# Eastern Bloc The group of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe aligned with and dominated by the [[Soviet Union]] during the Cold War (1947–1991) — Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania (until the Sino-Soviet split). Maintained through military force (Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968), secret police networks modeled on the [[KGB]], and economic integration via Comecon. The Eastern Bloc's collapse in 1989–1991 is invoked across the vault in multiple contexts: as vindication of free-market capitalism over the [[Planned Economy]], as the origin story of post-communist oligarchies (the privatization waves that created the Russian and Ukrainian oligarch classes), and as the historical backdrop for figures like [[Viktor Orbán]], who began his career as an anti-Soviet dissident before building his own authoritarian system within the democratic framework the Bloc's collapse was supposed to guarantee. ## See Also - [[Soviet Union]] — the hegemon - [[Viktor Orbán]] — anti-Soviet dissident turned illiberal democrat - [[Planned Economy]] — the economic model imposed on Bloc states - [[KGB]] — the intelligence apparatus that maintained control