Stalin's Childhood and Early Years
Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia to illiterate peasant parents. His harsh spirit has been blamed on him receiving harsh beatings from his father throughout childhood. His mother sent him on a path to become a priest and he studied Russian Orthodox Christianity. His involvement with the socialist movement began at seminary school, from which he was expelled in 1899. From there on, he worked for a decade with the political underground in the Caucasus. He soon followed Vladimir Lenin's ideology about centralism.
Stalin's Rise to Power
Stalin spent his first years after the revolution building his post as general secretary secretly into the most powerful one in the communist party. After Lenin's death in 1924, a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev governed against Trotsky (on the left wing of the communist party) and Bukharin (on the right wing of the communist party). Soon after, Stalin switched sides and joined with Bukharin. Together, they fought a new opposition of Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev. By 1928 (the first year of the Five-Year Plans) Stalin's supremacy was complete. From this time, it was said that he had complete control over the country and the party.
The final step in Stalin's rise to power was the assassination of Trotsky, who was the first leader of the Red Army, in Mexico in 1940. Trotsky had lived there since 1936.
World War II
In 1939, Stalin made the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany which divided Eastern Europe between the two powers. However, in 1941, Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Red Army put up fierce resistance, but were ineffective against the advancing Nazi forces.
At this point, Stalin was very wary of Germans, and would not permit his armies to assume defensice positions for fear of it sending the wrong message to Hitler. Up to the final moment, and the invasion led by the Germans, Stalin had hoped that the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact would but him time to modernize and strengthened his military which had recently been weakened by purges.
The Germans reached the outskirsts of Moscow in December, but were stopped by an early winter and a Soviet counter-offensive. At the battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43, after sacrificing an estimated 1 million men, the Red Army was able to regain the initiative of the war. With military aid from their allies, the Soviet forces were able to regain lost territory and pushed their enemies back to Germany.
From the end of 1944 large sections of eastern Germany came under Stalin's Soviet Union occupation and on May 2, 1945, the capital city Berlin was taken.
By some estimates, one quarter of the Russian population was wiped out in the war. There was, then, a huge shortage of men of the fighting-age generation in Russia. As a result, to this day, World War II is remembered very vividly in Russia, and May 9, Victory Day, is one of its biggest national holidays.
Stalin Post-war
Following World War II, Stalin continued his genocidal policies while exerting ruthless control over the Soviet Union and its satellite states until his death in 1953. More than 15 million Germans were removed from eastern Germany and pushed into central and western Germany. Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czech etc. were then moved onto German land. Other ethnic groups, like the Crimerian Tartars and Volga Germans, were moved to the Asian part of the Soviet Union. Millions of German POWs and Soviet ex-POWs were sent to the Gulags. The eastern European states occupied by the Red Army were established as communist Satellite states.Shortly before he died on March 5, 1953, Stalin accused nine doctors, six of them Jews, of plotting to poison and kill the Soviet leadership.The innocent men were arrested and, at Stalin's personal instruction, tortured to obtain confessions. Stalin died days before their trial was to begin.
Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia to illiterate peasant parents. His harsh spirit has been blamed on him receiving harsh beatings from his father throughout childhood. His mother sent him on a path to become a priest and he studied Russian Orthodox Christianity. His involvement with the socialist movement began at seminary school, from which he was expelled in 1899. From there on, he worked for a decade with the political underground in the Caucasus. He soon followed Vladimir Lenin's ideology about centralism.
Stalin's Rise to Power
Stalin spent his first years after the revolution building his post as general secretary secretly into the most powerful one in the communist party. After Lenin's death in 1924, a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev governed against Trotsky (on the left wing of the communist party) and Bukharin (on the right wing of the communist party). Soon after, Stalin switched sides and joined with Bukharin. Together, they fought a new opposition of Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev. By 1928 (the first year of the Five-Year Plans) Stalin's supremacy was complete. From this time, it was said that he had complete control over the country and the party.
The final step in Stalin's rise to power was the assassination of Trotsky, who was the first leader of the Red Army, in Mexico in 1940. Trotsky had lived there since 1936.
World War II
In 1939, Stalin made the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany which divided Eastern Europe between the two powers. However, in 1941, Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Red Army put up fierce resistance, but were ineffective against the advancing Nazi forces.
At this point, Stalin was very wary of Germans, and would not permit his armies to assume defensice positions for fear of it sending the wrong message to Hitler. Up to the final moment, and the invasion led by the Germans, Stalin had hoped that the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact would but him time to modernize and strengthened his military which had recently been weakened by purges.
The Germans reached the outskirsts of Moscow in December, but were stopped by an early winter and a Soviet counter-offensive. At the battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43, after sacrificing an estimated 1 million men, the Red Army was able to regain the initiative of the war. With military aid from their allies, the Soviet forces were able to regain lost territory and pushed their enemies back to Germany.
From the end of 1944 large sections of eastern Germany came under Stalin's Soviet Union occupation and on May 2, 1945, the capital city Berlin was taken.
By some estimates, one quarter of the Russian population was wiped out in the war. There was, then, a huge shortage of men of the fighting-age generation in Russia. As a result, to this day, World War II is remembered very vividly in Russia, and May 9, Victory Day, is one of its biggest national holidays.
Stalin Post-war
Following World War II, Stalin continued his genocidal policies while exerting ruthless control over the Soviet Union and its satellite states until his death in 1953. More than 15 million Germans were removed from eastern Germany and pushed into central and western Germany. Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czech etc. were then moved onto German land. Other ethnic groups, like the Crimerian Tartars and Volga Germans, were moved to the Asian part of the Soviet Union. Millions of German POWs and Soviet ex-POWs were sent to the Gulags. The eastern European states occupied by the Red Army were established as communist Satellite states.Shortly before he died on March 5, 1953, Stalin accused nine doctors, six of them Jews, of plotting to poison and kill the Soviet leadership.The innocent men were arrested and, at Stalin's personal instruction, tortured to obtain confessions. Stalin died days before their trial was to begin.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/stalin.html
http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/stalin.html