The informal term "
Soviet Empire" is used by critics of the
Soviet Union and
Russian nationalists to refer to that country's perceived
imperialist foreign policy during the
Cold War. The nations said to be part of the "Soviet Empire" were officially independent countries with separate governments that set their own policies (to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the country), but those policies had to remain within certain limits decided by the Soviet Union and enforced by threat of intervention by the
Warsaw Pact (
Hungary 1956,
Czechoslovakia 1968, Poland 1980). Countries in this situation are often called
satellite states.