ABSTRACT
The city of Berlin, where the Control Commission set up headquarters, had been given a special status. The Western Powers soon found that the Russians had not spent idly the months since the capture of Berlin. In Berlin under Soviet authorization a single trade union under Communist control began to function, as well as four political parties. The tentative maneuvers began at the West’s most vulnerable spot, the city of Berlin. The Russians gradually began cutting off access to Berlin because of “technical difficulties.”The most optimistic Soviet prognosis of the crisis had foreseen an immediate break in German morale and the collapse of the Western position in Berlin. More than any other event, the peaceful siege by blockade went far to disclose the nature of the Soviet threat and to define the means of Western defense. Soviet diplomacy seemed to be suffering from something of a time lag as the situation changed faster than the Soviet diplomatic position.
