At the 20 th CPSU, which has been largely considered the most important congress following the death of Lenin, Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders began pushing for decentralization of power within the Soviet Union. Attacking Stalin's former policies, Khrushchev and many . [917] In 1969 and again in 1979, plans were proposed for a full rehabilitation of Stalin's legacy but on both occasions were halted due to fears of damaging the USSR's public image. [362] The government's anti-religious campaign was re-intensified,[363] with increased funding given to the League of Militant Atheists. [325] Stalin barred kulaks from joining these collectives. [230] Stalin lost the argument, after which he accepted Lenin's decision and supported it. [869], Stalin strengthened and stabilised the Soviet Union. [770] Montefiore suggested that this charm was "the foundation of Stalin's power in the Party". [663] The crowds of people coming to view the body were so large and disorganized that about 100 people were killed in the crush. [612], In October 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong took power in China. ("Koba" is the Georgian diminutive of Yakobi, or Jacob, and Stalin later named his first-born son in Egnatashvili's honour. [81] They launched attacks on the government's Cossack troops and pro-Tsarist Black Hundreds,[82] co-ordinating some of their operations with the Menshevik militia. [383] Government policiesincluding the focus on rapid industrialisation, the socialisation of livestock, and the emphasis on sown areas over crop rotationexacerbated the problem;[388] the state had also failed to build reserve grain stocks for such an emergency. [521] There remained mutual suspicions between Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who were together known as the "Big Three". [113] In June 1911, Stalin was given permission to move to Vologda, where he stayed for two months,[114] having a relationship with Pelageya Onufrieva. [586], In the aftermath of the Second World War, the British Empire declined, leaving the U.S. and USSR as the dominant world powers. [375] Stalin's friends noted that he underwent a significant change following her suicide, becoming emotionally harder. [931], The only other part of the former Soviet Union other than Russia where admiration for Stalin has remained consistently widespread is Georgia, although Georgian attitudes have been very divided. [419] In 1935, he ordered the NKVD to expel suspected counter-revolutionaries from urban areas;[381] in early 1935, over 11,000 were expelled from Leningrad. [523] Stalin scarcely left Moscow throughout the war,[524] with Roosevelt and Churchill frustrated with his reluctance to travel to meet them. [812], Stalin was a keen and accomplished billiards player,[813] and collected watches. [594] It launched the Marshall Plan in June 1947, with which it sought to undermine Soviet hegemony throughout Eastern Europe. [273], As General Secretary, Stalin had a free hand in making appointments to his own staff, implanting his loyalists throughout the party and administration. [560] In 1946, the state published Stalin's Collected Works. [592] Stalin also initiated a new military build-up; the Soviet army was expanded from 2.9million soldiers, as it stood in 1949, to 5.8million by 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (19221952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (19411953). Increasingly, Stalin appointed his loyalists to the Politburo. [111] In March 1910, he was arrested again and sent back to Solvychegodsk. [817] As an infant, Stalin displayed a love of flowers,[818] and later in life he became a keen gardener. [180] Stalin backed Lenin's decision not to form a coalition with the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party, although they did form a coalition government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. [581], In the post-war period there were often food shortages in Soviet cities,[582] and the USSR experienced a major famine from 1946 to 1947. "[695], Stalin adhered to the Leninist variant of Marxism. [661] His body was embalmed,[662] and then placed on display in Moscow's House of Unions for three days. [765] Stalin had a complex mind,[766] great self-control,[767] and an excellent memory. [712] Although retaining the Marxist belief that the state would wither away as socialism transformed into pure communism, he believed that the Soviet state would remain until the final defeat of international capitalism. [588] In April 1949, the Western powers established the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), an international military alliance of capitalist countries. [31] As he grew older, Stalin lost interest in priestly studies, his grades dropped,[32] and he was repeatedly confined to a cell for his rebellious behaviour. I stand on the ground of the latter". "[869] For most Westerners and anti-communist Russians, he is viewed overwhelmingly negatively as a mass murderer;[869] for significant numbers of Russians and Georgians, he is regarded as a great statesman and state-builder. [415] After the murder, Stalin became increasingly concerned by the threat of assassination, improved his personal security, and rarely went out in public. [268] Stalin took charge of the funeral and was one of its pallbearers; against the wishes of Lenin's widow, the Politburo embalmed his corpse and placed it within a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square. [927] In a 2021 poll, a record 70% of Russians indicated they had a mostly/very favourable view of Stalin. [196] That month, he travelled to Helsinki to talk with the Finnish Social-Democrats, granting Finland's request for independence in December. [251] For Lenin, it was advantageous to have a key ally in this crucial post.[252]. [321] By July 1930, over 320,000 households had been affected by the de-kulakisation policy. [809] Lenin was his favourite author but he also read, and sometimes appreciated, a great deal of writing by Leon Trotsky and other arch-enemies. Joseph Stalin Russia- what were conditions before took power. [287] Stalin built up a retinue of his supporters in the Central Committee,[288] while the Left Opposition were gradually removed from their positions of influence. [941] Nonetheless, some churches have kept religious icons showing Stalin since at least 2008.[942]. [8] He was their only child to survive past infancy. [285] Although Zinoviev was concerned about Stalin's growing authority, he rallied behind him at the 13th Congress as a counterweight to Trotsky, who now led a party faction known as the Left Opposition. [217] He was reprimanded by Lenin at the 8th Party Congress for employing tactics which resulted in far too many deaths of Red Army soldiers. [144], In February 1913, Stalin was arrested while back in Saint Petersburg. [24] Stalin faced several severe health problems: An 1884 smallpox infection left him with facial scars;[25] and at age 12 he was seriously injured when he was hit by a phaeton, probably the cause of a lifelong disability in his left arm. [547] Stalin was pressed by his allies to enter the war and wanted to cement the Soviet Union's strategic position in Asia. [83], In November 1905, the Georgian Bolsheviks elected Stalin as one of their delegates to a Bolshevik conference in Saint Petersburg. [328] Many of the collectivised peasants resented the loss of their private farmland,[329] and productivity slumped. [557] Aware that these countries had been pushed toward socialism through invasion rather than by proletarian revolution, Stalin referred to them not as "dictatorships of the proletariat" but as "people's democracies", suggesting that in these countries there was a pro-socialist alliance combining the proletariat, peasantry, and lower middle-class. For this reason, he retained the Leninist view that world revolution was still a necessity to ensure the ultimate victory of socialism. [75] Stalin was in Baku in February when ethnic violence broke out between Armenians and Azeris; at least 2,000 were killed. [849] They had two biological childrena son, Vasily, and a daughter, Svetlana, and adopted another son, Artyom Sergeev, in 1921. After Stalin's death in 1953, he was eventually succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who subsequently denounced his rule and initiated the de-Stalinisation of Soviet society. [185] Although not so publicly well known as Lenin or Trotsky,[186] Stalin's importance among the Bolsheviks grew. See answers Advertisement Advertisement archana2025 archana2025 Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central . Many believe Stalin's rise to power began when he met Vladimir Lenin. Lenin's Testament. [263] A compromise was reached, in which the federation would be renamed the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR). [110] In June, he escaped the village and made it to Kotlas disguised as a woman and from there to Saint Petersburg. [476], In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, initiating the war on the Eastern Front. [167] During this raid, Stalin smuggled Lenin out of the newspaper's office and took charge of the Bolshevik leader's safety, moving him between Petrograd safe houses before smuggling him to Razliv. [522] Churchill flew to Moscow to visit Stalin in August 1942 and again in October 1944. [587] Tensions among these former Allies grew,[557] resulting in the Cold War. [197] Socialist revolutionaries accused Stalin's talk of federalism and national self-determination as a front for Sovnarkom's centralising and imperialist policies. [890] Kotkin observed that Stalin's ability to remain in power relied on him having a majority in the Politburo at all times. [530] Discussing the fate of the Balkans, later in 1944 Churchill agreed to Stalin's suggestion that after the war, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia would come under the Soviet sphere of influence while Greece would come under that of the West. [796] He was instead an emotionally intelligent and feeling intellectual. [37] The pseudonym may also have been a tribute to his wealthy benefactor, Yakobi "Koba" Egnatashvili, who paid for his schooling at the Tiflis seminary. [669] The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as the party's dominant figures. [512] The Soviet victory there marked a major turning point in the war;[513] in commemoration, Stalin declared himself Marshal of the Soviet Union. Stalin held the title of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953) a position originally without significant influence but which, through Stalin's ascendancy, became that of de facto party leader. [159] In a celebratory mood, Stalin travelled by train to Petrograd in March. Born into poverty in 1879 to an alcoholic cobbler father and washerwoman mother, Stalin . [376], Within the Soviet Union, there was widespread civic disgruntlement against Stalin's government. [168] In Lenin's absence, Stalin continued editing Pravda and served as acting leader of the Bolsheviks, overseeing the party's Sixth Congress, which was held covertly. [872] Stalin's necessity for Soviet Union's economic development has been questioned, and it has been argued that Stalin's policies from 1928 onwards may have only been a limiting factor. [645], From 1946 until his death, Stalin only gave three public speeches, two of which lasted only a few minutes. [555] Various East European communists also visited Stalin in Moscow. Stalin, appealing both to socialist revolutionary fervour and to Russian nationalism, launched in the . I therefore propose to comrades that they should devise a means of removing him from this job and should appoint to this job someone else who is distinguished from comrade Stalin in all other respects only by the single superior aspect that he should be more tolerant, more polite and more attentive towards comrades, less capricious, etc. [112] There he had affairs with at least two women; his landlady, Maria Kuzakova, later gave birth to his second son, Konstantin. [768] He was a hard worker,[769] and displayed a keen desire to learn;[770] when in power, he scrutinised many details of Soviet life, from film scripts to architectural plans and military hardware. Continuation of the notes. [29] He continued writing poetry; five of his poems, on themes such as nature, land and patriotism, were published under the pseudonym of "Soselo" in Ilia Chavchavadze's newspaper Iveria (Georgia). [62], Stalin left Batum in October, arriving at the small Siberian town of Novaya Uda in late November 1903. [665] That month featured a surge in arrests for "anti-Soviet agitation," as those celebrating Stalin's death came to police attention. RED FAMINE: STALIN'S WAR ON UKRAINE by Anne Applebaum. [422] The second Moscow Show Trial took place in January 1937,[423] and the third in March 1938, in which Bukharin and Rykov were accused of involvement in the alleged Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist plot and sentenced to death. [810] He liked the Western genre,[811] although his favourite films were Volga Volga and Circus (both directed by Grigori Alexandrov and starring Lyubov Orlova). See answer (1) Best Answer. [819], Stalin publicly condemned anti-Semitism,[820] although he was repeatedly accused of it. [519] In 1941, the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed a concert to celebrate his birthday,[520] and in 1942, Time magazine named him "Man of the Year". [262] Lenin accused Stalin of "Great Russian chauvinism"; Stalin accused Lenin of "national liberalism". [93] By that year according to the historian Robert Service Stalin had established himself as "Georgia's leading Bolshevik". [19] Although he got into many fights,[20] Stalin excelled academically,[21] displaying talent in painting and drama classes,[22] writing his own poetry,[23] and singing as a choirboy. [804] He was a voracious reader and kept a personal library of over 20,000 books. [938] In a 2016 Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll, 38% of respondents had a negative attitude to Stalin, 26% a neutral one and 17% a positive, with 19% refusing to answer. [646] The amount of written material that he produced also declined. [320] Large numbers died during the journey. [774] Several historians have seen it as appropriate to follow Lazar Kaganovich's description of there being "several Stalins" as a means of understanding his multi-faceted personality. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. [118] Shortly after the conference, Lenin and Grigory Zinoviev decided to co-opt Stalin to the committee. [528] Roosevelt and Churchill also agreed to Stalin's demand that the German city of Knigsberg be declared Soviet territory. [425] There were mass expulsions from the party,[426] with Stalin commanding foreign communist parties to also purge anti-Stalinist elements. [278] Stalin also developed close relations with the trio at the heart of the secret police (first the Cheka and then its replacement, the State Political Directorate): Felix Dzerzhinsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. [134] Lenin, who encouraged Stalin to write an article on the subject,[135] wanted to attract those groups to the Bolshevik cause by offering them the right of secession from the Russian state, but also hoped they would remain part of a future Bolshevik-governed Russia. (one of the Bolsheviks' key policy stances in 1917 was to give the land to . "[886] McDermott stated that Stalin had "concentrated unprecedented political authority in his hands. But general secretary is the actually important position. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [269] It was incorporated into a growing personality cult devoted to Lenin, with Petrograd being renamed "Leningrad" that year. A 1940 poster by Nikolai Zhukov (Fig. [312] Many Communists, including in Komsomol, OGPU, and the Red Army, were eager to be rid of the NEP and its market-oriented approach;[313] they had concerns about those who profited from the policy: affluent peasants known as "kulaks" and small business owners or "Nepmen". [361] He also expressed patronage for scientists whose research fitted within his preconceived interpretation of Marxism; for instance, he endorsed research of an agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko despite the fact that it was rejected by the majority of Lysenko's scientific peers as pseudo-scientific. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent several internal exiles to Siberia. [715] Ultimately he believed that all nations would merge into a single, global human community,[715] and regarded all nations as inherently equal. Stalin's editorial in Pravda, October 1917[165], Stalin helped organise the July Days uprising, an armed display of strength by Bolshevik supporters. [832] He gave nicknames to his favourites, for instance referring to Yezhov as "my blackberry". [909], In 2011, historian Timothy D. Snyder summarised modern data made after the opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s and states that Stalin's regime was responsible for 9million deaths, with 6million of these being deliberate killings. [175] Although he had been tasked with briefing the Bolshevik delegates of the Second Congress of Soviets about the developing situation, Stalin's role in the coup had not been publicly visible. [688] He believed that the working classes would prove successful in this struggle and would establish a dictatorship of the proletariat,[689] regarding the Soviet Union as an example of such a state. [30] According to Stalin's biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore, they became "minor Georgian classics"[31] and were included in various anthologies of Georgian poetry over the coming years. [674] The new leaders sought rapprochement with Yugoslavia and a less hostile relationship with the U.S.,[675] pursuing a negotiated end to the Korean War in July 1953. [349] The first major show trial in the USSR was the Shakhty Trial of 1928, in which several middle-class "industrial specialists" were convicted of sabotage. [893], Leninists remain divided in their views on Stalin; some view him as Lenin's authentic successor, while others believe he betrayed Lenin's ideas by deviating from them. [413] In May 1933, he released from prison many convicted of minor offences, ordering the security services not to enact further mass arrests and deportations. [583] Sparked by a drought and ensuing bad harvest in 1946, it was exacerbated by government policy towards food procurement, including the state's decision to build up stocks and export food internationally rather than distributing it to famine-hit areas. [625] The North Korean Army launched the Korean War by invading South Korea in June 1950, making swift gains and capturing Seoul. [915] Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. 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