It does seem the line between Nato and the Warsaw Pact was where the Soviet and the Allies finished the war. Other than Berlin, which the Soviets gave half to the Allies.

My sense of colonization is one country coming in and dominating the other, largely economically. My sense of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries was that everyone lived miserably. More of a collective dictatorship.

In fact, the reason the Russians were willing to go along with it so quickly, once the wheels were coming off the train, was the sense, real or not, that they were putting more effort in and propping up the rest.

Not like, say France today, in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are/were still the ones benefiting.