USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the Eastern Bloc by invading and then annexing several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics, adding to the existing Soviet Union of Russia, Transcaucasia, Ukraine, and Byelorussia.

Detailed explanation-2: -From the perspective of the Soviet Union the satellite states gave them a buffer zone between themselves and a hostile west. They gained a large territory with which they could trade. It enhanced their power and, in theory, strengthened communism.

Detailed explanation-3: -Thus Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Rumania are by this definition satellite states. Yugoslavia is not because, although it is a Communist state, it is not at present subservient to the Kremlin nor an integral part of the Soviet system.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania (Albania withdrew in 1968).

Detailed explanation-5: -How did the Soviet Union try to ensure that satellite states would follow its policies? It controlled local communist governments. Which of these most likely explains why people in the Eastern Bloc had little contact with the West? They could not travel freely.