Curated category
Eastern Bloc
- East GermanyOn the 7th of October 1949, the German Democratic Republic officially came into existence within the Soviet occupation zone.
- Tito–Stalin splitOn the 6th of April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The country surrendered just eleven days later, and its government fled to London.
- Eastern BlocIn 1939, the Soviet Union signed a secret protocol with Nazi Germany that divided Romania, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland into German and…
- Prague SpringThe economic downturn of the early 1960s struck Czechoslovakia with unexpected force. The Soviet model of industrialization applied poorly to a nation…
- Warsaw PactThe Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, hosted a signing ceremony on the 14th of May 1955. Eight nations gathered to establish the Treaty of Friendship…
- Socialist Republic of RomaniaOn the 6th of March 1945, a new pro-Soviet government took power in Bucharest after mass demonstrations by communist sympathizers and intense political…
- Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet UnionEarly in the morning of the 24th of August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a ten-year non-aggression pact.
- Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that for 28 years encircled the western half of a divided city, turning West Berlin into an isolated exclave…
- ComeconThe Council for Mutual Economic Assistance emerged from a Moscow conference held between the 5th and the 8th of January 1949.
- Hungarian People's RepublicThe Hungarian People's Republic was born on the 20th of August 1949, when a newly elected parliament passed a constitution that was, by most accounts, a…
- Revolutions of 1989On the 14th of August 1980, a massive general strike erupted at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Workers demanded better conditions and the right to…
- 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatIn 1945, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia counted just 40,000 members. By early 1948, that number had swelled to 1.35 million.
- CominformIn September 1947, delegates gathered in Szklarska Poręba, a small town in the Sudetes mountains of Poland. Joseph Stalin called this meeting to address…
- Emigration from the Eastern BlocIn the first month after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik regime instituted passport controls. This move forbade the exit of belligerent…
- Satellite stateThe term satellite state emerged in English texts as early as 1780. Writers used the phrase to describe planetary mechanics where smaller moons circle larger…
- Hungarian Revolution of 1956In 1945, the Red Army entered Budapest after a brutal siege that left the city in ruins. The Soviet Union established control over Hungary, transforming it…
- Iron CurtainTheater stages in the early twentieth century installed iron safety curtains to slow the spread of fire. This literal barrier became a metaphor for political…
- Solidarity (Polish trade union)Anna Walentynowicz was fired from the Gdańsk Shipyard on the 7th of August 1980. This management decision enraged the workers of the shipyard, who staged a…
- Warsaw Pact invasion of CzechoslovakiaIn the late 1950s, Czechoslovakia began a slow process of de-Stalinization under Antonín Novotný. This change moved much slower than in other Eastern Bloc…
- Czechoslovak Socialist RepublicOn the 25th of February 1948, President Edvard Beneš capitulated to Soviet pressure and appointed a Communist-dominated government.
- Eastern Bloc media and propagandaIn 1945, the Soviet Union occupied all eastern and central European capitals following World War II. This occupation marked the beginning of state control…
- January EventsThe Baltic states, including Lithuania, were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The illegal occupation was never recognized by Western powers…
- Polish People's RepublicIn February 1945, the Red Army occupied the entire country of Poland. Joseph Stalin presented his Western allies with a fait accompli at the Yalta Conference.
- Ukrainian Soviet Socialist RepublicThe Bolsheviks convened a separate congress and declared the first Soviet Republic of Ukraine on the 24th of December 1917.
- CzechoslovakiaOn the 28th of October 1918, a crowd gathered on Prague's Wenceslas Square to hear the declaration of independence. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk returned from…
- Russian Soviet Federative Socialist RepublicOn the 7th of November 1917, the Russian Soviet Republic emerged as a sovereign state following the October Revolution. This event marked the creation of the…
- Byelorussian Soviet Socialist RepublicMinsk fell to Bolshevik forces on the 10th of December 1918. This event marked a turning point after years of shifting control during World War I and the…
- People's Republic of BulgariaOn the 9th of September, communist guerrillas launched a coup d'état which de facto ended the rule of the Bulgarian monarchy.
- People's Socialist Republic of AlbaniaOn the 29th of November 1944, partisan forces entered the capital city of Tirana to liberate Albania from Axis occupation.
- CubaCuba is an archipelago of 4,195 islands, cays and islets located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the convergence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic…
- Berlin BlockadeThe Potsdam Agreement signed between the 17th of July and the 2nd of August 1945 divided defeated Germany into four temporary occupation zones.