First of all, Why is Italy mentioned in the category you chose? : ) Anyway, here are some links with hopefully good information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#Blacklists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Post-war_era.2C_1945.E2.80.931953

Just a little over fifty years ago, during the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s, there was a great fear of Communism in America and abroad. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was created in 1938 as a means to investigate and weed out Communists and Communist supporters from American society. Its first major attack was on the Hollywood film industry. Blacklisting of Hollywood writers, actors, producers, directors and others suspected of Communist affiliations began with the committee's hearings in October of 1947, and flourished throughout the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted “witch hunts” in an attempt to find and eliminate suspected Communists. The Hollywood Ten, a group of distinguished writers and directors, were cited for contempt of Congress and jailed for failing to cooperate with the house committee.

Stalin didnt exactly conquer eastern europe He chased the nazis out of territory they took over in ww2 and kept much of the territory for the u.s.s.r.

At the end of the war, Eastern European countries had been devastated. Millions had been killed. Famine threatened the survivors. Unemployment and inflation demoralized the people. The Nazis and the Soviet Union had wiped out the pre-war democratic leadership. National communist parties moved quickly to fill the political vacuum. The communists promised the people of Eastern Europe a new era of equality and economic plenty under a socialist system. Helped by Stalin, most East European communist parties made temporary alliances with non-communists until gaining control of government power centers like the national police. The communists who had fought the Nazis in Yugoslavia and Albania were the only ones to use military force to seize power. By 1948, with the occupying Soviet Red Army always in the background, the communists had taken over the governments of eight Eastern European countries. The communists swiftly established "People's Democracies" in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Czechoslovakia. Eastern Germany was at first a Soviet military occupation zone, but soon became the German Democratic Republic under German communist party rule. Stalin wanted Eastern Europe under his thumb both as a defense buffer to protect the Soviet motherland and to expand socialism, the communist economic system. He believed that "scientific laws" of history determined that the world would eventually become socialist. The Soviet Union had already developed a socialist system. Stalin, therefore, demanded that all the communist countries of Eastern Europe adopt the Soviet model. The Stalinization of Eastern Europe began. The communist party in each country held a complete monopoly of political power. This permitted no independent political parties, no meaningful elections, and no criticism of the ruling communist party. Ultimately, the lack of political accountability to the people led to communism's collapse in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself. Stalin imposed a socialist economic model. The government, in the name of the people, owned the factories, farms, mines, and other means of production. People could no longer own their own profit-making businesses and farms, as in the capitalist system. Government economic planners decided what and how much should be produced each year, what the prices should be, and what wages should be paid to the workers.

The Hollywood 10 were the screenwriters, directors and actors who were first named in the senate hearings run by Joe McCarthy called 'unamerican activities, i.e they were communists.They were blacklisted by the U.S. film studios and were unable to work again in this medium.It is interesting to note that these people were named by other entertainment figures with little or no evidence.It was a fact that in the 20's and 30's many joined the cmmunist party in direct reponse to the rise of hitler and fachism, the majority resigned the party after hitler and stalin joined in a none agression pact, which allowed hitler to destroy a number of small countries in the balkans and finland in conjunction with Stalin.Many of the 'named' communists at te unamerican activities hearings were in fact ex , but Mcarthy had to build his power base and prove his statements that the entertainment industry was full of communists.Hence he wasn't really interested in the facts, just headlines. in answer to your second part, after the end of ww2 all the eastern european countries 'liberated' by Stalin had puppet goverments installed, totaly beholden to the USSR (i.e. Hungary, Poland etc.) they were in fact occupied in all intents by the USSR.