Final answer:
Joseph Stalin refused to withdraw Soviet troops from Eastern Europe and to hold democratic elections to establish a buffer zone against Western attacks, to ensure governments friendly to the USSR, and to promote global communism. Stalin's distrust of the West and the Soviet Union's losses in WWII also influenced his actions, contrasting with later leader Mikhail Gorbachev's non-intervention in Eastern European democratic revolutions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The refusal of Joseph Stalin to withdraw Soviet troops from Eastern Europe and to hold freely democratic elections was driven by multiple strategic reasons. During the World War II era, Stalin insisted that the postwar governments in Eastern Europe needed to be “friendly” towards the Soviet Union, which practically meant the domination by communist parties. This stance was solidified at the Yalta Conference, where despite agreements with Churchill and Roosevelt on free elections, Stalin's ultimate goal was the establishment of Soviet influence as a buffer zone against attacks from the West.
Furthermore, the Soviet Union had suffered immense losses during the war and sought to protect its interests by retaining territories it had acquired:
- Stalin decided to keep Polish territory annexed in 1939 and pushed for the expansion of Polish borders into former German territories.
- The Baltic states, conquered by the Red Army during the period of 1939-1940, also remained within the Soviet grip.
without Soviet intervention, leading to free elections and the formation of coalition governments that were once