Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The East German
Refugee Crisis
- The mass of people moving away from the
east caused massive damage to the economy
of east Germany
- Almost 2 million people (a sixth of the population) had
moved away via Berlin
- Many young and skilled workers which the
economy most needed left
- The crisis was also a huge embarrassment to the USSR as the flow of
refugees leaving made the Soviet system look bad as it made people want to
leave their homes for a better life in the west suggesting that the west was a
lot better and capitalism is how the people wanted to live and communism
was forced onto people and not wanted
- The refugees was in danger of wrecking the east of German
economy therefore it had to rely completely on the Soviet Union
- Khruchshev was also under huge
pressure and he had to find a quick and
effective solution to combat the problem
- The other communist leaders saw this as weakness