Joseph Stalin
| Famous as | Communist Revolutionary & Ruler of former USSR |
| Born on | 21 December 1879 |
| Born in | Gori, Georgia |
| Died on | 05 March 1953 |
| Nationality | Georgia |
| Works & Achievements | General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Childhood
Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia on 21 December, 1879.
Georgia was then a part of the Russian empire. Stalin’s original name
was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. His father was a cobbler and an
alcoholic. His mother worked as maid. As a child, Joseph experienced the
poverty that most peasants had to endure in Russia at the end of the
nineteenth century. At the age of seven he suffered from smallpox. He
survived but the scars remained on his face. Due to this, he was called
as “pocky” by his friends.
Stalin's mother tongue was Georgian and was very strong in the
Georgian accent. Even after long years, Stalin could speak in perfect
Georgian accent. He studied the basic education, at Gori Church School,
where every child, as per Tsar Alexander III’s policy, was forced to
speak Russian only.
Education
In, 1894, Stalin received a scholarship to the Tiflis Theological
Seminary in the Georgian capital. Instead of devoting his time to the
studies he involved himself into the revolutionary movement against the
Russian monarchy. He joined a secret revolutionary organization called,
“Messame Dassy”. They were demanding an independent Georgia from the
clutches of Russian Monarch.
It was through the people he met in this organization that Stalin
first came into contact with the ideas of Karl Marx and Engel. However,
when his allegiance to revolutionary activities was discovered, Stalin
was expelled from the Seminary.
Revolutionary Activities
After being thrown out of the seminary, Stalin started giving private lessons
to middle class children. Since, the job he was doing was not a regular
and time bound, Stalin had sufficient time to motivate workers and
peasants in organizing strikes
and shutdown. He soon became popular among the laborers and low class
working people. His popularity also caught attention of the “Okhrana”,
secret police of the Monarch. On 3 April, 1901, the police launched a
manhunt to capture the persons involved with revolutionary activities.
Fearing his arrest, Stalin went underground. To enlighten the workers
and peasants Stalin wrote many provocative articles for a Georgian
newspaper, called Brdzola Khma Vladimir. He spent the next few years as
an activist and for a number of occasions was arrested and exiled to
Siberia.
Joins Bolshevik
In 1903, while he was in Siberia, Stalin came to know about the
split in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The faction under
the leadership of Vladimir Lenin came to be known as the Bolsheviks
while the admirers of Julius Martov formed the Mensheviks. Meanwhile,
Stalin, producing false documents and certificates managed to return to
Russia.
He joined the Bolshevik faction of the party and started working
very religiously against both the Mensheviks and Tsar Nicholar II.
Vladimir Lenin was impressed with Stalin's efforts and achievements. In
1912, Stalin became the editor of Pravda, the official newspaper of the
Communist Party of Russia.
Following the end of Tsarist rule, Alexander Kerensky formed a
provisional government in Russia. After his return to Russia, Lenin on
3rd April, 1917, Lenin refusing to accept the Kerensky government urged
the Bolshevik revolutionaries to pull down the government. Stalin and
other members of the Bolshevik Party were severely rebuked by Lenin for
supporting the Kerensky government.
Post Kerensky Period
In mid-July 1917, armed revolutionaries under the leadership of
Lenin came out in huge numbers to the streets of Petrograd. The masses
were divided into two groups, led by Trotsky and Stalin. They seized
Petrograd and formed the new revolutionary authority, the Council of
People's Commissars. The entire power of the organization was
concentrated into the hands of Lenin. He formed a five-member Politburo
that included Stalin and Trotsky. During this time, only Stalin and
Trotsky were granted the permission to see Lenin without any prior
appointment Lenin also appointed Stalin as People's Commissar for
Nationalities' Affairs. His task was to win over the people non-Russian
origins and persuade them to support Lenin.
Besides, a political commissar in the Red Army, Stalin was also
appointed as People's Commissar of the Workers and Peasants Inspection
in 1919, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic
in 1920 and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress
of Soviets in 1917.
Post Lenin Period
There were lot of frictions between Stalin and Trotsky over a
number of decisions of the party. Stalin even wrote to Lenin asking that
Trotsky be relieved of his post. Lenin believed that Trotsky would
prove a better leader than Russia. The difference between the two became
more evident after the death of Lenin in January 1924. Lenin had wished
Trotsky to serve as the Commander of the Communist Party after him. But it did not happen. Stalin shedding
the traditional emphasis of the Bolshevik on international revolution
framed a new policy of establishing "Socialism in Soviet. Trotsky wanted
to spread the revolution across the world. He termed it “Permanent
Revolution”.
Stalin was so cunning and desperate to become the leader of the
party that he manipulated his opponents and played them off against each
other. He created the enmity between Trotsky and other prominent
leaders like Zinoviev and Kamenev. Taking the opportunity, Stalin
started campaigning against both Trotsky and Zinoviev. He claimed that
there were lot of differences between Lenin and Trotsky. In 1927, both
Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the party and also sent to
exile.
Stalin’s Dictatorship
Following the exile of Trotsky and Bukharin, Stalin had become the
supreme authority of Soviet. In 1928, Stalin launched the first
Five-Year Plans in Soviet Union, emphasizing on the heavy industry to
lay the foundations for future industrial growth. His policies gained
popularity among the peasants and poor working class. Stalin's reign
also stressed on the concept of collectivization of agriculture. This
was done to increase agricultural output and bring the peasantry under
more direct political control. Stalin was the head of the Politburo and
enjoyed absolute power and authority. Besides the reforms on the path of
socialism, Stalin also justified expelling opportunists and
counter-revolutionary infiltrators.
During Second World War, Stalin conducted a series of mass scale
deportations estimating around 3.3 million to Siberia and the Central
Asian republics. The reasons of the deportation, as cited by the
authority, were separatism, resistance to Soviet rule and collaboration
with the invading Germans The deportations had a profound effect on the
peoples of the Soviet Union. The memory of the deportations played a
major part in the separatist movements in the Baltic States, Tatarstan
and Chechnya, even today. The archives of Russia record that about
800,000 prisoners were executed under Stalin for either political or
criminal offences, while around 390,000 perished during kulak forced
resettlement.
Death
On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner in his residence in
Krylatskoye, near Moscow with Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov,
Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin did not emerge from his
room, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of
his body. He died on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74.
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Timeline: | ||||
1941: Hitler invades Soviet Union
1942: February 1943: Battle of Stalingrad. Germans are defeated, marking the turning point in the war.
1953: Death of Stalin
1879: Birth of Joseph Stalin
1888: Stalin entered Gori Church School
1894: Stalin enrolled in Tiflis Theological Seminary
1899: Stalin was expelled from the Seminary
1902: Stalin arrested for the first time, exiled to Siberia
1903: The Social Democrats split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
1905: Revolution in Russia. Nicholas II announces constitutional reforms
1912: Bolsheviks officially separate from Social Democrats, Stalin appointed to the Party's Central Committee by Lenin.
1914: Outbreak of World War I.
1917: Beginning of Russian Revolution. The Tsar's
government falls, replaced with a Provisional Government. Bolsheviks,
including Stalin, hasten to St. Petersburg.
1917: Lenin returns from Switzerland, rebukes Stalin for supporting the Provisional Government.
1917: Bolsheviks overthrow Provisional Government, seize power.
1918-1920: Civil war in Russia. Trotsky organizes Red Army; Stalin commands forces in, Petrograd.
1922: Official founding of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
1922: Stalin elected General Secretary of the Communist Party
1923: Lenin suffers final stroke, loses his powers of speech
1924: Death of Lenin.
1924-25: Stalin publicly attacks Trotsky for being unfaithful to "Leninism."
1924: Stalin articulates his theory of "Socialism in One Country."
1925: Allied with Bukharin and the "Rightists," Stalin begins attacks on Zinoviev.
1926: At the Fifteenth Party Congress, Stalin attacks the "United Opposition" of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Trotsky.
1927: Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky sent to exile.
1928: Beginning of the first Five-Year Plan
1929: Bukharin removed from the Politburo
1931-32: Terrible famine across the Soviet Union; millions die
1936: First "Show Trial." Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their allies confess and are executed.
1939: Outbreak of World War II
1940: Trotsky assassinated, by Stalin's agents, in Mexico City.
1941: Hitler invades Soviet Union
1942: February 1943: Battle of Stalingrad. Germans are defeated, marking the turning point in the war.
1953: Death of Stalin
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