Yugoslavia survived heavy pressure only because of the rejection of Soviet control by Marshal Tito and Western economic aid. As a result, Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform and Tito became a leading exponent of non-alignment in the Cold War. These developments alarmed the United States and Western European powers and led to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. To coordinate the economic activities of those states under Soviet control, the USSR in 1949 established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON), with Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and East Germany as comembers.

Relations with China

Soviet relations with China during this period were conciliatory. In August 1945, the Chinese and Soviet governments concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance, granting the USSR economic concessions and defence facilities as previously agreed upon by the wartime Allies. Although the Soviet Union pledged to respect Chinese sovereignty in Manchuria, Soviet authorities stripped the region of nearly all of its industrial machinery and actively resisted efforts by the Chinese government to re-establish its authority there. Meanwhile, the arms taken from captured Japanese soldiers were given to the Chinese Communists. When the Soviet army eventually withdrew, all Manchuria fell to the Chinese Communists. Subsequently, the victory of the Chinese Communists in 1949 altered the entire balance of power in Asia to the temporary advantage of the Soviet Union.

Struggle for Leadership

Stalin remained in absolute control until his death in March 1953, when a collective leadership took power. Georgy M. Malenkov, chosen party secretary, also became premier; Molotov, a former premier and foreign minister, became a first deputy premier and foreign minister, and Lavrenty Beria became minister of internal affairs; Voroshilov became president. Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Malenkov as party secretary later in the year. These men, along with two other first deputy premiers, Nikolay A. Bulganin and Lazar M. Kaganovich, were the leaders.

A struggle for power was immediately apparent, however. Beria was soon removed for "criminal and antiparty activities", and in December 1953 it was announced that he had been tried for conspiracy, found guilty, and shot. Several other important officials, friends of Beria, were executed in 1954.