Formation of the Eastern Bloc
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Eastern Bloc is a collective term for the former Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This generally encompasses the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact.
When Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov expressed concern that the Yalta Agreement's wording might impede Stalin's plans in Central Europe, Stalin responded "Never mind. We'll do it our own way later." After Soviet forces remained in Eastern and Central European countries, with the beginnings of Communist puppet regimes installed in those countries, by falsified elections, Churchill referred to the region as being behind an "Iron Curtain" of control from Moscow.
Initial control process
The initial problem in countries occupied by the Red Army in 1944–45 was how to transform occupation power into control of domestic development. Because Communists were small minorities in all countries but Czechoslovakia, they were initially instructed to form coalitions in their respective countries.
Soviet takeover of control at the outset generally followed a process:
a general coalition of left-wing, Anti-fascist forces;
a reorganised 'coalition' in which the Communists would have the upper hand and neutralise those in other parties who were not willing to accept their supremacy;
complete Communist domination.
It was only in the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia that former partisans entered their new government independently of Soviet influence. It was the latter's publicly stubborn independent political stances, its insistence on specifically not being a puppet regime, that led to the Tito–Stalin split and the other moves towards a "Titoism" that quickly made SR Yugoslavia unique within the context of overall Eastern Bloc politics.
Property relocation
By the end of World War II, most of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union in particular, suffered vast destruction.
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