Soviet Bloc

Cultural  

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.)

---

Example Sentences

Four years later, a group of mostly Soviet Bloc countries stayed home from the L.A.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 4, 2026

It has been stationed near the Czech border, close to the former frontier with the Soviet Bloc, since 1960.

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2023

Francis likened relations with Beijing to the "small steps" policy carried out by Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, a renowned Vatican diplomat, with Soviet Bloc countries in Eastern Europe, staring in the 1960s.

From Reuters • Sep. 1, 2021

When Gorbachev made good on his promises and protest movements against the communist states started to grow, it was the beginning of the end for the entire Soviet Bloc.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

Vietnam   Vietnam is a poor, densely-populated country that has had to   recover from the ravages of war, the loss of financial support from   the old Soviet Bloc, and the rigidities of a centrally-planned   economy.

From The 2004 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency