1945/1946 WW II Ends, Poland and Eastern Europe Fall Under Communist Domination
During the war, the allied powers, called the Big Three (U.S., U.K., Soviet Union) met several times to discuss the progress of the war. Their first meeting was in Tehran in 1943. Joseph Stalin made it clear to Churchill and Roosevelt that he intended to keep the Polish territory seized in the Soviet’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Meeting a second time in Yalta in 1945, Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe.
By the time of a third meeting of the Allies at Potsdam to negotiate terms for the end of the war, Roosevelt was dead, President Harry Truman had to face the reality that a vast Soviet army occupied and firmly controlled Central and Eastern Europe.
When World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, the Soviets remained in control of Poland. The Red Army stationed 500,000 troops in Poland, and Soviet generals and advisers made up eighty percent of the officer cadre of the Polish Armed Forces.
By 1946, the communists controlled much of the government and had the backing of the Red Army and the secret police. They were able to threaten, assault, or even murder opposition activists. The communists consolidated their grip on the country through intimidation and persecution and established a centrally planned socialist economy.
