Short Biography of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin[g] (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili;[d] 18
December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian-
born[h] Soviet revolutionary and political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his
death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–
1953). Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated
power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Ideologically adhering to
the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while
his own policies are called Stalinism.
1878–1899: Childhood to young adulthood
Stalin was born in the Georgian town of Gori, then part of the Tiflis Governorate of the
Russian Empire and home to a mix of Georgian, Azeri, Armenian, Russian, and Jewish
communities. He was born on 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 and baptised on
29 December. His birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, [d] and he was
nicknamed "Soso", a diminutive of "Ioseb".[7] His parents were Besarion
Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze. He was their only child to survive past infancy. [9]
Besarion was a cobbler who was employed in a workshop owned by another man; it
was initially a financial success but later fell into decline and the family found itself
living in poverty. Besarion became an alcoholic and drunkenly beat his wife and
son. Ekaterine and Stalin left the home by 1883 and began a wandering life, moving
through nine different rented rooms over the next decade In 1886, they moved into
the house of a family friend, Father Christopher Charkviani Ekaterine worked as a
house cleaner and launderer and was determined to send her son to school In
September 1888, Stalin enrolled at the Orthodox Gori Church School a place secured
by Charkviani. Although he got into many fights Stalin excelled
academically, displaying talent in painting and drama classes writing his own poetry,
[23] and singing as a choirboy Stalin faced several severe health problems: An
1884 smallpox infection left him with facial scars and at age 12 he was seriously
injured when he was hit by a phaeton, probably the cause of a lifelong disability in his
left arm
1899–1904: Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party
In October 1899, Stalin began work as a meteorologist at the Tiflis observatory.[45] He had a
light workload and therefore had plenty of time for revolutionary activity. He attracted a
group of supporters through his classes in socialist theory[46] and co-organised a secret
workers’ mass meeting for May Day 1900,[47] at which he successfully encouraged many of
the men to take strike action.[48] By this point, the empire’s secret police, the Okhrana,
were aware of Stalin’s activities in Tiflis’ revolutionary milieu.[48] They attempted to arrest
him in March 1901, but he escaped and went into hiding,[49] living off the donations of
friends and sympathisers.[50] Remaining underground, he helped plan a demonstration for
May Day 1901, in which 3,000 marchers clashed with the authorities.[51] He continued to
evade arrest by using aliases and sleeping in different apartments.[52] In November 1901,
he was elected to the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
(RSDLP), a Marxist party founded in 1898.[53]
1905–1912: Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath
In January 1905, government troops massacred protesters in Saint Petersburg. Unrest soon
spread across the Russian Empire in what came to be known as the Revolution of 1905.[74]
Georgia was particularly affected.[75] Stalin was in Baku in February when ethnic violence
broke out between Armenians and Azeris; at least 2,000 were killed.
In November 1905, the Georgian Bolsheviks elected Stalin as one of their delegates to a
Bolshevik conference in Saint Petersburg. On arrival, he met Lenin’s wife Nadezhda
Krupskaya, who informed him that the venue had been moved to Tampere in the Grand
Duchy of Finland. At the conference Stalin met Lenin for the first time. Although Stalin held
Lenin in deep respect, he was vocal in his disagreement with Lenin’s view that the
Bolsheviks should field candidates for the forthcoming election to the State Duma; Stalin
saw the parliamentary process as a waste of time.
Stalin married Kato Svanidze in an Orthodox church ceremony at Senaki in July 1906. In
March 1907 she bore a son, Yakov.
In 1926, Stalin published On Questions of Leninism. Here, he argued for the concept
of “Socialism in One Country”, which he presented as an orthodox Leninist
perspective. It nevertheless clashed with established Bolshevik views that socialism
could not be established in one country but could only be achieved globally through
the process of world revolution. In 1927, there was some argument in the party over
Soviet policy regarding China. Stalin had called for the Chinese Communists to ally
themselves with Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists, viewing a Communist-Kuomintang
alliance as the best bulwark against Japanese imperial expansionism. Instead, the
KMT repressed the Communists and a civil war broke out between the two sides.
After Lenin’s death, Stalin was becominh the president of Uni Soviet.
Stalin’s government of USSR lasted from 1929 – 1953, many things that happened including
controversies that caused by his own mistakes.
On 1 March 1953, Stalin’s staff found him semi-conscious on the bedroom floor of his
Kuntsevo Dacha. He had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. He was moved onto a couch and
remained there for three days. He was hand-fed using a spoon, given various medicines and
injections, and leeches were applied to him. Svetlana and Vasily were called to the dacha on
2 March; the latter was drunk and angrily shouted at the doctors, as a result of which he
was sent home. Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Stalin’s death was announced on 6 March. His
body was embalmed, and then placed on display in Moscow’s House of Unions for three
days. The crowds of people coming to view the body were so large and disorganized that
about 100 people were killed in the crush. At the funeral on 9 March, Stalin’s body was laid
to rest in Lenin’s Mausoleum in Red Square; hundreds of thousands attended. That month
featured a surge in arrests for “anti-Soviet agitation,” as those celebrating Stalin’s death
came to police attention. The Chinese government instituted a period of official mourning
for Stalin’s death. A memorial service in his honour was also held at St George the Martyr,
Holborn in London.
