Final answer:
The Soviet Union refused US financial aid through the Marshall Plan and prevented Eastern European nations under its influence from accepting it, viewing the aid as an economic tactic by the US to spread its influence and undermine the Soviet Union's grip on its satellite states.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Soviet Union refused to accept US aid through the Marshall Plan and also prohibited Eastern European nations from accepting it. The United States established the Marshall Plan motivated by both humanitarian concerns and strategic interests. The Plan aided in the economic recovery of war-torn Europe, while also preventing the spread of communism by stabilizing nations and promoting democratic governments. It required spending money on American goods, which further stimulated the US economy. Joseph Stalin viewed the Marshall Plan as a political tool of the US, designed to extend its influence and deemed it as a form of economic bribery aimed at weakening Soviet grip over its satellite states.
Stalin's regime had a longstanding suspicion of the West, dating back to the US support of anti-Communist forces during the Russian Revolution and delayed diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union until 1933. The Soviets preferred to maintain control over their sphere of influence in Eastern Europe without interference or the strings attached that came with Western aid. Moreover, accepting aid from the US might have implied a failure of the Soviet system and undermined the perception of self-sufficiency and ideological purity that the Soviet leadership wanted to project. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslov Molotov even recognized that the offer, which technically extended to all European nations, was not truly aimed at communist governments.