ABSTRACT
Although there were wide differences between the countries occupied by the Red Army after 1945, they were all treated in very much the same way. This may have been because the Soviet leaders were ‘drunk with success’ (as Stalin put it in one of his messages to the Soviet people quoted on a number of occasions by the Webbs) and, inspired by missionary zeal, convinced that the system which had worked for them must of necessity work for their neighbours. A more probable explanation is that Stalin wanted a cordon sanitaire against the West, and was not interested in the local customs of the countries whose independence was sacrificed in order to provide it.
