Russia%20

1
Russia its relations with Eastern Europe
2

• By the end of WWII Soviet armies occupied most of
  E. Europe
• Local Communist parties destroyed opposition
  parties, censored press, ended private
  ownership
• Stalin forced these satellite nations to
  contribute to rebuilding Soviet industry sell
  their natural resources provide troops
  for Warsaw Pact

3

• Each country was allowed to keep its cultural
  identity (unlike the Soviet republics)
• Soviet govt tightened its grip on satellite
  nations as Cold War deepened
• Failure of the West to intervene when E.
  Europeans asked for help showed they accepted
  Soviet sphere of influence

4

• Each country was allowed to keep its cultural
  identity (unlike the Soviet republics)
• Soviet govt tightened its grip on satellite
  nations as Cold War deepened
• Failure of the West to intervene when E.
  Europeans asked for help showed they accepted
  Soviet sphere of influence

5

• Soviets responded w/force any time a nationalist
  movement began in satellite nation (Brezhnev
  Doctrine)
• Late 1989 democracy movement swept through E.
  Eur.
• Communist govts fell one by one
• Most changes came peacefully
• E. Eur nations withdrew from Warsaw Pact Soviet
  troops left

6

• Moved from communism to capitalism
• Privatized industries stopped keeping prices
  artificially low
• EFFECTS high unemployment, soaring prices, crime
  wave, consumer goods plentiful but unaffordable,
  inflation
• Many cried for the old days of communism

7

• Others asked the West for help joined NATO or
  the EU (or both)
• Ethnic tensions many diverse nations
• Nationalism helped unite some (like Poland
  Hungary) while others divided (Czechoslovakia
  became Czech Republic Slovakia)