What was the Soviet Union doing in Eastern Europe?

What was the Soviet Union doing in Eastern Europe?

The Soviet Union Occupies Eastern Europe The Soviet Union was determined to establish governments in Eastern Europe who were friendly to the Soviet Union. While the war was still taking place, Soviet occupation troops assisted local communists in putting Communist dictatorships in Romania and Bulgaria in power.

What was the purpose of the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe?

The Eastern Bloc was formed during the Second World War as a unified force led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Its initial intention was to fight Nazi Germany.

Was Yugoslavia part of the Soviet bloc?

Yugoslavia between blocs Almost three decades after the breakup of the federation in 1992, the independence from the Soviet Union is still a marker of pride for many citizens of the post-Yugoslav countries. Yugoslavia was never a part of the Soviet Union, and during the Tito years very heavily opposed Soviet influence.

What do you mean by Soviet bloc?

noun. (also Soviet Bloc) historical. An alliance of countries with similar interests to the Soviet Union; (in later use) specifically the countries of eastern and central Europe under Soviet domination from the end of the Second World War (1939–45) until the collapse of the Soviet communist system (1989–91).

How did the Soviets create the Eastern Bloc?

During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc (the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War) by invading and then annexing several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics by agreement with Nazi Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Why did the Soviet Union set up Communist governments in Eastern Europe?

After the war, Stalin was determined that the USSR would control Eastern Europe. That way, Germany or any other state would not be able to use countries like Hungary or Poland as a staging post to invade. His policy was simple. Each Eastern European state had a Communist government loyal to the USSR.

How did communism end in the Soviet Union?

The unsuccessful August 1991 coup against Gorbachev sealed the fate of the Soviet Union. Planned by hard-line Communists, the coup diminished Gorbachev’s power and propelled Yeltsin and the democratic forces to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.

Why did communism collapse in the Soviet Union?

Gorbachev’s decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

How did communism end in east central Europe in 1989?

The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the culminating point of the revolutionary changes sweeping East Central Europe in 1989. Throughout the Soviet bloc, reformers assumed power and ended over 40 years of dictatorial Communist rule. The reform movement that ended communism in East Central Europe began in Poland.

What countries were in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War?

Eastern Bloc. The Eastern Bloc (also the Socialist Bloc, the Communist Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc) was the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Cold War (1947–1991) in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc.

How did the Eastern Bloc disintegrate?

The structures of the Eastern bloc disintegrated with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. The Soviet Union broke up into independent republics. In Poland, economic reforms led to strikes in the spring and summer of 1988.

What happened to communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989?

The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 further accelerated the demise of the Communist governments. In Czechoslovakia, the Opposition leader, Václav Havel, was unanimously elected interim President of the Republic by the parliament of the Socialist Republic on 29 December 1989.