Joseph Stalin was a political leader in Russia from 1929 till the time of his death in 1953. He ruled undisputedly for many years. Though he did many great things as the dictator of Russia, he was a truly complex and brutal man. During World War II Stalin was pushed into the shadows. He was made to seem like an angel next to Hitler. However, he definitely ruled with a form of deadly terror. Perhaps it was kept so secretive because that's how things are in the Communist land. No one on the outside knows, and no one inside will say. .
Stalin's original name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. He was born on December 21, 1879 in the town of Gori, Georgia. He had a tough childhood, raised by his parents Yekaterina and Vissarion Dzhugashvili. Out of his four siblings he was the only one to make it through infancy. His father was unsuccessful, an alcoholic he died when Stalin was eleven. His mother struggled and raised him on her own. She always wanted him to be a priest; he even went to seminary school. That didn't work out to well. He was expelled right before graduation because he had joined a secret organization supporting Georgian nationalism and socialism, Mesame Dasi. After that he bounced from job to job an on several occasions came close to being arrested. .
In 1901 Stalin joined the Social Democratic party of Georgia. He helped organize strikes and demonstrations. In June 1904 Stalin meet the love of his life Yekaterina Svanidze. They had a son together, Yakov. But, on April 10, 1907 she sadly passed away. He began to live and write with pen names. First it was Koba, meaning "The Indomitable". But, after he was arrested in Batum and sent to exile in Siberia in 1903 he changed his name to Stalin, "Man of Steel". His path of being arrested and escaping continued till 1917. .
In 1905, during the Russian revolution Stalin started getting himself noticed. He was a party-organizer in Tiflis and wrote for the Caucasian Workers' Newssheet.
