Historical Figures Codexery

Joseph Stalin

Soviet revolutionary and dictator who ruled from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953.

Stalin's father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother, and the family moved through nine rented rooms by 1883.[1] He worked as a meteorologist at the Tiflis observatory and co-organized a May Day strike in 1900.[2] Stalin formed Bolshevik battle squads in Baku during the 1905 Revolution and met Lenin in Finland.[3] Stalin organized the June 1907 robbery of a bank stagecoach in Tiflis, which killed around 40 people.[4][5]

During the October Revolution, Stalin helped smuggle Lenin to safety and joined the Central Committee meeting directing the coup.[6][7] He was appointed People's Commissar for Nationalities and supported Lenin's formation of the Cheka and the Red Terror.[8][4] Having performed well at the Gori Church School, he started his training for the priesthood at the Tiflis Theological Seminary in 1894.[1][6] His academic engagement waned, he turned to the writings of Karl Marx, and he departed the seminary in April 1899.[6]

In 1906, he wed Kato Svanidze; following her death from typhus in 1907, their son Yakov was left with her relatives.[4][5] In 1912, Lenin and Zinoviev brought Stalin onto the first Bolshevik Central Committee, and that same year he was tasked with turning the newspaper Zvezda into the daily Pravda.[6] During the civil war, Stalin directed operations at Tsaritsyn, where he ordered executions and the burning of villages, and in 1919 he received the Order of the Red Banner.[9][8]

Quick Facts

Office
General Secretary of the; Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Took office
3 April 1922
Predecessor
Vyacheslav Molotov (as Responsible Secretary)
Successor
Georgy Malenkov (as de facto First Secretary)

Facts from the source article.

What the cited sources add

Khlevniuk argues that Russia was not allowed to follow reform long enough to yield results due to Stalin's abuse of power.[7] Historians reject Trotsky's claims, emphasizing the importance of Stalin's Central Committee membership and his editorship of Pravda.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dović Helgason 2019, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nimVDwAAQBAJ&dq=gori+church+school+orthodox&pg=RA1-PA56 256] (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Service 2004, p. 15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Sebag Montefiore 2007, p. 23; Service 2004, p. 15; Khlevniuk 2015, p. 53; Khlevni͡uk, O. V., "Stalin : new biography of a dictator", New Haven : Yale University Press, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Service 2004, p. 15; Service 2004, p. 15; Service 2004, p. 15; Service 2004, p. 15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Joseph Stalin" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Service 2004, p. 15; Service 2004, p. 15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Joseph Stalin (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Test yourself on TriviaCafe: To the relief of millions of his subjects, which brutal world leader died on March 5, 1953? · More history trivia

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