kids encyclopedia robot

Eastern Bloc facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Europe-blocs-49-89x4
The political situation in Europe during the Cold War.
EasternBloc

The term Eastern Bloc referred to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960 respectively. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) arranged economic cooperation among the members.

Communist governments were initially installed in a Bloc politics process that included extensive political and media controls, along with a Soviet approach to restricting emigration. Events such as the split of Josip Broz Tito and Berlin Blockade prompted stricter control. While the Bloc persisted through revolts, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, its command economies experienced inefficiencies and stagnation preceding the Bloc's dissolution. Counterrevolutions in 1989 dissolved the Soviet Bloc.


Images for kids

  • Stamp of USSR 1556

    Soviet Union stamp of 1950, depicting the flags and peoples of the Eastern Bloc.

  • Mikolajczyk

    World War II Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk fled Poland in 1947 after facing arrest and persecution

  • Germans-airlift-1948

    Germans watching Western supply planes at Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift

  • Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Baku

    Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, once the most dominant landmark in Baku, was demolished in the 1930s under Stalin

  • Berlin Wall Potsdamer Platz November 1975 looking east crop

    Berlin Wall in 1975

  • Mdm1

    Prominent examples of urban design included Marszałkowska Housing Estate (MDM) in Warsaw

  • Destroyed Warsaw, capital of Poland, January 1945

    During World War II, 85% of buildings in Warsaw were destroyed by German troops

  • Bucur Obor (1986)

    A line for the distribution of cooking oil in Bucharest, Romania in May 1986

  • Vilnius Energy and Technology Museum 48

    Reconstruction of a typical working class flat interior of the khrushchyovka

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0122-023, Infografik, Landwirtschaft der DDR Getreideerträge

    Propaganda poster showing increased agricultural production from 1981 to 1983 and 1986 in East Germany

  • Robotron

    A Robotron KC 87 home computer made in East Germany between 1987 and 1989

  • Eastern bloc economies GDP 1990

    Per capita GDP in the Eastern Bloc from 1950 to 2003 (1990 base Geary-Khamis dollars) according to Angus Maddison

  • GDP per capita of the Eastern Bloc

    GDP per capita of the Eastern Bloc in relations with GDPpc of United States during 1900–2010

  • Block Poehoe alt

    East German Plattenbau apartment blocks

  • 10 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency

    Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning Soviet tank in Prague

  • Cold War Map 1980

    The Cold War in 1980 before the Iran–Iraq War

  • Oliver Mark - Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, Pöcking 2006

    Otto von Habsburg, who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain

  • Cold War border changes

    Changes in national boundaries after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc

  • European countries by total wealth(billions USD), Credit Suisse 2018

    European countries by total wealth (billions USD), Credit Suisse, 2018

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Bloque del Este para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Eastern Bloc Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.