*** the Berlin Wall walling in paradise








The Berlin Wall: Walling in Paradise

East German worker's paradice
Figure 1.-- The Soviets and their Eastern European acolytes claimed that they were creating a worker and peasant paradise. Many around the world actually believed them. It thus came as a shock that and it was a little difficult to explain why a wall was needed to hold people in a paradise. A real paradise would of course attract not drive people out. Even the most inspired Communist propagandist had trouble explaining why the Germans were fleeing paradise. The Berlin Wall was in fact an admission of the failure of Communism--although it would take three decades and changes in the Soviet Union for that failure to play out and the wall to come down. This photos was taken on the Western side of the Berlin wall. at the time, the Wall was still just a very basic concrete block structure. On the Eastern side nobody could approach the Wall.

Europeans and people all over the world bought into the Marxist idea that Capitalism with its inevitable inequities was evil. The ideal of scocialism was appealing. Every one would get what they needed. There would be no inquities. Hunger and want would be ended. The only problem was that socialism did not work. Lenin found that out within a few years of the Bolshevik Revolution and attempting to rule Russia. As a result, he reintroduced capitalism--the New Economic Program (NEP). The Bolshevik Government adopted the NEP at the 10th Congress of the All-Russian Communist Party (March 1921). It was later ended by Stalin who had the people involved either shot or sent to the Gulag. It was not immediately apparent because the Bolsheviks pursued autarky-meaning that there was no competition with western capitalism. Stalin's policies failed to produce a prosperous economy and included the brutal supression of the independent peasantry bordering in genocide. Stalin used the NKVD to make sure that the reality did not get out. Here the NKVD proved highly capable. They even pervented news of the murder of the Ukranianian peasantry (6-7 million people, perhaps more) from reasing the west. What did get out was the Soviet propaganda line of a workers and peasant paradise. And the success of the Red Army in World War II convinced others. The Red Army brought Comminism into the heart of Europe, ncluding Germany--the most advanced country in Europe. Communists were a minority in the countries occupied by the Soviets, but the Red Army and NKVD turned over the various countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The new Communist leaders assumed that their socialism would soon allow them to create the worker's paradise they envisioned. And of course it did not happen, just as it did not happen in the Soviet Union. The Communist officials involved, however, did not want to give up power. And any admission that Communism did not work meant trouble with their Soviet masters ready to deal with heresy. The answer for the Soviets was the Iron Curtain. The same hardened border that the Soviets had established before the War. Thefurther West, the more difficult it was to maintain the socialist fiction. (It is no accident that the revolts against the Soviets occurre in the West--Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Hungary.) Berlin proved a special problem as it was an open city and people could move freely within the city. And the people of Berlin could see that socialism did not work. Even worse from the East German point if view, not only Easter Berliners could escape to the west, but East Germans could come to Berlin and reach the West. The Soviets were able to maintain their fiction in Russia. Germany proved much more difficult, especially when the German Economic Miracle began to kick in. Socialism sounded great on paper--much better than capitalism. Only where ever tried it does not work. And it was a little difficult to explain why a Wall was needed to hold people in a paradise. A real paradise would of course attract not drive people out. A reader wrires, "Never thought of that. Why would they need a wall to stay in paradise." Even the most inspired Communist propagandist had trouble explaining why the Germans were fleeing paradise. As President Kennedy said in the shadow of the Wall, "There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in...." [Kennedy] The Berlin Wall was in fact an admission of the failure of Communism--although it would take three decades and changes in the Soviet Union for that failure to play out and the Wall to come down.

Sources

Kennedy John F. Ich ein Berliner speech (June 26, 1963).







CIH -- Cold War






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Created: 11:29 PM 1/26/2016
Last updated: 11:29 PM 1/26/2016