Joseph Stalin was a Russian political leader, who was the acknowledged leader of the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953. Stalin helped to covert communism in the USSR from a free revolutionary movement into a severe, bureaucratic governmental system. He helped to turn Russia into a great industrial nation, to defeat Hitler in World War II. After the war he also established communist regimes through Eastern Europe. However he reigned terror and was responsible for the death and deprivation of millions of people.
Stalin still remains the least known of the towering figures in world politics at the time, mostly because of the traditional secrecy surrounding soviet leaders. His personality and rule were, and still are highly controversial.
Early Years.
Stalin, who was originally named Iosif Vissarionovic Dzhugashvili was bon on Dec 21 1879. He was born in the Caucasian town of Gori, Georgia. Stalin was the only one of four children to survive infancy. His father, Vissarion Dzhugashvili was an unsuccessful cobbler. He worked at a factory in Tifils where he then got into alcohol He died in 1890 from wounds received in a brawl. However his mother, Yekaterina was the one who get the family together by washing sewing, hiring out for housework. She nurses young Joseph through various sicknesses including smallpox and septicemia, which left his left arm slightly crippled for life. He enrolled in the local orthodox parochial school in Gori in 1888.
Joseph won a free scholarship in 1894 to the Orthodox theological seminary in Tiflis. In his fourth year he joined Mesame Dasi, a secret group espousing Georgina in Tiflis. In May, 1899, Stalin was expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Several reasons were given for this action including disrespect for those in authority and reading forbidden books. Stalin was later to claim that the real reason was that he had been trying to convert his fellow students to Marxism.
