the first concern of the soviet union in 1945 was to
History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953) Even so, the basic structures and tensions that marked the cold war were not yet in place in 1945–46. Despite the necessary means of the United States to advance a different vision of postwar Europe, Joseph Stalin viewed the re-emergence of Germany and Japan as the Soviet Union's chief threats, not the United States. At the time, the prospects of an Anglo-American front against the USSR seemed slim from Stalin's standpoint.[citation needed] Economic advisers such as Eugen Varga reinforced this view, predicting a postwar crisis of overproduction in capitalist countries which would culminate by 1947–48 in another great depression.[citation needed] For one, Stalin assumed[citation needed] that the capitalist camp would soon resume its internal rivalry over colonies and trade and not pose a threat to the Soviet Union.