Inasmuch as it was calculated to end the exodus of people into West Germany. Making them pro-Soviet was less of a concern than making them stay in the Soviet zone; the 1946 election was the last time the Soviets would attempt to win the German people over. Berlin was the main site of this exodus, and they hoped that by driving the Americans out and integrating the entire city into their zone, they would stop this movement of people. After the failure of the blockade, they attempted the same thing by erecting the Wall. They expected that the blockade would drive the Americans out of Berlin, and hoped that it might drive them out of Germany altogether.

Protesting the West Mark was a secondary reason. The blockade was one of many measures in 1948 which indicated that the USSR was taking a harder line in Eastern Europe. They abandoned all pretence at legitimacy through electoral processes, ceased toleration of any form of genuine opposition, and turned upon the churches, not to destroy them but to transform them from within into vehicles of state power. This was essentially the year in which the Soviets stopped bothering to try and win the hearts and minds of the people of eastern Europe, and just decided to brutalize them instead.

The 1946 election was the last that the Communists attempted to win on anything like a legitimate basis, and it was a humiliation. It led to a crackdown and the increasing harshening of Soviet policy in eastern Europe, so it was one of many events or part of a chain of events that led to the blockade.

Source: Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain, 2012.