How Joseph Stalin rose to power

Joseph Stalin was secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and premier of the Soviet state. He dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century, transforming it into a major world power. Joseph Stalin was born as Ioseb Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia. Though his official biography lists his birthday as December 21, 1879, evidence suggests that the true date is December 18, 1878. Stalin’s first political promotion came in 1912, when Vladimir Lenin appointed him to the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Under Lenin’s influence as party leader, Stalin played a key role in the Russian Revolution. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin succeeded him. Stalin industrialized the Soviet Union but at the expense of its poorest citizens, the peasants, an estimated ten million of whom died. Peasants were forced to join collective farms. Those who resisted were often killed or forced into work camps. Agricultural collectivization led to famine, which was especially severe in Ukraine. Stalin soon turned on even other elite members of the Communist Party, executing or deporting many of them. In all, Stalin’s political victims numbered in the tens of millions. Though Stalin originally allied himself with Hitler, the German dictator posed a threat to the Soviet Union, and Stalin joined the Allies in the fight against Hitler. He participated in high-level conferences with the Allied powers, becoming part of the “Big Three” alongside U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stalin died suddenly on March 5, 1953. He had been in poor health. But now many suspect that poison was involved. “I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.” — Joseph Stalin Want to know the truth behind other famous figures? Learn more at Britannica.com.