Vissarion, Stalins father wanted this to be a permanent career for his son, but his mother intervened and succeeded in bringing her son home to Gori. Thereafter his father was never a strong presence in Stalin's life. He would die before World War I.
Smallpox had left Stalins face scarred and pitted for the rest of his life, and a case of blood poisoning caused his left arm to grow shorter than his right. He was one of the smallest kids in his school when he was growing up and grew to be just five feet four inches. For the rest of his life his shortness plagued him, causing him to resort to platform shoes and other devices in an effort to appear taller than he actually was. Stalin received excellent grades and enrolled in the school choir. Stalin loved reading adventure novels and he had a passion for the outdoors. Stalin was very energetic and grew to be very strong despite his short arm and small stature. .
Stalin graduated from the church school in July 1894 near the top of his class. He had a reputation for being distant toward his fellow students and had been in trouble with the school authorities a few times, but there were no other signs of the direction his career was to take. Stalin was known as a very cold young man which many people feel was due to his childhood. At his mothers urging he applied for and won a small scholarship to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, where he enrolled in September 1894. His mother worked hard to help him afford the tuition.
Seminary and Marxism .
The Tiflis Theological Seminary was a religious institution but did not limit its instruction to religious teachings. It was Georgia's principle center of higher learning and drew manny upper-class students from all across the region. This set the scene for much conflict between the strict Russian Orthodox priests who ran the school and the radical Georgian student body. In the years before Stalin arrived a number of violent incidents had erupted including a series of student strikes and the murder of a priciple.
