Danish Soviet Socialist Republic?

[Peterski]

In May 1945 it was the Red Army which liberated Bornholm from the Nazi German forces.

Why did they agree to abandon it instead of e.g. creating a Communist Danish SSR there?

The island is of strategic importance and helps its owners to control much of the Baltic Sea:

[Dandelion]

I hope some history nut will comment on that. Why did the Soviets keep to the Slavic-speaking world (and some Balts/Uralics) to have their puppet states and only limited themselves to East Germany otherwise.

[Peterski]

I hope some history nut will comment on that. Why did the Soviets keep to the Slavic-speaking world (and some Balts/Finnics) to have their puppet states and only limited themselves to East Germany otherwise.

Yes. They also captured much of Austria and it was divided into 4 occupation zones, but later the Soviets abandoned theirs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Offensive





Situation on 10 May after the end of the Prague Offensive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Offensive



Division of Austria into occupation zones:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied-occupied_Austria

[Rumata]

Why did the Soviets keep to the Slavic-speaking world (and some Balts/Uralics) to have their puppet states and only limited themselves to East Germany otherwise.

Romania too.

[Dandelion]

Romania too.

But less pro-Soviet later on and momentarily had good relations with the West, until they proved to be corrupt and inefficient (and even more totalitarian than before).

[Dick]

In May 1945 it was the Red Army which liberated Bornholm from the Nazi German forces.

Why did they agree to abandon it instead of e.g. creating a Communist Danish SSR there?

The island is of strategic importance and helps its owners to control much of the Baltic Sea:

Because Europe was already carved up politically at the Yalta conference.

[Ülev]

but later...



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_...he_River_Rhine

[Rumata]

But less pro-Soviet later on and momentarily had good relations with the West, until they proved to be corrupt and inefficient (and even more totalitarian than before).

Less pro-Soviet than Western Slavs or Hungary too?

[Dandelion]

Less pro-Soviet than Western Slavs or Hungary too?

I guess so as it was their state leadership that was less pro-Soviet while holding a firm iron fist over the population. Examples of Prague and Budapest were more grassroots opposition to the government. A bit ironic how they refused to send help to suppress the Prague Revolt, while being more totalitarian than the Soviet Union themselves.

But it's also the reason I excluded them from my list of Soviet 'puppet states' from the year 1963 (exploiting the USSR-PRC schism to contest Soviet hegemony) or so even if they never left the Warsaw Pact.

They dealt with Western Europe, maintained good relation with West Germany, the UK, Chile, and other capitalist countries and openly condemned Soviet foreign policies. Not the best ally from a Soviet perspective.

[Rumata]

Btw, isn't it how UK helped Austria to keep Carinthia? What if UK didn't press Yugoslav partisans out of Carinthia?

This culminated in targeted persecution after the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938, though certainly it was possible to put oneself on good terms with the Nazi regime by professing to be Windisch with the associated promise to assimilate. From 1942, Carinthian Slovenes were systematically expelled at the behest of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, they were barracked in the Klagenfurt Reichsarbeitsdienst camp and later deported to several Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle compounds. The expulsions made many Slovenes flee and take part in Tito’s partisans’ resistance. After World War II, Yugoslav troops again moved into parts of Carinthia including its capital city, Klagenfurt, but withdrew under pressure from the British occupation forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthian_Slovenes