Soviet Domination and Resistance in Central and Eastern Europe (1945–1968)

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Security (buffer zone against western invasion), ideology (spreading Marxism-Leninism), and resources (exploiting eastern Europe's industry and food to rebuild the USSR).

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Salami tactics = gradually removing coalition partners one by one until only communists remained in power. The phrase was coined by Hungarian communist Mátyás Rákosi.

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Founded January 1949. It coordinated eastern bloc economies under Soviet direction — assigning each state an economic role and creating dependency on Moscow. It was also the Soviet response to the US Marshall Plan.

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Signed May 1955, in direct response to West Germany joining NATO. It gave the USSR the legal right to station troops in member states and later justified military intervention in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968).

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Yugoslavia was the only eastern bloc state to break free of Soviet control early. In 1948 Stalin expelled Yugoslavia from the Cominform and imposed an economic blockade, but Tito refused to back down. Yugoslavia survived, proving independence from Moscow was possible.

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Triggered by raised work quotas and low living standards. Soviet tanks suppressed the uprising within two days; 50–100 killed, thousands arrested. East German leader Ulbricht survived in power.

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Poland's Gomułka promised to keep Poland inside the Warsaw Pact — Moscow's red line. Hungary's Nagy announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, which Moscow could not tolerate. The extent of the challenge, not just its existence, determined the response.

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Reform movement under Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubček — 'socialism with a human face' — including press freedom and travel rights. Ended by a Warsaw Pact invasion of 500,000 troops on 20–21 August 1968. Dubček was removed from power.

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The Soviet claim (after 1968) that the USSR had the right to intervene militarily in any socialist country where socialism was threatened. It remained policy until Gorbachev renounced it in 1988.

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Staged public trials in which prominent communists confessed to fabricated crimes, used to eliminate rivals and create fear. Examples: László Rajk (Hungary, 1949) and Rudolf Slánský (Czechoslovakia, 1952).

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Nagy was arrested after Soviet tanks crushed the uprising, secretly tried for treason, and executed in June 1958. About 2,500 Hungarians were killed and 200,000 fled as refugees.

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The USA and NATO did not intervene militarily in any of the uprisings — not East Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), or Czechoslovakia (1968). Without external support, opposition movements had no counterweight to Soviet military force. Western passivity was confirmed by Eisenhower's refusal to act during the Hungarian Revolution despite Radio Free Europe's encouragement.