Iron Curtain Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Political, economic, and military realities=== ====Eastern Bloc==== [[File:EasternBloc BasicMembersOnly.svg|thumb|A map of the [[Eastern Bloc]]]] {{Main|Eastern Bloc}} While the Iron Curtain remained in place, much of Eastern Europe and many parts of Central Europe – except [[West Germany]], [[Liechtenstein]], [[Switzerland]], and most of [[Austria]] (all of Austria after the withdrawal of occupying Allied forces and the [[Declaration of Neutrality|declaration of Austria's neutrality]] that resulted from the [[Austrian State Treaty]] in 1955) – found themselves under the hegemony of the [[Soviet Union]]. The Soviet Union annexed: * [[Estonian SSR|Estonia]]<ref name="wettig20" /><ref name="senn" /> * [[Latvian SSR|Latvia]]<ref name="wettig20">{{Harvnb|Wettig|2008|p=21}}</ref><ref name="senn">Senn, Alfred Erich, ''Lithuania 1940: Revolution from Above'', Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2007 {{ISBN|978-90-420-2225-6}}</ref> * [[Lithuanian SSR|Lithuania]]<ref name="wettig20" /><ref name="senn" /> as [[Soviet Socialist Republics]] within the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]. Germany effectively gave Moscow a free hand in much of these territories in the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of 1939, signed before Germany [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union]] in 1941. Other Soviet-annexed territories included: * [[Kresy|Eastern Poland]] (incorporated into the [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs]]),<ref name="stalinswars43">{{Harvnb| Roberts| 2006| p=43}}</ref> * Part of eastern [[Finland]] (became part of the [[Karelo-Finnish SSR]])<ref name="ckpipe">Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline, ''Stalin's Cold War'', New York: Manchester University Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-7190-4201-1}}</ref> * Northern [[Romania]] (part of which became the [[Moldavian SSR]]).{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=55}}{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=794}} *[[Kaliningrad Oblast]], the northern half of [[East Prussia]], taken in 1945. *Part of eastern [[Czechoslovakia]] ([[Carpathian Ruthenia]], incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR). Between 1945 and 1949 the Soviets converted the following areas into [[satellite state]]s: * The [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]]<ref name="wettig96">{{Harvnb|Wettig|2008|pp=96–100}}</ref> * The [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]] * The [[People's Republic of Poland]] * The [[Hungarian People's Republic]]<ref name="granville">Granville, Johanna, ''The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956'', Texas A&M University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-58544-298-4}}</ref> * The [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Grenville|2005|pp=370–371}}</ref> * The [[People's Republic of Romania]] * The [[People's Republic of Albania]]<ref name="cook17">{{Harvnb|Cook|2001|p=17}}</ref> (which re-aligned itself in the 1950s and early 1960s [[Soviet-Albanian split|away from the Soviet Union]] towards the [[China|People's Republic of China]] (PRC) and split from the PRC [[Sino-Albanian Split|towards a strongly isolationist worldview]] in the late 1970s) Soviet-installed governments ruled the Eastern Bloc countries, with the exception of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], which changed its orientation [[Tito–Stalin split|away from the Soviet Union]] in the late 1940s to a progressively [[Non-aligned Movement|independent worldview]]. The majority of European states to the east of the Iron Curtain developed their own international economic and military alliances, such as [[Comecon]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]]. ====West of the Iron Curtain==== [[File:Curtain germany.jpg|thumb|Fence along the east–west border in Germany (near [[Witzenhausen]]-[[Heilbad Heiligenstadt|Heiligenstadt]])]] [[File:1 K zone.png|thumb|upright|Sign warning of approach to within one kilometer of the inter-zonal German border, 1986]] To the west of the Iron Curtain, the countries of Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Southern Europe – along with [[Austria]], [[West Germany]], [[Liechtenstein]] and [[Switzerland]] – operated [[market economy|Market Economies]]. With the exception of a period of [[Francoist Spain|Fascism in Spain]] (until [[Spanish transition to democracy|1975]]) and [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]] (until [[Carnation Revolution|1974]]) and a [[Greek military junta of 1967–1974|military dictatorship in Greece (1967–1974)]], [[Democracy|democratic governments]] ruled these countries. Most of the states of Europe to the west of the Iron Curtain – with the exception of [[Neutral country|neutral]] [[Switzerland]], [[Liechtenstein]], [[Austria]], [[Sweden]], [[Finland]], [[Malta]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] – allied themselves with [[Canada]], the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States]] within [[NATO]]. [[Spain]] was a unique anomaly in that it stayed neutral and non-aligned until 1982, when, following democracy's return, it joined NATO. Economically, the [[European Community]] (EC) and the [[European Free Trade Association]] represented Western counterparts to [[COMECON]]. Most of the nominally neutral states were economically closer to the United States than they were to the [[Warsaw Pact]].{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} ====Further division in the late 1940s==== {{Further|Marshall Plan|Falsifiers of History|Berlin Airlift|Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948}} In January 1947, [[Harry Truman]] appointed General [[George Marshall]] as Secretary of State, scrapped Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) directive 1067 (which embodied the [[Morgenthau Plan]]), and supplanted it with JCS 1779, which decreed that an orderly and prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany."<ref name="beschloss277">{{Harvnb|Beschloss|2003|p=277}}</ref> Officials met with Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] and others to press for an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already removed by the Soviets.<ref name="miller16">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=16}}</ref> After five and a half weeks of negotiations, Molotov refused the demands and the talks were adjourned.<ref name="miller16"/> Marshall was particularly discouraged after personally meeting with Stalin, who expressed little interest in a solution to German economic problems.<ref name="miller16"/> The United States concluded that a solution could not wait any longer.<ref name="miller16"/> In a 5 June 1947 speech,<ref name="marshallspeech">Marshall, George C, [[s:The Marshall Plan Speech|''The Marshal Plan Speech'']], 5 June 1947</ref> Marshall announced a comprehensive program of American assistance to all European countries wanting to participate, including the Soviet Union and those of Eastern Europe, called the [[Marshall Plan]].<ref name="miller16"/> Stalin opposed the Marshall Plan. He had built up the [[Eastern Bloc]] protective belt of Soviet-controlled nations on his Western border,<ref name="miller10">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=10}}</ref> and wanted to maintain this buffer zone of states combined with a weakened Germany under Soviet control.<ref name="miller11">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=11}}</ref> Fearing American political, cultural and economic penetration, Stalin eventually forbade Soviet [[Eastern bloc]] countries of the newly formed [[Cominform]] from accepting [[Marshall Plan]] aid.<ref name="miller16"/> In [[Czechoslovakia]], that required a Soviet-backed [[Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948]],<ref name=trueye>''Airbridge to Berlin'', "Eye of the Storm" chapter</ref> the brutality of which shocked Western powers more than any event so far and set in a motion a brief scare that war would occur and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress.<ref name="miller19">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=19}}</ref> Relations further deteriorated when, in January 1948, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] also published a collection of documents titled ''Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office'', which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office of [[Nazi Germany]]<ref name="henig67"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|p=preface}}</ref> revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact negotiations|Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]], including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe,<ref name="roberts97">{{Harvnb|Roberts|2002|p=97}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|p=78}}</ref> the [[German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939)|1939 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement]],<ref name="roberts97"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|pp=32–77}}</ref> and [[German–Soviet Axis talks|discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Churchill|1953|pp=512–524}}</ref> In response, one month later, the Soviet Union published ''[[Falsifiers of History]]'', a Stalin-edited and partially re-written book attacking the West.<ref name="henig67">{{Harvnb|Henig|2005|p=67}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Roberts|2002|p=96}}</ref> After the Marshall Plan, the introduction of a new currency to Western Germany to replace the debased [[Reichsmark]] and massive electoral losses for communist parties, in June 1948, the Soviet Union cut off surface road access to [[Berlin]], initiating the [[Berlin Blockade]], which cut off all non-Soviet food, water and other supplies for the citizens of the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin.<ref name="miller25">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=25–31}}</ref> Because Berlin was located within the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, the only available methods of supplying the city were three limited air corridors.<ref name="miller6">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=6–7}}</ref> A massive aerial supply campaign was initiated by the United States, Britain, France, and other countries, the success of which caused the Soviets to lift their blockade in May 1949. 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