Communist governments had taken over Eastern European countries after World War One.
The new leader Nikita Khrushchev looked for a peaceful coexistence. In 1959 he said, There are two ways: either peaceful coexistence or the most destructive war in history. There is no third way.
There were problems in Eastern Europe throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. The Cold War even spread to the Caribbean.
The video below looks at the suppression of democracy in Eastern Europe.