Eastern Bloc

The term Eastern Bloc referred to the former Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960 respectively. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) arranged economic cooperation among the members. Although officially independent countries, they were Soviet satellite states.  The Eastern Bloc was created in 1947 by Joseph Stalin who was leader of the Soviet Union.

Communist governments were initially installed, mostly in places that had been controlled by the Axis countries and occupied due to the victories of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II). The process included extensive political and media controls, along with a Soviet approach to restricting emigration. Events such as the split of Josip Broz Tito and Berlin Blockade prompted stricter control. While certain oppositional factions in the Bloc had revolts, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika experienced inefficiencies and stagnation throughout much of the Bloc preceding the Bloc's dissolution. Counterrevolutions in 1989 dissolved the Soviet Bloc.

A 2009 Pew Research Center poll showed that 72% of Hungarians and 62% of both Ukrainians and Bulgarians felt that their lives were worse off after 1989, when free markets were made dominant. A follow-up poll by Pew Research Center in 2011 showed that 45% of Lithuanians, 42% of Russians, and 34% of Ukrainians approved of the change to a market economy.

 Countries in the Eastern Bloc 

 Czechoslovakia
 Romania
 Bulgaria
 East Germany
 Poland
 Albania

Post-1991 Eastern Bloc associations

Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

Armenia
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Russia
Tajikistan

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

People's Republic of China
India (from 2017)
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Pakistan (from 2017, also aligned with Western Bloc)
Russia
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan

African countries that have gained independence from Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the United Kingdom
Angola
Burundi
Mozambique
Tanzania
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Mali
Chad
Guinea
Gabon
Niger
Burkina Faso

ALBA
Antigua and Barbuda
Bolivia
Cuba
Dominica
Grenada
Nicaragua
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Venezuela

Remaining communist or non-Marxist-Leninist states
People's Republic of China
Cuba
Laos
North Korea
Syria
North Vietnam

References

Category:20th century in Europe
Category:Communism
Category:International politics
Category:Cold War