Formation of the Eastern Bloc

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.[1][2]

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."[3] 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.[4]

## Initial control process

[edit]

Main article: Eastern Bloc politics

The initial problem in countries occupied by the Red Army in 1944–45 was how to transform occupation power into control of domestic development.[5] Because Communists were small minorities in all countries but Czechoslovakia,[6] they were initially instructed to form coalitions in their respective countries.[7] 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.[8]

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

[edit]

By the end of World War II, most of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union in particular, suffered vast destruction.[9] The Soviet Union had suffered a staggering 27 million deaths, and the destruction of significant industry and infrastructure, both by the Nazi Wehrmacht and the Soviet Union itself in a "scorched earth" policy to keep it from falling in Nazi hands as they advanced over 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) to within 24 km (15 mi) of Moscow.[9] Thereafter, the Soviet Union physically transported and relocated east European industrial assets to the Soviet Union.[9]

This was especially pronounced in eastern European Axis countries, such as Romania and Hungary, where such a policy was considered as punitive reparations (a principle accepted by Western powers).[10] In some cases, Red Army officers viewed cities, villages and farms as being open to looting.[11] Other Eastern Bloc states were required to provide coal, industrial equipment, technology, rolling stock and other resources to reconstruct the Soviet Union.[12] Between 1945 and 1953, the Soviets received a net transfer of resources from the rest of the Eastern Bloc under this policy roughly comparable to the net transfer from the United States to western Europe in the Marshall Plan.[12]

## East Germany

[edit]

Main articles: German Democratic Republic, Berlin Blockade, and Marshall Plan

The red area of Germany (above) is Soviet controlled East Germany. The Soviets ceded the portion to the east of the Oder–Neisse line (light beige) to Poland, while a portion of the isolated easternmost section of German East Prussia, the Kaliningrad Oblast, was annexed directly into the USSR

Most of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line, which contained much of Germany's fertile land, was transferred to what remained of unilaterally Soviet-controlled Poland.[13] At the end of World War II, political opposition immediately materialised after occupying Soviet army personnel conducted systematic pillaging and rapes in their zone of then divided Germany,[14] with total rape victim estimates ranging from tens of thousands to two million.[15][16][17]

Factories, equipment, technicians, managers and skilled personnel were forcibly transferred to the Soviet Union.[14] In the non-annexed remaining portion of Soviet-controlled East Germany, like in the rest of Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe, the major task of the ruling regime was to channel Soviet orders down to both the administrative apparatus and the other bloc parties pretending that these were initiatives of its own.[18]

The SED won a first narrow election victory in Soviet-zone elections in 1946, even though Soviet authorities oppressed political opponents and prevented many competing parties from participating in rural areas.[19] Property and industry were nationalised under their government.[20][21] If statements or decisions deviated from the prescribed line, reprimands and, for persons outside public attention, punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death.[18]

Indoctrination of Marxism–Leninism became a compulsory part of school curricula, sending professors and students fleeing to the west.[22] Applicants for positions in the government, the judiciary and school systems had to pass ideological scrutiny.[22] An elaborate political police apparatus kept the population under close surveillance,[22] including Soviet SMERSH secret police.[20] A tight system of censorship restricted access to print or the airwaves.[22]

What remained of SED opposition parties were also infiltrated to exploit their relations with their "bourgeois" counterparts in western zones to support Soviet unity along Soviet lines, while a "National Democratic" party (NDPD) was created to attract former Nazis and professional military personnel in order to rally them behind the SED.[23] In early 1948, during the Tito–Stalin split, the SED underwent a transformation into an authoritarian party dominated by functionaries subservient to Moscow.[24] Important decisions had to be cleared with the CPSU Central Committee apparatus or even with Stalin himself.[18]

By early 1949, the SED was capped by a Soviet-style Politburo that was effectively a small self-selecting inner circle.[24] The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, within which the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy, with an unlimited Soviet exercise of the occupation regime and Soviet penetration of administrative, military and secret police structures.[25][26]

## Poland

[edit]

Eastern Poland (grey) was annexed directly into the USSR, while most of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line (pink) was ceded to what remained of Poland (white), both of which would constitute the newly created People's Republic of Poland

Main articles: People's Republic of Poland and Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union

After the Soviet invasion of German-occupied Poland in July 1944, Polish government-in-exile prime minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk flew to Moscow with Churchill to argue against the annexation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact portion of eastern Poland by the Soviet Union.[27] Poland served as the first real test of the American President Roosevelt's Soviet policy of "giving" to Stalin assuming noblesse oblige,[28] with Roosevelt telling Mikołajczyk before the visit, "Don't worry. Stalin doesn't intend to take freedom from you" and after assuring U.S. backing, concluding "I shall see to it that your country does not come out of this war injured."[29]

Mikołajczyk offered a smaller section of land, but Stalin declined, telling him that he would allow the exiled government to participate in the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN and later "Lublin Committee"),[27] which consisted of Communists and satellite parties set up under the direct control by the Soviet plenipotentiary Colonel-General Nikolai Bulganin.[30] An agreement was reached at the Yalta Conference permitting the annexation of most of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact portion of Eastern Poland, while granting Poland part of East Germany in return.[27][31] Thereafter, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic were expanded to include eastern Poland.[27][32][33]

The Soviet Union then compensated what remained of Poland by ceding to it the portion of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line, which contained much of Germany's fertile land.[13][27] An agreement was reached at Yalta that the Soviets' Provisional Government made up of PKWN members would be re-organised "on a broad democratic basis" including the exiled government, and that the re-organised government's primary task would be to prepare for elections.[34][35]

Pretending that it was an indigenous body representing Polish society, the PKWN took the role of a governmental authority and challenged the pre–World War II Polish government-in-exile in London.[30] Doubts began to arise whether the "free and unfettered elections" promised at the Yalta Conference would occur.[36] Non-Stalinists and partisans, including those that fought the Nazis, were systematically persecuted.[30] Hopes for a new free start were immediately dampened when the PKWN claimed they were entitled to choose who they wanted to take part in the government, and the Soviet NKVD seized sixteen Polish underground leaders who had wanted to participate in negotiations on the re-organisation in March 1945 brought them to the Soviet Union for a show trial in June.[35][36]

A propaganda photo of a citizen reading the PKWN Manifesto, issued on 22 July 1944 Line waiting to enter a store, a typical view in Poland in the 1950s and 1980s.

While underground leaders were sentenced to long prison terms, assurances that political prisoners would be released and that Soviet forces and security would leave failed to be supported by concrete safeguards or implementation plans.[37] Polish government-in-exile figures, including Stanisław Mikołajczyk then returned to a popular reception, and were able to lure several parties to their cause, effectively undermining Bloc politics.[38]

When the Mikołajczyk's People's Party (PSL) continued to resist pressure to renounce a ticket of its own outside the party bloc, it was exposed to open terror,[36] including the disqualification of PSL candidates in one quarter of the districts and the arrest of over 80,000 PSL activists,[39] followed by vote rigging that resulted in Gomułka's candidates winning a majority in the carefully controlled poll.[40][41][42]

Mikołajczyk lost hope and left the country. His followers were subjected to unlimited ruthless persecution. Following the forged referendum, in October 1946, the new government nationalised all enterprises employing over 50 people and all but two banks.[36][43] Public opposition had been essentially crushed by 1946, but underground activity still existed.[44]

Fraudulent Polish elections held in January 1947 resulted in Poland's official transformation to a non-democratic Communist state by 1949, the People's Republic of Poland. Resistance fighters continued to battle Soviet forces in the Ukrainian annexed portions of eastern Poland, the Soviet response to which included the arrest of as many as 600,000 people between 1944 and 1952, with about one third executed and the rest imprisoned or exiled.[45]

## Hungary

[edit]

Mátyás Rákosi

Main articles: Soviet occupation of Hungary and People's Republic of Hungary

After occupying Hungary, the Soviets imposed harsh conditions allowing it to seize important material assets and control internal affairs.[46] During those occupations, an estimated 50,000 women and girls were raped.[47][48] After the Red Army set up police organs to persecute class enemies, the Soviets assumed that the impoverished Hungarian populace would support Communists in coming elections.[49]

The Communists were trounced, receiving only 17% of the vote, resulting in a coalition government under Prime Minister Zoltán Tildy.[50] Soviet intervention, however, resulted in a government that disregarded Tildy, placed Communists in important ministries, and imposed restrictive and repressive measures, including banning the victorious Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party.[49] Stalin's authoritarian regime repeatedly wrestled small concessions from opponents in a process named "salami tactics".[51] Battling the initial postwar political majority in Hungary ready to establish a democracy,[52] Mátyás Rákosi invented the term, which described his tactic slicing up enemies like pieces of salami.[53]

In early 1947, the Soviets pressed Rákosi to take a "line of more pronounced class struggle."[44] The People's Republic of Hungary was formed thereafter. At the height of his rule, Rákosi developed a strong cult of personality.[54] Dubbed the “bald murderer,” Rákosi imitated Communist political and economic programs, resulting in Hungary experiencing one of the harshest dictatorships in Europe.[52][55] He described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple"[54] and "Stalin's best pupil."[56] Repression was harsher in Hungary than in the other satellite countries in the 1940s and 1950s due to a more vehement Hungarian resistance.[52]

Approximately 350,000 Hungarian officials and intellectuals were purged from 1948 to 1956.[52] Thousands were arrested, tortured, tried, and imprisoned in concentration camps, deported to the east, or were executed, including ÁVH founder László Rajk.[57][58] Gati describes "the most gruesome forms of psychological and physical torture...The reign of terror (by the Rákosi government) turned out to be harsher and more extensive than it was in any of the other Soviet satellites in Central and Eastern Europe."

## Bulgaria

[edit]

Main article: People's Republic of Bulgaria

On 5 September 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria claiming that Bulgaria was to be prevented from assisting Germany and allowing the Wehrmacht to use its territory.[59] On 8 September 1944, the Red Army crossed the border and created the conditions for the coup d'état the following night.[59] The government was taken over by the "Fatherland Front" where the Communists played a leading role and an armistice followed.[59] The Soviet military commander in Sofia assumed supreme authority, and the Communists and their allies in the Fatherland Front whom he instructed, including Kimon Georgiev, took full control of domestic politics.[59] An armed resistance guerilla movement, known as the Goryani Movement, began immediately after Soviet occupation in 1944 and lasted until the late 1950s. It is known to be the longest as well as the first anti-Soviet armed resistance in the Eastern Bloc. The movement eventually subsided following the quelling of the 1956 uprising in Budapest, which lead to the realisation that no help would come from Western powers.

On 8 September 1946, a national plebiscite was organised in which 96% of all votes (91% of the population voted) for the abolition of the monarchy and the installation of a republic.[60] In October 1946 elections, persecution against opposition parties occurred, such as jailing members of the previous government, periodic newspaper publication bans and subjecting opposition followers to frequent attacks by Communist armed groups.[49] Thereafter, the People's Republic of Bulgaria was formed and Vasil Kolarov was appointed by the Parliament as a President (chairman) of the Republic though in fact Georgi Dimitrov, who took the post of a prime-minister, became the first man in power of the newly formed republic. The nine-year-old king Simeon II of Sax-Cobourg-Gotta was sent to exile accompanied by his mother the Queen Jovana of Savoy and his sister princess Maria-Louisa.

On 6 June 1947, parliamentary leader Nikola Petkov, a critic of Soviet rule,[49] was arrested in the Parliament building, subjected to a show trial, found guilty of espionage, sentenced to death,[61] and hanged on 23 September 1947. The Bulgarian secret police arranged for the publication of a false Petkov confession.[62] The confession's false nature was so obvious that it became an embarrassment and the authorities ceased mentioning it.[62]

## Czechoslovakia

[edit]

Easternmost Czechoslovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia (light green) was annexed directly into the USSR, while the rest of the country would become the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Main articles: Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 and Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

In 1943, Czechoslovakian leader in exile Edvard Beneš agreed to Stalin's demands for unconditional agreement with Soviet foreign policy, including the expulsion of over one million Sudeten ethnic Germans identified as "rich people" and ethnic Hungarians, directed by the Beneš decrees.[63] Beneš promised Stalin a "close postwar collaboration" in military and economic affairs, including confiscation and nationalisation of large landowners' property, factories, mines, steelworks and banks under a Czechoslovakian "national road to socialism".[63] While Beneš was not a Moscow cadre and several domestic reforms of other Eastern Bloc countries were not part Beneš' plan, Stalin did not object because the plan included property expropriation and he was satisfied with the relative strength of Communists in Czechoslovakia compared to other Eastern Bloc countries.[63]

Beneš traveled to Moscow in March 1945.[64] After answering a list of questions by the Soviet NKVD, Beneš pleased Moscow with his plans to deport two million ethnic Sudeten Germans and 400,000 to 600,000 Hungarians, and to build a strong army that would closely coordinate with the Red Army.[64] In April 1945, the Third Republic, a national front coalition ruled by three socialist parties, was formed. Because of the USSR's strength (they held 114 of 300 seats) and Beneš' loyalty, unlike in other Eastern Bloc countries, the Kremlin did not require Bloc politics or "reliable" cadres in Czechoslovakian power positions, and the executive and legislative branches retained their traditional structures.[65]

However, the Soviet Union was, at first, disappointed that their party did not take advantage of their position after receiving the most votes in 1946 elections.[66] While they had deprived the traditional administration of major functions by transferring local and regional government to newly established committees in which they largely dominated, they failed to eliminate "bourgeois" influence in the army or to expropriate industrialists and large landowners.[67]

The existence of a somewhat independent political structure and Czechoslovakia's initial absence of stereotypical Eastern Bloc political and socioeconomic systems began to be seen as problematic by Soviet authorities.[68] While parties outside the "National Front" were excluded from the government, they were still allowed to exist.[67] In contrast to countries occupied by the Red Army, there were no Soviet occupation authorities in Czechoslovakia upon whom the USSR could rely to assert a leading role.[67]

Hope in Moscow was waning for a victory in the upcoming 1948 elections.[44] A May 1947 Kremlin report concluded that "reactionary elements" praising western democracy had strengthened.[44] Following Czechoslovakia's brief consideration of taking Marshall Plan funds,[67] and the subsequent scolding of their parties by the Cominform at Szklarska Poręba in September 1947, Rudolf Slánský returned to Prague with a plan for the final seizure of power, including the StB's elimination of party enemies and purging of dissidents.[69]

## Romania

[edit]

The northern light green area was annexed into the USSR as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's Chernivtsi Oblast and Izmail oblast. The dark green area comprises what remained as the People's Republic of Romania. In the late 1940s a number of islands in the Danube Delta and Snake Island were annexed by the Soviet Union into the Ukrainian SSR

Main articles: Socialist Republic of Romania, Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic

As the Red Army battled the Wehrmacht and Romanian forces in August 1944, Soviet agent Emil Bodnăraș organised an underground coalition to stage a coup d'état that would put Communists—who were then two tiny groups—into power.[37] However, King Michael had already organised a coup, in which Bodnăraş also had participated, putting Michael in power.[37] After Soviet invasions following two years of Romania fighting with the Axis, at the February 1945 Yalta Conference and the July 1945 Potsdam Conference, the western allies agreed to the Soviet absorption of the areas.[31]

Michael accepted the Soviets' armistice terms, which included military occupation along with the annexation of Northern Romania.[37] The Soviets' 1940 annexation of Bessarabia and part of Northern Bukovina to create the important agricultural region of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic[70] (while other Romanian territories were converted into the Chernivtsi Oblast and Izmail Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR) became a point of tension between Romania and the Soviet Union, especially after 1965.[71] The Yalta Conference also had granted the Soviet Union a predominant interest in what remained of Romania, which coincided with the Soviet occupation of Romania.

The Soviets organised the National Democratic Front, which was composed of several parties including the Ploughmen's Front.[37] It became increasingly Soviet dominated.[37] In February 1945, Soviet proponents provoked a crisis to exploit support by the Soviet occupation power for enforcement of unlimited control.[37] In March 1945, Stalin aide Andre Vyshinskii traveled to Bucharest and installed a government that included only members subservient to the National Front.[37]

This included Ploughmen's Front member Dr. Petru Groza, who became prime minister. Groza installed a government that included many parties, though Communists held the key ministries. The potential of army resistance was neutralised by the removal of major troop leaders and the inclusion of two divisions staffed with ideologically trained prisoners of war.[37] Bodnăraş was appointed General Secretary and initiated re-organisation of the general police and secret police.[37]

Emil Bodnăraș

Over western allies' objections, traditional parties were excluded from government and subjected to intensifying persecution.[37] Political persecution of local leaders and strict radio and press control were designed to prepare for an eventual unlimited Communist totalitarianism, including the liquidation of opposition.[59] When King Michael attempted to force Groza's resignation by refusing to sign any legislation ("the royal strike"), Groza enacted laws without Michael's signature.

In early 1947, Bodnăraş reported that Romanian leaders Gheorghiu-Dej and Maurer were seeking to bolster the Romanian economy by developing relations with Britain and the United States and were complaining about Soviet occupying troops.[44] Thereafter, the PCR eliminated the role of the centrist parties, including a show trial of National Peasants' Party leaders, and forced other parties to merge with the PCR.[72] By 1947, most non-Communist politicians were either executed, in exile or in prison. In December, Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej forced Michael to abdicate at gunpoint, and hours later the Communist-dominated legislature proclaimed Romania a "People's Republic."

Following Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu became General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party. He changed the name of the country to the Socialist Republic of Romania, and ruled one of the most (by some accounts, the most) brutal states in the Eastern bloc for nearly 25 years.

## Albania

[edit]

Main article: Socialist People's Republic of Albania

On 29 December 1944, the National Liberation Movement drove the German occupiers out of Tirana. The LNC, as it was popularly called, was dominated by the two-year-old Albanian Communist Party, led by Enver Hoxha. From this day onward, unlike the other countries in what became the Eastern Bloc, Albania was an out-and-out Communist dictatorship. The LNC wasted little time eliminating almost all potential opposition and isolating the country from the non-Communist world. It swiftly took control of the police, the court system and the economy, while eliminating several hundred political opponents through a series of show trials conducted by judges without legal training.[73][74]

In December 1945, elections for the Albanian People's Assembly were held. However, voters only had the choice of approving or rejecting a single list from the Democratic Front (Albania), the successor to the LNC.[73] In 1946, Albania was declared the People's Republic of Albania and, thereafter, it broke relations with the United States and refused to participate in the 1947 Marshall Plan.[73]

## Yugoslavia

[edit]

Main article: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Josip Broz Tito

Yugoslavia, the second-largest of the post-war countries, and the sole Communist state with open access to the Mediterranean, was only aligned with the Soviet Union for 3 post-war years (1945–1948). Its leader, Josip Broz Tito, broke with the Soviets with the Tito–Stalin split of 1948. The country subsequently came under threat of invasion by the Warsaw Pact, with the Yugoslav People's Army planning defenses against both Eastern and Western Bloc attacks. Throughout the Cold War period, the country steered an independent course, founding the Non-Aligned Movement in collaboration with Ghana, Egypt and India.

At the end of World War II, Yugoslavia was considered a victor power and had neither an occupation force nor an allied control commission.[75] Communism was considered a popular alternative to the west, in part because of the popularity of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II and opposition to former royalist Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović and King Peter.[75] A cabinet for the new Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was formed, with 25 of the 28 members being former Communist Yugoslav Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito.[75] The League of Communists of Yugoslavia formed the National Front of Yugoslavia coalition, with opposition members boycotting the first election because it presented only a single government list which could be accepted or rejected, without opponents.[75] Censorship, denial of publication allocations and open intimidation of opposition groups followed.[75] Three weeks after the election, the Front declared that a new Republic would be formed, with a new constitution put in place two months later in January 1946 initiating the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.[76] The Communists continued a campaign against enemies, including arresting Mihailović, conducting a controversial trial and then executing him, followed by several other opposition arrests and trials.[76] Thereafter, a pro-Soviet phase continued until the Tito–Stalin split of 1948 and the subsequent formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Hirsch, Donald; Kett, Joseph F.; Trefil, James S. (2002), The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 316, ISBN 0-618-22647-8, "Eastern Bloc. The name applied to the former Stalinist states of eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia and Albania, as well as the countries of the Warsaw Pact"
2. ^ Satyendra, Kush (2003), Encyclopaedic dictionary of political science, Sarup & Sons, p. 65, ISBN 81-7890-071-8
3. ^ Berthon & Potts 2007, p. 289
4. ^ Muller, James W., Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech Fifty Years Later, University of Missouri Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8262-1247-6, pages 1–8
5. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 35
6. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 39
7. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 36
8. ^ Crampton 1997, p. 211
9. ^ a b c Pearson 1998, pp. 29–30
10. ^ Pearson 1998, p. 31
11. ^ Beevor, Antony, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5. Specific reports also include Report of the Swiss legation in Budapest of 1945 Archived 2009-06-16 at the Wayback Machine and Hubertus Knabe: Tag der Befreiung? Das Kriegsende in Ostdeutschland (A day of liberation? The end of war in East Germany), Propyläen 2005, ISBN 3-549-07245-7 German.
12. ^ a b Bideleux & Jeffries 2007, p. 461
13. ^ a b Miller 2000, p. 5
14. ^ a b Miller 2000, p. 12
15. ^ Schissler, Hanna The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949–1968
16. ^ When members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) reported to Stalin that looting and rapes by Soviet soldiers could result in negative consequences for the future of socialism in post-war East Germany, Stalin reacted angrily: "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honor of the Red Army through the mud." (Wolfgang Leonhard, Child of the Revolution ,Pathfinder Press, 1979, ISBN 0-906133-26-2
17. ^ Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7) Accordingly, all evidence of looting, rapes and destruction by the Red Army was deleted from archives in the Soviet occupation zone.(Wolfgang Leonhard, Child of the Revolution, Pathfinder Press, 1979, ISBN 0-906133-26-2.)
18. ^ a b c Wettig 2008, p. 95-5
19. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 106
20. ^ a b Wettig 2008, pp. 96–100
21. ^ The political process contrasted with that in western German zones occupied by Britain, France and the United States, where minister-presidents were chosen by freely elected parliamentary assemblies. (Turner, Henry Ashby The Two Germanies Since 1945: East and West, Yale University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-300-03865-8, page 20)
22. ^ a b c d Turner 1987, p. 47
23. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 162
24. ^ a b Turner 1987, p. 46
25. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 179
26. ^ In a congratulatory telegram, Stalin emphasised that, with the creation of East Germany, the "enslavement of European countries by the global imperialists was rendered impossible." (Wettig, Gerhard, Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman && Littlefield, 2008, ISBN 0-7425-5542-9, page 179)
27. ^ a b c d e Wettig 2008, p. 47
28. ^ Berthon & Potts 2007, p. 251
29. ^ Berthon & Potts 2007, p. 252
30. ^ a b c Wettig 2008, p. 46
31. ^ a b Crampton 1997, p. 212
32. ^ Potichnyj, Peter J. (1980), Poland and Ukraine, past and present, CIUS Press, p. 329, ISBN 0-920862-07-1
33. ^ Cohen, Saul Bernard, Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, ISBN 0-7425-5676-X, page 211
34. ^ 11 February 1945 Potsdam Report, reprinted in Potsdam Ashley, John, Soames Grenville and Bernard Wasserstein, The Major International Treaties of the Twentieth Century: A History and Guide with Texts, Taylor & Francis, 2001 ISBN 0-415-23798-X
35. ^ a b Wettig 2008, p. 48
36. ^ a b c d Crampton 1997, p. 218
37. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wettig 2008, p. 49
38. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 80
39. ^ Crampton 1997, p. 220
40. ^ Tom Buchanan, Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945–2000: 1945–2000, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-631-22163-8, Google Print, p.84
41. ^ A brief history of Poland: Chapter 13: The Post-War Years, 1945–1990 Archived January 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Polonia Today Online. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
42. ^ "Poland." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 7 April 2007
43. ^ Poland – The Historical Setting: Chapter 6: The Polish People's Republic. Archived 2009-06-15 at the Wayback Machine Polish Academic Information Center, University at Buffalo. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
44. ^ a b c d e Wettig 2008, p. 110
45. ^ William Taubman. (2004). Khrushchev: The Man and His Era W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05144-7 pg. 195
46. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 51
47. ^ Mark, James, "Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944–1945", Past & Present – Number 188, August 2005, page 133
48. ^ Naimark, Norman M., The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949. Cambridge: Belknap, 1995, ISBN 0-674-78405-7, pages 70–71
49. ^ a b c d Wettig 2008, p. 85
50. ^ Norton, Donald H. (2002). Essentials of European History: 1935 to the Present, p. 47. REA: Piscataway, New Jersey. ISBN 0-87891-711-X.
51. ^ Kertesz, Stephen D. (1953), "VIII", Diplomacy in a Whirlpool: Hungary between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, (Hungary, a Republic): University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, pp. 139–52, ISBN 0-8371-7540-2 `{{citation}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
52. ^ a b c d Granville, Johanna, The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956, Texas A&M University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58544-298-4
53. ^ Baer, Helmut David, The Struggle of Hungarian Lutherans Under Communism, Texas A&M University Press, 2006 ISBN 1-58544-480-4, page 16
54. ^ a b Sugar, Peter F., Peter Hanak and Tibor Frank, A History of Hungary, Indiana University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-253-20867-X, page 375-77
55. ^ Gati, Charles, Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, Stanford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-8047-5606-6, page 9-12
56. ^ Matthews, John P. C. , Explosion: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hippocrene Books, 2007, ISBN 0-7818-1174-0, page 93-4
57. ^ Tőkés, Rudolf L. (1998), Hungary's Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reform, Social Change and Political Succession, p. 317. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-57850-7
58. ^ Gati, Charles (September 2006), Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-5606-6 (page 49)
59. ^ a b c d e Wettig 2008, p. 50
60. ^ Провежда се референдум за монархия или народна република, bg-history.info
61. ^ Crampton, R. J. A Concise History of Bulgaria, p.186. Cambridge University Press (2005), ISBN 0-521-85085-1
62. ^ a b Judt, Tony Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, p. 175. Penguin Press (2005), ISBN 1-59420-065-3
63. ^ a b c Wettig 2008, p. 45
64. ^ a b Wettig 2008, p. 79
65. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 86
66. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 152
67. ^ a b c d Wettig 2008, p. 138
68. ^ Wettig 2008, pp. 108–9
69. ^ Grogin 2001, p. 134
70. ^ Europa Publications Limited,Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, 1999, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 1-85743-058-1, page 545
71. ^ Cook 2001, p. 292
72. ^ Wettig 2008, p. 83
73. ^ a b c Cook 2001, p. 17
74. ^ This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Charles Sudetic (April 1992). "Communist Albania". In Zickel, Raymond; Iwaskiw, Walter R. (eds.). Albania: A country study. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. LCCN 93042885.
75. ^ a b c d e Crampton 1997, p. 216
76. ^ a b Crampton 1997, p. 217

## References

[edit]

* Berthon, Simon; Potts, Joanna (2007), Warlords: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, Da Capo Press, ISBN 978-0-306-81538-6
* Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (2007), A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-36626-7
* Cook, Bernard A. (2001), Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-8153-4057-7
* Crampton, R. J. (1997), Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and after, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-16422-1
* Miller, Roger Gene (2000), To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948–1949, Texas A&M University Press, ISBN 978-0-89096-967-0
* Grogin, Robert C. (2001), Natural Enemies: The United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, 1917–1991, Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-0160-9
* Pearson, Raymond (1998), The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-17407-1
* Turner, Henry Ashby (1987), The Two Germanies Since 1945: East and West, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-03865-1
* Wettig, Gerhard (2008), Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7425-5542-6

* v
* t
* e

Eastern Bloc

* Soviet Union
* Communism

Formation|

* Yalta Conference
* Soviet occupations
* Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
* Baltic states
* Hungary
* Romania
* 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
* Berlin Blockade
* Soviet response to the Marshall Plan
* Tito–Stalin split

Soviet-allied states|

* People's Republic of Albania (to 1961)
* People's Republic of Bulgaria
* Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
* German Democratic Republic
* Hungarian People's Republic
* Polish People's Republic
* Socialist Republic of Romania
* Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (to 1948)

Organizations|

* Cominform
* COMECON
* Warsaw Pact
* World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
* World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY)

Revolts and
opposition

* Goryani Movement
* 1949 East German State Railway strike
* Rebellion of Cazin 1950
* 1953 Plzeň uprising
* 1953 East German uprising
* 1956 Poznań protests
* 1956 Hungarian Revolution
* Prague Spring / Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
* 1970 Polish protests
* Croatian Spring
* June 1976 protests
* Solidarity / Soviet reaction / Martial law
* 1981 protests in Kosovo

Conditions|

* Emigration and defection (list of defectors)
* Sovietization of the Baltic states
* Information dissemination
* Politics
* Economies
* Telephone tapping

Dissolution|

* Revolutions of 1989
* Die Wende
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* End of communism in Hungary
* Velvet Revolution
* Romanian revolution
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Singing Revolution
* Collapse of the Soviet Union
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
* January 1991 events in Lithuania
* January 1991 events in Latvia
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Yugoslav Wars

* v
* t
* e

Cold War

* United States
* Soviet Union
* NATO
* Warsaw Pact
* ANZUS
* METO
* SEATO
* NEATO
* Rio Pact
* Non-Aligned Movement

1940s|

* Morgenthau Plan
* Hukbalahap rebellion
* Jamaican political conflict
* Dekemvriana
* Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
* Operation Priboi
* Operation Jungle
* Occupation of the Baltic states
* Cursed soldiers
* Operation Unthinkable
* Gouzenko Affair
* Division of Korea
* Indonesian National Revolution
* Operation Masterdom
* Operation Beleaguer
* Operation Blacklist Forty
* Iran crisis of 1946
* Greek Civil War
* Baruch Plan
* Corfu Channel incident
* Turkish Straits crisis
* Restatement of Policy on Germany
* First Indochina War
* 1947 Polish parliamentary election
* Truman Doctrine
* Asian Relations Conference
* May 1947 crises
* Partition of India
* Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948
* 1947–1949 Palestine war
* 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
* 1948 Arab–Israeli War
* 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight
* Marshall Plan
* Comecon
* 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
* Incapacitation of the Allied Control Council
* Al-Wathbah uprising
* Tito–Stalin split
* Berlin Blockade
* Annexation of Hyderabad
* Madiun Affair
* Western betrayal
* Iron Curtain
* Eastern Bloc
* Western Bloc
* Chinese Civil War
* Chinese Communist Revolution
* Malayan Emergency
* March 1949 Syrian coup d'état
* Operation Valuable

1950s|

* Bamboo curtain
* McCarthyism
* Korean War
* Arab Cold War (1952–1979)
* 1952 Egyptian revolution
* Iraqi Intifada (1952)
* Mau Mau rebellion
* East German uprising of 1953
* 1953 Iranian coup d'état
* Pact of Madrid
* Bricker Amendment
* 1954 Syrian coup d'état
* Petrov Affair
* Domino theory
* 1954 Geneva Conference
* 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
* Capture of the Tuapse
* First Taiwan Strait Crisis
* Jebel Akhdar War
* Algerian War
* Kashmir Princess
* Bandung Conference
* Geneva Summit (1955)
* Vietnam War
* Cyprus Emergency
* "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences"
* 1956 Poznań protests
* Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* Polish October
* Suez Crisis
* "We will bury you"
* Operation Gladio
* Syrian Crisis of 1957
* Sputnik crisis
* Ifni War
* Iraqi 14 July Revolution
* 1958 Lebanon crisis
* Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
* 1959 Mosul uprising
* 1959 Tibetan uprising
* Laotian Civil War
* Kitchen Debate
* Cuban Revolution
* Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution
* Sino-Soviet split
* Night Frost Crisis

1960s|

* Congo Crisis
* Simba rebellion
* 1960 U-2 incident
* John F. Kennedy
* Bay of Pigs Invasion
* 1960 Turkish coup d'état
* Albanian–Soviet split
* Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
* First Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Berlin Crisis of 1961
* Berlin Wall
* Annexation of Goa
* Papua conflict
* Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
* Sand War
* Portuguese Colonial War
* Angolan War of Independence
* Guinea-Bissau War of Independence
* Mozambican War of Independence
* Cuban Missile Crisis
* El Porteñazo
* Sino-Indian War
* Communist insurgency in Sarawak
* Ramadan Revolution
* Eritrean War of Independence
* North Yemen civil war
* 1963 Syrian coup d'état
* Assassination of John F. Kennedy
* Lyndon B. Johnson
* Aden Emergency
* Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964
* Shifta War
* Mexican Dirty War
* Tlatelolco massacre
* Guatemalan Civil War
* Colombian conflict
* 1964 Brazilian coup d'état
* Dominican Civil War
* Rhodesian Bush War
* Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966
* Transition to the New Order (Indonesia)
* ASEAN Declaration
* 1966 Syrian coup d'état
* Cultural Revolution
* Argentine Revolution
* South African Border War
* Korean DMZ Conflict
* 12-3 incident
* Greek junta
* 1967 Hong Kong riots
* Years of Lead (Italy)
* Six-Day War
* War of Attrition
* Dhofar War
* Al-Wadiah War
* Nigerian Civil War
* Protests of 1968
* May 68
* Prague Spring
* USS Pueblo incident
* 1968 Polish political crisis
* Communist insurgency in Malaysia
* Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
* 17 July Revolution
* 1968 Peruvian coup d'état
* Revolutionary Government
* 1969 Sudanese coup d'état
* 1969 Libyan revolution
* Goulash Communism
* Sino-Soviet border conflict
* New People's Army rebellion
* Note Crisis

1970s|

* Détente
* Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
* Black September
* Alcora Exercise
* Corrective Movement (Syria)
* Western Sahara conflict
* Cambodian Civil War
* Communist insurgency in Thailand
* 1970 Polish protests
* Koza riot
* Realpolitik
* Ping-pong diplomacy
* 1971 JVP insurrection
* Corrective revolution (Egypt)
* 1971 Turkish military memorandum
* 1971 Sudanese coup d'état
* 1971 Bolivian coup d'état
* Four Power Agreement on Berlin
* Bangladesh Liberation War
* 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
* North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972
* First Yemenite War
* Munich massacre
* 1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état
* 1973 Afghan coup d'état
* 1973 Chilean coup d'état
* Yom Kippur War
* 1973 oil crisis
* Carnation Revolution
* Spanish transition to democracy
* Metapolitefsi
* Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
* Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Turkish invasion of Cyprus
* 15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état
* Siege of Dhaka (1975)
* Sipahi-Janata revolution
* Angolan Civil War
* Indonesian invasion of East Timor
* Cambodian genocide
* June 1976 protests
* Mozambican Civil War
* Oromo conflict
* Ogaden War
* 1978 Somali coup attempt
* Western Sahara War
* Ethiopian Civil War
* Lebanese Civil War
* Sino-Albanian split
* Third Indochina War
* Cambodian–Vietnamese War
* Cambodian conflict
* Operation Condor
* Dirty War (Argentina)
* 1976 Argentine coup d'état
* Egyptian–Libyan War
* German Autumn
* Korean Air Lines Flight 902
* Nicaraguan Revolution
* Uganda–Tanzania War
* NDF Rebellion
* Chadian–Libyan War
* Second Yemenite War
* Grand Mosque seizure
* Iranian revolution
* Saur Revolution
* Sino-Vietnamese War
* New Jewel Movement
* 1979 Herat uprising
* Seven Days to the River Rhine
* Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s|

* Salvadoran Civil War
* Soviet–Afghan War
* 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts
* Gera Demands
* Peruvian Revolution
* Gdańsk Agreement
* Solidarity
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1980 Turkish coup d'état
* Ugandan Bush War
* Gulf of Sidra incident
* Martial law in Poland
* Casamance conflict
* Falklands War
* 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
* Ndogboyosoi War
* United States invasion of Grenada
* Able Archer 83
* Star Wars
* 1985 Geneva Summit
* Iran–Iraq War
* Somali Rebellion
* Reykjavík Summit
* 1986 Black Sea incident
* South Yemen civil war
* Toyota War
* 1987 Lieyu massacre
* Operation Denver
* 1987–1989 JVP insurrection
* Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
* 1988 Black Sea bumping incident
* 8888 Uprising
* Solidarity (Soviet reaction)
* Contras
* Central American crisis
* Operation RYAN
* Korean Air Lines Flight 007
* People Power Revolution
* Glasnost
* Perestroika
* Bougainville conflict
* First Nagorno-Karabakh War
* Afghan Civil War
* United States invasion of Panama
* 1988 Polish strikes
* Polish Round Table Agreement
* 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
* Revolutions of 1989
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* Fall of the inner German border
* Velvet Revolution
* Romanian Revolution
* Peaceful Revolution

1990s|

* Mongolian Revolution of 1990
* Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident
* Gulf War
* Min Ping Yu No. 5202
* German reunification
* Yemeni unification
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Dissolution of the Soviet Union
* 1991 August Coup
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts|

* Abkhazia
* China-Taiwan
* Korea
* Kosovo
* South Ossetia
* Transnistria
* Sino-Indian border dispute
* North Borneo dispute

Foreign policy|

* Truman Doctrine
* Containment
* Eisenhower Doctrine
* Domino theory
* Hallstein Doctrine
* Kennedy Doctrine
* Peaceful coexistence
* Ostpolitik
* Johnson Doctrine
* Brezhnev Doctrine
* Nixon Doctrine
* Ulbricht Doctrine
* Carter Doctrine
* Reagan Doctrine
* Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine
* Rollback
* Kinmen Agreement

Ideologies|

| Capitalism|

* Liberalism
* Chicago school
* Conservatism
* American conservatism
* Keynesianism
* Libertarianism
* Monetarism
* Neoclassical economics
* Reaganomics
* Supply-side economics
* Democratic capitalism

|

Socialism|

* Communism
* Marxism–Leninism
* Castroism
* Eurocommunism
* Guevarism
* Hoxhaism
* Juche
* Ho Chi Minh Thought
* Maoism
* Trotskyism
* Stalinism
* Titoism

Other|

* Imperialism
* Anti-imperialism
* Nationalism
* Ultranationalism
* Chauvinism
* Ethnic nationalism
* Racism
* Zionism
* Anti-Zionism
* Fascism
* Neo-Nazism
* Islamism
* Totalitarianism
* Authoritarianism
* Autocracy
* Liberal democracy
* Illiberal democracy
* Guided democracy
* Social democracy
* Third-worldism
* White supremacy
* White nationalism
* White separatism
* Apartheid
* Finlandization

Organizations|

* NATO
* SEATO
* METO
* EEC
* Warsaw Pact
* Comecon
* Non-Aligned Movement
* NN States
* ASEAN
* SAARC
* Safari Club

Propaganda|

| Pro-communist|

* Active measures
* Izvestia
* Neues Deutschland
* Pravda
* Radio Moscow
* Rudé právo
* Trybuna Ludu
* TASS
* Soviet Life

|

Pro-Western|

* Amerika
* Crusade for Freedom
* Paix et Liberté
* Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

* Red Scare
* Voice of America

Technological
competition|

* Arms race
* Nuclear arms race
* Space Race

Historians|

* Gar Alperovitz
* Thomas A. Bailey
* Michael Beschloss
* Archie Brown
* Warren H. Carroll
* Adrian Cioroianu
* John Costello
* Michael Cox
* Nicholas J. Cull
* Norman Davies
* Willem Drees
* Robert D. English
* Herbert Feis
* Robert Hugh Ferrell
* André Fontaine
* Anneli Ute Gabanyi
* John Lewis Gaddis
* Lloyd Gardner
* Timothy Garton Ash
* Gabriel Gorodetsky
* Fred Halliday
* Jussi Hanhimäki
* John Earl Haynes
* Patrick J. Hearden
* Tvrtko Jakovina
* Tony Judt
* Harvey Klehr
* Gabriel Kolko
* Walter LaFeber
* Walter Laqueur
* Melvyn P. Leffler
* Geir Lundestad
* Vojtech Mastny
* Jack F. Matlock Jr.
* Thomas J. McCormick
* Timothy Naftali
* Marius Oprea
* David S. Painter
* William B. Pickett
* Ronald E. Powaski
* Yakov M. Rabkin
* M. E. Sarotte
* Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
* Ellen Schrecker
* Giles Scott-Smith
* Shen Zhihua
* Timothy Snyder
* Athan Theoharis
* Andrew Thorpe
* Vladimir Tismăneanu
* Patrick Vaughan
* Alex von Tunzelmann
* Odd Arne Westad
* William Appleman Williams
* Jonathan Reed Winkler
* Rudolph Winnacker
* Ken Young

Espionage and
intelligence|

* List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States
* Soviet espionage in the United States
* Russian espionage in the United States
* American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation
* CIA and the Cultural Cold War
* CIA
* MI5
* MI6
* United States involvement in regime change
* Soviet involvement in regime change
* MVD
* KGB
* Stasi

See also|

* Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
* Soviet Union–United States relations
* Soviet Union–United States summits
* Russia–NATO relations
* War on terror
* Brinkmanship
* Pax Atomica
* Second Cold War
* Russian Revolution

* Category
* List of conflicts
* Timeline

* v
* t
* e

Joseph Stalin

* General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952)
* Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1946–1953)
* Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
* Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union

History
and politics|

| Overviews|

* Early life
* Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War, Polish–Soviet War
* Rise
* Rule as Soviet leader
* Political views
* Cult of personality
* Death and state funeral
* Death toll

|

Chronology|

* August Uprising
* Anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)/(1928–1941)
* Collectivization
* Kolkhoz
* Sovkhoz
* Chinese Civil War
* First five-year plan
* Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)
* 16th / 17th Congress of the Communist Party
* 1931 Menshevik Trial
* Spanish Civil War
* Soviet invasion of Xinjiang
* Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
* 1937 Islamic rebellion in Xinjiang
* 1937 legislative election
* 18th Congress of the Communist Party
* Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
* World War II
* Invasion of Poland
* Winter War
* Moscow Peace Treaty
* Occupation of the Baltic states
* German–Soviet Axis talks
* Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact
* Great Patriotic War
* Tehran Conference
* Yalta Conference
* Potsdam Conference
* Soviet atomic bomb project
* Ili Rebellion
* Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance
* 1946 legislative election
* Cold War
* 1946 Iran crisis
* Turkish Straits crisis
* First Indochina War
* Eastern Bloc
* Comecon
* Cominform
* Greek Civil War
* 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
* Berlin Blockade
* Korean War
* Sino-Soviet Treaty
* Tito–Stalin split
* 1950 legislative election
* 19th Congress of the Communist Party

Concepts|

* Stalinism
* Socialism in one country
* Neo-Stalinism
* Korenizatsiya
* Socialism in One Country
* Great Break
* Socialist realism
* Stalinist architecture
* Aggravation of class struggle under socialism
* Five-year plans
* Great Construction Projects of Communism
* Engineers of the human soul
* 1936 Soviet Constitution
* New Soviet man
* Stakhanovite
* Transformation of nature
* Backwardness brings on beatings by others

Crimes, repressions,
and controversies|

* 1906 Bolshevik raid on the Tsarevich Giorgi
* 1907 Tiflis bank robbery
* National delimitation in the Soviet Union
* Georgian Affair
* Decossackization
* Dekulakization
* Wittorf affair
* Great Break
* Demolition of Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
* Soviet famine of 1932–33
* Holodomor
* Gulag
* Murder of Sergey Kirov
* Great Purge
* Vasiliy Ulrikh
* NKVD prisoner massacres
* Berezhany
* Berezwecz
* Dubno
* Chortkiv
* Kurapaty
* Katyn
* Lutsk
* Lviv
* Medvedev Forest
* Sambir
* Valozhyn
* Vileyka
* Vinnytsia
* Zolochiv
* Moscow Trials
* Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites"
* Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization
* Dewey Commission
* Hotel Lux
* Repressions in Azerbaijan
* Ideological repression in science
* Suppressed research
* Lysenkoism
* Japhetic theory, Slavists case
* 1937 Soviet Census
* 1941 Red Army purge
* Soviet offensive plans controversy
* Hitler Youth Conspiracy
* Soviet war crimes
* Allegations of antisemitism
* Population transfer (German–Soviet)
* Deportations
* Operation "Lentil"
* Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
* Koreans
* Operation "North"
* Operation "Priboi"
* Nazino affair
* Forced settlement
* Tax on trees
* 1946–1947 Soviet famine
* Leningrad Affair
* Mingrelian Affair
* Rootless cosmopolitan
* Night of the Murdered Poets
* Doctors' plot
* Censorship of images
* Mass graves in the Soviet Union
* Kommunarka shooting ground
* Stalin's shooting lists

Works|

* "Anarchism or Socialism?"
* "Marxism and the National Question"
* "Foundations of Leninism"
* "Dizzy with Success"
* "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia"
* "Ten Blows" speech
* Alleged 19 August 1939 speech
* Falsifiers of History
* Stalin Note
* The History of the Communist Party
* 1936 Soviet Constitution
* Stalin's poetry
* Dialectical and Historical Materialism
* Order No. 227
* Order No. 270
* "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics"
* Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR

De-Stalinization|

* 20th Congress of the Communist Party
* Pospelov Commission
* Rehabilitation
* Khrushchev thaw
* On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
* Gomulka thaw (Polish October)
* Soviet Nonconformist Art
* Shvernik Commission
* 22nd Congress of the Communist Party
* Era of Stagnation
* 1956 Georgian demonstrations

Criticism and
opposition

* Stalin Epigram
* Lenin's Testament
* Ryutin Affair
* Anti-Stalinist left
* Trotskyism
* Kremlin Plot
* True Communists
* Darkness at Noon
* Animal Farm
* Nineteen Eighty-Four
* Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism
* The Soviet Story
* Antisemitism

Remembrance|

* Iosif Stalin tank
* Iosif Stalin locomotive
* Generalissimo of the Soviet Union
* Stalin statues
* Pantheon, Moscow
* 1956 Georgian demonstrations
* List of awards and honours bestowed upon Joseph Stalin
* Statue of Joseph Stalin, Berlin
* Stalin Monument in Budapest
* Stalin Monument in Prague
* Joseph Stalin Museum, Gori
* Batumi Stalin Museum
* Places named after Stalin
* State Stalin Prize
* Stalin Peace Prize
* Stalin Society
* Stalin Bloc – For the USSR

Cultural depictions|

* Apocalypse: Stalin
* The Death of Stalin
* Mikheil Gelovani

Family|

* Besarion Jughashvili (father)
* Keke Geladze (mother)
* Kato Svanidze (first wife)
* Yakov Dzhugashvili (son)
* Konstantin Kuzakov (son)
* Artyom Sergeyev (adopted son)
* Nadezhda Alliluyeva (second wife)
* Vasily Stalin (son)
* Svetlana Alliluyeva (daughter)
* Yevgeny Dzhugashvili (grandson)
* Galina Dzhugashvili (granddaughter)
* Joseph Alliluyev (grandson)
* Sergei Alliluyev (second father-in-law)
* Alexander Svanidze (brother-in-law)
* Yuri Zhdanov (son-in-law)
* William Wesley Peters (son-in-law)

Stalin's residences|

* Stalin's house, Gori
* Tiflis Seminary
* Kureika
* Room at Kremlin
* Kuntsevo
* Stalin's bunker

* Category

* v
* t
* e

National media in the former Eastern Bloc

Eastern Bloc information dissemination

Overview|

* Media of the Soviet Union
* Broadcasting
* State Committee (Gosteleradio)
* Radio
* Television
* Printed media
* Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia

Newspapers|

* Soviet Union
* Central newspapers: Pravda
* Izvestia
* Komsomolskaya Pravda
* Pionerskaya Pravda
* Trud
* Sovetsky Sport
* Republican newspapers: Sovetskaya Rossiya (Russian SFSR)
* Zvyazda (Byelorussian SSR)
* Sovetskaya Latviya (Latvian SSR)
* Cīņa (Latvian SSR)
* Tiesa (Lithuanian SSR)
* Czerwony Sztandar (Lithuanian SSR)
* Sovetskaya Litva (Lithuanian SSR)
* Rahva Hääl (Estonian SSR)
* Neuvosto-Karjala (Karelo-Finnish SSR)
* Komunisti (Georgian SSR)
* Sotsialistik Qazaqstan (Kazakh SSR)
* Sovettik Kyrgyzstan (Kirghiz SSR)
* Moldova Socialistă (Moldavian SSR)
* Esti Budapest (Hungary)
* Esti Hírlap (Hungary)
* Freie Erde (East Germany)
* Haqiqat-e Inquilab-e Saur (Afghanistan)
* Laiko Vima (Albania)
* Mladá fronta Dnes (Czechoslovakia)
* Népszabadság (Hungary)
* Neues Deutschland (East Germany)
* Pravda (Czechoslovakia)
* Rabotnichesko Delo (Bulgaria)
* Rudé právo (Czechoslovakia)
* Scînteia (Romania)
* Trybuna Ludu (Poland)
* Zëri i Popullit (Albania)

Magazines|

* Atze (East Germany)
* Dolgozó nő (Romania)
* Eulenspiegel (East Germany)
* Femeia (Romania)
* Filmspiegel (East Germany)
* Form und Zweck (East Germany)
* FRÖSI (East Germany)
* Für Dich (East Germany)
* Guter Rat (East Germany)
* Jugend und Technik (East Germany)
* Kultur im Heim (East Germany)
* Lakáskultúra (Hungary)
* Neue Berliner Illustrierte (East Germany)
* Neue Werbung (East Germany)
* Neuer Weg (East Germany)
* Neues Leben (East Germany)
* Novy Vostok (Soviet Union)
* Oktyabr (Soviet Union)
* Sibylle (East Germany)
* Sputnik (Soviet Union)
* Vlasta (Czechoslovakia)

Television|

* Televizioni Shqiptar (Albania)
* Bulgarian National Television (Bulgaria)
* 1st Programme BT
* 2nd Programme BT
* ČST (Czechoslovakia)
* F1
* ČST2
* DFF (East Germany)
* DFF1
* DFF2
* MTV (Hungary)
* TV1
* TV2
* TVP (Poland)
* TP1
* TP2
* TVR (Romania)
* TVR 1
* TVR 2
* Central Television (USSR)
* Programme One
* Programme Two
* Moscow Programme
* Programme Four
* Leningrad Television (Russian SFSR)
* Republican stations:
* Armenia 1 (Armenian SSR)
* AzTV (Azerbaijan SSR)
* Belarus Television (Byelorussian SSR)
* ETV (Estonian SSR)
* First Channel (Georgian SSR)
* Rigas Televīzija (Latvian SSR)
* Lietuvos Televizija (Lithuanian SSR)
* Canalul 1 (Moldavian SSR)
* Ukrainian Television Ch.1 (Ukrainian SSR)

Radio|

* All-Union Radio (USSR)
* First Programme (USSR)
* Second Programme (USSR)
* Radio Yunost (USSR)
* Radio Orfey (USSR)
* Eesti Raadio (Estonian SSR)
* Latvijas Radio 1 (Latvian SSR)
* Lietuvos radijas (Lithuanian SSR)
* Radio Moscow (Russian SFSR)
* Radio Peace and Progress
* Public Radio of the Armenian SSR
* Radio Belarus (Byelorussian SSR)
* Radio Georgia (Georgian SSR)
* Rundfunk der DDR (East Germany)
* Berliner Rundfunk
* Deutschlandsender
* Radio DDR 1
* Radio DDR 2
* DT64
* Radio Berlin International
* Radio Tirana (Albania)
* Radio Bulgaria
* Horizont (Bulgaria)
* Magyar Rádió (Hungary)
* Kossuth Rádió (Hungary)
* Radio Polonia
* Program 1 Polskiego Radia (Poland)
* Radio Romania

Agencies|

* TASS (USSR)
* BelTA (Byelorussian SSR)
* ELTA (Lithuanian SSR)
* APN (USSR)
* Soviet Information Bureau
* ADN (East Germany)
* Czech News Agency (Czechoslovakia)
* ATSH (Albania)

* v
* t
* e

Eastern Bloc economies

Economies|

* Economy of East Germany
* Economy of Communist Czechoslovakia
* Economy of the Soviet Union
* Goulash (Hungarian) Communism
* Economy of the People's Republic of Poland
* Economy of Lithuania
* Economy of Latvia
* Economy of Moldavia
* Economy of SFR Yugoslavia

Collectivization|

* Collectivization in the People's Republic of Poland
* Collectivization in Hungary
* Collectivization in the Soviet Union
* Battle for trade (Poland)
* Collectivization in Ukraine
* Land Reforms (Afghanistan)
* Dekulakization
* Three Year Plan (Poland)
* Collectivization in Romania
* Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union
* Systematization (Romania)

Pre-dissolution reforms|

* New Economic Policy (Soviet Union, 1920s)
* Wage reform in the Soviet Union, 1956–1962
* New Course (GDR, 1950s)
* Kosygin reform (Soviet Union, 1960s)
* New Economic Mechanism (Hungary, 1960s)
* New Economic System (GDR, 1960s)
* Economic System of Socialism (GDR, 1970s)
* Perestroika (Soviet Union, 1980s)

Related concepts|

* Eastern Bloc economies
* Shortage economy
* Sovkhoz
* Stakhanovite
* Comecon

* v
* t
* e

Current and former ruling parties of communist states

| Afghanistan|

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan

|

Albania|

Party of Labour of Albania

Angola|

People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola*

Benin|

People's Revolutionary Party of Benin

Bulgaria|

Bulgarian Communist Party

Burkina Faso|

African Independence Party

Cambodia|

| DK|

Communist Party of Kampuchea

|

PRK|

Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party

Cape Verde|

African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde*

China|

Chinese Communist Party

Congo|

Congolese Party of Labour*

| Cuba|

Communist Party of Cuba

|

Czechoslovakia|

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia

East Germany|

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Ethiopia|

Derg (COPWE, Workers' Party of Ethiopia)

Grenada|

New Jewel Movement

Guinea-Bissau|

African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde*

Hungary|

* Hungarian Working People's Party
* Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party

Laos|

Lao People's Revolutionary Party

Madagascar|

Vanguard of the Malagasy Revolution*

Mongolia|

Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party*

Mozambique|

FRELIMO*

| North Korea|

Workers' Party of Korea

|

Poland|

Polish Workers' Party, Polish United Workers' Party

Romania|

Romanian Communist Party

São Tomé and Príncipe|

Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe*

Seychelles|

Seychelles People's Progressive Front*

Somalia|

Supreme Revolutionary Council, Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party

South Yemen|

National Liberation Front, Yemeni Socialist Party*

Soviet Union|

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Tuva|

Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party

North Vietnam,
Vietnam|

Communist Party of Vietnam

Yugoslavia|

League of Communists of Yugoslavia

* List of communist parties
* Comecon
* Cominform
* Comintern
* Eastern Bloc
* Warsaw Pact

* Italics indicates a current ruling party or communist state
* An asterisk indicates a party no longer espousing communism

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