"Soviet blockade of Berlin" myths and reality

During the special anniversary celebrations, schoolchildren and the people of Germany are still told and shown how the cruel Soviet Union tried to starve the population of West Berlin in 1948, and how valiant American aviation organized an air bridge to the city blocked by the Reds and saved the western Berliners from exhaustion. In Berlin there is even a museum of "allies" - in which the truth is nothing about the USSR. Apparently this country, which freed the Germans from Nazism, is not considered an ally.

Now, many years after those events, it still makes sense to restore the historical truth.

When Germany was defeated, in 1945 the USA, USSR, England and France decided to temporarily liquidate the German central authorities and divided the defeated country into four zones of occupation.

In Berlin was located the allied governing body of Germany as a whole - the Control Council. In order to emphasize the all-Union significance of this body, the USSR agreed that the United States, Great Britain and France introduce their limited military contingents to Berlin in July 1945. Note that the Americans approached Berlin in early April 1945 (the Germans did not resist on the western front at that time), but they did not begin to storm the city, fearing heavy losses. The losses fell to the Red Army, which then allowed the Allies to enter the city. It is important to emphasize that Berlin was not a special zone of occupation - it was considered the center of the Soviet zone of occupation.

That is why no agreements were reached between the Allies on the conditions for the admission of Western military cargo to Berlin through the Soviet occupation zone - it was believed that Western military contingents were in the city temporarily until the restoration of the unified German authorities. In the meantime, the USSR, in good faith, was letting Western trains, convoys without any inspection into Berlin. Interestingly, after the onset of the Berlin crisis in 1948, US State Department officials received special instructions to legally substantiate the right of the Western powers to deliver any goods to West Berlin - and did not find anything . This is not accidental - after all, it was assumed that the occupation of Germany was temporary and after its completion the capital of the country, Berlin, would be free from foreign troops.   

In November 1945 and February 1946, the USSR, the USA, England and France agreed on three air transport corridors from Berlin to the western occupation zones (to Hamburg, Hanover and Frankfurt am Main) .1 The width of each corridor was determined at 32 km, there were no restrictions on the flight altitude. It is important to emphasize that these corridors provided not only unhindered flights of western military aircraft to Berlin, but also Soviet flights to the western zones of occupation. In addition, the zone of joint air safety monitoring of flights directly above Berlin was determined (a radius of 32 km, which was about 4 times the size of the territory of Berlin itself). In the building of the Control Council there was a joint control center of the four powers for monitoring air traffic safety. 

But in the spring and summer of 1948, the West went to the open split of Germany. The Control Council has long decided to carry out monetary reform throughout Germany - the country was awash with depreciated banknotes of the Nazi period. Formally, the West negotiated with the USSR on the procedure for a unified monetary reform for all occupation zones. But already at that time, in deep secret in the USA, banknotes were printed only for the western zones of Germany (the future of Germany). On June 18, 1948, in violation of the inter-allied Potsdam accords of 1945, the United States, Britain and France announced the introduction of a new monetary unit, the German mark, in its zones of occupation. Moreover, the old money (with the exception of the meager cash amount that could be exchanged for new banknotes) was withdrawn from circulation immediately. The USSR was warned about the introduction of new money .. in two hours!

The split of Germany became a reality. But the Western powers continued to lie, claiming that new money would not go in Berlin - by the way, by the way, they once again verbally acknowledged that the whole city was part of the Soviet zone of occupation . However, there was no border in the city - and huge masses of suddenly devalued former Reichsmarks from the western zones poured into Berlin. The Soviet Union was forced to ban the circulation of Western money in its zone of occupation, including Berlin. To prevent the illegal import of old money to the east of Germany, the USSR on June 18, 1948 suspended passenger rail and motor freight traffic between its and the western zones of occupation. It was planned that these restrictions would be temporary - until the end of the exchange of money in the western zones. It is important to emphasize that no border control measures were introduced in Berlin itself - any resident of the western part of the city could safely go to the eastern part and buy everything he needed there. 

On June 22, 1948, the Western powers proposed that the USSR introduce a special currency in Berlin (thus, in “united” Germany there would be three currency units — in the western zones, in the Soviet and even in Berlin, which was the center of the Soviet occupation zone). Naturally, such a proposal was rejected by the USSR as "absurd."2 Interestingly, at the same meeting, the British representative stated that "at the moment, the Russian zone and Berlin are flooded with old currency." And this was absolutely true - only in the first five days after the introduction of the Western mark by the Soviet and East German authorities, more than 90 million “old” stamps were seized that were illegally trying to transfer from the western zones to the Soviet one. 3

The USSR could not keep old money in circulation in its zone of occupation - and Moscow, in contrast to the Western powers, was not preparing for a separate monetary reform. In this regard, special coupons for old money began to be glued in the Soviet zone to prevent a massive influx of depreciated Reichsmarks from the west of Germany. Then (June 23, 1948), the Soviet Union also had to issue an order to introduce new money in its zone of occupation. Really new “eastern” money appeared in circulation at the end of July 1948.

However, the Western powers, in violation of their promises, unexpectedly introduced new “Western money” in their sectors of Berlin, on which the Latin letter “B” flaunted (that is, Berlin in German). The obviously predatory course was established: for one “western” mark four “eastern” ones. Under these conditions, speculators from western Berlin began to actively buy industrial and food products in the eastern part of the German capital and in the adjacent areas of the Soviet zone, which were much cheaper there than in the western zones.

The USSR once again demanded a single monetary reform for the whole of Germany - the Western allies once again actually refused. Formally, they did not mind - it was simply proposed to extend the Western mark to the Soviet zone - and control over the issue of this currency was to remain only in the hands of the Western powers. The USSR had no choice but to ascertain the split of Germany - in June 1948 the Control Council in Berlin ceased its activity (in fact, it stopped assembling in its entirety even earlier). But along with this, all the reasons for the stay of Western military contingents in Berlin disappeared. The British journal New Statesman and Nation rightly wrote at the time:

“Suppose, however, for a moment that the reverse is true. Suppose ... the German capital is in the English, and not in the Russian zone; further suppose that the Russians suddenly announced their intention to create a separate East German government and carry out a separate monetary reform that would inevitably undermine the economy of our zone - what could be expected then, except for our demand that the Russians immediately leave the capital? ” .

This was well understood in Washington, too, and there they decided to go on a clear provocation to maintain their military presence in the city.

Western media vied with each other to start shouting about the “Communist blockade” of courageous West Berlin, whose inhabitants, they say, do not want to wear a red yoke. At the same time, it is true that residents of the western sectors of Berlin calmly received a part of their salary in the “eastern” stamps (and at a rate that is advantageous to them) and without any problems purchased in eastern Berlin . Moreover, the USSR made a special decision to increase the food supply of West Berlin (and this at a time when the Soviet people themselves were not very rich because of the monstrous destruction of the war). The Council of Ministers of the USSR, only as a matter of urgency, allocated 100 thousand tons of flour and 10 thousand tons of fat from state reserves for West Berlin. Recent studies by Western scientists show that per capita calorie intake in the "starving" West Berlin in 1948-1949. was higher than in Paris or Moscow! In November 1948, the West Berlin worker received 2202 calories per day, his East Berlin colleague - 2289. This was certainly less than the pre-war level of 1936 - 3113 calories, but much higher than the truly hungry for the Germans of 1946 - 1451 calories. 

It is important to note that before the onset of the Berlin crisis in the German capital (as well as throughout Germany as a whole), the population received basic food and industrial goods on cards. Moreover, as a rule, people received cards at the place of work. Tens of thousands of West Berlin residents worked at enterprises in the eastern part of the city and received cards there (for example, the staff of the Berlin metro and city rail).

However, after the events of June 1948, a massive pressure began to be exerted on all residents of West Berlin - people were “offered” to issue cards only in the western part of the city and to refuse “eastern” cards — otherwise they would be fired from their jobs. Despite such threats, almost 22 thousand Berliners received cards in the Soviet part of Berlin until August 4, 1948 - and they did not feel any “blockade”.4 By March 1949, in East Berlin, despite the psychological terror unleashed against them, more than 100,000 West Berliners were already consuming food. In its report to the US leadership ( Intelligence Report ) No. 23 (October 1948), American intelligence directly stated that there was no blockade of Berlin. 5

[Among other things, on August 20, 1948, the British blocked Potsdamerplatz with wire fences to block citizens' access to Soviet food, and on March 30, 1949, the Americans cleaned the West Berlin police, firing everyone who received food in the Soviet sector.]

Residents of the western part of the city buy vegetables, potatoes, milk in eastern Berlin or in the Soviet zone of occupation. This report, however, was secret - the American [and German ] media continued to repeat to the whole world about the “blockade” of Berlin. Meanwhile, in East Berlin, food warehouses were full - after all, due to "self-blockade", Western Berliners were still forced to buy fewer cards in the eastern part compared to the pre-crisis time. And in "besieged" Berlin, unclaimed meat and sausage spoiled and disappeared! 

However, the United States, which was feverishly preparing for the formation of a separate West German state6 , decided to use the "blockade" to justify the split of Germany. Initially, Commander-in-Chief of the American Forces in Germany, General Clay, proposed to the U.S. Army Secretary of State simply by force breaking through the Soviet ban and moving a military convoy to Berlin along the highway from the western zones. In the event of opposition from the Soviet authorities, it was supposed to use weapons. However, in Washington they realized that such a proposal threatens a world war and they did not give sanctions to Clay. In addition, the Americans, as already mentioned, did not have any legal rights to freely move their goods to Berlin.

Therefore, it was decided to organize the transfer of goods to West Berlin by air. On June 26, 1948, the “famous air bridge” began - the US military transport aircraft S-47 and B-17 made 36 flights that day and delivered 80 tons of food to West Berlin, primarily for their garrisons.

It is important to emphasize here that initially in Washington they did not count on the long-term nature of the Berlin crisis and planned to supply only western military garrisons by air. Technically, this was no problem - by June 1948, there were 8973 Americans (military, family members and civil servants) in Berlin, 7,606 British and 6,100 French.7 Moreover, as openly emphasized in the official publication of the US Air Force, the situation for organizing an air bridge in the summer of 1948 was “favorable”. 8 The harvest of that year was expected to be good, and the Americans had already begun transferring to Europe at artificially high prices their illiquid goods under the so-called “Marshall Plan” (as the West Germans were forced to buy American coal twice as much as their own, which, incidentally, was lacking did not have). Now the opportunity has arisen to force “blocked” West Berliners to eat exactly American products. Fritz Baade, head of the Kiel Scientific Research Institute for World Economy, said in July 1948 that the policy of the Western powers to impose on the Germans expensive imports of their goods, combined with the massive export of valuable industrial equipment from Germany, caused the German economy at least twice as much damage as all Marshall delivery. 9

In addition, the Truman administration had a great opportunity, under a plausible excuse, to transfer large air force contingents to Europe and turn temporary military bases in the UK into permanent ones. However, even the Americans understood that the air supply of 2 million West Berliners was a pure utopia. Therefore, at a meeting of the US National Security Council on July 16, 1948, it was decided that after October one should prepare for an armed breakthrough by land from the western zones to Berlin.10

And this despite the Pentagon’s analysis, which said: in order to capture (already utopia!) And keep 125 miles of the autobahn between Berlin and the western zones, you will need as many troops and military material as during Operation Overlord.11 The strategists of the War Department came to the unequivocal conclusion: the US Army is not able to conduct such an operation. 

Therefore, while American pilots, dropping over Berlin, scattered candies and chocolate from planes, in the western capitals frantically sought a way out of the "self-blockade" that would save face. Note that, despite the fact that flights took place over the Soviet zone of occupation, the USSR did not bother them . Soviet specialists worked all the time during the “blockade” in the joint air traffic safety control center mentioned above . Unable to find the best arguments to explain this behavior of the "bloodthirsty" Russians, Western scholars call this a "curiosity."  12 Nevertheless, epics about the heroism of American pilots are still in use. But all the losses of the Americans over Berlin were connected only with the fact that the intensity of flights was so high that the planes sometimes collided with each other or crashed, trying to avoid a collision. Aircraft flew along the corridors (with the exception of the south, which the Americans used almost exclusively) to several “floors” and, if desired, the Soviet Union could easily bring chaos into this movement using an air defense aircraft and electronic warfare equipment. 

And this intensity was due to the fact that, as already mentioned, the vaunted air bridge could not provide even the minimum food requirements of West Berlin. A maximum of 3-4 thousand tons of food a day was transported by air to the city (and this is subject to flying weather), and the minimum needs of 2 million inhabitants were approximately 25 thousand tons. It turns out that if the "Reds" really wanted to kill West Berlin, they would have done it in a matter of days. Moreover, mainly food was not imported by planes (this is not preferred in the West until now) –– coal for power plants –– and these power plants fed primarily western garrisons in Berlin. June 27, 1948 at a meeting of senior military officials of various arms at the US Secretary of Defense Forrestal13 it was stated that an air bridge could power West Berlin for no more than 30 days. Even when using dehydrated products (potato, milk and egg powders), this period increased only to 60 days. At a meeting of the US National Security Council on July 16, 1948, US Air Force Deputy Secretary Whitney said: "The Air Force headquarters is firmly convinced that the air operation is doomed to failure." 14

Initially, the Americans used an S-47 aircraft with a carrying capacity of about 3.5 tons for an air bridge. Then the more powerful S-54s (9 tons) were connected. The giant S-97 (30 tons) were used only sporadically over the densely populated city. In total, the US Air Force deployed 225 aircraft. Together with the American allies (mainly the British), 380 aircraft took part in the operation.

Thus, despite their own propaganda hype in Washington, they were well aware that the air bridge was a bluff and that the Berlin problem must be somehow addressed. As early as July 6, 1948, the United States, France and Great Britain sent notes to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They truth contained an absolutely groundless assertion that Berlin was a special "international" zone of occupation. However, the notes ended with an actual request to the USSR to hold a quadripartite meeting to resolve the situation around Berlin. In a reply note dated July 14, the Soviet Union expressed readiness for negotiations, but at the same time absolutely rightly emphasized that the German question as a whole should be discussed. The West had to agree with the argument of Moscow for a look, and already on August 2, 1948, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR I. Stalin received the ambassadors of the USA, Great Britain and France in Moscow.

Stalin emphasized that the USSR did not want to “squeeze” the western garrisons out of Berlin - Moscow only wanted to remove the Western brand from the city and demanded to stop the formation of a separate West German state. Throughout August, negotiations continued in Moscow, which on August 30, 1948 ended with the adoption of a single directive by the four allied powers to the commander of their zones of occupation. It was agreed that the USSR would abolish all transport restrictions on communications between West Berlin and the rest of the world, and that "the German mark of the Soviet zone will be introduced as the only currency for Berlin and the western mark" B "will be withdrawn from circulation in Berlin."15 Thus, in fact, they decided to return to the situation that existed in the city until June 18, 1948. The West once again recognized that all of Berlin is in the Soviet zone of occupation.  

However, the United States blocked the implementation of this directive - the fact is that under the hype about the Soviet blockade of Berlin, a separate West German state was created and the Americans decided to continue the self-blockade of West Berlin. During the telephone conference August 24, 1948, General Clay, already mentioned by the US Commander in Germany, tried to dissuade his superiors in Washington from fulfilling the Moscow directive: "practically our consent means a politically separate Berlin with the Soviet currency."sixteen

Moreover, Clay understood very well that there was no famine in the city, the inhabitants were well supplied in East Berlin. Under these conditions, the United States decided to "interpret" the Moscow directive as follows: yes, let the East mark go to Berlin, but the Western powers should get control over its circulation! This was, of course, a clear provocation and the Moscow directive was not implemented. In December 1948, the United States, Great Britain and France established a separate commandant's office for West Berlin - the split of Berlin became a reality. Separate German administration bodies were also created in the western part of the city.

In April 1949, the North Atlantic Alliance was created in Washington to counter the “aggressive communists," the first military alliance the United States joined in peacetime. Now it was possible to complete the “blockade”: its goal (namely, the rallying of Western countries under the auspices of the USA and the split of Germany) was achieved. Already in May 1949, an agreement was reached in New York to lift all restrictions around Berlin. In exchange for this, the Western powers pledged to negotiate with the USSR on the achievement of German unity. The Americans once again broke the word: immediately after their promise, separate elections were held in the western zones of occupation and in May 1949 the fundamental law of the new West German separate state, the Federal Republic of Germany, was passed. Moreover, it was emphasized that this constitution is valid for the whole of Germany.

Strangely enough, the western air bridge actually lasted until September 30, 1949, although there were no restrictions since May 4. Firstly, the United States sold its illiquid goods to the city, and secondly, they waited until the Federal Republic of Germany was finally formed (this happened just in September 1949). In total, the US and UK Air Force aircraft delivered 2.3 million tons of cargo to the city (24% of them came from food, 67% from coal, 9% from other raw materials). From July 1948 to May 1949, 1.7 million tons of cargo were delivered to West Berlin by air , which required 212,000 sorties. During the "heroic" operation "Products" ( Operation Vittles ), which no one interfered with, crashed 25 cars, killing 41 Englishmen, 31 Americans and 6 Germans . These people gave their lives to the altar of propaganda goals: the notorious “Iron Curtain” was demonstrated to the whole world, a NATO bloc was created, and the United States received bases for its aviation in the UK. Moreover, American aircraft in this country were equipped with nuclear weapons and were intended for delivering attacks on large cities of the USSR. We note that the Soviet Union itself did not yet have a nuclear bomb or a means of delivering it to the American continent.   

Russians should remember the lessons of the Berlin crisis of 1948-1949. Not us, but the Western powers split Germany and started the Cold War. And it did not end until the child of the Berlin crisis - the NATO bloc, not only did not disappear, but continued to expand to the East. By the way, now exactly the same arguments are used for this extension as 60 years ago. This time the West is “afraid” of the energy blockade by Russia. Verily, history teaches someone only that which teaches nothing.

Military History Journal. 2008. No. 12. S.9-13. 

1 Wetzlaugk U. Berliner Blokade und Lüftbrücke 1948/49. Berlin, 1998. S.49

2 Keiderling G. Die Berliner Krise 1948/49. Berlin. 1982. S.84

3 Keiderling G. Die Berliner Krise 1948/49. Berlin. 1982, S.86

4 Wetzlaugk U. Berliner Blokade 1948/49. Berlin, 1998. S.54

5 cit. By: Tagesspiegel 06/22/2008. // www.tagesspiegel.de

6 On July 1, 1948, the commanders-in-chief of the western zones called the prime ministers of the West German lands and, to the surprise of the latter, simply ordered them to proceed with the formation of the organs of a separate West German state

7 Miller R. G. To save the City. The Berlin Airlift 1948-1949. 1998. P.20

8 Ibidem, p.20

9 Quote from: Benz W. Infrastruktur und Gesellschaft im zerstörten Deutschland

10 Ibidem, R. 25

11 This was the name of the landing of the Anglo-American troops in Normandy in the summer of 1944

12 See, for example, Wetzlaugk U. Berliner Blokade und Lüftbrücke 1948/49. S.49

13 The one who later jumped out of the window shouting “Russians are coming!”

14 Miller R. G. To save the City. The Berlin Airlift 1948-1949. 1998. P.40-41

15 Cit. By: Keiderling G. Die Berliner Krise 1948/49. Berlin.1982.S 157

16 Cit. By: Wetzlaugk U. Berliner Blokade und Lüftbrücke 1948/49. S.64. Thus, already in the summer of 1948, the Americans proceeded from the fact that West Berlin should become part of the West German separate state, which was a gross violation of all inter-alliance agreements