This chapter looks at Joseph Stalin's decision to put Lavrentiy Beria at the helm of the Soviet nuclear program as strategic weapon systems had become a priority. It notes the release of spacecraft designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev from exile in Kolyma and who was appointed head of the NII-88 Institute to develop the first intercontinental ballistic missile 8K71. It also describes the efforts invested in the development of critical technologies as the Soviet Union refused to waste its energy on pointless local wars on its borders. The chapter demonstrates Marshal Tito's establishment of his power in Yugoslavia and relinquishment of the Yalta arrangement that obliged him to share power and cooperate with non-communists. It discusses the termination of the provisional wartime government of national unity, which is considered a fusion of the royal government and the puppet parliament.
