ww2, the post war years, and stalin's death
Throughout the second World War, Russia thoroughly displayed it's military might. Not only repelling an unexpected german invasion that they were already losing, but also pushing their way into Germany all the way to it's capital city of Berlin, the Russians proved that they were a formidable foe. They made a statement with each victory, saying that they could equal any country - even the U.S. While the United States was obviously very shaken by the realization that Russia was basically now on of their equals as far as military might went it was after the war that tensions really flared.
Long before the Second War to the end all wars came about Russia had had a history of vulnerability to foreign invasion in cases such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Russo-Polish war, and even World War 2 itself. The Soviets wished to conquer and/or utilize the the Eastern countries as a buffer zone to protect the mainland from future invasion. Basically, if Russia had control of say, Poland, when somebody like Germany invaded they'd have to cross Poland before they could even get anywhere near Russia itself, giving Russia that much more time to retaliate.
Another motivation, however, was just regaining lost territory. As Mark Kramer, author of one Stanford study writes, "
In 1919 the Soviet government had been compelled to watch helplessly as Béla Kun’s Communist regime was overthrown in Hungary, and in March 1921 the Soviet Union was forced to cede parts of Belarus and Ukraine to Poland." Back in the 20's, the Soviets did not have the power t defend said territories and lost them to foreign rivals, but now they had everything they needed to become the strongest power over all of the East, and they intended to become so. Therefore, after the end of World War 2, Russia gained control of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia through a series of puppet government, and by extension owned the East.
Long before the Second War to the end all wars came about Russia had had a history of vulnerability to foreign invasion in cases such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Russo-Polish war, and even World War 2 itself. The Soviets wished to conquer and/or utilize the the Eastern countries as a buffer zone to protect the mainland from future invasion. Basically, if Russia had control of say, Poland, when somebody like Germany invaded they'd have to cross Poland before they could even get anywhere near Russia itself, giving Russia that much more time to retaliate.
Another motivation, however, was just regaining lost territory. As Mark Kramer, author of one Stanford study writes, "
In 1919 the Soviet government had been compelled to watch helplessly as Béla Kun’s Communist regime was overthrown in Hungary, and in March 1921 the Soviet Union was forced to cede parts of Belarus and Ukraine to Poland." Back in the 20's, the Soviets did not have the power t defend said territories and lost them to foreign rivals, but now they had everything they needed to become the strongest power over all of the East, and they intended to become so. Therefore, after the end of World War 2, Russia gained control of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia through a series of puppet government, and by extension owned the East.
signifigance
The real importance here is not why the Soviets pushed for this expansion of influence, however, but how it looked to the west. As stated in the previous pages, citizens in countires like the US and UK had been ever so paranoid of the prospect of communism growning, and perhaps even creating a threat to their own civil liberties. Now, their nightmare had seemingly come true.Russia, having liberated seveal European territories from the Nazi regime, they were now free to install their own communist puppet government as they peased. Communism was expanding, and though it was still far from hom, that didn't stop the people of the west from worrying.