Soviet Bloc

1. The communist nations closely allied with the Soviet Union , including Bulgaria , Cuba , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Hungary , Poland , and Romania , whose foreign policies depended on those of the former Soviet Union. It did not include communist nations with independent foreign policies, such as China , Yugoslavia , and Albania . The Soviet Union used its military force several times in the Soviet Bloc to ensure that the countries' governments followed Soviet preferences: in East Germany in 1953, in Hungary and Poland in 1956, and in Czechoslovakia in 1968, for example. ( See Warsaw Pact .)