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The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were aligned with the Soviet Union and existed during the Cold War (1947–1991).
By the end of World War II, most of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union in particular, suffered vast destruction. [9] The Soviet Union had suffered a staggering 27 million deaths, and the destruction of significant industry and infrastructure, both by the Nazi Wehrmacht and the Soviet Union itself in a "scorched earth" policy to keep it from falling in Nazi hands as they advanced over 1,600 ...
Lenin's position was one where the trade unions were subordinate to the workers' state, but separate, with Lenin accusing Trotsky of "bureaucratically nagging the trade unions". Fearing a backlash from the trade unions, Lenin asked Stalin to build a support base in the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (Rabkrin) against bureaucratism. [17]
In September 1947, a meeting of East European communist leaders established Cominform to co-ordinate the Communist Parties across Eastern Europe and also in France and Italy. [516] Stalin did not personally attend the meeting, sending Andrei Zhdanov in his place. [464] Various East European communists also visited Stalin in Moscow. [517]
The Soviet invasion of these areas in 1939 created local allies and produced NKVD officers experienced in imposing the communist system. The Soviet Union began planning the transformation of Eastern Europe even before the 1941 Nazi invasion of the USSR. There is evidence that the USSR did not expect to create a communist bloc quickly or easily.
In the early 1930s, the socialist movements that did not support the Bolshevik party line were condemned by the Communist International and called social fascism. [ 12 ] Soviet democracy granted voting rights to the majority of the populace who elected the local soviets, who elected the regional soviets and so on until electing the Supreme ...
Members of the Communist Party of China celebrating Stalin's birthday in 1949. In 1924, Joseph Stalin, a key Bolshevik follower of Lenin, took power in the Soviet Union. [134] Stalin was supported in his leadership by Nikolai Bukharin, but he had various important opponents in the government, most notably Lev Kamenev, Leon Trotsky, and Grigory ...
Stalin: A Biography (2004), along with Kotlin & Tucker a standard biography online ; Tucker, Robert C. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929 (1973); Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929–1941. (1990) online edition Archived 25 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine with Service, a standard biography; online at ACLS e-books