The victorious nations had already agreed that the western two thirds of Germany should be divided into military occupation zones. A large part of the country surrounding Berlin, including the eastern part of the city itself, was to be administered as the Soviet occupation zone. Pieck's years in the Soviet Union had left him genuinely bilingual, and as he entered Berlin as a Soviet officer in the 5th Shock Army, he was working as a simultaneous translator, assigned to Nikolai Berzarin, who later became city commander of Berlin.