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Stalin prime aim at the various wartime conferences and in the immediate aftermath of the war, it has been argued was the defense of the Soviet Union. The Communist country had suffered greatly during the war and had suffered millions of casualties. Furthermore, Russia had been invaded during the First World War and had been invaded many times in its history. Stalin, a key student of history was very aware of this and he wanted to protect the Soviet Union, from further invasions. This partly explained his apparently inexhaustible hunger for land and territory.<ref> Boobbyer, Phillip The Stalin Era (Routledge, London, 2000), p. 278</ref> Stalin may have driven the Germans from eastern Europe and after a brief war drove the Japanese out of Northern China and Northern Korea, however, he did not free these countries. In effect, these countries had communist regimes imposed on them. Local communists were elevated to positions of power in the liberated regions and nations and with the support of Stalin, they eventually became part of the Communist Bloc, which was led by Stalin, in Moscow.  Stalin was eager to extend the territories under his control in order to establish friendly nations on his borders,.<ref>Boobyear, p. 234</ref> The Soviet Supreme leader knew that if friendly governments ruled the territories surrounding his country, that they would be less likely to assist any enemy in attacking Russia. Furthermore, Stalin wanted friendly governments around his nation, in order to act as a buffer and to protect the Soviet Union from any invasion. Stalin also wanted to control countries that traditionally had threatened Russia and later the Soviet Union, such as Poland and Germany. This was all done to protect the Soviet Union from further attacks and invasions, especially from his former allies, the British and the Americans. He, like other communists, believed that a confrontation between Communist system and the Capitalist system was inevitable.<ref> Conquest, Robert, Stalin, Breaker of Nations. (Viking-Penguin, Hammondsworth, 1999), p. 212</ref>