Soviet satellite state

Soviet satellite states were satellite states indirectly controlled by the Soviet Union. This meant that they were countries controlled by leaders who were really controlled by the Soviet Union. Soviet satellite states included the Warsaw Pact countries and Mongolia. The Soviet Union chose leaders in these countries who were loyal to the Soviet Union and would send in the military if the local people protested against the local government.

Examples were:

• The Mongolian People's Republic (Satellite 1921–1990; government extant until 1992)
• The Tuvan People's Republic (Satellite 1921–1944; joined the Soviet Union in 1944)
• The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Satellite 1945–1948; government extant until 1992)
• The People's Socialist Republic of Albania (Satellite 1944–1960; government extant until 1992)
• The Polish People's Republic (1944–1989)
• The People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990)
• The People's Republic of Romania (1947–1965)
• The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1948–1968 and again 1968–1989)
• The German Democratic Republic (1949–1990)
• The Hungarian People's Republic (1947–1956 and again 1956–1989)
• The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1978–90)

Most of these "Eastern Bloc" countries had compulsory military service for young men. They also had varying numbers of Soviet troops and KGB agents. All these countries had detailed control of information (censorship), and other aspects of the communist Soviet system. Many features of the Soviet information control were put into practice in distant countries, such as Cuba, which was allied to the Soviet Union, but was not its satellite state.

Other terms which may be used are:

• Satellite state
• Puppet state
• Client state
• Vassal state
• Buffer state