How long joseph stalin rule

Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party. He was arrested multiple times between and , and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia. Ekaterina perished from typhus when her son was an infant.

They had two children, a boy and a girl his only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva , caused an international scandal when she defected to the United States in Nadezhda committed suicide in her early 30s. Stalin also fathered several children out of wedlock.

Three years later, in November , the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. The Soviet Union was founded in , with Lenin as its first leader. During these years, Stalin had continued to move up the party ladder, and in he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party , a role that enabled him to appoint his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support. After Lenin died in , Stalin eventually outmaneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party.

By the late s, he had become dictator of the Soviet Union. Starting in the late s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. His development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms.

The forced collectivization also led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions. Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps. During the second half of the s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge , a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat.

Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life.

He was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem. He censored photographs in an attempt to rewrite history, removing former associates executed during his many purges. His government also controlled the Soviet media. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of Finland. Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.

Other people, however, saw them as victims of political hysteria. The Rosenbergs were executed in , yet several generations of historians have argued over their guilt or innocence.

Stalin's hard-line policies were met in kind by the West. Stalin's determination to expand Soviet power and influence created the climate for the Cold War. The United States practiced a policy of. In his later years, Stalin literally rewrote the Soviet history books, turning himself into a heroic, godlike figure. Those who opposed him were exiled to Siberian labor camps or executed.

Always suspicious of those around him, in he prepared to purge more party leaders. His plans were cut short, however, when he suffered a brain hemorrhage and died on March 5, , in Moscow. Stalin's methods were replicated by later Soviet leaders. The demise of European Communist regimes in the s and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the s signaled an end to Stalinism.

Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. New York: Oxford Univ. Mawdsley, Evan. Manchester, N. Communism ; Red Scare. The son of Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, and Ketevan Geladze, a washerwoman, Stalin was a frail child. At age 7, he contracted smallpox, leaving his face scarred. A few years later he was injured in a carriage accident which left arm slightly deformed some accounts state his arm trouble was a result of blood poisoning from the injury.

The other village children treated him cruelly, instilling in him a sense of inferiority. Because of this, Stalin began a quest for greatness and respect. He also developed a cruel streak for those who crossed him. Stalin's mother, a devout Russian Orthodox Christian , wanted him to become a priest. In , she managed to enroll him in church school in Gori.

Stalin did well in school, and his efforts gained him a scholarship to Tiflis Theological Seminary in A year later, Stalin came in contact with Messame Dassy, a secret organization that supported Georgian independence from Russia. Some of the members were socialists who introduced him to the writings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Stalin joined the group in Though he excelled in seminary school, Stalin left in Accounts differ as to the reason; official school records state he was unable to pay the tuition and withdrew.

It's also speculated he was asked to leave due to his political views challenging the tsarist regime of Nicholas II. Stalin chose not to return home, but stayed in Tiflis, devoting his time to the revolutionary movement. For a time, he found work as a tutor and later as a clerk at the Tiflis Observatory.

In , he joined the Social Democratic Labor Party and worked full-time for the revolutionary movement. In , he was arrested for coordinating a labor strike and exiled to Siberia, the first of his many arrests and exiles in the fledgling years of the Russian Revolution. It was during this time that he adopted the name Stalin, meaning "steel" in Russian.

Though never a strong orator like Vladimir Lenin or an intellectual like Leon Trotsky , Stalin excelled in the mundane operations of the revolution, calling meetings, publishing leaflets and organizing strikes and demonstrations. After escaping from exile, he was marked by the Okhranka, the tsar's secret police as an outlaw and continued his work in hiding, raising money through robberies, kidnappings and extortion.

In February , the Russian Revolution began. By March, the tsar had abdicated the throne and was placed under house arrest. For a time, the revolutionaries supported a provisional government, believing a smooth transition of power was possible. But in April , Bolshevik leader Lenin denounced the provisional government, arguing that the people should rise up and take control by seizing land from the rich and factories from the industrialists.

By October, the revolution was complete and the Bolsheviks were in control. The fledgling Soviet government went through a violent period after the revolution as various individuals vied for position and control.

In , Stalin was appointed to the newly created office of general secretary of the Communist Party. Though not a significant post at the time, it gave Stalin control over all party member appointments, which allowed him to build his base. He made shrewd appointments and consolidated his power so that eventually nearly all members of the central command owed their position to him.

By the time anyone realized what he had done, it was too late. Even Lenin, who was gravely ill, was helpless to regain control from Stalin. After Lenin's death, in , Stalin set out to destroy the old party leadership and take total control.

At first, he had people removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations. However, further paranoia set in and Stalin soon conducted a vast reign of terror, having people arrested in the night and put before spectacular show trials.