Introduction The announcement of the Marshall Plan in June 1947 presented the Soviet Union with a profound strategic dilemma. The offer of American economic aid to all of Europe, including the USSR and its nascent Eastern European sphere of influence, was a masterstroke of Western diplomacy that placed the Kremlin in a precarious position. To … Continue reading The Soviet Response to the Marshall Plan: The Birth of the Cominform and the Consolidation of the Eastern Bloc