It wasn’t “centuries”, it was barely 50 years. The USSR itself didn’t last 80 years, and before WWII most countries in the area (with the notable exception of Poland) were just fine - in fact, they were pretty happy after the fall of the Austrian Empire. Warsaw Pact countries were still relatively free to chart their own path in non-military matters until the Prague Spring of 1968.

Russian influence on the region is a related but separate issue, but let’s not paint central Europe as some sort of perennial victim.