stalins intentions

stalins need for protection

• the infamous percentages agreement and the Yalta conference had confirmed , in stalins mind that the states that had been freed from Nazi Germany would fall into soviet sphere of influence

• his actions in eastern Europe were motivated by a determination to do whatever was necessary to safeguard soviets international interests and territory

stalins control of eastern Europe

• his intent to establish a buffer zone to the west of the Ussr based on satellite states was completed in 1948

• by then , he had succeeded in establishing communist regimes across eastern Europe such as in Poland , Hungary, Romania Albania and finally Czechoslovakia

• this would also reinforce defence capability of the Ussr against any western threat 

• stalins methods of imposing communist regimes on eastern European states also revealed something about his motives 

• communist regimes weren’t simply forced, there were alliances with other lest wing parties and then taking control of them

• opposition candidates were often intimidated

• and election results were manipulated to ensure communist victory

attractiveness of communism

• there was a compliance towards communism in eastern Europe in post war Czechoslovakia for example, the communist party emerged as the largest single party and one 38% of the vote in the relatively free election in may 1946

• the war left these states with mass unemployment and chaos, and therefore the communist party appealed to them because of the dominance of the ruling elites associated with the capitalist 

• most people perceived the Nazis as freedom fighters due to their fight against Nazism 

• communists promised employment and social mobility 

• however this view wasn’t shared by all sectors of ee

Stalin as omnipotent

• he believed that communist ideology could only be fulfilled if he was the leader which would make the Ussr powerful

• the alliances with other parties was simply a means to an end

• Stalin and to ensure that the leaders of all these states acted as his puppets and loyalty to Moscow was prerequisite of their survival