What effects did Soviet policy in Eastern Europe, 1945- 1948, have on relations between the Superpowers?
Between 1945 and 1948 Stalin tried his best to ensure that Communist governments came to power in all the countries of Eastern Europe. Communists shared power with other parties in coalition governments in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. However Stalin was not prepared for the USSR to share power, as by 1948 all the states in Eastern Europe had communist governments and communists took full control of the governments in Poland, Hungary and Romania. This wasn’t so difficult for Stalin to do as the Red Army who worked for the USSR, freed much of Eastern Europe from the Nazis, and they just remained in the countries and occupied them as they established a communist government. They took over the civil services; media, security and opposition leaders were forced to flee or were arrested. This was not very fair on the citizens, but they did not have a choice. In all states the Communist leaders had to take their instructions from Stalin in Moscow though. Stalin was invading countries rather than helping them, which caused tension between the superpowers. The land of the states should have been distributed and as the USSR was converting many governments into communist governments Truman was extremely annoyed as he was a strong anti-communist. Stalin mainly set up the communist governments in Eastern Europe to ensure future safety however this was seen as distrust and greed.
