During this war, the government of the Soviet Union could somehow manage the country. In March 1921, four months after the defeat of the White Army in the Crimea, the Lenin administration abandoned the policy of War Communism and instead formulated the New Economic Policy which allowed denationalisation of agriculture and industry, but most financial institutions retained state ownership with a deregulation in such sectors. On 30 December 1922, the USSR was formally created, and by 1928, production returned to pre-war levels. Lenin, however, did not live to see that day:. He died in 1924 and Joseph Stalin became the new leader. 