Why and how did the USSR establish control over the countries of Eastern Europe 1945-1948?

Question

help. PLEASE. ive got this essay question to answer for tomorrow, and i cannot find ANYTHING. Does anybody have a good website where I could find the answer? thanks!

Answer 1

Try searching "eastern- block" countries or USSR East Block.

Eastern block refers to Soviet (Russian) satellite countries formed by the Soviet Union after the end of ww2.

Satellite Countries consisted of countries like East Germany, Poland, Hungary...such countries were taken over by the Soviets during WW2 as this was the Eastern front, the Germans and Russians fought in this area and after wars end the Russians settled in and over time enacted thier own form of Governments there known as "Puppet" ; simply put, the Soviets controlled the Russian Appointed dictator and told him what to do and when to do it in each of the satellite countries.

The Soviet theory being that it was good to have other countries between them and eastern Europe as a "Buffer zone" . In the event of another war the Soviets could meet the enemy on soil other than Russian and fight there; later, in 1955, the "Warsaw pact" was enacted, sort of like an Eastern Nato. (Nato being the U.S. backed western European alliance)

The Soviets had been Invaded many times in the past centuries and basicaaly were tired of fighting on Russian soil; the Germans fought all the way to Stalingrad in 1943 and were pushed back by the Soviets with near 99% casualty's; The Germans lost around 300,000 troops with the remainingt 200,000 taken prisoner and held in Soviet labor camps; of those, only 3000 returned to Germany around 1948, a full three years after wars end.

Answer 2

Your best bet is the library. This is such a wide topic and is tied to WWI. Try searches for the Russian Revolution, Lennin, Stanlin, Rasputin, Marxism-Lenninism, Communism.

Answer 3

http://www.lehrer-online.de/dyn/bin/378244-379049-1-webquest-europe_arbeitsmaterial.rtf

http://www.answers.com/topic/union-of-soviet-socialist-republics#after_ad1

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761569374

http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue18/Sheppard.htm