How did Soviet plans for Eastern Europe differ from those of the other allies?

The Soviet Union and the Allies had different opinions about what should happen in Eastern Europe after the end of World War II. We made some agreements with the Soviet Union that ultimately weren’t followed and led, to some degree, to the Cold War.

One area of difference was in Poland. Before World War II began, Poland had its own government. At the end of World War II, there was a Soviet-backed government in place. We had agreed with the Soviet Union to have free elections in Poland after the end of World War II. We expected some of the members from the pre-war Polish government to be members of the newly created post-war Polish government. However, there was little evidence of free elections and most the new officials in the new post-war government were from the Soviet government at the end of the war.

We agreed with the Soviet Union to let the people of Eastern Europe choose their form of government after World War II ended. However, the King of Romania indicated he received a great deal of pressure from the Soviet Union to have a communist government. This violated the Declaration of Liberated Europe agreement we had with the Soviet Union.

As a result of these actions and subsequent ones, the Cold War began and then intensified after World War II ended.