As he neared a 1924 death, Lenin began to grow wary of his former protégé, and wrote a Testament warning against Stalin's influence. But the other members of the Politburo, Lenin's circle of advisers, ignored the Testament and allowed Stalin to remain in a position of power. ... The following year, another group of old Bolsheviks were subjected to the same treatment. ...
Joseph Stalin was the soviet communist leader who's passing molded an era, and whose iron rule determined the lives of millions of people. Considering that he shaped the direction of post-World War II Europe, we may regard him as the most powerful person to live during the 20th century. Joseph Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili on December 21, 1879, in Gori, Georgia . Both his parents were peasants. His father, Vissarion Dzhugashvili, was a cobbler, hopping that one day his son will be apprenticed in the same trade; his mother, Yekaterina ...
