The year 1945 marked the climax in Stalin’s crowded and chequered career. As generalissimo and uncontested leader he was surrounded by an adulation and a cult which assumed its most grotesque forms toward the end of his life. Soviet scientists, writers, musicians, linguists, philosophers and others were made to accept his judgment as final. Underlying the bizarre cult were Stalin’s indubitable achievements. He was the originator of planned economy; he found Russia ivorking with wooden plows and left it equipped with atomic piles; and he was «father of victory.»