Eastern Bloc

Cultural  

1. The name applied to the former communist states of eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia and Albania, as well as the countries of the Warsaw Pact. (See also European Union and Iron Curtain.)

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Example Sentences

"Many Madagascan military personnel... received their training in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Bloc countries. There is undoubtedly a legacy from that period," he said.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

Somaliland’s security forces sported an assortment of nonstandardized uniforms and weapons, including many automatic rifles of late-period Eastern Bloc construction.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 4, 2026

Of course, the CIA’s funding of smuggling illicit literature into the Eastern Bloc is an important story, and a nearly forgotten one.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2025

"From its inception, the Syrian army has been armed with Eastern Bloc weapons."

From BBC • Jan. 12, 2025

Once his identity was established, the CIA spirited Goleniewski away to a safe house and eventually to Washington, where he handed over hundreds of names of Soviet and Eastern Bloc spies to the Americans.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau