 Soviets had agreed to joint occupation only because they believed that in the first three elections Berlin would vote communist. So it was with confidence that they watched the democratic processes of free ballot. But although communist support in Berlin was far from negligible, for them the results came as a shock. Instead of a landslide for the extreme left, there came instead a victory for the social democrats and other non-communists. But when in June 1947 the town assembly elected Ants Reuter for mayor, this proved to be a victory without fruit. For in the Allied commander Tura, the frustrated Soviets vetoed his election. It was a step ominous and foreboding. Until that moment the city had been divided in name only. But from then on the Russians made the divisions a more clear cut. They set up a communist system in their own sector and established decided barriers between it and those of their recent allies. The years in which the expression iron curtain became a reality. Along a line from the Baltic to the Balkans, a clamp down. In place of the comradeship of victory, barbed wire, suspicion and distrust. Years of disillusionment. Meanwhile over the frontier paths there flowed a steady stream of refugees east to west. Soon it became clear that most were moving westwards because they could not tolerate life in the east. Again an ominous sign. In the east of