Hvis Anden Verdenskrig var incitamentet til efterkrigstidens politiske modernisering af Vesteuropa, der blev den logiske konklusion på den relativt korte periode, hvor det nazistiske styre herskede i Tyskland, så var behovet for genopbygning i USSR og Rusland dikteret af erfaringerne med 70 års kommunistisk styre, der kulminerede med Stalins terrordiktatur.
If the Second World War was the impetus for the post-war political modernisation of Western Europe, having become the logical conclusion of the relatively short period of domination by the Nazi regime in Germany, then for the USSR and Russia, the need for reconstruction was dictated by the experience of 70 years of domination by the Communist regime, the culmination of which was Stalin's terrorist dictatorship.