Sarah Paine

And for the first time in their histories,

Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, they become ethnically homogeneous states.

And then Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia require Russian troops to hang on to some of their current gains.

So a lot of things go on here.

If you compare to what the West is doing in the United States, the United States has the Marshall Plan.

You've heard of it.

where the United States is pouring aid into our Western allies to restore them after the war.

Well, this is what Russia's doing.

A, they've won the war, so their troops are there, but they never take their troops home.

Then they're busy running coups.

Then they're busy shooting anyone who disagrees with them, or they send them to labor camps, whatever they're going to do.

And then they redistribute every form of wealth there is, either through nationalization or collectivization, right?

And they're imposing this really non-functioning economic model on these people.

It's called communism.

It doesn't work.

So you wonder why Eastern Europeans aren't thrilled about a repeat of this?

Well, come on.

All right.

Moreover, story gets better.

The people who made all this happen include this charmer, some of the most toxic people from the Soviet Union.