Joseph Stalin Life and Times 1879 1953 Childhood

Joseph Stalin Life and Times, 1879 -1953

Childhood and Education • Born on December 21, 1879 in Gori, Georgia; his birth name was Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili. • His parents, Vissarion and Ekaterina Djugashvili, were poor and so his family lived in a shack. • His brothers and sisters all died soon after birth and so he was raised as an only child.

A Map of Georgia

A photo of Stalin’s birthplace in Gori, Georgia

Childhood and Education • When he was 6 or 7, Stalin’s father – who treated Stalin very harshly – left the family to work in Tbilisi. • During this time, Stalin contracted a disease called smallpox which scarred his face for life.

Tbilisi around 1900

Childhood and Education • When he was ten, he started school at the Gori Church School. • In 1894, he went to Tbilisi to begin his education as a priest at the Tbilisi Seminary. • In 1897, Stalin became a Marxist: : “a theory and practice of socialism including the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, the class struggle, and control the government by the working class until the establishment of a classless society. “

Stalin, circa 1894.

Childhood and Education • In 1899, Stalin was expelled from the Tbilisi Seminary for revolutionary activity. • Soon after this, Stalin found the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a strong supporter, and eventually a member, of the Bolsheviks. • Stalin was arrested 7 different times and sent to Siberia each time. For most of these, he was able to escape.

Beginnings of a Revolutionary • In 1911, Stalin moved to St. Petersburg and became editor of a newspaper called Pravda, or The Truth, a communist newspaper. • In March 1913, he was arrested for working on the newspaper and sentenced to life in Siberian exile. • Between 1913 -1917 Stalin stayed in exile in Siberia with other Bolsheviks, studying ideology and discussing politics.

A young Stalin in 1902.

The Revolutions of 1917 • In his previous years with the Bolsheviks, Stalin had become friends and colleagues with Lenin. • In 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and the Provisional Government allowed all previous political prisoners to return from exile. • In October 1917, the Bolsheviks took power from the Provisional Government in what became known as the October Revolution.

The Revolutions of 1917 • As a reward for his loyalty to Lenin, Stalin was given a top position in the new government. • In the civil war (1917 -1919) that followed, Stalin was particularly brutal towards Tsarist generals and deserters (people who left the army without permission); having them shot.

A meeting of the Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 1919. Stalin is in the middle of the second row next to Lenin.

Rise to Power • In 1922, Lenin was tired of the squabbling between members of the communist party. • He felt Stalin was a loyal follower and wanted to give him more power. • So he made Stalin the General Secretary. – This allowed Stalin to put many of his friends into positions of power within the party.

Rise to Power • On May 25, 1922 Lenin had a stroke and went into semi-retirement. • In this period, Stalin went to visit Lenin often and acted as an intermediary to the outside world. • In this way, Stalin’s power increased rapidly.

Rise to Power • When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin began eliminating any opposition to his rule. • Some were exiled to Siberia, arrested or killed. • By 1928, Leon Trotsky – Stalin’s main opposition to power – was banished from the USSR. • By the late 1920 s Stalin was in control of the Soviet Union

The Great Purge • In 1934, a popular politician named Sergei Kirov was murdered. • Stalin blamed his murder on Trotskyites and other trouble makers and began a massive purge on any of his enemies inside or outside of Russia.

The Great Purge • Stalin targeted any old Bolsheviks who could be rivals to his rule. • The NKVD, or People’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was in charge of the mass killings. • By 1938, with more than 1, 000 people killed and most of his enemies were dead – Stalin called off the purges. • Nevertheless, the practice of mass arrest and exile was continued until Stalin's death in 1953

NKVD, what would become the KGB

The Great Purge’s last victim: Nikolai Yezhov, the Head of the NKVD

Population Transfer • Between 1941 and 1949 more than 3 million ethnic people were transferred from European Russia to Siberia or Central Asia, including Tajikistan. • Poles, Soviet Koreans, Volga Germans, and Chechens were moved in harsh conditions. • Estimates say that hundreds of thousands of people died from the move of disease or malnutrition.

The Death of Iosef • In 1945, Stalin suffered a heart attack from his heavy smoking, but he survived. • In March 1953, Stalin went to sleep after an all night dinner and movie and never woke up. • He was not discovered until 10 pm the next day. • Most likely, he died of a stroke. • Some argue that he was assassinated or killed himself – the truth will never really be known.

Stalin’s grave by the Kremlin Wall in Moscow

Legacy of Stalin • He pushed for more industrialization and government control of the economy. • Art, literature and science were all under Soviet control. • Millions of people died during his reign from either purges, famine or population transfer. – Some estimates say between 3 and 60 million people in total died during his reign.

Writing Exercise and Discussion • Stalin will go down in history as one the worst dictators in history, do you agree? Was he worse than Hitler? What were his intentions in killing so many people?