To what extent was Khrushchev responsible for the decision to build the Berlin Wall in 1961? AS History Pearson Edexcel
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Course
Unit 1E - Russia, 1917-91: from Lenin to Yeltsin
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
To what extent was Khrushchev responsible for the decision to build the Berlin Wall in 1961? AS History Pearson Edexcel.
High achieving student answer. Checked by teachers. A/B grade.
To what extent was Khrushchev responsible for the decision to build the Berlin
Wall in 1961?
I believe that to a greater extent Khrushchev was responsible for the Berlin Wall being built,
because his voice and actons did make an impact on the decision and it was with his approval that it
was built, however there other factors such as the pressure of the GDR’s government that played an
important role as well.
I believe that to a greater extent Khrushchev was responsible for the Berlin Wall being built in
1961, because he wanted to demilitarise Berlin of Western powers and make it a free city state,
which would lead to it contnuously being dependent on the USSR and GDR; the USA ofered to
negotate, but both partes did not solve any diferences they had over West Berlin which further
worsened the internatonal relatons, increasing the sense of the thought that the borders would be
closed permanently. This was heightened when, in 1961, Khrushchev threatened war unless this
matter was settled. This shows Khrushchev’s responsibility for the decision to build the Berlin Wall,
as he used threats as a way to win against President Kennedy and to ‘fnally settle’ the Berlin
queston. Also, as the main power of the Warsaw Pact – a response from the USSR to Western
natons, including Caanada, Western uurope, and the USA forming AATO in 1949 he had inluence to
convince Ulbricht and other leaders that building the wall was the only soluton to emigraton from
the GDR and solve security problems, such as citiens leaving for the FRG. This was following GDR
reaching a serious crisis in 1961; afer completely blocking of each sector and cutng telephone and
rail lines, the GDR announced that this was for the protecton of the uast Germans against the
imperial aims of the West and was their way of promotng conditons for internatonal peace. Due to
Khrushchev’s fear of military confrontaton and pressure against tme, he urged for a gradual process
of sealing the border to ensure that no Western retaliaton followed the temporary wall. Aot only
this, but his foreign relatons with the ‘superpowers’ gave him more inluence – partcularly with
Soviet military strength and allowed him to negotate directly with the West; this suggests that
Khrushchev was to a greater extent responsible for the decision to build the Berlin Wall, partcularly
as its creaton was a product of the Soviet Foreign Policy, and its contnuaton depended on Soviet
economic, politcal and military support.
However, there are other factors that also contributed to the decision to build the Berlin wall, such
as emigraton from the GDR to the FRG: despite being illegal from 1952 onwards, over 2.5 million
uast Germans emigrated to the FRG between 1949 and 1961. This was due to receiving automatc
FRG citienship and generous fnancial and housing assistance upon arrival – and many of those
leaving being young, skilled and educated, which were the type of people the GDR government
depended on the most for successful economic development. This shows the GDR government
responsibility for the decision for the Berlin Wall, because with it they were able to stop their
populaton emigratng and contnue to grow, partcularly economically. They also imprisoned anyone
who failed to emigrate. umigraton also threatened to decrease available workforce by ten percent
over the seven year plan, which allowed the FRG to undermine the GDR’s credibility – this gave them
more reason to build the wall, as it ensured that their credibility would either be constant or would
increase, and would stop the threat of decreasing available workforce. Aot only this, but the USSR
had consistently refused suggestons from the SuD regarding permanently closing the border
between Berlin, arguing that technical difcultes in shutng the border were impossible to solve –
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