ABSTRACT
Questions of geography were always deeply implicated in the Cold War that developed between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. By the end of the war, the states of Eastern Europe had become part of a Soviet sphere of influence. The Stalinist regime that governed the Soviet Union was a bureaucratic dictatorship that was determined to create a security zone for itself to prevent yet another invasion of its territory by Western powers. This had happened immediately after the Bolshevik revolution and again when Hitler invaded in June of 1941. Approximately twenty million Russians had died defending their homeland against Hitler’s racist crusade and rolling back the German war machine until it was destroyed and Berlin captured. Peace with security was thus foremost on Stalin’s mind, which in practical terms meant a peace with the security of a substantial Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern and Central Europe.
