The soviets were pretty violent towards the German, Austrian civilians. This was expected as the red army soldier was fed alot of propaganda on the Germans, portraying them as demons from hell, defiling their sisters and mothers, murdering their brothers so on and so forth. An example would be a speech made by G.K. Zhukov, the main commander against the Germans, he called on his troops to "remember our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our wives and children tortured to death by the Germans...We shall exact a brutal revenge for everything." In addition, the red army suffered heavy losses during operation Barbarossa(invasion of the USSR), and the Germans were definitely seen as the invaders, thus there was a lot of hate and anger pent up in the red army, hence causing a wave of rapes and sacking. Thus, the soviets march towards the heart of Nazi Germany had rapes, looting and burnings.