Who was the leader of the USSR during World War II and the early Cold War?

• A. Vladimir Lenin
• B. Mikhail Gorbachev
• C. Joseph Stalin
• D. Nikita Khrushchev

Answer: (C)

Joseph Stalin is the leader in focus here. He rose to power in the 1920s and remained the top Soviet official through World War II and into the early Cold War, until his death in 1953. During the war, Stalin directed the Soviet war effort after the 1941 invasion, overseeing major campaigns, mobilization, and Allied diplomacy at conferences like Yalta and Potsdam. After the war, his leadership helped shape the Soviet Union’s postwar role in Europe, setting up satellite governments and contributing to the budding tensions of the Cold War as the United States and USSR competed for influence and security. Lenin had already died well before World War II, Gorbachev didn’t come to power until the 1980s, and Khrushchev led after Stalin’s death, so none of them guided the USSR during both the war and the early Cold War like Stalin did.