There are many reasons why Stalin would have benefited from turning Greece and Turkey communist. First of all, if you look on a map, Turkey and Greece surround the Aegean Sea. Russia, Turkey, and Greece surround the Black Sea as well. By having friendly communist governments, the USSR would have benefited from controlling those two areas in the Mediterranean. Also, Turkey is home to a very important strait for trade- the Bosporus. Even though communists run on a command economy, having control of that strait would have lent more power to Stalin. It can also be said that by turning more countries communist, it protects the USSR from opposing democratic nations.
