... but one who is convinced nevertheless that genuine socialism was possible and still applicable. The tragedy of the Stalin era and the farce of the Brezhnev period represented for Gorbachev not the failure of the ideology but rather its preservation. For the Soviet Union, WW II was yet another cruel landmark in the wars, revolutions and crises which had affected the country since 1905. After 1945, many returning soldiers hoped for a relaxation of Stalinist terror and dictatorship. After all, they had helped to defeat Hitler and the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. It was not to be. Sixty-six years old in 1945, Joseph Stalin became even more ruthless than he had been before the war. He was corrupted by his unlimited power and his suspicions of internal rebellion were clearly the mark of a paranoid personality. After the war, Stalin found no reason to relax his control. ...

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