<P> During World War II, the Soviet Union annexed several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Most of those countries had been ceded to it by the secret agreement portion of the Molotov--Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany . These later annexed territories include Eastern Poland (incorporated into two different SSRs), Latvia (became Latvian SSR), Estonia (became Estonian SSR), Lithuania (became Lithuanian SSR), part of eastern Finland (became part of the Karelo - Finnish SSR) and northern Romania (became the Moldavian SSR). </P> <P> Several of the other countries it occupied that were not directly annexed into the Soviet Union became Soviet satellite states . In East Germany after local election losses, a forced merger of political parties in the Socialist Unity Party ("SED"), followed by elections in 1946 where political opponents were oppressed . In the non-USSR annexed portion of Poland, less than a third of Poland's population voted in favor of massive communist land reforms and industry nationalizations in a policies referendum known as "3 times YES" (3 razy TAK; 3xTAK), whereupon a second vote rigged election was held to get the desired result . Fraudulent Polish elections held in January 1947 resulted in Poland's official transformation to the People's Republic of Poland . </P> <P> The list of world leaders at the beginning of these years are as follows: </P> <Ul> <Li> 1947--49: Clement Attlee (UK); Harry Truman (US); Vincent Auriol (France); Joseph Stalin (USSR); Chiang Kai - shek (Allied China) </Li> <Li> 1950--51: Clement Attlee (UK); Harry Truman (US); Vincent Auriol (France); Joseph Stalin (USSR); Mao Zedong (China) </Li> <Li> 1952--53: Winston Churchill (UK); Harry Truman (US); Vincent Auriol (France); Joseph Stalin (USSR); Mao Zedong (China) </Li> </Ul>

What were some of the effects of the western powers fear of communist expansion