Stalin Essays (2129 words) - Old Bolsheviks, Russian Revolutionaries

Stalin Stalin (1879-1953) Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born on December 21, 1879, in the village of Gori, Georgia. He was born to Vissarion and Yekaterina Dzhugashvili. His father Vissarion, was an unsuccessful cobbler who drank heavily and beat him savagely. When Iosif was 7, he caught smallpox, which scarred him for life, and then he came down with septicemia, which left his left arm slightly crippled for life. He lived in the 1920's a normal life, surrounded by many relatives who spoke their minds freely in the family circle, and he had good personal friends among the Soviet leadership. His life began to change, though, after the suicide of his second wife Nadezhda Allililuyeva in 1932, who left a letter incriminating him personally and politically. After that he became very paranoid, suspecting others?even those with whom he had been friends with for years. A complex man, he centered his life completely in his office. Although, he did allow public worship of himself on a scale rarely matched in any country in the 20th Century. In his personal life, he withdrew almost completely, living either in his Kremlin apartment or in his new country house at Kuntsovo, constantly surrounded by officers and bodyguards until his death. Frantic to catch up with the West in 1928, Stalin and his men launched a set of policies known as the five-year plans, designed to turn backward Russia into an industrial and military world power, which he accomplished in only one decade. Though this was a great success, the peasants paid dearly, most with their lives. Most of starved to death from famine. Those that survived were killed off in Stalin's purges to rid him of opposition. I. V. Stalin (1879-1953) Table of Contents This is divided into sections based on each significant period of Stalin's life. Click on the section headings below to jump ahead to each section. 1. Childhood 2. Early Career 3. Military Career 4. Rise to Power 5. In Power 6. Summary Stalin's Childhood: (1879-1897) Stalin's birthplace, the village of Gori. ? Stalin's birth name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. ? Stalin was born on December 21, 1879, in Gori, a village in Transcaucasian Georgia, a province of the Russian Empire within the Caucasus mountains. ? Note: Stalin was not a Russian, contrary to popular belief--Georgians are a distinct minority within the former Soviet Union. Stalin did not even speak Russian especially well; he never was quite able to get rid of his accent. ? Stalin was the only one of four children to survive infancy. ? Stalin's father was named Vissarion Dzhugashvili; he was an unsuccessful cobbler. Who drank heavily and beat the boy savagely. ? Stalin's mother, Yekaterina Geladze Dzhugashvili, worked as a house servant for various upper-class Georgian families. ? Stalin was rather sickly as a child; he was badly scarred by smallpox, and septicemia crippled his left arm. Stalin reportedly had an exceptional singing voice and sung in his school choir. Nevertheless, he is described as having been in excellent physical shape as a teenager; throughout much of his life he was muscular and well-built. ? Stalin was enrolled in a local Orthodox parochial school in Gori in 1888 at the age of 9. When he was 14, his father died in 1890 from wounds he received in a brawl. Stalin won a free scholarship in 1894 to the Orthodox Russian theological seminary at Tiflis to be educated for priesthood. In his fourth year he joined Mesame Dasi, a secret group supporting Georgian nationalism and socialism. Back to Top Stalin's Early Career: (1897-1917) ? Stalin was expelled from the seminary in 1899, when he was about to graduate. ? Stalin first tried tutoring and then clerical work at the Tiflis Observatory, but he abandoned his clerical job in May 1901, when he was about to be arrested. ? Stalin then became a paid agitator, trying to incite a revolt against the czar. He edited illegal pamphlets and helped distribute them secretly. He organized strikes among the factory workers in Tiflis. ? He first called himself Koba, after a legendary Georgian hero meaning The Indomitable. Later he changed his name to David, Soso, Chiijikov, Nijeradze, and finally, Stalin. ? Stalin was arrested for the first