Soviet Expansion
- Coalition - when two or more people/groups come together temporarily to acheive a common goal
Soviet Exapnsion in Eastern Europe
East Germany
- Allies had given USSR control over the eastern sector of Germany
- Run by the USSR under Red Army control until the creation of the German Democratic Republic in 1949
Poland
- After the war, the Communists joined a coalition government then became the leaders in 1947
- They became the outright leaders when they forced the non-Communist leader into exile
Czechoslovakia
- Left-wing coalition won elections in 1945
- In 1946, Communists became the largest single party but still in a coalition
- In 1948, when their position was threatened, they banned other parties and made Czechoslovakia a one-party, Communist state
Hungary
- Became the largest single party in 1947
- Imprisoned opposition politicans and targetted Church leaders
Romania
- In 1945, a Communist was elected Prime Minister within a left-wing coalition
- In 1947, the Communists abolished the monarchy
Yugoslavia
- Marshal Tito had led wartime resistance against the Nazis
- He was elected President in 1945
- However, applied Communism in his own way and was expelled from Cominform in 1948
Bulgaria
- A left-wing coalition won the election in 1945
- Communist members of the coalition then executed the leaders of other parties
Albania
- Communists gained power immediately after WW2
- Little opposition
Iron Curtain Speech
- Churchill described the countries that lay within the boundary of the iron curtain considered in the "Soviet sphere"
- Public opinion of Stalin in the West shifted
- All activity shut behind the iron curtain
- Resulted into fear of espionage