- Wikipedia

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\"Stalin\" redirects here. For the Indian politician, see M. K. Stalin. For other uses, see Stalin (disambiguation).

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vissarionovich and the family name is Stalin.

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Joseph Stalin
\n \u0418\u043e\u0441\u0438\u0444 \u0421\u0442\u0430\u043b\u0438\u043d \n \u10d8\u10dd\u10e1\u10d4\u10d1 \u10e1\u10e2\u10d0\u10da\u10d8\u10dc\u10d8 \n
Stalin at the Tehran Conference, 1943

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 3 April 1922 \u2013 16 October 1952^[a]
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov (as Responsible Secretary)
Succeeded by	Nikita Khrushchev (as First Secretary)
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union^[b]
In office 6 May 1941 \u2013 5 March 1953
First Deputy	Nikolai Voznesensky Vyacheslav Molotov Nikolai Bulganin
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov
Succeeded by	Georgy Malenkov
Minister of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union^[c]
In office 19 July 1941 \u2013 3 March 1947
Premier	Himself
Preceded by	Semyon Timoshenko
Succeeded by	Nikolai Bulganin
People's Commissar for Nationalities of the Russian SFSR
In office 8 November 1917 \u2013 7 July 1923
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
\n
Personal details
Born	Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 Gori, Russian Empire
Died	5 March 1953(1953-03-05) (aged 74) Moscow, Soviet Union
Resting place	\n Lenin's Mausoleum, Moscow (1953\u20131961) \n Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow (since 1961) \n
Political party	CPSU^[d] (from 1912)\n
Other political affiliations	\n RSDLP (1898 – 1912; Bolshevik faction from 1903) \n
Spouses	\n \n Ekaterine Svanidze \n (m. 1906; died 1907) \n \n Nadezhda Alliluyeva \n (m. 1919; died 1932) \n
Children	\n Yakov Dzhugashvili \n Vasily Stalin \n Artyom Sergeyev (adopted) \n Svetlana Alliluyeva \n
Parents	\n Besarion Jughashvili \n Ekaterine Geladze \n
Awards	Full list
Signature	$\"\"$
Nickname	Koba
Military service
Allegiance	\n Soviet Russia \n Soviet Union \n
Branch	Red Army
Years of service	1918\u20131920
Rank	Generalissimo (from 1945)
Commands	Soviet Armed Forces (from 1941)
Battles/wars	\n Russian Civil War \n Polish\u2013Soviet War \n World War II \n
\n \n \n Joseph Stalin's voice \n \n May 1945 announcement of German capitulation \n
\n Central institution membership \n 1917\u20131953: Full member, 6th\u201318th Politburo and 19th Presidium of CPSU\n 1922\u20131953: Full member, 11th\u201319th Secretariat of CPSU\n 1920\u20131952: Full member, 9th\u201318th Orgburo of CPSU\n 1912\u20131953: Full member, 5th\u201319th Central Committee of CPSU\n 1918\u20131919: Full member, 2nd Central Committee of CP(b)U\n \n \n \n \n Other offices held \n 1941\u20131945: Chairman, State Defence Committee of the Soviet Union\n 1920\u20131922: People's Commissar for Workers' and Peasants' Inspection of the Russian SFSR\n 1919\u20131920: People's Commissar for State Control of the Russian SFSR\n 1917\u20131918: Member of the Russian Constituent Assembly for Petrograd Metropolis\n \n
Leader of the Soviet Union\n \n \u2190 Lenin \n Malenkov^[e]\u2192 \n

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin^[f] (born Dzhugashvili;^[g] 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1941 until his death. He initially governed as part of a collective leadership, but consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Stalin codified his interpretation of Marxism as Marxism\u2013Leninism, while the totalitarian political system he established is known as Stalinism.\n

Born into a poor Georgian family in Gori, Russian Empire, Stalin attended the Tiflis Theological Seminary before joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction through robberies, kidnappings and protection rackets, and edited the party's newspaper, Pravda. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent internal exiles to Siberia. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, Stalin joined the governing Politburo, and following Lenin's death in 1924, won the struggle to lead the country. Under Stalin, the doctrine of socialism in one country became central to the party's ideology. His five-year plans, launched in 1928, led to agricultural collectivisation and rapid industrialisation, establishing a centralised command economy. Resulting disruptions to food production contributed to a famine in 1932\u20131933 which killed millions, including in the Holodomor in Ukraine. Between 1936 and 1938, Stalin eradicated his political opponents and those deemed \"enemies of the working class\" in the Great Purge, after which he had absolute control of the party and government. Under his regime, an estimated 18 million people passed through the Gulag system of forced labour camps, and more than six million were deported to remote regions of the Soviet Union, which together resulted in millions of deaths. \n

Stalin promoted Marxism\u2013Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements. In 1939, his government signed the Molotov\u2013Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, enabling the Soviet invasion of Poland. Germany broke the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941, leading Stalin to join the Allies. Despite huge losses, the Soviet Red Army repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945, ending the war in Europe. The Soviet Union, which had annexed the Baltic states and territories from Finland and Romania amid the war, established Soviet-aligned states in Central and Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers, and entered a period of tension known as the Cold War. Stalin presided over post-war reconstruction and the first Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. During these years, the country experienced another famine and a state-sponsored antisemitic campaign culminating in the \"doctors' plot\". In 1953, Stalin died after suffering a stroke, and was succeeded as leader by Georgy Malenkov and later by Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1956 denounced Stalin's rule and initiated a campaign of \"de-Stalinisation\".\n

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist\u2013Leninist movement, which revered him as a champion of socialism and the working class. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Stalin has retained a degree of popularity in post-Soviet states as an economic moderniser and victorious wartime leader who cemented the Soviet Union as a major world power. Conversely, his regime has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repressions, ethnic cleansing, and famines which caused the deaths of millions.\n

Political offices\n
Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov \n	Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Soviet Union) Council of People's Commissars until 1946 1941\u20131953\n	Succeeded by Georgy Malenkov \n
Preceded by Semyon Timoshenko \n	Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union People's Commissar until 1946 1941\u20131947\n	Succeeded by Nikolai Bulganin \n
Party political offices\n
Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov as Responsible Secretary \n	General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1922\u20131952\n	Succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
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Other	IdRef NARA SNAC Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine

Early life

Early life

1899\u20131905: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

1905\u20131912: Revolution of 1905 and aftermath

1912\u20131917: Rise to the Central Committee and Pravda

1917: Russian Revolution

In Lenin's government

1917\u20131918: People's Commissar for Nationalities

1918\u20131921: Military command

1921\u20131924: Lenin's final years

Consolidation of power

1924\u20131928: Succeeding Lenin

1928\u20131932: First five-year plan

Economic policy

Cultural and foreign policy

1932\u20131939: Major crises

Famine of 1932\u20131933

Ideological and foreign affairs

Great Purge

World War II

1939\u20131941: Pact with Nazi Germany

1941\u20131942: German invasion

1942\u20131945: Soviet counter-attack

1945: Victory

Post-war era

1945\u20131947: Post-war reconstruction

1947\u20131950: Cold War policy

Eastern Bloc

Asia

1950\u20131953: Final years

Death, funeral and aftermath

Political ideology

Personal life and characteristics

Personality

Relationships and family

Legacy

Death toll

In the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

Academic books and journals

Magazines, newspapers and websites

External links

Joseph Stalin

Media collections