Changes

In the years after the Soviet liberation of countries, such as Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary, the Soviet Supreme leader, staged coups that deposed often democratically elected governments, often pro-western and replaced them with Communist administrations.<ref> Applebaum, Anne. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/140009593X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=140009593X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=03d813e57e34b26c53182c459bc18eb7 Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956]</i> (Doubleday, London 2012), p. 117</ref> Stalin went to great lengths that the new governments were sympathetic to the particular brand of Communism espoused by him. He made sure that the Communist governments carried out his wishes and conformed to his repressive form of Communism. The desire to expand communism was one of the key drivers of Soviet policy in the aftermath of the end of the war.<ref>Boobyear, p. 277</ref> However, this alarmed the west, especially Washington and this persuaded them to see Moscow as its chief enemy.

Stalin has often been referred to as the 'Red Tsar'. He wanted to build a great empire for himself and his nation. The Supreme Soviet Leader believed that the Soviet Union had all but won the war against the Germans, on its own. This meant that they were entitled to the spoils of war and that because of their great victory that they had won the right to dominate, politically and economically, smaller countries.<ref>Montefiore, Simon Sebag. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400076781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1400076781&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a2465ef3d37dd105ffcfe226239d20ed Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar]</i>. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p. 317</ref> Stalin believed that the Soviet Union was entitled to be regarded as a great power. Now great powers, such as Britain and France had empires and so the Soviet Union was entitled to a great empire. Stalin's desire to establish an empire from the countries that his Red Army had recently liberated was one of the main goals of the communist leader, in the post-war period.