7 Joseph Stalin 7based on native communist regimes, nominally indepen-
dent but in fact subservient to himself. In 1948 the
defection of Yugoslavia, led by Josip Broz Tito, from the
Soviet camp, struck a severe blow to world Communism
as a Stalin-dominated monolith. To prevent others from
following Tito’s example, Stalin instigated local show tri-
als, in which satellite Communist leaders confessed to
Titoism, and many were executed.
Last Years
Far from continuing his wartime alliance, Stalin now
regarded as enemies the United Kingdom and, especially,
(Left to right) Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. president Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and British prime minister Winston Churchill at the Tehrān
Conference, December 1943. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.