前苏联为何要征服东欧及修建柏林墙的原因(英文)

Why did the Soviet Union pursue the domination of eastern Europe，including constructing the Berlin Wall？

1.Introduction

After the World War II, with the famous "Iron Curtain" speech by Winston Churchill, due to the sharp opposition of ideology between the east and west, the cold war world situation with two opposite camps, the capitalist countries and the socialist countries, had gradually formed and the confrontation had lasted for a long time. (Walker, 1994) In order to maintain the leading position and compete with the United States, the Soviet Union built up a close relationship between socialist countries among eastern Europe. Along with break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia since 1948, the Soviet Union began to carry out the "purge", snatched "Tito members" in the eastern European countries. During Khrushchev’s governance, as the east Germany (GDR)’s economy was bad, people longed for the west Germany, which resulted in the loss of large labor force of the east Germany. Thus Khrushchev gave the order to build the Berlin wall. (McCauley, 2008) The aim of this paper is to analyze the reasons why the Soviet Union pursued the domination of Eastern Europe, including constructing the Berlin Wall.

2.Soviet Union’s pursuit of dominating Eastern Europe

In terms of significance of the eastern Europe to the Soviet Union, academic circles have many points of view. American scholar Lincoln Gordon's analysis is rather comprehensive. Firstly, as a defensive buffer, eastern Europe is an important military consideration. Eastern Europe is also seen as a potential springboard of offensive strategies. The Soviet Union regarded this area as a pioneer and the first achievement of world communist movement out of ideological reasons, which was also an example for the rest of the world to follow. Besides, the Soviet Union also saw eastern Europe as a core of country union which could provide political and diplomatic support on the world political stage. Thus eastern Europe further became the source of political and legal ideology for Moscow. Lastly, eastern Europe was once regarded as the source of

economic fortune. Under the cold war situation, it was not only a successful sign for the Soviet Union to maintain balance in Europe and share the world with the United States, but also had a crucial role in maintaining security and interests of the Soviet Union, as well as had certain effects on people’s psychology. (Gordon& Brown, 1987) Communist countries in eastern Europe is in fact “the epitome of a second self ", only when the leader of the Soviet union saw proper reflection from eastern Europe would they feel satisfied. After the Hungarian Incident, Nehru asked about the Soviet’s invasion into Hungary, he got the official answer that "if there was no interference with Hungary, if the forces of imperialism won, if in this case the Federal Republic of Germany made pressure on the German Democratic Republic, it would certainly break the balance in Europe, therefore it would have a direct threat to peace." (Beam, 1978)

After Stalin's death in 1953, the new leaders of the Soviet Union began to adjust the policy towards eastern Europe. The Soviet Union no longer easily intervened in each country's affairs and showed some respect towards domestic and foreign affairs of the eastern European countries. However, these measures proposed by Khrushchev were out of strategic considerations, their purpose was still safeguarding the Soviet Union’s realistic interests in eastern Europe. (King, 1973) The Soviet Union's foreign policy goals and global strategy remained the same. Eastern Europe was still seen as Soviet’s sphere of influence, the Soviet Union never allowed the existence of risk of losing control of eastern Europe. In Poznan Event in 1956, Khrushchev threatened Poland with military means, and then ordered troops twice to quell the unrest in Hungary. In 1968, the Soviet Union sent troops to kill Czechoslovakia's reform. (McCauley, 2008) All of these actions seemed to be very necessary for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union could allow eastern European countries gain some degree of independence, but would never tolerate them to completely deviate from the will of the Soviet union. It could stand that eastern European countries improve some degree of democratization, but never allowed to rebel against communism, even appeal to the west. Even after decades of years, during Gorbachev government’s leading period, the Soviet Union still treated eastern Europe as an indispensable ally. On the Sophia Conference in