ABSTRACT
The domestic policies of all save one of the participants in the war altered radically, the defeated states were compelled to make a fresh start; the democratic victor nations, with the exception of the United States, voted for new governments and policies; but even the United States had a change of leadership. Retrenchment and a return to the status quo existing before the war were Stalin’s aims. In the course of describing the political scene in the Soviet Union between the end of the war and Stalin’s death, there will be little occasion to mention the work of the dictator’s aides. In 1945 the party was still the main instrument of Stalin's rule though it was declining in importance beside the growing bureaucracy of the government machine. The task of redeeming wartime losses in the economy was enormous. The disorganized state of the economy hardly allowed for long-term planning.
