ABSTRACT
The chief fact which slowly acquired general recognition during the interminable international negotiations of the years 1945 to 1947 was that, in all respects save one, the U.S.S.R. was, after all, a typical Great Power like the others. The British Left ended the war as convinced as Roosevelt had been that friendly relations between the U.S.S.R. and 'Imperialists' like Churchill were impossible; but believed that, once the Conservatives were driven from office, everything would be different. Ernest Bevin, who recovered from the error with a rapidity which alarmed his party, declared before the 1945 election that 'Left would understand Left'; and Cripps, who, having actually been to Moscow, might have been expected to know a little better, thought a Labour Government would 'have the broad sympathy of the Russian people'.
