The part where he summarizes the “Soviet Outlook” is interesting. I was just reading a book about Soviet foreign policy in Eastern Europe post WWII. Keenan is

The part where he summarizes the “Soviet Outlook” is interesting. I was just reading a book about Soviet foreign policy in Eastern Europe post WWII. Keenan is very wrong. Stalin was hurting. The USSR was recovering from WWII and didn’t want a costly occupation or aggressive expansion. The main goal was to create a large number of buffer zones with the west. Austria, Finland, etc. The policy failed with the creation of a hard border in Germany. But Stalin was more than willing to tolerate liberal democratic parties in East Germany if it meant a less costly occupation.