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How Did Stalin Affect The Sovietization Of Eastern Europe

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Sovietisation of Eastern Europe 1945-1968
World war two saw a grand alliance of Britain, America and Russia created in order to defeat their common enemy, Adolf Hitler. In pursuit of this goal they attended a number of conferences to plan their attacks and to decide on the future of post war Europe. At Teheran in 1943 Churchill voiced concerns about the post-war situation in Eastern Europe, he was afraid that victory over the Nazis would leave the USSR in control of Eastern Europe. To prevent this from happening he proposed that the Anglo-American’s open up a second front in the Balkans. Stalin rejected this proposal as he knew it would thwart his plan to extend his ‘sphere of influence’ in Eastern Europe after the war, and insisted the …show more content…

While Stalin had promised that the elections would be free and fair, they were anything but. In the 1947 election the communists won 80% of the vote and a one-party communist state was created. The Catholic Church became the main opposition voice in Poland with Cardinal Wyszynski imprisoned for his support of resistance groups. Despite this, the sovietisation of Poland lasted 40 years.
In Hungary the communists initially formed only a small part of a national government after the war. In the 1945 election the communists only won 17% of the vote while the Smallholders Party won 60%. However, under pressure from the Soviet Union the PM Tidly was forced to appoint a communist Rákosi as his deputy and Rajk as minister of the interior, latter position meant that the communists controlled the police and the legal system and they used this to terrorise members of the opposition parties. In the 1947 election the communists won 24% of the vote but by merging with the social Democrats they were able to get the Parliament to pass a new constitution in 1949.
The coalition government in Czechoslovakia lasted longer than in other eastern bloc countries. The democratic parties held the majority in this government with Benes as president and Jan Masaryk as Foreign Minister. However as had happened in other eastern bloc countries a communist, Gottwald, was appointed PM and they

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