THe post-stalin era
Not long after World War 2, a mere 8 years after it's conclusion, Stalin died and his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, immediately denounced all actions he had taken while in office. Now, one would think that this wouldn't leave much room for Stalin to leave much of a lasting mark on the world, but unfortunately his damage had already been done.
Even though stalin was gone, he had already changed too much for the world to just forget about him. Even though his successor had denounced all his actions in office, it didn't necessarily discredit him. For 3 decades, Stalin and his secret police had worked to completely brainwash the general public. Except for a small few that knew better, Stalin was still the hero everyone always thought he was and it took decades more to root out this mindset in the Soviet Union.
What's more is that his paranoia, in-house purges, and aggressive expansion had created an immense and diverse subculture in the west ( mainly the United states) completely dedicated to anti-stalinist propaganda. Decades into the future in the 60's 70's and 80's Americans would still be worrying about what "them commie bastards" were cooking up across the pond which affected or even instigated future events as America entering the Vietnam War. Even if on the surface it was stated that America was just trying to help the South stay free there is no doubt that they were not also motivated by the deterrence of Communism's ever growing spread.
In the end, Stalin's reign in office was riddled with ruthless and almost psychotic violence towards his own people, fierce expansion, and unnerving aggression towards the West. Even after his death, his actions in office from the 1920's to his death in the 1950's continued to influence history,often negatively. The anti-soviet paranoia he instilled in the West, and the anti-western mindset he drilled into the head of his own people deterred the healing of Russian-US relations for years to come until detente all the way in the 1970's 20 years later.