The outcome of WWII led to Soviet military domination of Eastern and Central Europe, which led to the formation of a Soviet bloc (or 'Soviet Empire')

• The USSR's territory was extended, and in the neighbouring national states the USSR used its military presence, and its political influence over local communist parties to encourage the formation of a government that were 'friendly' to the Soviet Union
• By 1948, most of these countries became satellite states closely linked to the USSR, creating a zone of buffer states, which Stalin hoped would protect the USSR against future invasion from the West

The formation of the Soviet bloc had deep roots

• In 1939, under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the USSR invaded and occupied Eastern Poland in 1940, and, through the secret protocols of the pact…