What is Eastern Bloc?
[[File:Europe-blocs-49-89x4.svg|thumb|250px|right|The political situation in Europe during the Cold War.]] [[File:EasternBloc.png|right|thumb]] The term '''Eastern Bloc''' referred to the former [[Communist]] states of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] [[Europe]], including the countries of the [[Warsaw Pact]], along with [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|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. Although [[official]]ly [[independence|independent]] countries, they were [[Soviet satellite state]]s. The Eastern Bloc was created in 1947 by [[Joseph Stalin]] who was leader of the [[Soviet Union]]. Communist governments were initially installed, mostly in places that had been controlled by the [[Axis countries]] and occupied due to the victories of the Soviet Union on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)]]. The process 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 certain oppositional factions in the Bloc had revolts, such as the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]] invasion of [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev's]] [[perestroika]] experienced inefficiencies and stagnation throughout much of the Bloc preceding the Bloc's dissolution. Counterrevolutions in 1989 dissolved the Soviet Bloc. A 2009 Pew Research Center poll showed that 72% of Hungarians and 62% of both Ukrainians and Bulgarians felt that their lives were worse off after 1989, when free markets were made dominant.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered-but-now-with-more-reservations/|title=End of Communism Cheered but Now with More Reservations|date=2009-11-02|work=Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes