Stalin's Cold War breaks new ground by exploring the emergence of the global conflict from the perspective of the Soviet Union's secretive leader. Drawing on rich new evidence from Soviet, East European and British archives, the book offers fresh and illuminating insights into the evolution of Stalin's strategy in the transition from cooperation with the United States and Britain during the Second World War to ideological and geopolitical confrontation. The book reveals Stalin's efforts to grapple with the dynamic interaction between democratic and communist parties in the domestic politics of European countries in the aftermath of the Second World War, and his key role in the gradual but inexorable shift towards communist monopoly of power in the countries of Eastern Europe.