Editing Eastern Bloc (section)

===Berlin blockade and airlift===
{{main|Berlin Blockade}}
[[File:Germans-airlift-1948.jpg|thumb|left|German civilians watching Western supply planes at [[Berlin Tempelhof Airport]] during the [[Berlin Blockade|Berlin Airlift]]]]
In the former German capital Berlin, surrounded by Soviet-occupied Germany, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade on 24 June 1948, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in [[West Berlin]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Gaddis|2005|p=33}}</ref> The blockade was caused, in part, by early local elections of October 1946 in which the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED) was rejected in favor of the Social Democratic Party, which had gained two and a half times more votes than the SED.<ref name="turner19">{{Harvnb|Turner|1987|p=19}}</ref> The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began a massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=65–70}}</ref>

The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the western policy change and communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948 preceding large losses therein,<ref name="turner29">{{Harvnb|Turner|1987|p=29}}</ref> while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue.<ref>Fritsch-Bournazel, Renata, ''Confronting the German Question: Germans on the East-West Divide'', Berg Publishers, 1990, {{ISBN|0-85496-684-6}}, p. 143</ref> In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin.<ref name="Gaddis 2005, p. 34">{{Harvnb|Gaddis|2005|p=34}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=180–81}}</ref>