Stalin’s chief ideological hatchet man, Andrey Zhdanov, a secretary of the Central Committee, began a reign of terror in the Soviet artistic and intellectual world; foreign achievements were derided, and the primacy of Russians as inventors and pioneers in practically every field was asserted. no. Does the term "D-Day" refer to the invasion of Japan? Joseph Stalin was raised in poverty in provincial Georgia. He thus increased the number of his subjects by about a hundred million. He was responsible for leading the Soviet Union through World War II and into the Cold War with the United States. When their coup d’état occurred in November (October, Old Style) 1917, he played an important role, but one less prominent than that of his chief rival, Leon Trotsky. In his prime, Stalin was hailed as a universal genius, as a “shining sun,” or “the staff of life,” and also as a “great teacher and friend” (especially of those communities he most savagely persecuted); once he was even publicly invoked as “Our Father” by a metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was the son of a poor cobbler in the provincial Georgian town of Gori in the Caucasus, then an imperial Russian colony. Khrushchev claimed that Stalin was shocked into temporary inactivity by the onslaught, but, if so, he soon rallied and appointed himself supreme commander in chief. [By many accounts, Stalin,] more than any other individual, molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. The mildness of the sentences and the ease with which the young conspirator effected his frequent escapes lend colour to the unproved speculation that Dzhugashvili was for a time an agent provocateur in the pay of the imperial political police. Joseph Vissarionovich, who later adopted the name Stalin which signified ‘man of steel’, wanted to make Russia one of the most powerful nations in the world, just like the United States of America, Great Britain, and France. He was also responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians through purges and decisions that led to mass starvation. But in 1948 the defection of Titoist Yugoslavia from the Soviet camp struck a severe blow to world Communism as a Stalin-dominated monolith. At the start of World War II, Stalin formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Germany. Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the maximum leader of the Soviet Union from the death of Lenin, in 1924, until his own, in 1953. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili) ... World War II. Speaking only Georgian at home, Joseph learned Russian—which he always spoke with a guttural Georgian accent—while attending the church school at Gori (1888–94). Stalin was a ruthless dictator who stopped at nothing to guarantee that he remained in power. The dictator was evidently preparing to make this “Doctors’ Plot” the pretext for yet another great terror menacing all his senior associates, but he died suddenly on March 5, according to the official report; so convenient was this death to his entourage that suspicions of foul play were voiced. Dzhugashvili made slow progress in the party hierarchy. During the quarter of a century preceding his death, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin probably exercised greater political power than any other figure in history. Between April 1902 and March 1913, Dzhugashvili was seven times arrested for revolutionary activity, undergoing repeated imprisonment and exile. But under Lenin’s influence, Stalin soon switched to the more-militant policy of armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. This encouraged Germany to attack Poland, thus starting the war. In order to fight off the Germans, Stalin joined the Allies of Britain and the United States. In the following year, Dzhugashvili published, at Lenin’s behest, an important article on Marxism and the national question. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Joseph Stalin, Russian in full Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, original name (Georgian) Ioseb Dzhugashvili, (born December 18 [December 6, Old Style], 1878, Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire [ see Researcher’s Note] —died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), who for a quarter of a century dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union and transformed it into a major world power. He oversaw the war machine that helped defeat Nazism and was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. Monument of Joseph Stalin in front of the town hall in Gori, Georgia. In December 1899, Dzhugashvili became, briefly, a clerk in the Tiflis Observatory, the only paid employment that he is recorded as having taken outside politics; there is no record of his ever having done manual labour. December 21, 1879 Joseph Stalin was born on December 18, 1878. Joseph Stalin - Joseph Stalin - Lenin’s successor: After Lenin’s death, in January 1924, Stalin promoted an extravagant, quasi-Byzantine cult of the deceased leader. (Left to right) Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Tehrān Conference, December 1943. I will analyze each leader’s qualities and then compare them to one another as I close out this document. https://www.biographyonline.net/military/people-world-war-two.html At the start of World War II, Stalin formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Germany. As war leader, Stalin maintained close personal control over the Soviet battlefronts, military reserves, and war economy. Joseph Stalin. Churchill was voted the greatest Briton in history. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. His first big political promotion came in February (January, Old Style) 1912, when Lenin—now in emigration—co-opted him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, which had finally broken with the other Social Democrats. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A bout of childhood smallpox scarred his face, and his left arm was mangled, most likely in a carriage accident. Joseph Stalin would be known as one of the most ruthless and most evil men in the course of world history, but would help Russia and the Soviet Union’s economies. His birth date was traditionally believed to be December 21, 1879, but the 1878 date was confirmed by records in the Communist Party central archives. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. Joseph Stalin was one of the most horrifying leaders in the history of the world. From 1921 onward Stalin flouted the ailing Lenin’s wishes, until, a year before his death, Lenin wrote a political “testament,” since widely publicized, calling for Stalin’s removal from the secretary generalship; coming from Lenin, this document was potentially ruinous to Stalin’s career, but his usual luck and skill enabled him to have it discounted during his lifetime. In 1939, Stalin made the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany which divided Eastern Europe between the two powers. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. He led the final attack on Berlin, and he was so popular after the war that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, … During World War II (called the Great Patriotic War), Molotov was the deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee. After the war, Stalin imposed on eastern Europe a new kind of colonial control based on native Communist regimes nominally independent but in fact subservient to himself. The drunken father savagely beat his son. Marshal Georgy Zhukov (December 1, 1896–June 18, 1974) was the most important and most successful Russian general in World War II. Joseph Stalin was a Russian dictator in the 20th century. He was named after Saint Joseph and was raised to be a priest. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. By now he had adopted the name Stalin, deriving from Russian stal (“steel”); he also briefly edited the newly founded Bolshevik newspaper Pravda before undergoing his longest period of exile: in Siberia from July 1913 to March 1917. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December [O.S. Summer of 1942 marked the low-point for the beleaguered Soviets and their new allies, the British and the Americans, who had been brought into the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. As a result, a month later, Hitler invaded Poland and precipitated the Second World War. Stalin participated in high-level Allied meetings, including those of the “Big Three” with Churchill and Roosevelt at Tehrān (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945). Congress, Washington, D.C. 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