Rise of Joseph Stalin: Timeline December 21, 1879: Birth of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin September 1888: Stalin enters Gori Church School September 1894: Stalin enrolls in Tiflis Theological Seminary March 1898: First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party May 29, 1899: Stalin is expelled from the Seminary April 5, 1902: Stalin arrested for the first time, exiled to Siberia Summer 1903: The Social Democrats split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. January 5, 1904: Stalin escapes from Siberia, the first of many escapes from exile in the following decade. 1905: Revolution in Russia. Nicholas II announces constitutional reforms, and the creation of the Duma, or elected assembly. Stalin marries Yekaterina Svanidze. December 1905: Stalin goes as a delegate to Bolshevik conference in Finland, meets Lenin for the first time. March 1907: Birth of Stalin's first child, Yakov October 1907: Death of Yekaterina January 1912: Bolsheviks officially separate from Social Democrats, Stalin appointed to the Party's Central Committee by Lenin. January 1913: Stalin co-writes, with Lenin, "Marxism and the National Question" August-September 1914: Outbreak of World War I. March 1917: Beginning of Russian Revolution. The Tsar's government falls, replaced with a Provisional Government. Bolsheviks, including Stalin, hasten to St. Petersburg April 1917: Lenin returns from Switzerland, rebukes Stalin for taking a conciliar line with the Provisional Government. November 1917: Bolsheviks overthrow Provisional Government, seize power. Stalin plays only a minor role. February 1918: Stalin marries Nadezhda Alliluyeva 1918-1920: Civil war in Russia. Trotsky organizes Red Army; Stalin commands forces in Tsaritsyn, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), and elsewhere. 1921: Birth of Stalin's second child, Vasily 1922: Official founding of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics April 1922: Stalin elected General Secretary of the Communist Party May 25, 1922: Lenin suffers his first stroke January 4, 1923: Lenin, in a postscript to his Testament, warns the Party to remove Stalin from his position of power. March 7, 1923: Lenin suffers final stroke, loses his powers of speech January 21, 1924: Death of Lenin. Stalin survives the reading of the Testament by the Central Committee in May. 1924-25: Stalin publicly attacks Trotsky for being unfaithful to "Leninism." December 1924: Stalin publicly articulates his theory of "Socialism in One Country." December 1925: Allied with Bukharin and the "Rightists," Stalin begins attacks on Zinoviev. February 28, 1926: Birth of Stalin's third child, Svetlana October-November 1926: At the Fifteenth Party Congress, Stalin attacks the "United Opposition" of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Trotsky. 1927: Beginning of the first Five-Year Plan November 1927: Kamenev and Zinoviev expelled from the Party; Trotsky expelled and sent to Central Asia. April 1929: Stalin begins assault on Bukharin November 1929: Bukharin removed from the Politburo December 1929: Stalin announces "liquidation of the kulaks as a class"; collectivization begins in earnest. 1931-32: Terrible famine across the Soviet Union; millions die November 8, 1932: Suicide of Nadezhda December 1, 1934: Murder, by Stalin's agents, of Sergei Kirov. Beginning of "Great Terror," which continues until 1938. January 1935: Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others are arrested, accused of complicity in Kirov's assassination. August 1936: First "Show Trial." Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their allies confess and are executed. January 1937: Second Show Trial June 1937: Purge of the army begins, top generals are tried and executed March 1938: Third Show Trial, conviction and execution of Bukharin, Rykov, others. March 1939: At Eighteenth Party Congress, Stalin announces end of the Great Terror. August 23, 1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact is signed in Moscow September 1939: Outbreak of World War II August 20, 1940: Trotsky assassinated, by Stalin's agents, in Mexico City. June 21, 1941: Hitler invades Soviet Union August 1942-February 1943: Battle of Stalingrad. Germans are defeated, marking the turning point in the war. November 1943: Stalin meets with Roosevelt and Churchill in Teheran February 1945: Stalin meets with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta April 31, 1945: Hitler commits suicide in bombed-out Berlin, ending war in Europe. Red Army controls all of Eastern Europe. August 1945: United States uses atomic bomb against Japan, bringing an end to the war in the Pacific. February 1948: Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia, cementing Soviet control of Eastern Europe. Summer 1948: Soviets blockade East Berlin. 1949: Communists, under Mao, are victorious in Chinese Civil War. September 1949: Soviets explode their first atomic bomb. December 1949: Stalin celebrates his seventieth birthday. February 1950: Sino-Soviet Treaty signed 1950-53: Korean War January 1953: Announcement of Jewish "Doctors' Plot" against Stalin, plans for new wave of terror. March 5, 1953: Death of Stalin Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/stalin/timeline.html