The Stalinisation of Eastern Europe
What was the Stalinisation of Eastern Europe?
Between the years of 1945-49, Stalin took over most of Eastern Europe. East Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and many more fell under Stalin's control. You need to know HOW and WHY!
How did Stalin 'take over' Eastern Europe?
Factor One: The Red Army
Stalin and the USSR used the red army to control Eastern Europe after the Second World War. In 1944 and 45 the Red Army overran all the countries in this area and after the war, the soldiers simply stayed there.
Factor Two: Politics and Elections
At the Yalta conference, Stalin had agreed to have free elections in the countries it had occupied in Eastern Europe. Elections took place in 1945 and 1946 in all the Eastern European countries. The Communists won a great deal of votes. Some of these votes were genuine, people wanted a socialist (Communist) government. However, the Red Army may have influenced many peoples votes through intimidation.
Factor Three: Cominform and Comecon
By 1949, all of Eastern Europe had communist governments. From 1947, these governments were controlled by the USSR and Stalin through the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau). This meant that all communist governments in Eastern Europe had to take orders from the Soviet Communist Party.
In 1949, Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) was created. Under this, all communist governments in Eastern Europe had to have economic systems that were the same as the USSR. They were no longer allowed to trade with the Western countries such as USA and Britain.
Why did Stalin want to control Eastern Europe?
Argument One: World Domination
The USA and Britain believed that the USSR was planning to spread communism across Europe. The Soviet government had always stated that it wanted to make the whole world communist. To Britain and the USA, Stalin was simply starting his quest for world domination.
Argument Two: Defense
Stalin argued that he was more interested in defending the USSR from future attack. Russia had been invaded on several occasions by foreign powers in recent years. Also, during the Second World War, the USSR had suffered greatly. 20 million Soviets had died. Most of its industry and agriculture in western Russia had been destroyed. Stalin felt that he needed to defend his country.
Stalin had stated that he wanted 'friendly states around us'. The only way to garuntee that these states were friendly was to make sure they were communist.