The Soviet Union Between War and Cold War

T HIS article is an essay in that difficult genre, contemporary history. In the case of the Soviet Union and its policy, the chronicler-analyst's task is of course complicated by the almost complete lack of nontactical oral or written communications of opinion by Soviet leaders and by their special doctrinal language, probably fully intelligible only to the trusted Communist inner circle, in terms of which their propaganda must be evaluated. I attempt here to sketch the main lines of official and of popular Soviet thought and feeling in a complex transition period. This difficult and perhaps decisive period was bounded, roughly, by the last months of the in Europe and the unsuccessful London Conference of Foreign Ministers in September 1945. It was a period in which many hoped a new era was dawning in the relations' between Russia and the West. It now seems to have been, instead, the premature end of a promising interlude. Understanding of the factors involved in this return to an abnormal normalcy in Soviet-Western relations may contribute now to balance and perspective. Had such understanding been more widespread in 1944 and 1945, the probably inevitable cold war might have been less intense and confused than it has been, although this is not certain

Cold war · Economic history · Political science · Politics · Soviet union · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law

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