To What Extent was 'Sovietisation' imposed on Eastern Europe after 1945? Discuss with reference to at least two countries in the region - two countries referenced are Poland + Czechoslovakia

Essay by gforshawUniversity, Bachelor'sB, March 2005

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To What Extent was 'Sovietisation' imposed on Eastern Europe after 1945? Discuss with reference to at least two countries in the region

The dominant conflict following the end of the Second World War was the hostility and competition between the Soviet Union and the West, in particular the United States. For decades the origins of this conflict, the cold war, has provided a basis for an enormous and varied histography. Central to any argument put forward by a historian is the question of the communist seizure of power within Europe. By 1948 every country in Eastern Europe was run by communist parties, and with the exception of Yugoslavia, worked closely with the Soviet Union. This is often referred to as the 'Sovietisation' of Eastern Europe as most of these newly formed communist nations based themselves politically and economically on soviet based models. This has led to a popular histography mainly influenced western Historians to assert that 'Sovietisation' was in fact forced onto Eastern European nations by the Soviet Union (orthodox theory).

They accused Stalin of attempting to create a system of satellite states in Eastern Europe, thus creating a communist empire . Throughout this essay I shall explore this argument that has been put forward by the western historians, though taking into account some of the revisionist perspectives, proving that Stalinism was imposed on Eastern Europe by referring mainly to Poland and Czechoslovakia.

One of the major factors which was responsible for enhancing the influence the communists had throughout Eastern Europe after 1945 was the legacy of the Second World War, this is outlined by both historians of the orthodox and revisionist perspective. Eastern Europe had been acknowledged as the Red Army's responsibility in the Tehran talks of December 1943 and in October 1944 during the 'infamous percentage agreements'...