Curated playlist
Eastern Bloc
- East GermanyA picnic near the Hungarian town of Sopron helped bring down East Germany. The border opened there in August 1989.
- Tito–Stalin splitStalin's letter meant to trigger a purge in Yugoslavia instead set off a break that reshaped the Cold War.
- Eastern BlocBy 1961, about 20 percent of East Germans had left for the West. The Eastern Bloc then built the Berlin Wall.
- Prague SpringThe Soviets planned four days to crush the Prague Spring, but resistance lasted almost eight months.
- Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact's only two military actions targeted its own members. Hungary's 1956 exit bid was crushed.
- Socialist Republic of RomaniaRomania's Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed after a trial that lasted an hour and a half. Days before, a crowd booed him.
- Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet UnionThe Soviet takeover of eastern Poland was planned in secret before Germany attacked.
- Berlin WallWeeks before the Berlin Wall went up, Walter Ulbricht said no one intended to build one.
- ComeconStalin ordered three countries out of Marshall Plan talks that they wanted to join. Comecon soon followed.
- Hungarian People's RepublicHungary's communists won just 17% of the vote in 1945. Four years later, the country was under one-party rule.
- Revolutions of 1989A picnic near the Hungarian border in August 1989 let thousands of East Germans cross into Austria.
- 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatTwelve ministers quit Czechoslovakia's government in 1948, sure they would win. Four days later the president gave in.
- CominformIn June 1948, Cominform expelled Yugoslavia's communist party. Eight parties voted unanimously against Tito's party.
- Emigration from the Eastern BlocEast Germany sold 70,000 political prisoners to West Germany. It charged 70,000 DM for each person it let go.
- Satellite stateMongolia's Soviet-backed republic collapsed less than two months after the Soviet Union dissolved.
- Hungarian Revolution of 1956Hungary's 1956 revolution began when students read out sixteen demands. Soviet tanks crushed it after just 15 days.
- Iron CurtainWinston Churchill did not coin the phrase iron curtain. Queen Elisabeth of Belgium used it first, in 1914.
- Solidarity (Polish trade union)Solidarity began when a Gdansk shipyard fired crane operator Anna Walentynowicz in August 1980.
- Warsaw Pact invasion of CzechoslovakiaSoviet tanks rolled into Prague in 1968 and were met with stones, eggs and tomatoes.
- Czechoslovak Socialist RepublicIn February 1948, a president handed his country to the Communists. Edvard Beneš feared civil war.
- Eastern Bloc media and propagandaUnder Stalin, Eastern Bloc forecasts were altered if the sun might miss May Day.
- January EventsA small Kaunas studio stayed on air after Soviet soldiers switched off Lithuania's live TV broadcast.
- Polish People's RepublicIn June 1989, Poland's first competitive elections in decades ended in a Solidarity sweep.
- Ukrainian Soviet Socialist RepublicOn the 1st of December 1991, 92.3 percent of Ukrainian voters chose independence.
- CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was dissolved by its own parliament without a single shot fired. The country had lasted 74 years.
- Russian Soviet Federative Socialist RepublicThe Russian SFSR, largest Soviet republic, had no presidency until 1990. It had no anthem of its own until then.
- Byelorussian Soviet Socialist RepublicMonths after losing over two million people, Byelorussia won a seat at the United Nations.
- People's Republic of BulgariaCommunist guerrillas launched a coup in Bulgaria on the night of the 9th of September 1944.
- People's Socialist Republic of AlbaniaAlbania gave Yugoslav advisers just 48 hours to leave in 1948. It then blamed Yugoslavia for its own purge.
- CubaIn 1956, Fidel Castro and about eighty supporters landed in Cuba from the yacht Granma to start a rebellion.
- Berlin BlockadeIn June 1948, Stalin cut every road, rail line and canal into West Berlin.