[495] Responding to the invasion, the Soviets intensified their industrial enterprises in central Russia, focusing almost entirely on production for the military. Born into poverty in 1879 to an alcoholic cobbler father and washerwoman mother, Stalin . [120] In February 1912, Stalin again escaped to Saint Petersburg,[121] tasked with converting the Bolshevik weekly newspaper, Zvezda ("Star") into a daily, Pravda ("Truth"). [895] Since his death many more biographies have been written,[896] although until the 1980s these relied largely on the same sources of information. [567], The NKVD were ordered to catalogue the scale of destruction during the war. [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. [216] When the Red Third Regiment defected, he ordered the public execution of captured defectors. [731] Described as a poor orator,[732] according to Volkogonov, Stalin's speaking style was "simple and clear, without flights of fancy, catchy phrases or platform histrionics". [374] [171], On 24 October, police raided the Bolshevik newspaper offices, smashing machinery and presses; Stalin salvaged some of this equipment to continue his activities. [241], Stalin's native Caucasus posed a particular problem because of its highly multi-ethnic mix. [112] There he had affairs with at least two women; his landlady, Maria Kuzakova, later gave birth to his second son, Konstantin. "[886] McDermott stated that Stalin had "concentrated unprecedented political authority in his hands. We have fallen behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years. [166] After the demonstration was suppressed, the Provisional Government initiated a crackdown on the Bolsheviks, raiding Pravda. [614] He gambled that the others would not risk war, but they airlifted supplies into West Berlin until May 1949, when Stalin relented and ended the blockade. Hence he bore direct responsibility for the course of the war and its outcome. [381] In 1936, Nikolai Yezhov became head of the NKVD. Answer: No. fair elections Views: 47. [782], Stalin was ruthless,[783] temperamentally cruel,[784] and had a propensity for violence high even among the Bolsheviks. [233] Stalin felt humiliated and under-appreciated; on 17 August, he demanded demission from the military, which was granted on 1 September. [457] Stalin saw this as an opportunity both for territorial expansion and temporary peace with Germany. In 1952, Stalin's last book, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, was published. [817] His Volynskoe suburb had a 20-hectare (50-acre) park, with Stalin devoting much attention to its agricultural activities. His gang ambushed the armed convoy in Erivan Square with gunfire and home-made bombs. 18991904: Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, 19051912: Revolution of 1905 and its aftermath, 19121917: Rise to the Central Committee and editorship of, 19271931: Dekulakisation, collectivisation, and industrialisation, 19451947: Post-war reconstruction and famine, In the Soviet Union and its successor states, Despite abolishing the office of General Secretary in 1952, Stalin continued to exercise its powers as the, After Stalin's death, Georgy Malenkov succeeded him as both. A California professor was widely hounded on Twitter for praising the legacy of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, calling him "one of the great leaders" of the 20th century. [764] According to biographer Montefiore, "it is clear from hostile and friendly witnesses alike that Stalin was always exceptional, even from childhood". [257] Despite this comradeship, Lenin disliked what he referred to as Stalin's "Asiatic" manner and told his sister Maria that Stalin was "not intelligent". Malenkov denounced the Stalin personality cult,[911] which was subsequently criticised in Pravda. Acknowledge. [762], Trotsky and several other Soviet figures promoted the idea that Stalin was a mediocrity. ("Koba" is the Georgian diminutive of Yakobi, or Jacob, and Stalin later named his first-born son in Egnatashvili's honour. He initially refused, leading to an international crisis in 1946, but one year later Stalin finally relented and moved the Soviet troops out. [207] He befriended two military figures, Kliment Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny, who would form the nucleus of his military and political support base. About half were then imprisoned in labour camps. [199] Stalin thought it necessary because unlike Lenin he was unconvinced that Europe was on the verge of proletarian revolution. [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". 00447, listing 268,950 people for arrest, of whom 75,950 were executed. He undermined them by: Establishing a new ideological orthodoxy and branding opponents enemies of Leninism. [236] Lenin joined Trotsky in criticising him, and nobody spoke on his behalf at the conference. [652] He was moved onto a couch and remained there for three days. "We have lost one of the tallest socialist leaders, who remained deeply committed to the ideals of . His long reign finally ended. [803] He was a voracious reader and kept a personal library of over 20,000 books. [394], In 193536, Stalin oversaw a new constitution; its dramatic liberal features were designed as propaganda weapons, for all power rested in the hands of Stalin and his Politburo. [693] During the period of his revolutionary activity, Stalin regarded some of Lenin's views and actions as being the self-indulgent activities of a spoiled migr, deeming them counterproductive for those Bolshevik activists based within the Russian Empire itself. Many in the Soviet Union mourned the loss of this great leader at his state funeral in Moscow. [150] Their second child, Alexander, was born circa April 1917. [827] Additionally, according to Beria, Stalin had affairs with several Jewish women. Asatar Bair, a self . Submitted by sgel on June 17, 2011. [881] Montefiore argued that while Stalin initially ruled as part of a Communist Party oligarchy, the Soviet government transformed from this oligarchy into a personal dictatorship in 1934,[882] with Stalin only becoming "absolute dictator" between March and June 1937, when senior military and NKVD figures were eliminated. [420], Stalin orchestrated the arrest of many former opponents in the Communist Party as well as sitting members of the Central Committee: denounced as Western-backed mercenaries, many were imprisoned or exiled internally. [274] Favouring new Communist Party members from proletarian backgrounds, to the "Old Bolsheviks" who tended to be middle class university graduates,[275] he ensured he had loyalists dispersed across the country's regions. [226] Along the Southwest Front, he became determined to conquer Lvov; in focusing on this goal he disobeyed orders in early August to transfer his troops to assist Mikhail Tukhachevsky's forces that were attacking Warsaw. [132] In January 1913, Stalin travelled to Vienna,[133] where he researched the 'national question' of how the Bolsheviks should deal with the Russian Empire's national and ethnic minorities. [840] According to Service, Stalin "regarded women as a resource for sexual gratification and domestic comfort. [222] In December 1918, he drew up decrees recognising Marxist-governed Soviet republics in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia;[223] during the civil war these Marxist governments were overthrown and the Baltic countries became fully independent of Russia, an act Stalin regarded as illegitimate. Copy. [733] He rarely spoke before large audiences, and preferred to express himself in written form. [811], Stalin was a keen and accomplished billiards player,[812] and collected watches. [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). [69] Stalin detested many of the Mensheviks in Georgia and aligned himself with the Bolsheviks. [846] Yakov had a daughter, Galina, before fighting for the Red Army in the Second World War. [848] They had two biological childrena son, Vasily, and a daughter, Svetlana, and adopted another son, Artyom Sergeev, in 1921. [7] His parents were Besarion Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze. [414] In September 1934, he launched a commission to investigate false imprisonments; that same month he called for the execution of workers at the Stalin Metallurgical Factory accused of spying for Japan. Ideologically adhering to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as MarxismLeninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism. Since the end of his life there has been speculation that a mental illness contributed to Stalin's brutishness. [835], Stalin was no womanizer. [588] Although Stalin publicly described the British and U.S. governments as aggressive, he thought it unlikely that a war with them would be imminent, believing that several decades of peace was likely. [238], The Soviet government sought to bring neighbouring states under its domination; in February 1921 it invaded the Menshevik-governed Georgia,[239] while in April 1921, Stalin ordered the Red Army into Turkestan to reassert Russian state control. [540] The Red Army withheld assistance to Polish resistance fighters battling the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, with Stalin believing that any victorious Polish militants could interfere with his aspirations to dominate Poland through a future Marxist government. (Library of Congress/Getty Images ) In 1943, when the Second World War had reached its most pitiless intensity, three of the world's most powerful menunlikely allies against the Axis onslaught . [597] In contrast to his approach to the Baltic states, he rejected the proposal of merging the new communist states into the Soviet Union, rather recognising them as independent nation-states. Stalin had nearly a million of his own citizens executed, beginning in the 1930s. [534] The Gulag system of forced labour camps was expanded further. [719], Ethnically Georgian,[720] Stalin grew up speaking the Georgian language,[721] and did not begin learning Russian until the age of eight or nine. [472] He increasingly focused on appeasement with the Germans to delay any conflict with them. [932] A number of Georgians resent criticism of Stalin, the most famous figure from their nation's modern history. [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. [8] He was their only child to survive past infancy. In 1929, his son Yakov unsuccessfully attempted suicide; his failure earned Stalin's contempt. To eradicate accused "enemies of the working class", Stalin instituted the Great Purge, in which over a million were imprisoned, largely in the Gulag system of forced labour camps, and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. [537] Roosevelt and Churchill conceded to Stalin's demand that Germany pay the Soviet Union 20billion dollars in reparations, and that his country be permitted to annexe Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in exchange for entering the war against Japan. [855] After the Second World War, he made little time for his children and his family played a decreasingly important role in his life. [115] He escaped to Saint Petersburg,[116] where he was arrested in September 1911 and sentenced to a further three-year exile in Vologda. In 1961, just eight years later, the Soviet government ordered Stalin's remains removed from the tomb. [940] There have also been requests by communist officials to canonize Stalin as an official saint, although these requests were never implemented the author referencing the church's suffering under Stalin's rule. [557] His armies controlled Central and Eastern Europe up to the River Elbe. [126] After two months, Stalin and Sverdlov escaped back to Saint Petersburg. "[921] In a 2017 interview, Putin added that while "we should not forget the horrors of Stalinism", the excessive demonization of "Stalin is a means to attack [the] Soviet Union and Russia". [356], Stalin desired a "cultural revolution",[357] entailing both creation of a culture for the "masses" and wider dissemination of previously elite culture. [639] Stalin nevertheless mistrusted his doctors; in January 1952 he had one imprisoned after they suggested that he should retire to improve his health. [500] He also permitted a wider range of cultural expression, notably permitting formerly suppressed writers and artists like Anna Akhmatova and Dmitri Shostakovich to disperse their work more widely. [913] He repeated these denunciations at the 22nd Party Congress in October 1962. Published April 3, 2022 Updated April 5, 2022 Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, after apparently suffering a stroke but some suspect that he was actually poisoned. [242] In taking this view, some Marxists accused him of bending too much to bourgeois nationalism, while others accused him of remaining too Russocentric by seeking to retain these nations within the Russian state. [646] [330] Famine broke out in many areas,[331] with the Politburo frequently ordering distribution of emergency food relief to these regions. There was a power struggle among the Soviet Communist Party elite to succeed Stalin after his death in 1953. [263] A compromise was reached, in which the federation would be renamed the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR). [725] According to Montefiore, despite Stalin's affinity for Russia and Russians, he remained profoundly Georgian in his lifestyle and personality. [692] The new state would then be able to ensure that all citizens had access to work, food, shelter, healthcare, and education, with the wastefulness of capitalism eliminated by a new, standardised economic system. [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. Video: Vladimir Lenin. [877] Various biographers have described him as a dictator,[878] an autocrat,[879] or accused him of practising Caesarism. [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. [825] Service cautioned that there was "no irrefutable evidence" of anti-Semitism in Stalin's published work, although his private statements and public actions were "undeniably reminiscent of crude antagonism towards Jews";[826] he added that throughout Stalin's lifetime, the Georgian "would be the friend, associate or leader of countless individual Jews". PM Modi's advice to BJP workers: 'Don't make anti-Muslim remarks' Views: 264. [934], Some positive sentiment can also be found elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. [585] While agricultural production stagnated, Stalin focused on a series of major infrastructure projects, including the construction of hydroelectric plants, canals, and railway lines running to the polar north. Georgy Malenkov was nominally the next leader after . [668] The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as the party's dominant figures. addressing the closing ceremony of the chennai international book fair that began on monday, stalin said the state government has allotted rs 3 crore as translation grants and rs 6 crore for. [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. [727] Service also noted that Stalin "would never be Russian", could not credibly pass as one, and never tried to pretend that he was. [247], After the civil war, workers' strikes and peasant uprisings broke out across Russia, largely in opposition to Sovnarkom's food requisitioning project; as an antidote, Lenin introduced market-oriented reforms: the New Economic Policy (NEP). Despite all that it is fair to say that Lenin was a successful leader without whom November revolution . At that point, the country was only about a decade old and was. In April 1932, Nikolai Shvernik, the head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, informed Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich that Soviet workers were rebelling against "starvation" rations implemented on the first of the month. [916], Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation process in Soviet society ended when he was replaced as leader by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964; the latter introduced a level of re-Stalinisation within the Soviet Union. See answer (1) Best Answer. For this reason, he retained the Leninist view that world revolution was still a necessity to ensure the ultimate victory of socialism. [883] According to Kotkin, Stalin "built a personal dictatorship within the Bolshevik dictatorship. Lenin was selected as the leader of the country and the party. Plans were made for the Soviet government to evacuate to Kuibyshev, although Stalin decided to remain in Moscow, believing his flight would damage troop morale. Firstly, the divisions within the party, made his task of eliminating people less complicated, he only had individuals, not groups of people against him. Smallpox as a child left him with lasting scars and a deformity. Stalin's choices of policies (NEP and socialism in one country) During the beginning of the struggle for power after Lenin died Stalin formed an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1923, this was purely to keep Trotsky out of power. [511] In February 1943, the German troops attacking Stalingrad surrendered. [893] During Stalin's lifetime, his approved biographies were largely hagiographic in content. [418] By the latter part of 1937, the purges had moved beyond the party and were affecting the wider population. These reasons build to why Stalin emerged as leader of the USSR by 1929. [588] In April 1949, the Western powers established the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), an international military alliance of capitalist countries. Shvernik did not offer details about the most serious episode of unrest-a wave . [458] In August 1939, the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Germany, a non-aggression pact negotiated by Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. [450] He sought to maintain Soviet neutrality, hoping that a German war against France and Britain would lead to Soviet dominance in Europe. 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