DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union Test Prep

Answer: D - The Berlin Wall was put in place in 1961 to prevent East Germans from escaping to West Berlin. After World War II, the Soviet Union seized East Germany, creating a new nation under its control. Berlin, which had been partitioned among the victors of World War II, remained free-with the exception of the Soviet quarter-providing a gateway to the West. Stalin had sensed the vulnerability this created and attempted to capture the Western portion of the city but was thwarted by the Berlin Airlift in 1948-1949. The destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1991 would become one of the most powerful visual symbols of the fall of Communism.