Joseph Stalin
(1879-1953)
Dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 until 1953. Stalin was born on December 21, 1879, in Gori, a town near Tbilisi in Georgia — a mountainous area in what was the southwestern part of the Russian Empire. His real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili. In 1913, he adopted the name Stalin from a Russian word that "means man of steel."
Little is known about Stalin's childhood. His father, Vissarion Ivanovich Djugashvili, was an unsuccessful village shoemaker. He is said to have been a drunkard who was cruel to his young son. Stalin's mother, Ekaterina Gheladze Djugashvili, became a washerwoman to help support the family. The Djugashvilis lived in a small shack. The first three children of the family died shortly after birth, and Stalin grew up as an only child. When Stalin was young, his father left the family and went to nearby Tbilisi to work in a shoe factory. The boy had smallpox when he was 6 or 7, and the disease scarred his face for life.
In 1888, at great sacrifice, Stalin's mother sent him to a little church school in Gori. He spent five years there and was a bright student. He then received a scholarship at the religious seminary in Tbilisi. Stalin entered this school in 1894 to study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church. At this time, Stalin became interested in the ideas of Karl Marx. The people of Tbilisi knew little of Marx and his theories about revolution. But political exiles from Moscow and St. Petersburg were beginning to bring Marxist pamphlets to Tbilisi and other smaller cities.
In 1898, four years after the rise of Tsar Nicholas II to power, Stalin joined a secret Marxist revolutionary group. The Tbilisi seminary, like many Russian schools, was a center for the circulation of forbidden revolutionary ideas. In May 1899, Stalin was expelled for not appearing for an examination. His interest in Marxism probably played a part in his dismissal.
In September 1901, Stalin began to write for a Georgian Marxist journal called Brdzola ("The Struggle"). By this time, he had read revolutionary articles written by Vladimir Lenin. Stalin's first writings closely imitated the views of Lenin, but lacked Lenin's style or force. In November 1901, Stalin was formally accepted into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
Stalin escaped from exile in Siberia in January 1904. He returned to Tbilisi and joined the Bolsheviks. Stalin met Lenin in Finland in 1905. Between 1906 and 1913, Stalin was arrested and exiled a number of times. He spent 7 of the 10 years between 1907 and 1917 in prison or in exile. In 1912, Stalin was suddenly elevated by Lenin into the small but powerful Central Committee of the Bolshevik party. In 1913, with Lenin's help, Stalin wrote a long article called "The National Question and Social Democracy." Also in 1913, Stalin was arrested and exiled for the last time. Before his arrest, he served briefly as an editor of Pravda ("Truth"), the Bolshevik party newspaper.
After the Tsar was overthrown and a provisional government was formed, Stalin was released from exile. He returned to Petrograd on March 25. Stalin took over the editorship of Pravda from Vyacheslav Molotov. Lenin became concerned that Stalin did not strongly oppose the provisional government in Pravda.
During the Bolshevik October Revolution, Stalin played a very minor role (a fact that Stalin hid after he came to power). During the civil war that followed, Stalin became one of the five members of the newly formed Politburo (Political Bureau), the policymaking body of the party's Central Committee. In 1922, the Communist Party's Central Committee elected Stalin as its general secretary. However, Lenin became concerned with Stalin's dictatorial methods, and began an effort to assist Leon Trotsky against Stalin (see Lenin's "Last Testament"). However, he died before this could be accomplished.
Stalin declared political war on Trotsky. Creating a voting bloc (a "triumvirate") in the Politburo with Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev to oust Trotsky from leadership. Later, Stalin turned on Zinoviev, Kamenev, and his other supporters — having most of the original Bolsheviks killed in what became known as the "Great Purges" of the 1920's and 1930's.
Becoming the totalitarian dictator of the Soviet Union, Stalin's policies moved from ultra-left to the right. He planned "five year programs" for the economy and brutally forced peasants onto collective farms. He also built a huge military complex and used Great-Russian patriotism to support his efforts. Internationally, his politics were no more logical; taking over the Communist International (Comintern), he had all the world's communist parties adopt such varying lines as the Third Period (where every non-Stalinist was labeled a "social fascist") to the Popular Front (where Stalinists collaborated with liberal segments of the rich classes).
Stalin worked to spread his brand of Communism throughout the world for the next twenty years. Apparently planning another great purge, early in 1953, Stalin prepared to replace the top men in the Soviet government. Then, on March 4, 1953, the Central Committee of the Communist Party announced that Stalin had suffered a brain hemorrhage on March 1. Stalin died in Moscow on March 5, 1953. It is now believed that Stalin was actually murdered by one of his close aids.
Today, Stalin is seen as one of the great evils of the 20th century. His blind thirst for power and his overinflated ego was responsible for millions of deaths, including many of his fellow Communists. A campaign was started by Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, to de-Stalinize the USSR, but this was never successful.