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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 ...
Stalin and the Communist Party were given full credit for the victory over Germany, and generals such as Zhukov were demoted to regional commands (Ukraine in his case). With the onset of the Cold War, anti-Western propaganda was stepped up, with the capitalist world depicted as a decadent place where crime, unemployment, and poverty were rampant.
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 ...
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.
Stalin feuded with Trotsky quietly, to appear as "The Golden Centre Man". Prior to the Revolution, Trotsky frequently snubbed Stalin, mocked his lack of education, and questioned his effectiveness as a revolutionary. [12] Stalin's theory of "Socialism in One Country" was a contrast to Trotsky's "Permanent Revolution". Trotsky's downfall was ...