SOVIET EXPANSION

• The fallout from WWiI saw material destruction of homes, transportation and communication networks with hundreds of thousands becoming homeless and displaced. There was a dramatic reduction in economic productivity across the nations with Europeans facing the possibility that they could not recover. This led to a significant swing to the left with all the countries replacing their Wartime governments with those dedicated to social and economic reform.
• The end of the war saw the Red Army march through Eastern Europe to conquer Germany with Soviet troops occupying East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania establishing satellite states. From 1946, these satellites states were controlled by Soviet dominated communist governments despite Western hopes at Yalta that Eastern Europe will remain 'free and democratic.', Soviet influence extended further into Albania and Yugoslavia with the establishment of communist regimes (although they were not directly linked to Moscow).
• However, whilst Eastern Europe were becoming heavily influenced by the Soviet Union, it is important to note that the USSR did not have complete control or access to nuclear weapons. Germany and Berlin were divided between four powers and was not completely under Soviet control as it was run by a joint commission. Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were not totally dominated by the USSR and though the Red Army was a powerful influence, the total domination of eastern Europe was not complete in 1946.