Although Russian reforms created a sound economy, the country lagged in political and democratic institution-building. Russia undertook an extraordinarily complex transformation with minimal Western economic support, and its integration into the Western economic and political system stalled almost immediately. According to Aleksashenko, the collapse of the Soviet Union came as a surprise to most of the world's politicians. At the same time, Putin’s regime undoubtedly fails, yet no one knows when it will. Russia’s transformation after that will differ in many aspects from the events of the 1990s. Still, there will be a chance to consider integrating Russia into Western political and economic structures. This chapter highlights the key elements of policy in the late 1940s and the early 1950s that ensured success.