Catalina Espinosa
Research expert covering society, economy, and politics for Europe and the EU
The Fall of the Eastern Bloc economies - Statistics & Facts
Following the Second World War, an ideological divide split Europe between liberal democracy in the west and communism in the east. Economically, western countries used capitalist systems with free-market economies, whereas eastern countries implemented socialist systems with government-controlled command economies. There were some exceptions, including the eastern democracies of Greece and Turkey, or the fascist Iberian countries, but most of the continent fell into this general pattern. The Soviet model became the foundation for most post-war command economies in the Eastern Bloc, and international trade became centered around the Soviet Union. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON/CMEA) was established by the USSR in order to consolidate Soviet power and economic control over the region, and to prevent the U.S. from gaining influence in communist countries as it did in Western Europe. Yugoslavia and Albania were considered a part of the Eastern Bloc for most of this time but played a more peripheral economic role as time progressed.
