The USSR and "sovietization" and how this expanded into the Eastern Europe.

During the post-war years of 1945-1949, the USSR adopted a policy of "sovietization" and set about its expansion into Eastern Europe, by creating Moscow-friendly satellite states. The USSR saw this as a purely defensive action, while the West saw this as evidence of Russia's expansionist nature. Hence, Soviet Union's move into Eastern Europe was much cause of the conflict between the West and Russia. One of the motivating forces behind Stalin's expansionist policy into Europe …

…for security for the USSR. This led him to go about turning Eastern European states into USSR satellite states and he believed this buffer zone would protect the USSR from future attacks. Hence, it could be said that the motivating force behind USSR's policy towards Europe is its search for security, and that overseas economic expansion was just a result of Stalin's absolutist conception of security, which entailed total hegemony over all of Eastern Europe.