The Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe

• In 1944 and 1945, the Red Army took control of Bulgaria, Romania and eastern parts of Germany. Voters were intimidated into voting communist
• In 1947, voters in Hungary were intimidated into voting communist and by 1949 Hungary was a one-party communist state
• Poland also had supposedly free elections in 1947, but pro-democracy politicians either were imprisoned or fled
• In February 1948, communists staged a coup in Czechoslovakia where the non-communist leader Benes was forced out and replaced by the pro-Soviet communist Klement Gottwald