What created the buffer zone in Europe?

The buffer zone in Europe was primarily created after World War II as a result of the shifting political landscape and the emergence of the Cold War. Eastern European countries, including Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, fell under Soviet influence, forming a barrier between the Western democracies and the Eastern Bloc. This division was solidified by the Iron Curtain, which symbolized the ideological and physical separation between the capitalist West and the communist East. The buffer zone served to protect the Soviet Union from potential threats from the West while maintaining control over its satellite states.