Eastern Bloc

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Map of Eastern Bloc
Enlarge
Map of Eastern Bloc

During the Cold War, the term Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and its allies in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and—until the early 1960s—Albania).

The "Eastern Bloc" is also used as another name for the Warsaw Pact (a Soviet-led military alliance) or the Comecon (an international economic organization of Communist states). Soviet allies outside of Eastern Europe, such as Mongolia and often Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea were sometimes included in the term East Bloc as well. The terms Eastern bloc and Soviet Union are sometimes confused. Although the Soviet Union had some political influence over the Eastern bloc countries, the countries in the Eastern bloc like Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland were totally separate countries.

[edit] External links