Joseph Stalin

Background

Dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Joseph Stalin, born on December 18, 1878, was a feared ruler and skillful politician. Born in Gori, Georgia, Stalin was the only child of a cobbler and laundress. He suffered frequent smacking from his father because of his excessive drinking.

Stalin, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, attended a seminary to become a priest, but he slowly drifted away when he began secretly reading the work of German philosopher Karl Marx. He was later expelled from school, leading him to join the political underground, where he organized mass demonstrations and strikes. Following the split of the Social Democratic movement into two competing wings, Bolshevik and Menshevik, Stalin sided with the more militant Bolshevik, led by Vladimir Lenin. He was involved in numerous criminal and political activities, resulting in his multiple arrests and, eventually, exile.

He married Ekaterina Svanidze, a seamstress, and the couple had a son. He made a significant climb up the Bolshevik party’s hierarchy and was soon promoted to serve on the party’s first Central Committee, in 1912. Stalin continued to climb up the ranks, and in 1922, he was appointed by Lenin as the secretary general of the Communist Party, where he carefully placed his associates in positions of power for a common goal: the industrialization of the Soviet Union and the collectivization of agriculture. In the late 1920s, Stalin began a series of five-year plans to transform the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower — from a peasantry, or what many refer to as backwardness. His reign brought terror to his community, which suffered greatly when it dared to oppose his orders. Those who failed to cooperate were arrested, tried in court, killed, or taken to his labor camps, working to their death under harsh conditions. Millions of people perished during these years.

In the 1930s, Stalin developed strategies to gain more power over his peers and rivals. The Great Purge was a period of political terror that Stalin initiated against members of the military, the Communist Party, and just about anyone he considered a threat. During World War II, in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviets, and though they were hardly prepared for war, the Soviets emerged victorious. Stalin participated in a number of Allied conferences, including those with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, often referred to as ‘The Big Three.’ Toward the end of his life, Stalin had plans of initiating a purge, called the ‘Doctor Plot,’ against medical professionals, but he died before he could make it happen. It is estimated that Stalin was responsible for over 20 million deaths during his regime. After his death, the Soviets commenced a process to ‘de-Stalinize’ the country.