They got screwed over by the Nazis in WW2
That's the whole (continental) Europe, not just Eastern.
and then screwed over again by the USSR
By having specific politics imposed on them. So the "whatever their politics had been" is a non sequitur.
And the USSR is distinguished by features other than socialism -- e.g., by totalitarianism
If by "socialism" you mean "Western social democracy", the USSR was never socialist. And if by "socialism" you mean "communism" (which is how the Russians, etc. used the word), totalitarianism is an essential part of the package.
By having specific politics imposed on them.
I do not think that was the only variety of screwage inflicted on the Soviet bloc countries by the USSR.
(And I bet imposing a particular political system on a country tends to make it less prosperous than it would have been had it adopted that political system of its own accord -- because the people who have to make it work will resent it, be less motivated to make it work well, etc. So even if that were all the USSR did, I'd still expect economic damage independent of the (de)merits of the particular system t...
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