But by the late 1930's, Stalinism was in crisis too. Standards of living were not improving as fast as the party had promised. Poorly planned investments were beginning to backfire. Mass starvation in the Ukraine and Southern Russia in the early 1930's, while of some political utility to the regime, had created fear rather than admiration... [The Great Terror] caused profound disquiet at home and among communists abroad. In due course, the Great Terror might have led to real disillusion. But Stalinism -- and Stalin -- was fortuitously rescued by the Second World War.