The standard view in the West during the development of the Cold War was that the Soviet Union conducted an expansionist policy which was seen to threaten peace and collective security. The provocative and expansionist nature of Stalin’s foreign policy after 1945 was singled out as the prime cause of the Cold War and, as the Soviet Union sought to expand world communism, the West was forced into taking action to safeguard the free world. However, a closer examination of Soviet foreign policy during this period illustrates a combination of mistrust and a lack of understanding which arguably led to a misinterpretation of Stalin’s motives for expanding Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. While there is evidence that supports the Orthodox view that Stalin’s expansion was aggressive, new arguments have come to light to support the idea that the Soviet Union “wanted to guarantee its security in the future” and can therefore it was simply a defensive move.
One key factor responsible for the incorporation of Eastern Europe into the sphere of Soviet control was the presence of the Red Army in Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War. Although Stalin was willing to accept coalition governments, in the eastern European states the USSR had occupied, in the years immediately after the Second World War, the tension generated by the Cold War resulted in the trend towards the imposition of communist governments on the countries of Eastern Europe. Thus developments in this region of Europe were greatly influenced by the international situation between the superpowers.
Stalin’s response to Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech presented a benign Soviet Union peacefully seeking eastern European allies to reinforce Russia’s security. This was the traditional Soviet explanation for its policies towards Eastern Europe. By September 1947, the Soviet Union had a much more developed