The Split in Stalin's Secretariat, 1939-1948

This book attempts to demonstrate that the leaders of Stalin's Secretariat clashed sharply and continuously over the nature of the Communist party's 'leadership' of the Soviet state between 1939 and 1948. This study reconceptualizes the entire question of 'party-state' relations in the SSR's political system and therefore provides an original interpretation of a critical period in the development of the Stalinist political system.