The USSR (1948) examines the social and economic make-up of the Soviet Union in the years following the Second World War. It was a time of rapid industrial development as the economy expanded, and also a time when millions of demobbed servicemen desired rewards for the wartime sacrifices - the demand for greater individual freedom and industrial democracy, and for a higher standard of living were becoming more and more apparent. These factors played parts of large importance in the later development of the USSR in the 1950s.