Joseph Stalin leader of the Soviet Union
[Music]
Joseph Stalin was born on December 18th
1878 in Gori Georgia in the Russian
Empire to a poor family at age 7 he
called smallpox leaving him with a
pockmarked face Joseph's mother was a
devout Russian Orthodox Christian and
wanted him to become a priest in 1895
she sent him to study in to fleece the
Georgian capital however he started
reading the writings of Karl Marx and
Vladimir Lenin after joining a secret
organization which wanted Georgian
independence from Russia in 1901 he
joined the Social Democratic Labour
Party and organized protests and strikes
for the revolutionary movement against
Tsar ISM a year later he was arrested
for coordinating a strike and sent to
prison Stalin would join the Bolshevik
Party and use guerilla warfare during
the Russian Revolution of 1905 he
impressed the party's leader Vladimir
Lenin and his ability to organize
meetings and strikes as well as his
ruthless techniques to raise money for
the party by kidnapping and robbery in
1907 he sold 250,000 rubles at a bank
robbery into fleece to fund the cause
around this time he adopted the name
Stalin which means steal in Russian or
man of steel during the Russian
Revolution in 1917 Stalin ran the
Bolshevik newspaper Pravda by October
the revolution was over and the
Bolsheviks were in control a civil war
then followed with a Bolshevik victory
in 1922 Stalin was appointed general
secretary of the communist party and he
manipulated his role so that he was in a
powerful position Lenin died in 1924 and
it was assumed that Leon Trotsky would
be the next leader but Stalin would make
sure this wouldn't happen
he had Trotsky and other threats to his
future leadership removed from the
Central Committee and exiled eventually
Stalin was effectively dictator of the
Soviet Union in the late 1920s Stalin
would aim to turn the Soviet Union into
a modernized industrialised country and
he wanted it done rapidly he developed
three five-year plans between 1928 and
1938 coal oil steel and electricity
production massively increased but
workers who failed to achieve their
ambitious targets for production were
executed or sent to the gulags he also
introduced collectivization to increase
food production seizing land originally
given to the peasants and reorganizing
it into collective farms mass famine was
caused as a result and millions died but
Stalin saw this as a necessary evil to
achieve the ambitions of his 5-year
plans and transform the Soviet Union as
Stalin created a cult of personality
through culture he became more paranoid
everyone had to praise him and his
portrait was everywhere from schools to
factories in 1934 Stalin had Party
member Sergei Kirov killed because of
the threat to his power throughout the
30s Stone purged Communist Party members
in 81 of the 103 generals and admirals
were executed in the Red Army
20 million citizens in the Soviet Union
were sent to the gulags or executed in
1939 Stalin made a deal with Adolf
Hitler and Nazi Germany when Germany
invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 the Red
Army was not prepared and suffered
massive losses had
helped that Stalin had purged many
talented officers during the 30s Stalin
refused to leave Moscow as the German
forces moved further east in 1942 the
red army at Stalingrad were told not to
give the city to German forces and to
defend it at all costs as the city bore
Stalin's name this was the turning point
in pushing the Nazis back and soon the
Red Army was liberating Eastern Europe
all the way to Berlin the elta and
Potsdam conferences in 1945 between the
Soviet Union USA and Britain was tense
with the use of the atom bomb the Allies
did not need the help of the Soviet
Union in defeating Japan Stalin felt
betrayed and with the rivalry between
the ideologies of capitalism and
communism reignited he grew more
suspicious and paranoid of the West the
Cold War had begun East Berlin and
Eastern Europe which were occupied
territories by the Soviet forces were
transformed into satellite states
forming a bulwark between the Soviet
Union and Stalin's former allies as his
health deteriorated in the early 1950s
and after an attempted assassination
Stalin's paranoia increased even to the
doctors looking after him which he had
tortured two confessions of poisoning he
also ordered the head of the secret
police
Lavrentiy Beria to investigate a new
purge of the communist party
panicking members of the Politburo into
wondering if they would be executed
before this could happen Stalin died of
a stroke on March 5th 1953 at his
funeral huge crowds gathered to pay
their respects and five hundred people
were crushed as a result of people
surging forward after a power struggle
over who would be the next leader of the
Soviet Union from the inner circle
Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Stalin while
he was a Stalinist he would denounce the
dictator and reform Stalin's policies of
terror and fear during a
de-stalinization process
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