If the counries of Eastern Europe had been allowed to develop through a normal democratic process, with Marshall aid thrown in, where would they be today economically, politically etc?
How much were they stunted in growth terms and artistic-cultural terms by the evil of Stallinism? For example Czechoslovakia was one of the wealthiest coutries in the world prior to the war?
Would we have a Yougoslavia at all? Would we still have Czechoslovakia as a unitary single state? Would Poland be one of the biggest economies in the world given location and population size? Would a unified never partitioned Germany be far more powerful economically today?