What were Stalin's goals in Eastern Europe?

The ending
of World War II's conflicts in Europe posed a rather interesting situation.  How would the
reorganization of Europe be defined?  For his part, Stalin believed that he wanted to create a
configuration that would prevent, once and for all, another Western threat to Russia.  In
preventing this, Stalin created a block of nations that had featured governments that were
puppets of his Soviet government.  Up and down this eastern corridor of nations, Stalin's
"pupils" and tactics had helped to define governments that were extensions of his own
Soviet government, complete with their own purges such as in Hungary and Bulgaria.  At the same
time, this helped to foster another one of his goals, that being of Soviet Supremacy.  As Stalin
was able to control these nations in Eastern Europe, he also ensured a consolidation of his own
power in these nations, helping to establish him as a dominant world leader until his death in
1953.