The Life Of Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin’s Early Years Joseph Stalin’s full name is Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili He was born on December 18, 1878, in Gori, Georgia, which was a small part of the Russian empire. When he grew up he chose the name Stalin, which meant “man of steel” in Russian. Stalin was brought up in a poor family and was an only child. When he was little, Stalin caught smallpox, which game him facial scars that he had for life. He got a scholarship to join a university in the city of Tblisi. When he was there, he secretly was reading book called “Communist Manifesto”, written by the social philosopher, Karl Marx. He became interested in the radical movement against the Russian monarchy. Stalin was eventually kicked out of the school because of missing, however he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda. Stalin Gains Power In 1912, Lenin, then in exile in Switzerland, selected Joseph Stalin to help on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. A few years later, in November 1917, the Bolsheviks held control in Russia. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, with Lenin as its first leader. During this time, Stalin had continued to move up the government chain, and in 1922 he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, this role allowed him to assign his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support. Lenin died in 1924, and Stalin ultimately outsmarted his opponents and won the control fight for control of the Communist Party. In the late 1920’s, he became dictator of the Soviet Union. Condition of Soviet Russia Under Stalin Joseph Stalin started a sequence of five-year plans in the 1920’s planned to change the Soviet Union from a society filled with peasants into an industrialized soc... ... middle of paper ... ...1950, he gave North Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s communist leader, approval to attack South Korea. This is what triggered the Korean War. Stalin grew more and more paranoid as he got older. He passed at the age of 74, on March 5, 1953, victim of a stroke. It is estimated that he was responsible 20 million deaths during his cruel rule. This chart shows the number of deaths in events in history. Stalin accounts for the third highest number of deaths at 20 million. Stalin as a Leader Joseph Stalin was a very cruel leader. His reign of terror led to many deaths. He used violence to get rid of anyone or anything that would oppose him. The killing Stalin initiated was bad for the economy at times, because he killed many farmers, and they were unable to provide enough crops for the nation. Overall, Stalin was a ruthless leader that felt no sympathy for the people he ruled.

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