During the war, the Soviet government somehow managed the country. In March 1921, four months after the defeat of the White Army in Crimea, the Lenin administration abandoned its 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 ]Soviet Union was formally created, and by 1928, production returned to pre-war levels. Lenin, however, did not live to see that day since he had died in 1924, when Joseph Stalin became the new leader.