Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia (in the Russian Empire) in 1878. He adopted the name Stalin, meaning 'man of steel'. He joined Lenin's Bolshevik party as a young man, was General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1922 until his death in 1953 and he led the Soviet Union from the mid 1920s until his death. He had risen to the top after defeating Party rival Trotsky in a power struggle following the death of Lenin, father of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Stalin was a crucial figure in the history of the Soviet Union, transforming this predominately peasant society into a world industrial power by the end of the 1930s. But his economic reforms came at a huge price - his enforced collective farming led to a famine in the early 1930s that is thought to have killed at least six million people. In the same decade, Stalin launched his 'Great Purge', a ruthless campaign of political repression, persecutions and killings that is estimated to have resulted in around four million deaths. These are conservative figures - as many as 20 million or more may have been killed by Stalin's regime and he is recognised today as one of the most evil dictators in history.
Stalin's Soviet Union was a major factor in the defeat of Hitler in World War Two, and Stalin emerged from the war as leader of one of the world's two superpowers, quickly building a 'Communist Bloc' in Eastern Europe. He ruled through a totally controlling 'cult of personality'. He was married twice, fathering three children. He outlived both his wives, the second of whom is rumoured to have killed herself after a row with him. He died aged 74, officially of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Stalin was a crucial figure in the history of the Soviet Union, transforming this predominately peasant society into a world industrial power by the end of the 1930s. But his economic reforms came at a huge price - his enforced collective farming led to a famine in the early 1930s that is thought to have killed at least six million people. In the same decade, Stalin launched his 'Great Purge', a ruthless campaign of political repression, persecutions and killings that is estimated to have resulted in around four million deaths. These are conservative figures - as many as 20 million or more may have been killed by Stalin's regime and he is recognised today as one of the most evil dictators in history.
Stalin's Soviet Union was a major factor in the defeat of Hitler in World War Two, and Stalin emerged from the war as leader of one of the world's two superpowers, quickly building a 'Communist Bloc' in Eastern Europe. He ruled through a totally controlling 'cult of personality'. He was married twice, fathering three children. He outlived both his wives, the second of whom is rumoured to have killed herself after a row with him. He died aged 74, officially of a cerebral haemorrhage.
