The Cold War and the Sovietization of Eastern Europe

Abstract

The modern history of Eastern Europe is a history of encirclement by more powerful empires and nations. Before and during the eighteenth century, this area fell victim to the expansionist drives of the Russian, Prussian, Austrian, and Ottoman empires. Although Greece, Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria gained independence in the nineteenth century, theirs was a perilous existence that resulted from the compromises and machinations of the major powers. Since no major power gained a decided military advantage until after World War II, conflicts in Eastern Europe tended to be limited.

This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise.

Joseph Stalin, in Conversations with Stalin by Milovan Djilas