Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945-1953

Work on this project was made possible by a research grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (award number R000222676). We are very grateful to the ESRC, and in particular to the Politics, Economics and Geography Research Unit, for their support of our work. Thanks are also due to the Department of Government at the University of Manchester and to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for sabbaticals and a research stipend that enabled us to complete the manuscript. The bulk of the research for the book was carried out in Russian archives. Much of this work was conducted in collaboration with the series “Documents in Soviet History, ” which continues to flourish under the energetic leadership of Andrea Graziosi. For their guidance through holdings and for ferreting documents we are, as ever, extremely grateful to Galina Gorskaia, Galina Iudinkova, Liudmilla Kosheleva, Larisa Rogovaia, Sofia Somonova, Andrei Miniuk, and Mikhail Prozumenshchikov. Our project has also benefited enormously from the warm support and encouragement of our parents and of numerous friends and colleagues: John Barber, Dietrich Beyrau, Martin Burch, Miriam and Boaz Evron, Don Filtzer, Klaus Gestwa, Alexander Gorlizki, Mark Harrison, Julie Hessler, Eugene Huskey, Melanie Ilic, Evan Mawdsley, Mick Moran, Aleksandr and Dima Myslivchenko, Arfon Rees, Yaacov Ro'i, Ron Suny, Jeremy Smith, Peter Solomon, Robert Tucker, Ursula Vogel, Derek Watson, Stephen White, and Elena Zubkova. Peter Solomon made excellent comments on an early draft of chapter 2. We also owe an immense debt to Sheila Fitzpatrick for her generous support of our work at various stages and for helping us through the delicate but necessary process of engaging a publisher. At Oxford University Press it has been a pleasure to work with Susan Ferber, whose efficiency and enthusiasm, as well as her excellent editorial eye, have all helped in the final

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