As part of our soviet Icons series, we attempt to explain a little about the controversial Russian legend, Joseph Stalin.
Stalin’s Early Years
Stalin was born in the Georgian town of Gori, then part of the Russian Empire; his name at birth was Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili.
On December 18th, 1878, he was born to ethnic Georgians Besarion Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze Stalin and grew up speaking Georgian. Stalin was an only child as his siblings didn’t survive past infancy.
Stalin’s childhood was challenging; not only was his family impoverished, but his shoemaker father was a violent alcoholic who would regularly take his anger out on young Stalin. At the age of five, Stalin’s mother made the bold decision to leave and after much travelling from home to home, she managed to secure a modest job as a cleaner.
From Religion to Revolutionary
With the help of a family friend, Stalin obtained admission to the Gori Church School where he was an exemplary student and excelled at painting, drama and poetry. Life was still tough for Stalin, and he was regularly involved in fights. He later obtained a scholarship with the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary and it was likely believed Stalin would go on to the priesthood, but that wasn’t to be.
Initially, during Stalin’s early years at the seminary, he continued to do well although as he matured, began to rebel against the system, questioning his tutors.
Stalin’s studies began to go beyond the seminary religious books he joined a forbidden book club and began to read more revolutionary literature. Carl Marx’ Capital’ was to have a profound effect on young Stalin. Besides his Georgian writings, he spent his time studying Marxist teachings leaving the seminary in 1899 he was dismissed for missing exams.
Revolutionary to Terrorist
In his early twenties, Stalin began working as a meteorologist; this was to only to last a few months as he had set his sights on a career which was a lot more sinister.
Around this time, Stalin began the journey down his revolutionary road. Taking revolutionary classes led to arranging strikes and eventually, mass demonstrations. He obtained further funding by robbing and holding up banks. As Stalin’s commitment intensified, the interest in him and his activities by the Tsar’s secret police, Okhrana, increased; until in 1902 when he was arrested and eventually sent to Siberia. It seems Stalin wasn’t sent far enough in exile as, after two attempts, he slipped away and returned to his native Georgia.
From Georgia to Siberia
Once in Georgia Stalin began organising locals against the Russian forces. He sided with the Bolsheviks, who would eventually lead him to his historical encounter with Vladimir Lenin. An encounter that would influence his life, those around him, millions of Russians and the fate of the world!
In 1905 Stalin attended a Bolshevik conference in Tampere, Finland. It was here that he met Lenin. After the meeting, it was agreed that he would continue with bank raids and robberies to raise cash for the Bolshevik cause. The largest heist Stalin was ever involved in was the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery which resulted in 40 dead and the theft of around 341,000 rubles (3.4k USD in today’s money).
From 1908 until 1917, Stalin was to have numerous run-ins with the law and was imprisoned several times. Sent into exile, the wily Stalin always found ways to escape, once even dressing as a woman to slip away from guards.
Amongst his time evading capture and recapture, Stalin kept busy, and in 1912 he was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee and given Pravda’s (newspaper) editorship. In 1913 an article was published in the Bolshevik journal ‘Prosveshcheniye’ it was called “Marxism and the National Question”. The pseudonym used to sign off the article was “K. Stalin” meaning Man of Steel – the name was to stick.
Finally, in 1913, Stalin was arrested and moved to the village of Kureika near the arctic circle, a place so remote escape was virtually impossible. It wasn’t until 1917 that Stalin would be returned to a more friendly climate as it was decided that Bolsheviks serving time should be conscripted into the army. Luckily for Stalin however, he was deemed unsuitable due to a disability with his arm
The Rise of Joseph Stalin
The February Revolution of 1917 saw the Tsar’s abdication and a week-long de-facto Republic was established. Lenin hastily returned to the fray, and an eager Stalin rolled into St Petersburg in March.
From this point, Stalin cleverly rose through the ranks whilst continuing editing Pravda. He even served as acting leader of the Bolsheviks until Lenin’s return and the October revolution.
Climbing the ladder until 1922, he was eventually made General-Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. As General-Secretary, Stalin appointed his allies to government jobs and grew a base of political support.
After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin outmanoeuvred his rivals and won the power struggle to control the Communist Party. By the late 1920s, after Lenin’s death, he had become the leader of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin
Stalin ruled by instilling totalitarian terror and fear among anyone that opposed him. Those that did, were eliminated. Anyone who, in Stalin’s eyes, posed a threat went the same way. During the late 1920’s, Stalin launched an ambitious five-year plan to transform the Soviet Union into a modern-day superpower.
The government took complete control of the economy and collectivisation of the farms was initiated. Any farmer that refused to cooperate with the orders was shot or exiled as punishment. The farms’ collectivisation led to a mass famine across the Soviet Union, leading to millions’ of deaths.
Stalin also expanded the powers of the secret police; citizens were encouraged to spy on one another which, in turn, led to the detention, execution and deportation of millions more, many were killed or became part of the forced labour system.
As the 1930s rolled on, Stalin’s paranoia grew. In 1936, the period known as the Great Terror began!
The Great Terror started with the alleged assassination of Sergei Kirov, all though many believe this was staged to allow Stalin to begin his work. At first, the purge focused on the top brass within the Communist Party then spread to the military before opening up to other organisations and civilians. No one was safe as the purge spread; it’s estimated that over 1.2 million people were executed during this period.
At this time, Stalin’s cult of personality was to begin. Cities, towns and streets were renamed in his honour; badges, posters, books and songs were produced; even Stalin’s past was to undergo a rewrite, with anything unfavourable scrubbed away.
Joseph Stalin and World War II
At the start of the Second World War, Stalin was in high spirits as all of his perceived enemies at home, and abroad were either liquidated or languishing in the Gulag system. To add to this, he had signed a non-aggression pact with the German dictator Adolf Hitler.
As he felt safe, Stalin saw this as the perfect opportunity to expand his borders, annexing parts of Poland, Romania and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet Union also made an unsuccessful attempt to bring Finland into the fold by launching an invasion of its Scandinavian neighbour.
The expansion wasn’t to last, however, as Germany broke the pact and launched operation Barbarossa. The attack was lightning fast, and the unsuspecting Soviet troops melted away unprepared for the advancing Blitzkrieg. German troops advanced on Moscow but would be held at bay as Stalin stood firm in the city.
It wasn’t until 1943 that the tide changed and, with the German defeat at Stalingrad, the Russians were able to push back. The Soviet Union had sided with the allied powers and Stalin famously attended conferences in Tehran and Yalta.
The influence of Stalin’s Soviet Union now stretched to the Elbe river comprising the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.
Joseph Stalin’s Later Years
Joseph Stalin’s paranoia didn’t wane as he aged; the purges, executions and gulag detentions all continued. Even veterans returning home from the war in Europe were not trusted. Overseas, he installed communist leaders throughout the eastern bloc. Stalin was to aid and help communist causes in countries around the globe, from Greece to Vietnam.
As the years moved on, Stalin’s health began to fail him and he slowly became frailer. His holidays increased, whilst his writing and speeches decreased. In his last year, his speeches to the Central Committee tended to focus on possible successors.
In one final twist, in September 1952, Stalin initiated the doctor’s plot. Many of Moscow’s leading doctors were arrested and interrogated as part of Stalin’s drive against Judaism.
The Death of Stalin
On February 28th 1953 Stalin had a meal at his dacha with high-level members of the communist party. They, as usual, had drunk a lot and the evening finished at 6am the next morning. He was a notoriously late riser, usually waking at 11 am, but there was no word from him all day.
Eventually, a maid discovered him late in the evening at around 10pm, laying on the floor. His inner circle were called but assumed that Stalin was sleeping and left him until the next day.
It was then, on March 1st, that Stalin had suffered a large stroke. Doctors previously implicated in the doctor’s plot were pulled from the interrogation rooms at Lubyanka prison to help him. Little could be done, and on March 5th Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died. The cause of death? A cerebral haemorrhage.
Stalin’s Legacy
Stalin’s legacy is probably one of the most controversial of the 20th century.
Stalin achieved mass industrialisation of a country which, only a few years prior, looked to be splintered. By the time he died, he had led the nation against Hitler’s armies, and Russia’s industrial output was only bested by America. In 1949, Stalinist Russia signalled its arrival as the world’s second nuclear power.
All of this came at a price as by some estimates Stalin was responsible for 20 million deaths during his brutal rule. Some claim, if it wasn’t for Stalin’s brutal regime, then more of the world may well have tried to adopt a communist system. However, it’s worth noting that some say if it weren’t for Stalin, then the Soviet Union would have collapsed long before the 1990s and if he had lived five more years, then the Soviet Union would still be with us.
Interesting Facts
Ill Health
Aside from being born with a webbed left foot, when Stalin was young he suffered from several health issues. In 1884, he contracted smallpox; the infection was to leave him with facial scars which would be later airbrushed from any official photographs.
Stalin was seriously injured at the age of 12 when he was hit by a horse-drawn carriage that damaged his left arm. His withered left arm was the reason he was refused conscription into the army. Later in life, he suffered arthritis in this arm and his other limbs caused by his long exiles in icy Siberia.
Besides his other ailments, Stalin suffered from extremely painful teeth. As they gradually rotted away, he refused to see a dentist.
As he lay on his deathbed medics around him tried to control his high blood pressure, he was prescribed leeches; the leeches were applied to Stalin’s face and neck.
Joining Lenin
After death, Stalin was hastily embalmed and taken to join Lenin in, what was then named, ‘the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum’ on Moscow’s Red Square. The former leader lay in the mausoleum until 1961 when Nikita Khrushchev had him removed and buried as part of his de-Stalinization process.
Stalin on Film
Stalin may have hated the west, but he did enjoy movies from the west bizarrely his favourites were westerns especially those with Clark Gable and John Wayne.
Birthday
Stalin was born December 18th, 1878 although he later invented a new birth date for himself: December 21st, 1879.
Stalin’s Family
Stalin’s First Wife: Joseph Stalin was to marry his first wife Ekaterina Svanidze in 1906; they were married for just 18 months before she died of typhus in 1907. Ekaterina’s death sent Stalin into deep grief. He said that any warm feelings he had for people died with her, for only she could melt his heart.
At Ekaterina’s funeral, police officers arrived looking for Stalin, at the time a wanted fugitive; he fled the service early by jumping the graveyard’s fence.
Stalin had a son with Ekaterina named Yakov Dzhugashvili; they didn’t get along. Eventually, Yakov would die after the Germans captured him at age 36 during WWII.
Stalin’s Second Wife: Nadezhda Alliluyeva met Stalin when she was only a child. Her father, Sergei Alliluyev, helped shelter Stalin during his escape from Siberian exile in 1911.
Eventually, Nadezhda was to become a committed Bolshevik. After the revolution, she became a confidential code clerk in Lenin’s office. The 40-year-old Stalin married 17-year-old Nadezhda in 1919.
As Nadezhda matured, she became unhappy with some of the Soviet policies. On one particular evening in 1932, Nadezhda spoke bitterly to her husband about the famine taking place across the Soviet Union. Stalin then burst into vulgar abuse of his wife in front of the guests at their house. Later that night, Nadezhda committed suicide aged 30 by shooting herself. Officially, she died of an illness.
Nadezhda and Stalin had two children: Vassili, their son born in 1921 and Svetlana, their daughter, born 1926.
Vassili rose through the Soviet Air Force ranks and became a fighter pilot (C.O. of 32 GIAP) at Stalingrad, but died an alcoholic in 1962.
Stalin doted on Svetlana when she was young, however in 1942 she met Jewish film producer Alexei Kapler. Her father showed his anti-Semitic side and had him arrested and exiled to Siberia for ten years.
When Svetlana was 41 years old, she decided to defect. She went into the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, where she publicly denounced communism exclaiming she wanted to experience God, America and Apple Pie.