an act would be perfectly viable. An interview with a local guard in 1997 revealed that in order to discourage any defections, all information seeped down to the planning staff was to emphasize any Soviet proximity to the facility.

Owing to the success of the Soviet advance into Eastern Europe, there was truth to this information anyway. Forbidden to leave the facility officially, as Nazi command began to crumble, Von Braun and his staff managed to leave on the 30th of January. On the 2nd of Febuary, they were met by a squad of soldiers from Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. They were able to avoid being brutalized by the soldiers by essentially bribing them with watches and other trinkets.

Zhukov himself was informed of the capture of the German scientists a few days later, and relayed this information to Moscow. Although it was considered to simply execute them, Von Braun and his staff were temporarily transferred to the Lubyanka while the necessary personnel debated over their fates.

With the fires of war now dying now, the Soviets began looting what they could from German technological programmes. Sergei Korolyov, tasked with analysing captured V2 apparatus, eventually felt that co-operating with Von Braun would yield better results, and asked the Soviet authorities for permission to allow the captured scientists to aid in this.

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