Stalin, Joseph

HEAD OF STATE OF THE SOVIET UNION
1879–1953

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born December 21, 1879, to a peasant family in Georgia. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1901 and adopted the name Stalin, meaning "man of steel." Stalin undertook a variety of Party tasks, including editing the Party's newspaper, Pravda. In 1913 he wrote the treatise Marxism and the National Question which became the basis of Bolshevik nationalities policy. Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), leader of the Soviet government, rewarded Stalin by appointing him Commissar of Nationalities in 1917. Stalin became General Secretary in 1922 and used that platform to seize control upon Lenin's death in 1924.

Under the slogan "socialism in one country," Stalin sought to completely transform society by dragging a backward empire into Europe as a modern,

secular, and socialist state. All of society was to serve the needs of the state. Stalin ordered massive industrialization campaigns and brutally collectivized agriculture. He launched the first five-year plan in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and executed economic "saboteurs."

Stalin established a cult of personality that made him the source of Soviet achievements. To deflect blame for numerous failed policies, Stalin needed scapegoats. He accused Leo Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, and other Party leaders of attempting to subvert Soviet society and orchestrated mock show trials that sent his perceived rivals to the firing squad. Stalin reigned with terror and gradually created a new political elite totally subservient to him. Spies, informers, and a new class of "political criminals" now populated Soviet society, while tight controls on information kept alternative ideas and full disclosure of the terror from the public.

As Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) rose to power in Central Europe, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazi leader in 1939. Hitler ignored the pact and invaded the USSR in June 1941. Stalin used Russian nationalism to rally the country for the subsequent war effort. He also met with Britain's prime minister Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), and U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) and Harry S Truman (1884–1972) in Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam to coordinate Allied strategy.

By the end of World War II (1945), Soviet troops occupied key territories in Eastern Europe. Stalin installed communist regimes throughout the region and prevented leaders of such satellite states from adapting communism to fit their local needs and characteristics. This insistence on uniformity led to clashes with Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). The Stalin-Tito split was a watershed in Soviet–East European relations and formed the basis of several future policies. Stalin's portrayal of socialism as an alternative to capitalism caused a rift with the USSR's American and British allies, triggering the Cold War.

In the early 1950s, Stalin's paranoia resurfaced. He accused his doctors of trying to poison him and was prepared to launch a new round of terror. His death on March 5, 1953, thrust the USSR into deep mourning. Three years later, Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev (1874–1971), stunned the world by revealing the excesses of Stalin's reign. Khrushchev launched a campaign of "destalinization" to remove repression and fear from communist societies.

Russia.

Tucker, Robert C. Stalin in Power. New York: Norton, 1990.

Ulman, Adam B. Stalin: The Man and His Era. Boston: Beacon, 1989.

Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: Grove, 1994.

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