Khrushchev and the building of the Berlin Wall - The summit conference of the Warsaw Pact nations, August 3-5, 1961

Drawing upon official minutes in former Central Committee archives in Mosco w, this essay documents the talks held by Warsaw Pact leaders from 3 August to 15 August 1961 during which the question of a peace treaty with Germany was discussed. The excerpts from the speeches given by the Communist leade rs reveal that all were resigned to the fact that the West would not accept a treaty which included a provision establishing a so-called "free city of West Berlin." It was also clear that the "wooing away" of the GDR's work f orce, in other words the mass flight of its citizens to the West, could onl y be halted by closing the border between East and West Berlin, inasmuch as improvement of the GDR's economic situation seemed unlikely. Were the GDR to act alone, economic sanctions by the West had to be expected. The readin ess of other Warsaw Pact members to support the GDR in such an eventuality was definitely limited. Furthermore, the minutes make clear that for the So viet leadership it was not ultimately a question of unity on the Berlin and German question, but a matter of strenghtening the unity of Socialist coun tries under Soviet leadership which was threatened by China and Albania.