During the rule of Josef Stalin, the satellites belonging to the Soviet Union (as well as the people of the Soviet Union) were under very strict control; they were not allowed to recieve aid from the nations in Western Europe, the people of these nations were not allowed to travel outside of the Soviet sphere of influence, and Stalin was also responsible for the starvation of ten million Ukrainians during his collectivization period. Needless to say, Stalin was not a very good leader, in terms of looking after his people, so when he died in 1953, it gave the oppourtunity for others to fix what he had done in the past.