Joseph Stalin

Stalin’s Birth• Gori, Georgia • December 21, 1879• Iosif Vissarionovich

Dzugashvili• Father was a shoemaker• Mother was a

housekeeper

Joseph’s Father• An abusive alcoholic

• Left family to work in Tiflis, Georgia when Joseph was 5

• Died in 1890

Stalin’s Mother• Yekaterina

• Deeply religious

• Wanted Joseph to be a priest

• Worked hard to pay for Joseph’s school

Childhood• Father abused Joseph

• After his father left, Joseph and Yekaterina lived with a priest

• Enrolled in Orthodox parochial school in 1888.

Stalin as a Priest• 1894 got scholarship to

seminary

• Got highest marks on behavior and grades

• In his fourth year, he joined Mesame Dasi

• Expelled from seminary

Revolutionary Apprentice

• Joined Social Democratic Party in 1901

• Did full-time revolutionary work

• 1905 Served as party organizer

• Met Lenin at conference in Finland

Exile• December 1911 Stalin was exiled to

Vologda.

• January 1912 broke away from party and met in Prague

• Lenin co-opted Stalin into government

• March 1912 Stalin escaped from exile and went to St. Petersburg

Return to Exile• 1913 Stalin and Lenin met in Vienna

to write Marxism and the National Problem

• March 7, 1913 After he returned to St. Petersburg, Stalin was arrested.

• While in Siberia, he changed his name to Stalin (man of steel)

Czar Loses Power• The Czar’s abdication on March 15, 1917

led to great social and political chaos

• Stalin and Lenin agreed that they should overthrow the temporary Russian government

• Both urged seizure of power at party debates, but neither had a role in organizing the insurrection itself

Early Soviet Regime• Held cabinet post of commissar for

nationalities for the next five years

• Served in different positions during the civil war

• Acting inspector general of the Red Army and as a political commissar.

• 1921 He initiated the brutal reconquest of independent Georgia.

Stalin Gains Power• Lenin died in 1924

• 1925 Stalin got rid of Trotsky

• 1926 ousted Kamenev and Zinviev

• Got rid of the rest of the cabinet

• 1928 Almost had total control

Stalin’s Politics• Deportation and execution of kulaks

• Forced entrance of peasants into collective farms

• Nationalization of all industry and commerce

• Execution and deportation of those who opposed his plans

Stalin’s Dictatorship• Dissatisfaction may have led to secret plot

to replace Stalin with Sergei Kirov

• December 1934 Kirov was murdered

• Stalin executed almost entire political and military elite

• Millions of Soviet citizens were forced into labor camps

World War II• Stalin took comand of Soviet

forces

• Ordered brilliant counter-offensives at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk.

• Arranged for lend-lease from the Western Powers

Post-War USSR• Stalin almost completely

restored the pre-war system

• Molded occupied countries in the Stalinist image and placed under Moscow’s control

Stalin’s End• 1952 Stalin began preparing for old

leadership ways

• He met with stout resistance

• Before he could begin his “old ways”, Stalin died of a brain hemorrhage on March 5, 1953, in Moscow