This stunning gouache on heavy artist's board by Ernest Hamlin Baker was used for the February 5, 1945, issue of TIME. The depicted despotic Soviet dictator was the "Man of Steel" successor to Lenin. He led his nation back from the brink of defeat by the Nazis and was at the time the most powerful man in the world. This is the eighth of TIME’S 12 covers of Stalin and was reused in a smaller scale on the January 5, 1942, cover. The shooting red star was to be a prescient hint of "Sputnik 1" which ushered in the space age. One of the finest covers in the collection, archivally framed to 18.5" x 20.5” overall.