After graduating from the Gori Theological School in 1894, Joseph studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary, from where he was expelled for revolutionary activities in 1899. A year before, he joined the Georgian social democratic organization Mesame Dasi, and in 1901 he became a revolutionary. At the same time, Dzhugashvili received the party nickname “Stalin” (for his inner circle he had another nickname - “Koba”).

From 1902 to 1913, Stalin was arrested and expelled six times, and escaped four times.

When in 1903 (at the Second Congress of the RSDLP) the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, Stalin supported the Bolshevik leader Lenin and, on his instructions, began creating a network of underground Marxist circles in the Caucasus.

In 1906-1907, Joseph Stalin participated in organizing a number of expropriations in Transcaucasia. In 1907, he was one of the leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP.

In 1912 he became a member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. From March 1917, he participated in the preparation and conduct of the October Revolution: he was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), and was a member of the Military Revolutionary Center for the leadership of the armed uprising. In 1917-1922 he was People's Commissar for Nationalities.

During the Civil War, he carried out important assignments of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Soviet government; was a member of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern, Western and Southwestern Fronts.

When on April 3, 1922, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), a new position was established - General Secretary of the Central Committee. Stalin was elected as the first General Secretary.

In the party structure, this position was of a purely technical nature. But its hidden strength lay in the fact that it was the General Secretary who appointed the lower-level party leaders, thanks to which Stalin formed a personally loyal majority among the middle ranks of party members. Stalin remained in this position until the end of his life (from 1922 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), from December 1925 - CPSU (b), from 1934 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), from 1952 - CPSU).

After Lenin's death, Stalin declared himself the sole successor of Lenin's work and his teachings. Stalin proclaimed a course towards “building socialism in one, separate country.” He carried out accelerated industrialization of the country and forced collectivization of peasant farms. In his foreign policy activities he adhered to the class line of fighting the “capitalist encirclement” and supporting the international communist and labor movement.

By the mid-1930s, Stalin concentrated all state power in his hands and actually became the sole leader of the Soviet people. Old party leaders - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Rykov and others, who were part of the anti-Stalinist opposition, were gradually expelled from the party, and then physically destroyed as “enemies of the people.” In the second half of the 1930s, a regime of severe terror was established in the country, which reached its climax in 1937-1938. The search and destruction of “enemies of the people” affected not only the highest party bodies and the army, but also broad layers of Soviet society. Millions of Soviet citizens were illegally repressed on far-fetched, unsubstantiated charges of espionage, sabotage, and sabotage; exiled to camps or executed in the basements of the NKVD.

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin concentrated all political and military power in his hands as Chairman of the State Defense Committee (June 30, 1941 - September 4, 1945) and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Armed Forces. At the same time, he took the post of People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (July 19, 1941 - March 15, 1946; from February 25, 1946 - People's Commissar of the Armed Forces of the USSR) and was directly involved in drawing up plans for military operations.

During the war, Joseph Stalin, together with US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, initiated the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition. He represented the USSR in negotiations with countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition (Tehran, 1943; Yalta, 1945; Potsdam, 1945).

After the end of the war, during which the Soviet army liberated most of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Stalin became an ideologist and practitioner of the creation of a “world socialist system,” which was one of the main factors in the emergence of the Cold War and the military-political confrontation between the USSR and the USA .

On March 19, 1946, during the restructuring of the Soviet government apparatus, Stalin was confirmed as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

After the war, he was involved in the restoration of the country's national economy, destroyed by the war, paying attention to increasing the defense capability of the Soviet Union and the technical re-equipment of the army and navy. He was one of the main initiators of the Soviet “atomic project”, which contributed to the transformation of the USSR into one of the two “superpowers”.

(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. in 8 volumes, 2004. ISBN 5 203 01875 - 8)

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953 (according to the official version, from a massive cerebral hemorrhage). The sarcophagus with his body was installed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin's sarcophagus.

The XX (1956) and XXII (1961) congresses of the CPSU sharply criticized the so-called cult of personality and the activities of Stalin. By decision of the XXII Congress of the CPSU (in fact, on the initiative of Nikita Khrushchev), on October 31, 1961, Stalin’s body was reburied behind the Mausoleum near the Kremlin wall.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Joseph Stalin is an outstanding personality of the 20th century. Some call him a great politician who won the Great Patriotic War. Others consider him a criminal.

Dzhugashvili Joseph Vissarionovich (Stalin) was born on December 21, 1879 in the Tiflis province in the city of Gori. At birth, Joseph had limb defects. In addition, at the age of 7 he was hit by a phaeton, which is why his left hand began to function poorly. The mother loved the boy very much, but the father often beat him, which affected the child’s psyche.

In 1988, in his hometown, Stalin entered an Orthodox school, where he joined the revolutionaries. Where he was subsequently chosen as the leader of an underground circle of Marxists. Later he was expelled from school for absenteeism.

Since the 1900s, Stalin began active propaganda. And in 1912, Dzhugashvili decided to change his last name to Stalin. At the same time he met Vladimir Lenin. Then he becomes the editor of the then popular newspaper Pravda, published by the Bolsheviks. Lenin highly valued Stalin's services and eventually made him his assistant.

Then Stalin enters the Council of People's Commissars. And in the Civil War, he was able to brilliantly show his leadership qualities and skills. When Lenin, due to illness, retreated from governing the country, Stalin took his place, removing all competitors in his path.

In 1930, Stalin ruled the country with full rights. Mass repressions and collectivization began. People on collective farms were dying of hunger, while industry was intensively developing in the cities. During the Great Patriotic War, Stalin made fundamental decisions, sometimes without even thinking about the lives of the soldiers, but it was thanks to his leadership that the enemy was defeated.

Stalin carefully hid his personal life. It is known that in 1906 he married for the first time. His wife Ekaterina Svanidze gave birth to a son. But a year later the woman fell ill and died of typhus. Stalin could not come to his senses for a long time. And only 14 years later he remarried. His wife was Nadezhda Alliluyeva. She gave birth to the leader's son and daughter. But in 1932, Nadezhda committed suicide due to a quarrel with her husband.

March 5, 1953 Joseph Stalin dies. According to the official version, this happened as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. Initially, Stalin's body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin, but in 1961 he was reburied near the Kremlin wall.

Biography 2

December 1878. Georgia. A son is born into the Dzhugashvili family. Then no one could have imagined that a boy from a poor family would be a revolutionary, whose identity still causes controversy among historians. Some consider him an outstanding politician, thanks to whose merits the USSR managed to win during the Second World War, while others attribute terror and violence to Stalin and accuse him of the Holodomor. One way or another, he is our story. And everyone is obliged to know the biography of the Soviet politician.

Soso, as Stalin’s mother affectionately called him, was the third child in the family. From birth, Stalin had health problems. Several toes on the left foot were fused, and the skin on the head and back was damaged. After the accident, the vital functions of the left hand were also disrupted. In addition, the father of the future revolutionary constantly beat the boy, which naturally affected his health. The mother, in turn, took care of her son in every possible way. She dreamed of him becoming a priest. Stalin entered the theological seminary, where, in fact, he became a member of the underground organization of revolutionaries. Later he became the leader of an illegal circle of Marxists and was actively involved in propaganda. Shortly before the exams, Stalin was expelled from the seminary. I had to earn a living by tutoring.

Through thorns to power. Even despite systematic exile and imprisonment, the revolutionary always miraculously escaped punishment. By the way, he gave up his last name only in 1912, when he began to go by the pseudonym Stalin. In the early 1900s, he actively promoted. This helped to earn respect in society. Afterwards, he met Vladimir Lenin, as a result of which Stalin became the leader’s right hand. In 1917 - People's Commissar for Nationalities in the Council of People's Commissars. When Stalin was already dying, the revolutionary assumed managerial responsibilities, simultaneously eliminating all potential contenders for the “throne.”

In 1930, when Stalin was officially already in power, a period of mass repressions, famine and perestroika began. It made the USSR the second country in the world in terms of industrial production.

Stalin loved control and at the same time is a very tough person. Thanks to him, the USSR defeated Nazi Germany. Little is known about the revolutionary’s family life; he always hid his personal life from society. In March 1953, Stalin dies. The official version is a cerebral hemorrhage. Now his body is buried near the walls of the Kremlin.

Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.

Stalin, whose real name was Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, was for many years the dictator of the Soviet Union. He was born on December 21, 1879 in the Caucasus in Georgia in the city of Gori. His native language was Georgian. Stalin learned Russian later, but always spoke with a noticeable Georgian accent.

He grew up in poverty, in the family of a shoemaker and the daughter of a serf. His father, who drank heavily and beat his son severely, died when Joseph was eleven years old. As a teenager, Joseph entered the parochial school in Gori, and then the theological seminary in Tiflis, but in 1899 he was expelled from it for spreading Marxist ideas.

In 1901 - 02, member of the Tiflis and Batumi committees of the RSDLP. After the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903) Bolshevik. He was repeatedly arrested, exiled, and escaped exile. Participant of the Revolution of 1905 - 07. In December 1905, delegate to the 1st conference of the RSDLP (Tammerfors). In 1906 - 07 he led the expropriations in Transcaucasia. Delegate to the 4th - 5th congresses of the RSDLP (1906 - 07). In 1907 - 08, member of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. At the plenum of the Central Committee after the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (1912), he was co-opted in absentia into the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP.

In the article “Our Goals” (published in © 1 of the newspaper “Pravda”, 1912, April 22) he spoke out for the reconciliation of factions within the RSDLP, called “first of all and mainly for the unity of the class struggle of the proletariat, for unity at any cost.” . Stalin emphasized that<мы отнюдь не намерены замазывать разногласий, имеющихся среди социал-демократических рабочих. Более того: мы думаем, что мощное и полное жизни движение немыслимо без разногласий, - только на кладбище осуществимо "полное тождество взглядов"! Но это ещё не значит, что пунктов расхождения больше, чем пунктов схождения>(Soch., vol. 2, M., 1946, p. 248). In 1912 he participated in the Meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with party workers in Krakow. In January 1913, while in Vienna, he wrote the article “Marxism and the National Question” (published in the magazine “Enlightenment” under the title “The National Question and Social Democracy”, 1913, March - April; “Marxism and the National Question”, Op., v. 2), which gained fame among Russian Marxists. In February 1913 he was arrested in St. Petersburg and exiled to Eastern Siberia. Ya.M. Sverdlov and other exiles noted that Stalin lived a secluded life in exile, showing arrogance towards his comrades (see: Beladi L., Kraus T., Stalin, M., 1990, pp. 44 - 45). At the end of 1916 he was drafted into the army, but due to an injury to his left hand received in childhood, he was declared unfit for military service. The accusations repeatedly brought against Stalin of having connections with the tsarist police remain the subject of many years of debate due to the lack of reliable documentary evidence (see "Questions of the History of the CPSU", 1989, © 4, pp. 90 - 98, "Moskovskaya Pravda", 1989, March 28 ; "Top Secret", 1989, © 6).

After the February Revolution of 1917 he returned to Petrograd. Before Lenin's arrival from exile, he led the activities of the Central Committee and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolsheviks. Since May 1917 - member of the Politburo of the Central Committee. In view of Lenin's forced departure into hiding, Stalin delivered a report to the Central Committee at the VI Party Congress. Participated in the October armed uprising as a member of the party center under its leadership. After the victory of the October Revolution, he joined the Council of People's Commissars as People's Commissar for Nationalities.

In relation to the Provisional Government and its policies, I proceeded from the fact that the democratic revolution was not yet completed and the overthrow of the government was not an immediate practical task. In the article “On War” (Pravda, 1917, March 16), he criticized the slogan “Down with war!” and called for putting pressure on the Provisional Government “demanding that it express its consent to immediately open peace negotiations.”

After the outbreak of the civil war, Stalin was sent to the south of Russia as an extraordinary representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the procurement and export of grain from the North Caucasus to industrial centers. Arriving in Tsaritsyn on June 6, 1918, Stalin restored order in the city, ensured the delivery of food to Moscow and took up the defense of Tsaritsyn from the troops of Ataman Krasnov. Together with K.E. Voroshilov, he managed to defend the city and prevent the connection of the armies of Krasnov and Dutov.

And later Stalin found himself on those fronts where the situation was critical. In November 1918, revolutions began in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Stalin is appointed chairman of the Military Council of the Ukrainian Front. On November 30, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense was created, headed by Lenin. Stalin became its member, and as a representative of the Central Executive Committee, Lenin's deputy. In December 1918, Admiral Kolchak's offensive in Siberia began. He planned to link up with the British and White Guard troops advancing from the north. A catastrophic situation was created, which Lenin instructed Stalin to correct. Stalin, together with Dzerzhinsky, quickly and decisively restored the situation near Perm.

Stalin's popularity as a practical leader who knew how to take responsibility, make decisions and achieve their implementation grew. At the VIII Party Congress he was elected a member of the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau. At Lenin's proposal, Stalin was appointed People's Commissar of State Control (since 1920 - People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate).

In May 1919, Stalin arrived in Petrograd with the task of organizing defense and repelling the offensive of General Yudenich. He quickly eliminated confusion and panic, mercilessly destroying enemies and traitors. Yudenich's troops were driven back, the threat to Petrograd was eliminated. In the summer of 1919, on the Western Front, in Smolensk, Stalin organized resistance to the Polish offensive.

In April 1922, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) elected Stalin General Secretary of the Party Central Committee. In this position, he had a difficult and responsible responsibility - to lead the political and economic leadership of the country during the illness and after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Lenin highly valued Stalin's organizational abilities, his knowledge and experience in solving national and other pressing political problems. There were personal clashes between them and fundamental disputes, in particular, on issues of the structure of a unified Soviet state, the monopoly of foreign trade, etc. Nevertheless, these disagreements did not take on the nature of irreconcilable political contradictions. It is significant that in his famous letter to the congress, Lenin, having given a derogatory ideological and political characterization to Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin, at the same time did not make political claims against Stalin.

However, Lenin sharply condemned Stalin's rudeness, considering this shortcoming intolerable precisely in the position of General Secretary, since it is fraught with a split in the party leadership. In his political testament, he stated that Stalin was too rude and should be removed from the post of General Secretary. However, after Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin successfully hid this will. Moreover, he was able to team up with Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, two of the most powerful members of the Politburo, to form a "troika", or triumvirate. Together they defeated Trotsky and his supporters. Then Stalin, the genius of political struggle, destroyed Zinoviev and Kamenev. Having dealt with the “left opposition” (that is, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and their supporters) in the struggle for power, he borrowed several of their political plans. Soon Stalin took on the right wing of the Communist Party - his former comrades - and defeated them too. By the early 1930s, he became the sole dictator of the Soviet Union.

From this position of power, in 1934 Stalin began to carry out a series of harsh political purges.

Stalin very accurately defined the true nature of such views: contempt for the Russian people, “disbelief in the strength and abilities of the Russian proletariat - this is the substratum of the theory of permanent revolution.” The victorious Russian proletariat, he said, cannot “tread water”, cannot engage in “pushing water” in anticipation of victory and help from the proletariat of the West. Stalin gave the party and the people a clear and definite goal: “We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must cover this distance in ten years. Either we do this, or we will be crushed.”

The year 1937 mercilessly swept away from the political scene the careerists and scoundrels who had attached themselves to the great people’s revolution, those who “decossackized” and “dispossessed kulakism,” asserted “proletarian culture,” who destroyed churches and destroyed honest non-party “specialists,” those who wanted “everything.” take away and divide,” who dreamed of a “world fire” in which Russia was assigned the role of a simple “armful of brushwood.”

In parallel with the cleansing of the state and party apparatus from Trotskyists and their accomplices, there was a comprehensive cleansing of the country's public life from Trotskyist ideology with its militant Russophobia, mockery of Russian history, and denial of patriotic ideals. On Stalin's instructions, a profound restructuring of the entire system of social sciences was undertaken, their vulgar sociological distortions were overcome, and the teaching of Russian history in secondary and higher schools was resumed. The timeliness and beneficialness of the changes that were taking place were especially clearly confirmed with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders, during which a new ideological and political course was finally formed to restore historical continuity, respect for national patriotic values, and rely on them in the creation of a new life.

In May 1941, Stalin assumed the duties of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Since the beginning of the war, he has been Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar of Defense and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the USSR.

In August 1939, Hitler and Stalin concluded their famous “non-aggression pact.” Within two weeks, Hitler invaded Poland from the west, and a few weeks later the Soviet Union entered Poland from the east and occupied the eastern half of the country. In the same year, the USSR began to threaten three independent states with military invasion - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (until 1917 - part of the Russian Empire). All three countries surrendered without a fight and were annexed by the Soviet Union. In the same way, part of Romania was annexed under military threat. Finland refused to submit, but the Russian invasion ended with the seizure of part of Finnish territory. Often these actions are explained by the fact that the new territories were required by the Soviet Union to protect against an expected attack from Nazi Germany. But when the war ended and Germany was completely defeated, Stalin did not relinquish control of any of the captured territories.

The Soviet state highly appreciated Stalin's personal contribution to the Victory. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded two Orders of Victory and the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree. On June 27, 1945, Stalin was awarded the highest military rank of Generalissimo of the Soviet Union.

Stalin's personal life was not very successful. He married in 1904, but three years later his wife died of tuberculosis. Their only son Yakov was captured by the Germans during the Second World War. The German side offered to exchange him, but Stalin rejected this offer, and Yakov died in a German concentration camp. In 1919, Stalin married a second time. His second wife died in 1932. It was announced that she had committed suicide, although there were rumors that her husband himself had killed her or driven her to suicide. From his second marriage, Stalin had two children. His son, a Soviet air force officer, became an alcoholic and died in 1962. Stalin's daughter Svetlana fled the Soviet Union and moved to the United States in 1967.

The most important characteristic of Stalin's personality is his cruelty. It seems that no other feelings - for example, pity - influenced him at all. He was also a very suspicious person, bordering on paranoia, but at the same time amazingly capable: energetic, persistent, practical and incredibly smart.

Along with the enormous state and political activities of I.V. Stalin tirelessly worked on developing issues of the theory of Marxism-Leninism. In 1950 I.V. Stalin took part in the discussion on issues of linguistics; in his work “Marxism and Questions of Linguistics” he gave a decisive rebuff to the vulgarizing distortions of the class approach to the analysis of social phenomena and processes. In his work “Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR,” published in 1952, I.V. Stalin put forward and developed a number of new principles of political economy, based on the main works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin.

The death of I.V. Stalin on March 5, 1953 was perceived as a grave loss not only by the working people of the USSR, but also by the whole world.

During his life, Stalin expanded the borders of the Soviet Union, founded allied countries in Eastern Europe, and turned the USSR into a powerful power exerting influence in all corners of the world. But over the past few years, the Soviet empire in eastern Europe has collapsed, and the Soviet Union itself has split into fifteen independent states.

During Stalin's time, the USSR was a huge police state, but the terrible grip of the secret services has gradually weakened, and Russians now enjoy personal freedom such as has never been seen in their country.

Joseph Stalin is an outstanding revolutionary politician in the history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. His activities were marked by massive repressions, which are still considered a crime against humanity today. The personality and biography of Stalin in modern society are still loudly discussed: some consider him a great ruler who led the country to victory in the Great Patriotic War, others accuse him of genocide of the people and the Holodomor, terror and violence against people.

Childhood and youth

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (real name Dzhugashvili) was born on December 21, 1879 in the Georgian town of Gori in a family belonging to the lower class. According to another version, Joseph Vissarionovich’s birthday fell on December 18, 1878. In any case, Sagittarius is considered his patronizing zodiac sign. In addition to the traditional hypothesis about the Georgian origin of the future leader of the nation, there is an opinion that his ancestors were Ossetians.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin as a child

He was the third but only surviving child in the family - his older brother and sister died in infancy. Soso, as the mother of the future ruler of the USSR called him, was not born a completely healthy child; he had congenital limb defects (he had two fused toes on his left foot), and also had damaged skin on his face and back. In early childhood, Stalin had an accident - he was hit by a phaeton, as a result of which the functioning of his left hand was impaired.

In addition to congenital and acquired injuries, the future revolutionary was repeatedly beaten by his father, which once led to a serious head injury and over the years affected Stalin’s psycho-emotional state. Mother Ekaterina Georgievna surrounded her son with care and guardianship, wanting to compensate the boy for the missing love of his father.

Exhausted from difficult work, wanting to earn as much money as possible to raise her son, the woman tried to raise a worthy man who was to become a priest. But her hopes were not crowned with success - Stalin grew up as a street darling and spent most of his time not in church, but in the company of local hooligans.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin in his youth

At the same time, in 1888, Joseph Vissarionovich became a student at the Gori Orthodox School, and upon graduation he entered the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Within its walls he became acquainted with Marxism and joined the ranks of underground revolutionaries.

At the seminary, the future ruler of the Soviet Union proved himself to be a gifted and talented student, as he was easily given all subjects without exception. At the same time, he became the leader of an illegal circle of Marxists, in which he was engaged in propaganda.

Stalin failed to receive a spiritual education, as he was expelled from the educational institution before the exams for absenteeism. After this, Joseph Vissarionovich was issued a certificate allowing him to become a teacher in primary schools. At first he made his living as a tutor, and then got a job at the Tiflis Physical Observatory as a computer-observer.

Path to power

Stalin's revolutionary activities started in the early 1900s - the future ruler of the USSR was then engaged in propaganda, thereby strengthening his own position in society. In his youth, Joseph participated in rallies, which most often ended in arrests, and worked on the creation of the illegal newspaper “Brdzola” (“Struggle”), which was published at a Baku printing house. An interesting fact of his Georgian biography is that in 1906-1907 Dzhugashvili led robbery attacks on banks in Transcaucasia.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin

The revolutionary traveled to Finland and Sweden, where conferences and congresses of the RSDLP were held. Then he met the head of the Soviet government and famous revolutionaries Georgy Plekhanov, and others.

In 1912, he finally decided to change his surname Dzhugashvili to the pseudonym Stalin. At the same time, the man becomes the representative of the Central Committee for the Caucasus. The revolutionary receives the position of editor-in-chief of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, where his colleague was Vladimir Lenin, who saw Stalin as his assistant in resolving Bolshevik and revolutionary issues. As a result of this, Joseph Vissarionovich became his right hand.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin on the podium

Stalin's path to power was filled with repeated exiles and imprisonments, from which he managed to escape. He spent 2 years in Solvychegodsk, then was sent to the city of Narym, and from 1913 for 3 years he was kept in the village of Kureika. Being away from the party leaders, Joseph Vissarionovich managed to maintain contact with them through secret correspondence.

Before the October Revolution, Stalin supported Lenin's plans; at an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee, he condemned the position of and, who were against the uprising. In 1917, Lenin appointed Stalin People's Commissar for Nationalities in the Council of People's Commissars.

The next stage of the career of the future ruler of the USSR is associated with the Civil War, in which the revolutionary showed professionalism and leadership qualities. He participated in a number of military operations, including the defense of Tsaritsyn and Petrograd, opposed the army and.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Klim Voroshilov

At the end of the war, when Lenin was already mortally ill, Stalin ruled the country, while destroying opponents and contenders for the post of chairman of the government of the Soviet Union along the way. In addition, Joseph Vissarionovich showed persistence in relation to monotonous work, which was required by the post of chief of staff. To strengthen his own authority, Stalin published 2 books - “On the Foundations of Leninism” (1924) and “On Questions of Leninism” (1927). In these works, he relied on the principles of “building socialism in a single country,” not excluding the “world revolution.”

In 1930, all power was concentrated in the hands of Stalin, and as a result, upheavals and restructuring began in the USSR. This period was marked by the beginning of mass repressions and collectivization, when the country's rural population was herded into collective farms and starved to death.

Embed from Getty Images Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov

The new leader of the Soviet Union sold all the food taken from the peasants abroad, and with the proceeds he developed industry, building industrial enterprises, the bulk of which were concentrated in the cities of the Urals and Siberia. Thus, in the shortest possible time, he made the USSR the second country in the world in terms of industrial production, however, at the cost of millions of lives of peasants who died of hunger.

In 1937, the peak of repression struck; at that time, purges took place not only among the citizens of the country, but also among the party leadership. During the Great Terror, 56 of the 73 people who spoke at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee were shot. Later, the leader of the action, the head of the NKVD, was killed, whose place was taken by one of Stalin’s inner circle. A totalitarian regime was finally established in the country.

Head of the USSR

By 1940, Joseph Vissarionovich became the sole ruler-dictator of the USSR. He was a strong leader of the country, had an extraordinary capacity for work, and at the same time knew how to direct people to solve necessary problems. A characteristic feature of Stalin was his ability to make immediate decisions on issues under discussion and find time to monitor all processes taking place in the country.

Embed from Getty Images CPSU Secretary General Joseph Stalin

The achievements of Joseph Stalin, despite his harsh methods of rule, are still highly valued by experts. Thanks to him, the USSR won the Great Patriotic War, agriculture was mechanized in the country, industrialization took place, as a result of which the Union turned into a nuclear superpower with colossal geopolitical influence throughout the world. Interestingly, the American magazine Time awarded the Soviet leader the title “Person of the Year” in 1939 and 1943.

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Joseph Stalin was forced to change the course of foreign policy. If earlier he built relations with Germany, then later he turned his attention to the former Entente countries. In the person of England and France, the Soviet leader sought support against the aggression of fascism.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference

Along with the achievements, Stalin's reign is characterized by a lot of negative aspects, which caused horror in society. Stalinist repressions, dictatorship, terror, violence - all this is considered the main characteristic features of the reign of Joseph Vissarionovich. He is also accused of suppressing entire scientific areas of the country, accompanied by persecution of doctors and engineers, which caused disproportionate harm to the development of Soviet culture and science.

Stalin's policies are still loudly condemned throughout the world. The ruler of the USSR is accused of the mass death of people who became victims of Stalinism and Nazism. At the same time, in many cities, Joseph Vissarionovich is posthumously considered an honorary citizen and a talented commander, and many people still respect the dictator-ruler, calling him a great leader.

Personal life

The personal life of Joseph Stalin has few confirmed facts today. The dictator leader carefully destroyed all evidence of his family life and love relationships, so researchers were only able to slightly restore the chronology of the events of his biography.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva

It is known that Stalin first married in 1906 to Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to his first child. After a year of family life, Stalin's wife died of typhus. After this, the stern revolutionary devoted himself to serving the country and only 14 years later he again decided to marry her, who was 23 years younger.

The second wife of Joseph Vissarionovich gave birth to a son and took upon herself the upbringing of Stalin’s first-born son, who until that moment lived with his maternal grandmother. In 1925, a daughter was born into the leader's family. In addition to his own children, an adopted son, the same age as Vasily, was raised in the house of the party leader. His father, revolutionary Fyodor Sergeev, was a close friend of Joseph and died in 1921.

In 1932, Stalin's children lost their mother, and he became a widower for the second time. His wife Nadezhda committed suicide amid a conflict with her husband. After this, the ruler never married again.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin with his son Vasily and daughter Svetlana

The children of Joseph Vissarionovich gave their father 9 grandchildren, the youngest of whom, the daughter of Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared after the death of the ruler - in 1971. Only Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin, who became the director of the Russian Army Theater, became famous in his homeland. Also known is Yakov’s son, Evgeny Dzhugashvili, who published the book “My Grandfather Stalin. “He is a saint!”, and Svetlana’s son, Joseph Alliluyev, who made a career as a cardiac surgeon.

After Stalin's death, disputes arose repeatedly about the height of the head of the USSR. Some researchers attributed the leader with short stature - 160 cm, but others were based on information obtained from records and photos of the Russian secret police, where Joseph Vissarionovich was characterized as a person with a height of 169-174 cm. The leader of the Communist Party was also “attributed” with a weight of 62 kg.

Death

Joseph Stalin's death occurred on March 5, 1953. According to the official conclusion of doctors, the ruler of the USSR died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. After an autopsy, it was determined that he had suffered several ischemic strokes on his legs during his life, which led to serious heart problems and mental disorders.

Stalin's embalmed body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin, but 8 years later at the CPSU Congress it was decided to rebury the revolutionary in a grave near the Kremlin wall. During the funeral, a stampede occurred in a crowd of thousands of people wishing to say goodbye to the leader of the nation. According to unconfirmed information, 400 people died on Trubnaya Square.

Embed from Getty Images Tombstone of Joseph Stalin near the Kremlin wall

There is an opinion that his ill-wishers were involved in Stalin’s death, considering the policies of the leader of the revolutionaries unacceptable. Researchers are confident that the ruler’s “comrades-in-arms” deliberately did not allow doctors to approach him, who could put Joseph Vissarionovich back on his feet and prevent his death.

Over the years, the attitude towards Stalin’s personality was repeatedly revised, and if during the Thaw his name was banned, then later documentaries and feature films, books and articles appeared that analyzed the activities of the ruler. Repeatedly, the head of state became the main character of films such as “The Inner Circle”, “The Promised Land”, “Kill Stalin”, etc.

Memory

• 1958 – “Day One”
• 1985 – “Victory”
• 1985 – “Battle for Moscow”
• 1989 – “Stalingrad”
• 1990 – “Yakov, son of Stalin”
• 1993 – “Stalin’s Testament”
• 2000 – “In August 1944...”
• 2013 – “Son of the Father of Nations”
• 2017 – “The Death of Stalin”

• Yuri Mukhin - “The Murder of Stalin and Beria”
• Lev Balayan - “Stalin”
• Elena Prudnikova - “Khrushchev. Creators of Terror"
• Igor Pykhalov - “The Great Slandered Leader. Lies and truth about Stalin"
• Alexander Sever - "Stalin's Anti-Corruption Committee"
• Felix Chuev - “Soldiers of the Empire”

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin short biography for children

• Brief Introduction
• Rise to power
• Cult of personality
  
• Stalin's purges in the party
• Deportations
• Collectivization
• Industrialization
• Death of Stalin
• Personal life
• Even briefly about Stalin

Addition to the article:

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (real name is Dzhugashvili) Height Ctalina Joseph Vissarionovich - There is no exact data, but some sources indicate that his growth was 172-174 cm Son of Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich First Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party - Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich and Collectivization Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich and Industrialization Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich and the Deportations The personality cult of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin

Brief Introduction

Joseph Vissarionovich to the military events of the state

. Stage of the First World War, for Joseph began the entry of the empire into hostilities. The future leader of the people was drafted into the Russian army. However, his left hand was injured and Joseph was removed from service. He had to go to Achinsk, just 100 km from the Trans-Siberian Railway, for a medical examination, and was allowed to remain there after being expelled from the army.

. 1917, as the beginning of the era of Soviet power. In anticipation of the political upheaval, Stalin became an important figure in the removal of imperial rule. He then took a position in favor of supporting Alexander Kerensky and the provisional government. Stalin was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee. In the fall of 1917, the Bolshevik Central Committee voted for the uprising. On November 7, an uprising called the Great October Revolution was organized. On November 8, the Bolshevik movement organized storming of the Winter Palace.
. Civil War 1917-1919. After political changes, society began a civil war. Stalin challenged Trotsky. There is an opinion that the future head of state was the initiator of the liquidation of some of the counter-revolutionaries and officers of the Soviet troops who transferred from the service of imperial Russia. In May 1919, in order to stop mass desertions on the Western Front, the offenders were publicly executed by Stalin.
. 1919-1921, in the context of a military dispute with Poland. Victory in the revolution caused the Russian Empire to cease to exist. The Soviet Union (USSR) appeared. At this time, the conflict began, which was called the Soviet-Polish war. Stalin was unperturbed in his determination to take control of the city in Poland - Lvov (now Lvov in Ukraine). This is contrary to the general strategy established by Lenin and Trotsky, which focused on capturing Warsaw and further north. The Poles defeated the USSR army. Stalin was accused and returned to the capital. At the Ninth Party Conference in 1920, Trotsky openly criticized Stalin's behavior.

Stalin's rise to power

Stalin's personality cult

Stalin's purges in the party

Deportations

• They deeply influenced the ethnic map of the USSR.
• It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949, almost 3.3 million people were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics.
• According to some estimates, up to 43% of the population who were “expelled” died from disease and malnutrition.

Collectivization

Industrialization

Stalin's policy in World War II

In August 1939, an unsuccessful attempt was made to negotiate anti-Hitler pacts with other major European powers. After which Joseph Vissarionovich decided to conclude a non-aggression pact with the German leadership.

On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of Poland marked the beginning Second World War. Stalin took measures to strengthen the Soviet military and modified and increased the effectiveness of propaganda in the Soviet army. On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler violated the non-attack agreement.
While the Germans pressed on, Stalin was confident in the possibility of an Allied victory over Germany. The Soviets repulsed the important German strategic southern campaign and, although there were 2.5 million Soviet casualties in the effort, it allowed the Soviets to go on the offensive on large parts of the remaining Eastern Front.
On April 30, the leader of Nazi Germany and his new wife took their own lives, after which Soviet troops found their remains, which were burned as per Hitler's directive. The German troops surrendered after a few weeks. Stalin was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 and 1948.

Death of Stalin

Personal life

• Marriages and families. The first wife of I.V. Stalin was Ekaterina Svanidze in 1906. From this union a son was born, Jacob. Yakov served in the Red Army during the war. The Germans took him prisoner. They demanded to exchange him for Field Marshal Paulus, who surrendered after Stalingrad, but Stalin refused this offer, saying that they had in their hands not only his son, but millions of sons of the Soviet Union.
• And he said that either the Germans would let everyone go, or his son would remain with them.
• Subsequently, Yakov is said to have wanted to commit suicide, but survived. Yakov had a son, Evgeniy, who recently defended his grandfather's legacy in Russian courts. Evgeniy is married to a Georgian woman, has two sons and seven grandchildren.
• With his second wife, whose name was Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin had children Vasily and Svetlana. Nadezhda died in 1932, officially from illness.
• But there were rumors that she committed suicide after a quarrel with her husband. They also said that Stalin himself killed Nadezhda. Vasily rose into the ranks of the USSR Air Force. Officially dies of alcoholism in 1962.
• No matter what, this is still in question.
• He distinguished himself during World War II as a capable pilot. Svetlana fled to the United States in 1967, where she later married William Wesley Peters. Her daughter Olga lives in Portland, Oregon.

Even briefly about Stalin

Stalin's personality briefly

Stalin, in short, is a personality whose scale and assessment of his activities is comparable only to another ruler of Russia - Peter I. They are very similar in their harsh methods of action to achieve goals, in the complex tasks that they had to solve, and in their participation in the most difficult wars . And the assessment of these political figures has always been extremely contradictory: from worship to hatred.

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, who later, during the years of his participation in revolutionary activities, chose the pseudonym “Stalin”, was born in 1879 in the small Georgian village of Gori.

Speaking about Stalin, it is necessary to briefly mention his father. A shoemaker by profession, he drank a lot and often beat his wife and son. These beatings led to the fact that little Joseph disliked his father and became bitter. Having suffered severely from smallpox in childhood (he almost died from it), Stalin forever had marks from it on his face. For them he received the nickname “Pockmarked”. Another injury is associated with my childhood - my left arm was damaged, which did not recover over time. Stalin, being a vain man, could hardly tolerate his physical imperfection, never undressed in public and therefore did not tolerate doctors.

The main character traits were also formed in childhood in Georgia: secrecy and vindictiveness. Himself short and physically weak, Stalin, in short, could not stand tall, stately and strong people. They aroused his hostility and suspicion.

He began his studies at a theological school, but his studies were difficult due to Stalin’s poor knowledge of the Russian language. Subsequent studies at the seminary had an even worse effect on Joseph. Here he learned to be intolerant of other people's opinions, became cunning, very rude and resourceful. Another distinctive feature of Stalin is his absolute lack of humor. As he grew older, he could joke with someone, but in relation to himself, he did not tolerate any fun since the time of his studies.
The revolutionary activity of the future father of the nation began at the seminary. For her, he was expelled from the graduating class. After this, Stalin devoted himself entirely to Marxism. Since 1902, he was repeatedly arrested and escaped from exile several times.

In 1903 he joined the Bolshevik Party. Stalin becomes Lenin's most zealous follower, thanks to whom he is noticed in the party leadership. Beginning in 1912, he became a prominent figure among the Bolsheviks.

During the revolution, he was one of the members of the leadership center of the uprising. During the years of intervention and the Civil War, Stalin, as a skillful organizer, was sent to the most troubled points. He is engaged in repelling Kolchak's offensive in Siberia, defending St. Petersburg from Yudenich's troops. His activism, charisma, and ability to lead make Stalin one of Lenin's close assistants.
With Lenin's illness in 1922, the struggle for power in the top leadership of the Bolsheviks intensified. Vladimir Ilyich himself was categorically against the possibility that Stalin could be his successor. Over the last years of joint work, Lenin began to understand his character well - intolerance, rudeness, vindictiveness.

After Lenin's death, Joseph Stalin took over the leadership of the country and immediately launched an attack on his former allies. He was not going to tolerate any opposition around him.
Stalin began collectivization and industrialization in the country. During his reign, a total totalitarian regime was established. Massive repressions were carried out. The year 1937 was especially terrible. While pursuing a course of rapprochement with Germany in foreign policy, Stalin, in short, did not believe that its leadership would decide in the near future to go to war with the USSR. Having been repeatedly informed of the exact date of the invasion of the German army, he considered this information to be misinformation.

At the same time, having led the gigantic country for almost 30 years, he was able to turn it into one of the strongest world powers.

He died on March 5, 1953 at the government dacha. According to the official version - from a cerebral hemorrhage. There are still versions that Stalin’s death is the result of a conspiracy in his inner circle.