How did communism impact Europe?

Communism had a generally adverse effect on Europe. It was not so much the communism so much as the way it was administered. The Soviet Union left puppet governments in its wake as it pulled out of Eastern Europe gradually after World War II ended in May 1945. These puppet states were often just as repressive as the Soviet Union. Under communism, the state punished religious groups, forcing many churches to practice in secret. Also, it became illegal to speak out against the government, even though government-produced goods and services were often shoddy or nonexistent. The nations of Eastern Europe joined the Warsaw Pact in order to combat the presence of NATO. These nations also did not receive funds from the Marshall Plan, meaning that it took longer for them to heal financially after World War II. This is especially sad since Eastern Europe saw some of the heaviest fighting in World War II. While the Warsaw Pact no longer exists, many of these nations still lag behind Western Europe in terms of economic production, due to being under communism for half the twentieth century.