3.4 The Soviet Advance and the Liberation of Eastern Europe

The Soviet advance into Eastern Europe in 1944-1945 marked a turning point in World War II. As the Red Army pushed back German forces, they liberated occupied territories and established control over a vast swath of Eastern Europe.

This Soviet expansion dramatically reshaped the postwar European landscape. The USSR quickly installed communist governments in occupied countries, creating a bloc of Soviet-aligned states. This shift in power dynamics set the stage for Cold War tensions with the West.

Soviet Liberation of Eastern Europe

Major Soviet Offensives in 1944

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• The Soviet Red Army launched major offensives in 1944, pushing back German forces and advancing into Eastern Europe
• Key operations included Operation Bagration which drove the Germans out of Belorussia and eastern Poland
• The offensives allowed the Soviets to regain territories lost earlier in the war and set the stage for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Nazi occupation

Liberation of the Baltic States and Poland

• Soviet forces liberated the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from German occupation by late 1944
  • This reestablished Soviet control over these territories that had been annexed by the USSR in 1940 following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
• The Red Army entered Warsaw in January 1945 after the city had been destroyed in the failed Warsaw Uprising against the Germans
  • The uprising by the Polish Home Army received little Soviet support, straining relations with the Polish government-in-exile
  • Poland was now under Soviet control, with a communist-friendly government installed

Soviet Advance into Eastern Germany and Central Europe

• In early 1945, the Soviets launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive, rapidly advancing from Poland into eastern Germany
  • Key strongholds like Königsberg in East Prussia fell to the Soviets
  • The offensive brought Soviet forces to the Oder River, just 70 km from Berlin
• The Red Army swept through Hungary and captured Budapest in February 1945 after a prolonged siege, cementing their control over the country
  • Hungarian forces had been key German allies, but now the country was under Soviet occupation
• By the war's end in May 1945, Soviet forces occupied nearly all of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Balkans, dramatically expanding their sphere of influence

Soviet and Partisan Forces in the Balkans

• Soviet and Bulgarian forces occupied much of Yugoslavia and the Balkans by early 1945
• Belgrade was liberated with the help of Yugoslav Partisans under Josip Broz Tito
  • Tito's Partisans had been the main resistance movement against the Germans and their collaborators in Yugoslavia
  • Tito's forces would later resist Soviet domination, leading to a split with Stalin
• The Soviet advance through the Balkans ensured the region would fall under communist influence in the postwar period

Soviet Occupation in Eastern Europe

Imposition of Communist Governments

• The Soviet Union quickly moved to install communist-dominated governments in the occupied Eastern European countries, often with little regard for democratic processes or the will of the local populations
• In Poland, the Soviets empowered the Polish Committee of National Liberation and sidelined the Polish government-in-exile in London
  • Poland became a communist People's Republic under Bolesław Bierut
• The Soviets engineered a communist takeover in Hungary and cracked down on opposition groups and parties
  • Mátyás Rákosi emerged as the Stalinist dictator of Hungary, engaging in purges and show trials
• In Czechoslovakia, the Soviets initially allowed free elections in 1946 which saw the Communist Party as the largest party
  • But a full communist takeover followed in 1948, with the support of the Soviets
• Bulgaria became a loyal Soviet satellite state after the communists took power in 1946 with Soviet backing
  • Opposition was suppressed and the monarchy was abolished

Resistance and Repression in Occupied Countries

• The Soviets backed the establishment of an unpopular communist regime in Romania under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
  • The Romanian monarchy was abolished and opposition was crushed
• Yugoslavia took a different path, with Tito's Partisans taking control and resisting Soviet domination
  • This led to a split between Tito and Stalin, with Yugoslavia pursuing an independent communist path
• Soviet occupation forces engaged in widespread looting, pillaging and sexual violence against local populations, straining relations with the liberated countries
  • The behavior of Soviet troops tarnished the image of the USSR as a liberator in the eyes of many Eastern Europeans
• Resistance movements, such as the Polish "cursed soldiers" and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, continued to fight against Soviet rule into the late 1940s and early 1950s
  • These anti-communist guerrillas were brutally suppressed by Soviet and local communist forces

Stalinist Policies in Eastern Europe

• The Soviets began imposing Stalinist economic and social policies in Eastern Europe, leading to major transformations
• Industry and banking were nationalized, with the state taking control of the economy
  • Private enterprise was largely eliminated and central planning was introduced
• Agriculture was collectivized, with private farms seized and reorganized into state-run collectives
  • This process often involved violence and repression against resistant farmers
• The communist regimes suppressed dissent, banned opposition parties, and restricted civil liberties
  • Secret police forces like the East German Stasi were used to monitor and control the population
• Stalinist-style purges and show trials were used to eliminate potential rivals and consolidate power
  • Leaders like László Rajk in Hungary and Traicho Kostov in Bulgaria were executed after false confessions

Shifting Power in Post-War Europe

Rise of the Soviet Union as a Superpower

• The Soviet Union emerged from World War II as a military and industrial superpower, now in control of a vast empire stretching from Germany to the Pacific
• The Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and the occupation of Eastern Europe dramatically expanded Soviet influence and power
  • The USSR now had a buffer zone of friendly states in Eastern Europe to protect its western borders
• The Soviets' dominant position in Eastern Europe allowed them to create a bloc of communist countries closely aligned with Moscow
  • These satellite states were tied to the Soviet Union through military, economic, and political agreements
• The Soviet Union's status as a superpower was cemented by its development of nuclear weapons, with its first atomic bomb test in 1949
  • This ended the United States' monopoly on nuclear weapons and added to the Soviet Union's global prestige

Division of Europe and the Origins of the Cold War

• The expansion of Soviet influence into the heart of Europe alarmed the Western Allies, particularly the United States and Britain
  • Tensions rose as the former allies began to view each other with suspicion and mistrust
• The division of Europe into Soviet and Western spheres of influence set the stage for the Cold War
  • Germany itself was divided between East and West, with the Soviets controlling the eastern part and the Western Allies the western sectors
• The United States sought to counter Soviet influence in Europe through economic and military initiatives
  • The Marshall Plan provided economic aid to rebuild Western Europe and contain communism
  • The formation of NATO in 1949 created a Western military alliance to counter the Soviet threat
• The Soviets responded by integrating Eastern Europe economically and militarily
  • The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) coordinated economic planning among the Soviet bloc countries
  • The Warsaw Pact, formed in 1955, was a military alliance of the Eastern European communist states led by the Soviet Union
• The Soviet advance and subsequent actions in Eastern Europe shattered the wartime alliance and laid the foundations for nearly half a century of Cold War tensions between the Soviet bloc and the West
  • Europe became the front line of the Cold War, with the Iron Curtain dividing the continent into two hostile camps