Despite the massive losses and destructionof Soviet cities, the war had enabled Stalinto...

[narrator]
Despite the massive losses and destruction
of Soviet cities, the war had enabled Stalin
to sit side‐by‐side with his
democratically‐elected,
ideological enemies, and to be seen and recognized
by all as a world statesman. Stalin entered the war
as the world's ogre, despised by the West
and deeply feared and
mistrusted by all
except his nearest cronies, who depended on him
for their lives and positions. He left the stage
of World War II as an undisputed
world statesman, respected
by his international colleagues and loved and revered
by his people. [cheers] If any one leader can be said
to have won the race to
victory, it was Joseph Stalin