While working on the B language, K&R realized that cyrillic character sets have no curly-brace. Further, there is no tab character Therefore, a language that was to catch on in the West should rely heavily on this syntax in order to stop Godless Communists from using it.

Not only did K&R use this syntax, but they also suggested a bracing style that was difficult to use on commie terminals:

sub y
{
        $h = shift;

        if( $b ) {
                # code
        }
        elsif( $t ) {
                # code
        }
}
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As you can see, the key block, sub, places the brace on the next line. This is because Russian terminals were only 7 lines high, which was forced by Stalin's 1957 decree. With this style in hand, only 5 other lines were visible. The effectiveness can be increased through the use of plentiful vertical whitespace.

However, modern corruption of the programming field has led to the development of languages that forsake this important, commie-fighting syntax.