Eastern Bloc

Examples of Eastern Bloc in the following topics:

• The Cold War Begins

  • The Cold War began with the formation of the Eastern Bloc, as well as the implementation of the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Blockade.
  • These included eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, part of eastern Finland, and eastern Romania.
  • The Eastern European territories liberated from the Nazis and occupied by the Soviet armed forces were added to the Eastern Bloc by converting them into satellite states.
  • Fearing American political, cultural and economic penetration, Stalin eventually forbade Soviet Eastern bloc countries from accepting Marshall Plan aid.
  • Stalin believed that economic integration with the West would allow Eastern Bloc countries to escape Soviet control, and that the US was trying to buy a pro-US re-alignment of Europe.

• Conclusion: Truman and the Beginning of the Cold War

  • The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states).
  • A series of events during and after World War II exacerbated tensions, including the Soviet-German pact during the first two years of the war leading to subsequent invasions, the perceived delay of an amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe, the western allies' support of the Atlantic Charter, disagreement in wartime conferences over the fate of Eastern Europe, the Soviets' creation of an Eastern Bloc of Soviet satellite states, western allies scrapping the Morgenthau Plan to support the rebuilding of German industry, and the Marshall Plan.
  • The USSR consolidated its control over the states of the Eastern Bloc, while the United States began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power, extending military and financial aid to the countries of Western Europe (for example, supporting the anti-communist side in the Greek Civil War) and creating the NATO alliance.
  • It was distinguished from rollback by implicitly tolerating the previous Soviet takeovers in Eastern Europe.
  • Europe became split between the Soviet "Eastern Bloc" and the "Western Bloc."

• Origins of the Cold War

  • Serious differences emerged over the future development of Germany and Eastern Europe.
  • After the war, Stalin sought to secure the Soviet Union's western border by installing communist-dominated regimes under Soviet influence in bordering countries, called the Eastern Bloc.
  • These later annexed territories include Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, part of eastern Finland and northern Romania.
  • In response to perceived western aggression, in September 1947, the Soviets created Cominform to enforce orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc.
  • The borders of Eastern bloc's members other than the USSR, Poland and Yugoslavia are shown in their post-war status.

• Crisis in Berlin

  • After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, many of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave.
  • Between 1945 and 1950, over 15 million people emigrated from Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries to the West.
  • Taking advantage of this route, the number of Eastern Europeans applying for political asylum in West Germany was 197,000 in 1950, 165,000 in 1951, 182,000 in 1952, and 331,000 in 1953.
  • The Berlin sector border was essentially a "loophole" through which East Bloc citizens could still escape.

• The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

  • It was distinguished from rollback by implicitly tolerating the previous Soviet takeovers in Eastern Europe.
  • The non-participation of Eastern Europe was one of the first clear signs that the continent was now divided.
  • At the same time, the nonparticipation of the states of Eastern Bloc was one of the first clear signs that the continent was now divided.

• Interventions in Latin America and the Middle East

  • Officially started in 1947 with the Truman doctrine theorizing the "containment" policy, the Cold War had important consequences in Latin America, considered by the United States to be a full part of the Western Bloc, called the "free world."
  • As such, the U.S. considered it a priority to rid it of any influences from the communist Eastern Bloc.

• The New Dealers

  • The New Deal Coalition consisted of interest groups and voting blocs that supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies.
  • More recent European immigrants and their descendants, including Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans and Eastern European Jews: Most of these voters, characterized by their ethnic ancestry, lived in the cities of the Northeast and the Midwest and belonged to the industrial working class or were other types of blue-collar workers.

• Peacetime Politics

  • With the Soviet Union expanding its sphere of influence through Eastern Europe, Truman and his foreign policy advisors took a hard line against the USSR.
  • In addition to economic woes, because Roosevelt had not paid attention to Congress in his final years, Truman faced a body where Republicans and conservative southern Democrats formed a powerful voting bloc.

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

  • Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs.
  • Members of NATO are shown in blue, mostly in western Europe plus Greece and Turkey, with members of the Warsaw Pact in red, in eastern Europe.

• The Election of 1924

  • Solicitor General Davis received the nomination, carrying only the traditionally Democratic “Solid South” bloc of states and Oklahoma.
  • The 1924 Progressive Party, comprised solely of La Follette supporters, was different than the party of the same name that ran Theodore Roosevelt for president in 1912; the new Progressives were generally agrarian, populist and Midwestern as opposed to Roosevelt’s urban, eastern elite following.