The period of his reign, called the “era of Stalinism,” was marked by the victory in World War II, the striking successes of the USSR in the economy, in eradicating illiteracy among the population, and in creating the world image of the country as a superpower. At the same time, his name is associated with the horrific facts of the mass extermination of millions of Soviet people through the organization of artificial famine, forced deportations, repressions directed against opponents of the regime, and internal party “cleansings.”
Regardless of his crimes, he remains popular among Russians: a 2017 Levada Center poll found that most citizens consider him an outstanding leader of the state. In addition, he unexpectedly took a leading position in the results of the audience vote during the 2008 television project to select the greatest hero of Russian history, “The Name of Russia.”
Childhood and youth
The future “father of nations” was born on December 18, 1878 (according to another version - December 21, 1879) in eastern Georgia. His ancestors belonged to the lower strata of the population. Father Vissarion Ivanovich was a shoemaker, earned little, drank a lot and often beat his wife. Little Soso, as his mother Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze called her son, also got it from him.The two eldest children in their family died shortly after birth. And the surviving Soso had physical disabilities: two fingers fused on his foot, damage to the skin of his face, and an arm that could not fully straighten due to an injury received at the age of 6 when he was hit by a car.
Joseph's mother worked hard. She wanted her beloved son to achieve “the best” in life, namely, to become a priest. At an early age, he spent a lot of time among street rowdies, but in 1889 he was accepted into a local Orthodox school, where he demonstrated extreme talent: he wrote poetry, received high grades in theology, mathematics, Russian and Greek.
In 1890, the head of the family died from a knife wound in a drunken brawl. True, some historians claim that the boy’s father was in fact not his mother’s official husband, but her distant relative, Prince Maminoshvili, Nikolai Przhevalsky’s confidant and friend. Others even attribute paternity to this famous traveler, who looks very similar to Stalin. These assumptions are confirmed by the fact that the boy was admitted to a very reputable religious educational institution, where people from poor families were barred from entering, as well as the periodic transfer by Prince Maminoshvili to Soso’s mother of funds for raising her son.
After graduating from college at the age of 15, the young man continued his education at the Tiflis Theological Seminary (now Tbilisi), where he made friends among Marxists. In parallel with his main studies, he began to educate himself, studying underground literature. In 1898, he became a member of the first social democratic organization in Georgia, showed himself to be a brilliant speaker and began promoting the ideas of Marxism among workers.
Participation in the revolutionary movement
In his last year of study, Joseph was expelled from the seminary with the issuance of a document giving him the right to work as a teacher in institutions that provided primary education.Since 1899, he began to professionally engage in revolutionary work, in particular, he became a member of the party committees of Tiflis and Batumi, and participated in attacks on banking institutions to obtain funds for the needs of the RSDLP.
In the period 1902-1913. he was arrested eight times and sent into exile seven times as a criminal punishment. But between arrests, while at large, he continued to be active. For example, in 1904, he organized the grandiose Baku strike, which ended with the conclusion of an agreement between workers and oil owners.
Out of necessity, the young revolutionary then had many party pseudonyms - Nizheradze, Soselo, Chizhikov, Ivanovich, Koba. Their total number exceeded 30 names.
In 1905, at the first party conference in Finland, he first met Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. Then he was a delegate at the IV and V party congresses in Sweden and Great Britain. In 1912, at the party plenum in Baku, he was included in absentia into the Central Committee. In the same year, he decided to finally change his last name to the party nickname “Stalin”, consonant with the established pseudonym of the leader of the world proletariat.
In 1913, the “fiery Colchian,” as Lenin sometimes called him, once again fell into exile. Having been released in 1917, together with Lev Kamenev (real name Rosenfeld), he headed the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda and worked to prepare an armed uprising.
How did Stalin come to power?
After the October Revolution, Stalin joined the Council of People's Commissars and the Bureau of the Party Central Committee. During the Civil War, he also held a number of responsible positions and gained enormous experience in political and military leadership. In 1922, he took the position of General Secretary, but the General Secretary in those years was not yet the head of the party. 
When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin took over the country, crushing the opposition, and began industrialization, collectivization, and a cultural revolution. The success of Stalin's policy lay in competent personnel policy. “Personnel decide everything,” is a quote from Joseph Vissarionovich in a speech to graduates of the military academy in 1935. During his first years in power, he appointed more than 4 thousand party functionaries to responsible positions, thereby forming the backbone of the Soviet nomenklatura.
Joseph Stalin. How to become a leader
But first of all, he eliminated his competitors in the political struggle, not forgetting to take advantage of their achievements. Nikolai Bukharin became the author of the concept of the national question, which the Secretary General took as the basis for his course. Grigory Lev Kamenev owned the slogan “Stalin is Lenin today,” and Stalin actively promoted the idea that he was the successor of Vladimir Ilyich and literally instilled the cult of Lenin’s personality, strengthening leader sentiments in society. Well, Leon Trotsky, with the support of ideologically close economists, developed a plan for forced industrialization.
It was the latter who became Stalin's main opponent. Disagreements between them began long before this - back in 1918, Joseph was indignant that Trotsky, a newcomer to the party, was trying to teach him the right course. Immediately after Lenin's death, Lev Davidovich fell into disgrace. In 1925, the plenum of the Central Committee summed up the “damage” that Trotsky’s speeches caused to the party. The activist was removed from the post of head of the Revolutionary Military Council, and Mikhail Frunze was appointed in his place. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR, and a struggle against manifestations of “Trotskyism” began in the country. The fugitive settled in Mexico, but was killed in 1940 by an NKVD agent.
After Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev came under Stalin’s crosshairs and were eventually eliminated during the apparatus war.
Stalin's repressions
Stalin's methods of achieving impressive success in transforming an agricultural country into a superpower - violence, terror, repression with torture - cost millions of human lives. 
Along with the kulaks, the innocent rural population of middle income also became victims of dispossession (evictions, confiscation of property, executions), which led to the virtual destruction of the village. When the situation reached critical proportions, the Father of Nations issued a statement about “excesses on the ground.”
Forced collectivization (unification of peasants into collective farms), the concept of which was adopted in November 1929, destroyed traditional agriculture and led to dire consequences. In 1932, mass famine struck Ukraine, Belarus, Kuban, the Volga region, the Southern Urals, Kazakhstan, and Western Siberia.
Researchers agree that the political repressions of the dictator-“architect of communism” against the command staff of the Red Army, persecution of scientists, cultural figures, doctors, engineers, mass closures of churches, deportations of many peoples, including Crimean Tatars, Germans, etc., also caused enormous harm to the state. Chechens, Balkars, Ingrian Finns.
In 1941, after Hitler's attack on the USSR, the Supreme Commander made many erroneous decisions in the art of war. In particular, his refusal to promptly withdraw military formations from near Kyiv led to the unjustified death of a significant mass of the armed forces - five armies. But later, when organizing various military operations, he already showed himself to be a very competent strategist.
The significant contribution of the USSR to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 contributed to the formation of the world socialist system, as well as the growth of the authority of the country and its leader. The “Great Helmsman” contributed to the creation of a powerful domestic military-industrial complex, the transformation of the Soviet Union into a nuclear superpower, one of the founders of the UN and a permanent member of its Security Council with the right of veto.
Personal life of Joseph Stalin
“Uncle Joe,” as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill called Stalin, was married twice. His first chosen one was Ekaterina Svanidze, the sister of his friend from studying at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Their wedding took place in the Church of St. David in July 1906. 
A year later, Kato gave her husband her first child, Yakov. When the boy was only 8 months old, she died (according to some sources from tuberculosis, others from typhoid fever). She was 22 years old. As the English historian Simon Montefiore noted, during the funeral, 28-year-old Stalin did not want to say goodbye to his beloved wife and jumped into her grave, from where he was rescued with great difficulty.
After the death of his mother, Yakov met his father only at the age of 14. After school, without his permission, he got married, then, due to a conflict with his father, he tried to commit suicide. During the Second World War he died in German captivity. According to one legend, the Nazis offered to exchange Jacob for Friedrich Paulus, but Stalin did not take the opportunity to save his son, saying that he would not exchange a field marshal for a soldier.
The second time the “Locomotive of the Revolution” tied the knot of Hymen at the age of 39, in 1918. His affair with 16-year-old Nadezhda, the daughter of one of the revolutionary workers Sergei Alliluyev, began a year earlier. Then he returned from Siberian exile and lived in their apartment. In 1920, the couple had a son, Vasily, a future lieutenant general of aviation, and in 1926, a daughter, Svetlana, who emigrated to the United States in 1966. She married an American and took the surname Peters.
Artem, the son of Stalin’s friend Fyodor Sergeev, who died in a railway accident, was also brought up in the family of Joseph Vissarionovich.
In 1932, the “Father of Nations” was widowed again - after their next quarrel, his wife committed suicide, leaving him, according to her daughter, a “terrible” letter full of accusations. He was shocked and angry at her action and did not go to the funeral.
The leader's main hobby was reading. He loved Maupassant, Dostoevsky, Wilde, Gogol, Chekhov, Zola, Goethe, and quoted the Bible and Bismarck without hesitation.
Death of Stalin
At the end of his life, the Soviet dictator was praised as a professional in all fields of knowledge. One word from him could decide the fate of any scientific discipline. There was a struggle against “kowtowing to the West”, against “cosmopolitanism”, and the exposure of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.The last speech of I.V. Stalin (Speech at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, 1952)
In his personal life, he was lonely, rarely communicated with children - he did not approve of his daughter’s endless affairs and his son’s spree. At the dacha in Kuntsevo, he remained alone at night with the guards, who could usually enter him only after being called.
Svetlana, who came on December 21 to congratulate her father on his 73rd birthday, noted later that he did not look well and, apparently, did not feel well, since he unexpectedly quit smoking.
On the evening of Sunday, March 1, 1953, the assistant commandant entered the chief's office with mail received at 10 p.m. and saw him lying on the floor. Having carried him along with the guards who came running to help to the sofa, he informed the senior leadership of the party about what had happened. At 9 am on March 2, a group of doctors diagnosed the patient with paralysis on the right side of the body. The time for his possible rescue was lost, and on March 5 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
After an autopsy, it was discovered that Stalin had previously suffered several ischemic strokes on his legs, which provoked disturbances in the functioning of the cardiovascular system and mental disorders.
Death of Joseph Stalin. End of an Era
The news of the death of the Soviet leader shocked the country. The coffin with his body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin. During the farewell to the deceased, a stampede arose in the crowd, costing the lives of many. In 1961, he was reburied near the Kremlin wall (after the CPSU congresses condemned the violations of “Lenin’s covenants”).
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili)
The biography of Dzhugashvili - Koba - Stalin, a political long-liver of the 20th century, contains an uncountable number of contradictory characteristics: yes, cruel, but also a dear father; the leader of the Communist Party, but at the end of his reign he practically removed the party bureaucracy from power; The "Leninist Guard" was dispersed, imprisoned, shot - a monster. And at the same time, he did the right thing by executing this very “Leninist guard”, which consisted mainly of people who were deeply non-Russian (and opposed to everything Russian), and essentially dealt with those responsible for the deaths of two or three tens of millions (!) of the best Russian people .
In January 1905, the young revolutionary Soso Dzhugashvili published an article in the newspaper Proletariatis Brdzola, “The Proletarian Class and the Party of Proletarians,” in which he wrote: “The time has passed when they boldly proclaimed: “united and indivisible Russia”. Now even a child knows that “united and indivisible” Russia does not exist, that it was divided long ago...” And this at a time when Russian soldiers are shedding blood on the battlefields in the Far East. So he was a traitor, a subversive element?
But here Joseph Stalin in the 30s, already the ruler of a huge “single and indivisible” power - the Soviet Union - listens to records with songs from the times of the Russian-Japanese War. He puts on the gramophone a record with the song “On the Hills of Manchuria” with the still old words:
The crosses of distant, beautiful heroes turn white
And the shadows of the past swirl around,
They tell us about the sacrifices in vain.
And in deep thought, he moved the needle of the gramophone several times in the words:
But believe me, we will avenge you
And we will celebrate a bloody funeral.
And so in 1945, Stalin and the Red Army came there and avenged those who fell in 1905...
You won’t understand right away whether he was a genius or a villain. This means there is no need to judge right away. Read his speeches and speeches, read his memoirs. CHRONOS has it all: here it is Nikita Sergeevich praises the leader, and then with the same fanatical conviction denigrates him. What am I going to tell you?! I am sure you will understand for yourself why Russia’s enemies of all times find themselves among Stalin’s irreconcilable critics.
Joseph Dzhugashvili in 1902
Started from theological school
Stalin (1878-1953), politician, Hero of Socialist Labor ( 1939 ), Hero of the Soviet Union ( 1945 ), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). From a shoemaker's family. After graduating from the Gori Theological School (1894), he studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary (expelled in 1899). In 1898 he joined the Georgian social democratic organization Mesame Dasi. In 1902-1913 he was arrested and exiled six times, and escaped from places of exile four times. After 1903 he joined the Bolsheviks. IN 1906-1907 For years he led expropriations in Transcaucasia. IN 1907 one of the organizers and leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. A zealous supporter of V.I. Lenin, on whose initiative 1912 year co-opted into the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In 1917, he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Pravda, a member of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Military Revolutionary Center. In 1917-1922, People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs, at the same time 1919-1922 years People's Commissar of State Control, RKI, since 1918 member of the RVSR. In 1922-1953, General Secretary of the Party Central Committee.
Since 1941, Stalin has held the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (CM) of the USSR, during the war years - Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar of Defense, Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In 1946 - 1947, Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. During the war he went to create an anti-Hitler coalition with England and the USA; after the end of the war did not prevent the emergence of the Cold War. On 20th Congress CPSU ( 1956 ) N. S. Khrushchev sharply criticized the so-called personality cult of Stalin.
Member of the Constituent Assembly
Dzhugashvili-Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (12/6/1878, Gori - 03/5/1953, Moscow). Petrograd metropolitan area. No. 4 - Bolsheviks.
Petrograd. From the peasants, the son of a shoemaker. He studied at a theological seminary and was expelled. Member of the RSDLP since 1899, Bolshevik. Delegate to the IV and V Congresses of the RSDLP. He was sent to the Irkutsk and Vologda provinces, to the Narym region. In 1917 he returned from Siberian exile. Member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), editor of Pravda, delegate to the VI Congress of the RSDLP. Member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of the RSD, All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Delegate to the I and II All-Russian Congresses of the RSD Councils. Member of the bureau of the Bolshevik fraction of the US, participant in the meeting on January 5. People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs (November 1917 - 1923), General Secretary of the CPSU (b), long-term dictator of the country.
Istoyanik: Political parties of Russia. The end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Encyclopedia. M., 1996.
Materials from the book were used. L.G. Protasov. People of the Constituent Assembly: a portrait in the interior of the era. M., ROSPEN, 2008.
Other biographical materials:
Boris Bazhanov, Memoirs of Stalin's Secretary, Chapter 9 - Stalin. Character. Qualities and disadvantages. Career. Immorality. Attitude towards employees and me. Nadya Alliluyeva. Yashka.
Essays:
Essays , t. 3, 1917, March - October, M. 1946;
On the way to October, M. 1925:
On the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry during the preparation of October. Answer to S. Pokrovsky, in his book: Questions of Leninism, 4th ed., M. 1928.
Literature:
I.V. Stalin. Brief biography, M, 1947.
Antonov-Ovseenko A., Stalin without a mask, M. 1990.
Beladi L., Kraus T., Stalin, M., 1990
Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. M., 1990. T. 2.
Zalessky K.A. Stalin's Empire. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000.
Medvedev R.A. About Stalin and Stalinism: Historical essays. M., 1990.
Mukhin Yu.I. The murder of Stalin and Beria.
Slusser R., Stalin in 1917. The man who remained outside the revolution, M. 1989.
Tucker R. Stalin. The path to power. 1879 - 1929. History and personality. M., 1990.
Trotsky L.D. Stalin, vol. 1-2, M. 1990.
Simonov Konstantin. Through the eyes of a man of my generation. Reflections on J.V. Stalin. M 1989.
Miliukov P. N. Stalin // Modern Notes. 1935. No. 59;
Fedotov G. Stalinocracy // Ibid. 1936. No. 60;
Gak G. M. Comrade Stalin’s work “On dialectical and historical materialism.” M., 1945;
Questions of dialectical and historical materialism in the work of I. V. Stalin “Marxism and questions of linguistics.” M., 1952. T. 1-2;
Kvasov G. G. Documentary source about I. V. Stalin’s assessment of the group of academician A. M. Deborin (text and commentary) // Domestic philosophy: experience, problems, research guidelines. M., 1992. Issue. 10. pp. 188-197;
Souvarine V. Staline. Aperfu historique du bolchevisme P., 1935;
Deutscher I. Stalin. A Political Biography. L., 1977;
Fischer L. The Life and Death of Stalin. Londres, 1953;
Marie J. J. Staline. P., 1967; UlamA. B. Stalin. N.Y., 1973.
From Stalin's biography it is clear that he was an ambiguous, but bright and strong personality.
Joseph Dzhugashvili was born on December 6 (18), 1878, in the city of Gori, into a simple poor family. His father, Vissarion Ivanovich, was a shoemaker by profession. Mother , Ekaterina Georgievna, worked as a charwoman.
In 1888, Joseph became a student at the Gori Orthodox Theological School. Six years later he was enrolled in a seminary in Tiflis. As a student, Dzhugashvili became acquainted with the basics of Marxism and soon became close to underground revolutionaries.
In the 5th year of his studies, he was expelled from the seminary. The certificate issued to him stated that he could apply for a position as a teacher in a public school.
Life before the revolution
Anyone who is interested in a brief biography of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin , You should know that before the revolution he served in the newspaper Pravda and was one of its most prominent employees. During his activities, Dzhugashvili was persecuted by the authorities more than once.
The work “Marxism and the National Question” gave weight to the future Generalissimo in Marxist society. After this, V.I. Lenin began to entrust him with the solution of many important issues.
During the civil war, Stalin proved himself to be an excellent military organizer. On November 29, 1922, he, along with Lenin, Sverdlov and Trotsky, entered the Bureau of the Central Committee.
When Lenin, due to illness, withdrew from political activity, Stalin, together with Kamenev and Zinoviev, organized the “troika”, which was in opposition to L. Trotsky. In the same year he was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee.
Against the backdrop of a difficult political struggle, at the XIII Congress of the RCP, Stalin announced that he wanted to resign. He was retained as Secretary General by a majority vote.
Having gained a foothold in power, Stalin began to pursue a policy of collectivization. Under him, heavy industry began to actively develop. Against the backdrop of the formation of collective farms and other changes, a policy of severe terror was pursued.
Role in WWII
According to some historians, Stalin was to blame for the USSR's poor preparation for war. He is also blamed for huge losses. It is believed that he ignored intelligence reports about an imminent attack by Nazi Germany, even though he was told the exact date.
At the very beginning of the Second World War, Stalin showed himself to be a bad strategist. He made illogical, incompetent decisions. According to G. K Zhukov, the situation changed after the Battle of Stalingrad, when a turning point occurred in the war.
In 1943, Stalin decided to create an atomic bomb. In February 1945, He took part in the Yalta Conference, at which a new world order was established.
Personal life
Stalin was married twice. The first wife was E. Svanidze, the second was N. Alliluyeva. He had three children of his own and an adopted son, A.F. Sergeev.
The fate of his second wife and his own sons was tragic. The daughter of Joseph Vissarionovich, Svetlana, spent her entire life in exile.
According to A.F. Sergeev, at home Stalin was good-natured, affectionate, and joked a lot and often.
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Everyone knows that Stalin is just one of the pseudonyms of I.V. Dzhugashvili. Many people know that his fellow fighters sometimes called him Koba. Were there other pseudonyms? At one time, an entire Institute was studying this issue, counting about 30 party nicknames, oral and printed pseudonyms related to the party activities of Joseph Vissarionovich.
The lifestyle of the revolutionaries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries forced them to change passports and party nicknames quite often. Such a person escaped from prison or exile, received a fresh (false) passport - changed his “last name”. Subsequently, the document was simply thrown away, and the name on it was forgotten. In such a serious matter, they naturally used pseudonyms similar to their real names (sometimes they were even the names of acquaintances).
Stalin's nickname
For example, Stalin had an acquaintance from Batumi, Nizharadze - his last name became one of the nicknames of young Joseph. And Stalin escaped from exile in Vologda using Chizhikov’s real passport. At the IV Party Congress, a certain Ivanovich was registered as a representative from the Tiflis branch of the party - also the working pseudonym of Dzhugashvili. However, all these were just small episodes in the life of the Bolshevik, who later became a great politician.
Stalin's party nickname
When choosing nicknames and pseudonyms, Stalin showed particular predilection for two letters of the Russian alphabet - “S” and “K”; as a rule, his “names” began with them. Perhaps this was partly due to his native name Soso. This is where pseudonyms such as Sozeli and Soselo came from - diminutives. But it’s not good for a politician to be little Osenka (that’s how these names are roughly translated into Russian). “Kote”, “Kato” - the mother’s name as a pseudonym also did not last long. As Stalin grows, his thirst for greatness awakens. That is why Koba became one of his favorite pseudonyms. What is its origin?
For example, there is this option. This was the name of the hero of the novel “The Patricide,” written by the then popular writer in Georgia Alexander Kazbegi, a noble robber who was the idol of young Soso. According to V. Pokhlebkin, this pseudonym comes from the name of the Persian king Kavad (in another spelling Kobades), who conquered Georgia and made Tbilisi the capital of the country; in Georgian the name of the Persian sounds like Koba. Kavad was known as a supporter of Mazdakism, a movement that promoted early communist views. Traces of interest in Persia and Kavad are found in Stalin’s speeches of 1904-07.
Ideals of Stalin
Some facts of Stalin's biography (ideals, prison, escape from it with the help of a certain woman) surprisingly coincided with the biography of Joseph Vissarionovich himself. And the fact that this was the name of a tsar, and even a conqueror, could not leave Stalin indifferent due to his ambition. It is not for nothing that the word “satraps” was one of Stalin’s favorite expressions. However, the pseudonym Koba was suitable only while Dzhugashvili’s field of activity was Transcaucasia, where people were well acquainted with the local color and history. After entering a wider arena, transferring his aspirations to Russia, the pseudonym Koba became inappropriate, since it ceased to evoke the necessary associations among his party comrades: well, what Russian knew about some Georgian king?
Stalin is a pseudonym that best reflected Koba’s inner essence. The king, shrouded in Eastern mysticism and a certain amount of magic, is replaced by a specific, clear symbol: steel. Brief, succinct, unbending, simple and inevitable - that’s how this word sounds. It is tougher than iron, clear and understandable to everyone. In addition, it has a clear indication of the “Russianness” of the owner. Lenin - Stalin - it looks like it, doesn’t it? For some time the initial “K” reminds me of Kobe. in the signature: K. Stalin - this is how the future leader has signed since 1913. And it is not surprising that this particular pseudonym later became a surname. After all, this has often happened in Russian history: the surname should reflect the inner essence of the owner. “Dzhugashvili” – what’s great here? Although there is a version that the word “juga” is translated from ancient Georgian as “steel”. But this version still seems unfounded. After all, it was the presence of this very steel in the character of Joseph Vissarionovich that made the heirs of his pseudonym so unhappy, who did not have the necessary firmness.
How did the name “Stalin” come about?
They say that this pseudonym was invented by Stalin himself, who relied only on the fact that the pseudonym should have been:
– sounding Russian and Russian in design;
– extremely serious, significant, impressive in content, not allowing any interpretations or misunderstandings;
– it had to have a deep meaning, and at the same time not be particularly conspicuous, not overpowering, and be calm;
– it should be easy to pronounce in any language and phonetically be close to Lenin’s pseudonym, but in such a way that the similarity is also not felt directly.
How many years did Stalin rule?
Actually, Joseph Dzhugashvili finally became Stalin in 1912. Before that, he “tried on” many consonant pseudonyms - Solin, Salin, Soselo, Stephin. In communicating with Lenin, the future head of state did not skimp on compliments, giving Vladimir Ilyich the enthusiastic epithet “mountain eagle.” Lenin responded with the nickname “wonderful Georgian,” which he used more than once. In addition, the leader of the world proletariat called Stalin “a fiery Colchian.” It is curious that after Lenin’s death Stalin himself began to be called “mountain eagle”.
During the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union, Stalin was usually addressed not by his first name, patronymic or military rank (“Comrade Marshal (Generalissimo) of the Soviet Union”), but simply “Comrade Stalin.” During the war, the Allied leaders naturally also had their own nicknames. Churchill and Roosevelt, officially addressing the leader of the USSR as “Marshal Stalin,” called him “Uncle Joe” among themselves. However, with the beginning of the Cold War, this nickname became history.
"The Great Helmsman" For the first time, the official Soviet press called the leader of the USSR this way in September 1934. The very combination “Great Helmsman” is of Christian origin, like many other epithets and slogans of Soviet propaganda. The outdated Russian word “helmsman” means a person sitting at the stern of a ship, in other words, a helmsman. Thus, the epithet in relation to Stalin meant nothing more than “standing at the helm of the country.” Later, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, began to be called this, and, as a rule, this epithet is associated with him today.
Stalin - Father of Nations
Perhaps the most famous of the epithets applied to Stalin appeared long before the emergence of the USSR and is of Western European origin. The kings of France, such as Louis XIII or Henry IV, were called “Fathers of Nations.” This nickname was assigned to Stalin thanks to Soviet publicists from the mid-1930s. It is noteworthy that it was this image that was reinforced by the public appearances of the head of state: from 1935, photographs depicting Stalin with small children and sometimes their parents from different parts of the Soviet Union began to regularly appear in newspapers. Thus, he figuratively became the “father” of children with very different national roots.
Biography and episodes of life Joseph Stalin. When born and died Stalin, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Politician Quotes, Photo and video.
Years of life of Joseph Stalin:
born December 21, 1879, died March 5, 1953
Epitaph
"In this hour of greatest sorrow
I won't find those words
So that they fully express
Our nationwide misfortune."
Alexander Tvardovsky on the death of Stalin
Biography
Joseph Stalin remains to this day one of the strongest and most controversial rulers of the 20th century. The entire biography of Joseph Stalin is shrouded in many theories, interpretations and opinions. It is difficult, years later, to say with certainty whether he was the “father of the Soviet people” or a dictator, a Moloch or a savior. Nevertheless, the significance of Stalin’s personality in the history of the USSR and Russia cannot be denied.
He was born in Gori in 1879 into a poor family. Joseph's father was a shoemaker, and his mother was the daughter of a serf. According to the stories of Stalin himself, the father often beat his son and wife, and then completely went on the street, leaving the family in poverty. At the age of seven, Joseph entered the theological school in Gori - his mother saw in him a future priest. Having graduated with honors, he brilliantly passed the entrance exams to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, but was expelled five years later for promoting Marxism. Stalin later admitted that he became a revolutionary and supporter of Marxism out of protest against the regime of the theological seminary in which he studied.
During his life, Stalin was married several times - Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to Joseph's son Yakov, died of tuberculosis after three years of marriage. Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who gave birth to Stalin's two children, Svetlana and Vasily, committed suicide after thirteen years of marriage, when the couple were already living in a Kremlin apartment. Stalin’s illegitimate son, Konstantin Kuzakov, was born in Turukhansk exile, but Joseph did not maintain a relationship with him.
After expulsion from the seminary, Stalin's political biography began - he entered the Social Democratic organization of Georgia, arrests, exiles and escapes from these exiles began. In 1903, Joseph joined the Bolsheviks - and his path to the post of head of state began; a few years later he was elected general secretary of the party's Central Committee. After Lenin's death, Stalin was able to retain power, despite Vladimir Ilyich's “Letter to the Congress” written in 1922, where he criticizes Joseph and proposes to remove him from office. Thus began the era of Stalin’s reign, an ambiguous time filled with victories and tragedies. During the years of Stalin, the USSR turned into a world power, won the Great Patriotic War, and a breakthrough was made in national economic development and in the military-industrial complex. But all these successes during the years of Stalin's rule were accompanied by large-scale repressions, deportation of peoples, famine as a consequence of collectivization and, finally, the cult of Stalin's personality, according to which the people had to believe that all the merits of the country were the merits of its ruler alone. Busts and monuments to Stalin were erected throughout the country, becoming a symbol of that time in the USSR.
In the post-war years, Comrade Stalin lived in his official residence - in the Near Dacha. On March 1, Stalin’s guard found him lying on the floor; doctors who arrived at Stalin’s dacha the next morning diagnosed him with paralysis. Stalin's death occurred on the evening of March 5. The cause of Stalin's death was a cerebral hemorrhage. The death of Joseph Stalin is still shrouded in a halo of mystery and possible conspiracies - so, according to one version, Beria, as well as Stalin’s associates who were in no hurry to call doctors, could have contributed to Stalin’s murder. Stalin's funeral took place on March 9. So many people wanted to say goodbye to the “father of the people” and honor the memory of Stalin that there was a crush. The number of victims numbered in the thousands. Stalin's body was placed in the Lenin Mausoleum. Years later, it was reburied, and now Stalin’s grave is located near the Kremlin wall. After the death of Stalin, the so-called thaw period began, the new leadership of the country decided to move away from the “Stalinist model” and follow the path of liberalization, however, this period in the history of the country was not without contradictions and excesses.
Joseph Stalin in his youth
Life line
December 21, 1979 Date of birth of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili).
1894 Graduation from the Gori Theological School.
1898 Member of the RCP(b).
1902 First arrest, exile to Eastern Siberia.
1917-1922 Work as People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs as part of the first Soviet government.
1922 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1939 Receiving the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
August 23, 1939 Signing of a non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany.
May 1941 Chairman of the Government of the USSR.
June 30, 1941 Chairman of the State Defense Committee.
August 1941 Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
1943 Receiving the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
1945 Receiving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
March 2, 1953 Paralysis.
March 5, 1953 Date of death of Joseph Stalin.
March 6, 1953 Farewell to Stalin in the House of Unions.
March 9, 1953 Funeral of Joseph Stalin.
November 1, 1961 Reburial of Stalin's body near the Kremlin wall.
Memorable places
1. Stalin Museum in Gori, in front of which is Stalin’s house, where he lived as a child.
2. House-monument to political exiles in Solvychegodsk, located in Stalin’s house, where he served his exile in 1908-1910.
3. Museum “Vologda exile” in Stalin’s house, where he served exile in 1911-1912.
4. Museum "Stalin's Bunker".
5. Near Dacha, or Kuntsevskaya Dacha, where Stalin died.
6. House of Unions, where Stalin’s body was laid out for farewell.
7. Lenin Mausoleum, where Stalin was buried.
8. The Kremlin wall, where Stalin is buried (reburied).
Episodes of life
Stalin's son from his first marriage, Yakov, was captured by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War. According to one version, when the Germans offered to exchange the leader’s son for their field marshal Paulus, Joseph Stalin replied: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.” According to another, he took Yakov’s captivity very hard and even blamed his wife Julia for the fact that his son was captured. Yulia spent two years in prison on charges of passing information to the Germans. In 1943, Yakov was shot and killed while trying to escape from a German concentration camp.
According to the stories of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, the day before her mother Nadezhda’s suicide, her parents had a little quarrel - and the quarrel was minor, but apparently served as a trigger for her mother’s act. Nadezhda locked herself in her room and shot herself in the heart with a pistol. Stalin was shocked because he did not understand why? He perceived his wife’s action as a desire to punish him for something and did not understand why. In the first days after his wife's death, he was so depressed that he even said that he did not want to live. Stalin's daughter claims that her mother left her father a letter that was full of not only personal, but also political reproaches, which shocked Stalin even more. After reading it, he decided that all this time his wife had been on the side of the opposition, and not at one with him.
In 1936, information appeared abroad that Stalin had died. A correspondent for an American news agency sent a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin, asking him to refute or confirm the rumors. A few days later he received a response from the Soviet leader with the words: “Dear Sir! As far as I know from reports in the foreign press, I have long since left this sinful world and moved to the next world. Since it is impossible not to trust the reports of the foreign press, if you do not want to be erased from the list of civilized people, then I ask you to believe these reports and not disturb my peace in the silence of the other world. Sincerely, Joseph Stalin."
Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin
Covenant
“When I die, a lot of rubbish will be placed on my grave, but the wind of time will mercilessly sweep it away.”
Documentary story from the series “Soviet Biographies” about Joseph Stalin
Condolences
“It is difficult to express in words the feeling of great sorrow that our party and the people of our country, all progressive humanity, are experiencing these days. Stalin, the great comrade-in-arms and brilliant successor of Lenin’s work, passed away. The person closest and dearest to all Soviet people, to millions of working people around the world, has left us.”
Lavrenty Beria, Soviet politician
“In these difficult days, the deep sorrow of the Soviet people is shared by all advanced and progressive humanity. The name of Stalin is immensely dear to the Soviet people, to the broadest masses of people in all parts of the world.”
Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician
“These days we are all experiencing severe grief - the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the loss of a great leader and, at the same time, a close, dear, infinitely dear person. And we, his old and close friends, and millions and millions, like the working people of all countries, all over the world, say goodbye today to Comrade Stalin, whom we all loved so much and who will always live in our hearts.”
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician
