Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin
Stalin in 1936, aged 58.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 3 April 1922 – October 1952
Preceded by	None (Position created)
Succeeded by	Nikita Krushchev (as First Secretary)
Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 6 May 1941 – 5 March 1953
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov
Succeeded by	Georgy Malenkov
Personal details
Born	Ioseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili 18 December, 1878
Died	5 March, 1953 (aged 74)

Joseph Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the adopted name of the Communist leader, Iosif Dzhugashvili. He was the second political leader of the Soviet Union, after Vladimir Lenin. He was a totalitarian ruler, and stayed in power by removing anyone he thought might be a threat to him. His ideas and policies turned the Soviet Union into a powerful, modern nation, the largest on Earth, but also led to the deaths of millions of people. This form of communism was later called Stalinism. Stalin invaded Poland on September 18, 1939. In the subsequent World War II, Stalin first allied with Germany's leader Adolf Hitler, then fought a bloody war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The end of the war saw Stalin gain control of all Eastern Europe including a part of Germany, where a series of loyal Communist governments were set up, extending his power and determining the Soviet Union's position as a superpower.

Stalin's name

• In Russian, Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин - Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, born Джугашвили - Dzhugashvili.
• In Georgian:იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი - Ioseb Jughashvili
•  Joseph Stalin (info • help)

Early life

Stalin at the young age of 16, 1894.

Ioseb Vissarionovich Jugashvili was born in a small one room house in Gori, Georgia (country). His father made and fixed shoes. His father was often drunk and used to hit his wife and his son until his death in a fight in 1890. Joseph had smallpox when he was young. This left his face scarred. Later, photographs were often changed to hide the scars. His left arm was also shorter because of an accident. He was educated at the Gori church school. Stalin studied to be a priest at a seminary (school for priests) in Tbilisi. He was an active student reading many books, especially books that were not allowed by the seminary. This included books by Karl Marx. He joined a Marxist group in 1898, the Mesame Dasi, or Group Three.

Revolutionary

He left school in 1899 and got a job at the Tbilisi Physical Institute. He joined groups that were trying to start a revolution to remove the Tsar. They wanted a different type of government. The police raided his house in 1901 while hunting for people who opposed the government. Stalin escaped but went into hiding so the police could not find him. He organized anti-government activities such as May Day marches and protests. He became a Bolshevik. He supported a violent revolution, and did not support the Mensheviks. The secret police caught him in April 1902 and exiled him without trial to Siberia. He lived in the village of Novaya Uda.

He soon escaped from Siberia. This led to many later claims that he was a police spy. The arrest of another Bolshevik, Stephan Shaumyan, a rival of Stalin, increased these beliefs. At the end of 1905, he went to a meeting in Finland and met Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Lenin was not what Stalin had expected. The government arrested and exiled Stalin several times in the next ten years. This increased his power in the Bolshevik party and he was elected to the Central Committee of the party in 1912. He was promoted to a position at St.Petersburg.

Picture flip, Stalin in 1942.

Secretary

Stalin talking about communism.

Stalin was a member of the Bolshevik Party, but did not do much in the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was writing and editing Pravda, the party newspaper. He had a number of organizational jobs in the Communist Party. In 1922 he became General Secretary. He was able to give jobs to people he liked in the Communist Party. These supporters helped him become the leader after Vladimir Lenin died in 1924.

1941 War propaganda portrait of Stalin.

Collectivization

Stalin tried to collectivize farms. Collectivization meant taking the land from owners of all farms and joining it into large farms run by the government. Communist officials then let farmers work the new farms and told them to turn the harvest over to the government. They did not work well. Because they were not paid much money, and whatever they grew went to the state, the workers did not try their best. The best farming worked on very small bits of land given to the peasants to grow what they liked. On these pieces of land, farmers could keep what they grew. In 1938 these parts of land were 4% of Soviet farmland. However, they gave 20% of its produce.

World War II

Stalin and Józef Cyrankiewicz.

Stalin cooperated with Hitler before the World War II and finally in 1939 they both made an agreement to conquer Poland and divide it between themselves. This is how World War II broke out.

But later on, in 1941, Hitler turned against Stalin and attacked the Soviet Union, trying to conquer it. After this happened, the USSR began working with the Allies to defeat Germany. In the end, Germany lost, but USSR had more casualties than any other country during the war.

When the World War II was over, the Soviet army ended up occupying many countries in Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and part of Germany, imposing communism on these countries.

Stalin continued to rule over the Soviet Union until he died. Stalin also militarized Russia by focusing the country's time and energy towards weapons, vehicles, and the armed forces.

Stalin died of a stroke in the year 1953. He was followed by Lavrentiy Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, and Georgi Malenkov. The three of them began a process called "De-Stalinization", which meant taking apart much of the political system that Stalin made. Stalin was denounced as a tyrant, however, after outsmarting and defeating his rivals, Krushchev established a personal control over the government comparable to Stalin's own, even if he never went as far in murdering millions of people.

Stalin is a very controverisal figure in history. Many historians see him as a ruthless dictator, while others praise him as the Father of the Soviet State. He has been criticized for his role in the Holodomor. A recent poll in Russia (2008) listed him as the third most popular person in Russian history. In 2006, a poll stated that almost half the adults in Russia thought Joseph Stalin was a good person.

Stalin and his beloved daughter, Svetlana.

Other pages

• Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell
• Communism
• Vladimir Lenin
• Tikhon Khrennikov

References

Preceded by Post created Previous party leader: Vladimir Lenin

General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party 1922–1953

Succeeded by Nikita Krushchev

Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov

Prime Minister of the Soviet Union 1941–1953

Succeeded by George Malenkov