Russians 'don't know' who built Berlin Wall

6 Nov 2009, 6:11 am   -   Source: Reuters
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An employee stores a giant 'domino' used to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall at a warehouse in Berlin. (Getty)

An employee stores a giant 'domino' used to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall at a warehouse in Berlin. (Getty)

Poll results show more than half of all Russians do not know who built the Berlin Wall, one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War.

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Poll results have shown that more than half of all Russians do not know who built the Berlin Wall, one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War.

Ten percent of people surveyed by pollster VTsIOM thought Berlin residents built it themselves -- even though its purpose was to prevent residents of communist East Germany from escaping to the West through the divided city of Berlin.

Six percent said Western powers built it and four percent though it was a "bilateral initiative" of the Soviet Union and the West.

Fifty-eight percent said they did not know who built it, with just 24 percent correctly naming the Soviet Union and its then-communist ally East Germany.

Following mounting pressure from within the communist bloc, the wall was opened to allow people to cross from east to west on November 9, 1989, leading to the reunification of Germany 11 months later.

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manforall - from bribie island, 3 years ago

it is so difficult to get a comment up on this website that i have decided to retire from making comments. even when one appears nobody wants to comment on the comment. why am i the only conversationalist left in the world. goodbye from manforall. you will all have to do without my pith and wisdom come to think of it this won't get printed finito, the end. goodbye world and both you other readers of sbs news.

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