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 counteroffensives 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