Abstract
Shortly before the official end of the Second World War, on 25th April 1945, American and Soviet soldiers met at the Elbe. In order to reach the Elbe River, the Russian troops had to come all the way across Europe, thus crossing Eastern Europe. By the end of the same year, seven states occupied by the Red Army were governed by communist parties, as were and Albania and Yugoslavia. Adding to this was the fact that most of the eastern part of Europe remained under communist rule until the end of the 1980s. In this context, the question of why communism became established in those countries seems natural.
