His father, Besarion Jughashvili was a shoemaker but was alcoholic too. He used to beat his wife and his son, Stalin after getting drunk. Stalin's mother, Ekaterine Geladze loved her son a lot. Frustrated by the actions of his husband, she left the home with his son.
Ekaterine, wanted to admit her son in a school. She worked as launderer and house cleaner at different places and finally admitted Stalin in Gori Church School. In school, he indulged in many fights but was very good in academics. When he was just 12, he was hit by a phaeton, which caused lifelong disability in his left arm.
Later, Stalin got admitted into Tbilisi Theological Seminary. There he got attracted towards communism. He learned about Marx and other left leaning revolutionaries. In 1899, he dropped out from his school and began his political career. In 1900, he actively participated in USSR revolutionary political activism. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (a Marxist party founded in 1898) in 1901. The party aimed to end the Czar regime. As a member of the party, he participated in many protests, labor demonstrations. For this reason, he went to the jail several times and also managed to escape few times.
In 1903, RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) divided into two fragments - Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin and Mensheviks, led by Julius Martov. Stalin aligned himself towards the Bolsheviks and even met Lenin in 1905 in London.
Georgia was heavily affected the revolution of 1905. In February 1905, ethnic violence broke out in Baku (present day capital of Azerbaijan) between Armenians and Azeris. Stalin was there in Baku at that time and around 2000 people died in this violence. Stalin established a Bolshevik Battle Squad, which tried to keep the ethnic groups apart. Later he formed Battle Squads which disarmed local police and troops. Along with Menshevik militia, they used to organize coordinated attacks on government troops and pro-Tsarist groups. They also indulged in robberies to raise funds for Bolsheviks.
In November 1907, his wife died of typhus, which came as a big shock for him. 'She softened my heart of stone. With her died my last warm feelings for humanity' were the words quoted by Stalin at her funeral. He left his son with her family in Tiflis.
1912, was a breakthrough year for Stalin's political career. Lenin and Grigory Zinoviev decided to co-opt Stalin in the first Bolshevik Central Committee. He was also secretly given the charge as editor of Bolshevik's daily Pravda (Truth).
Stalin was arrested and was sent to exile in remote part of Siberia 1913 for four years. While he was in exile, Russia entered the World War 1. In 1916, Stalin and other exiled Bolsheviks were conscripted into the army. Stalin was ruled out by the medical officer due to his crippled arm. Later, February Revolution took place in Petrograd (now, St. Petersburg) and a provisional government was formed.
The provisional government initiated the crackdown on Bolsheviks by raiding Pravda, as Stalin used to help in organizing July Days uprising (armed display of Bolshevik supporters). Stalin helped Lenin to escape from the office during the raid. In his absence Stalin continued writing for Pravda and served as the acting leader of Bolsheviks. Lenin then started calling for a coup against the Provisional government by the Bolsheviks. Stalin and senior leaders like Leon Trotsky supported the idea but some people disagreed with Lenin.
After Russian Revolution (1917-1923), Lenin was able to consolidate power over the Russian empire and he became the founding father of the first Communist State - Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Lenin took his last breath in 1914 and Stalin took the charge of the funeral and was one of its pallbearers. During the last days of Lenin, his relations with Stalin were not good. Lenin believed in the expansionist policy and wanted to spread the idea of communism further in Europe and Asia but Stalin was against it. He argued that it will encourage the feeling of independence among non-Russians. Lenin accused Stalin of "Great Russian Chauvinism" and Stalin accused Lenin of "National Liberalism". Their difference became personal when Lenin was angry upon Stalin because he was rude to his wife once over a call.
After the death of Lenin, there was a succession war as Lenin did not chose his successor. As per some historians, Lenin did not wanted Stalin to take over the leadership due to his differences with him. Lenin saw Leon Trotsky, hero of October revolution as his successor. Both Stalin and Trotsky were close associates of Lenin. Stalin and Trotsky both had different ideologies. Stalin's idea more or less deviated from Marxism and Trotsky's idea . Stalin was then the General Secretary of Central Committee of Bolshevik Party and had a huge influence inside the party. He was successful in uniting the party members against Trotsky and gradually succeeded in ousting him from the party. Trotsky was forced to leave Russia in 1929. By 1930, Stalin gained the full control of power. Trotsky was murdered in 1940 in Mexico by NKVD on orders of Stalin.
In 1928, Stalin introduced the first five year for excessive and accelerated industrialization. Due to shortage of food, Stalin initiated collectivization of agricultural sector. His government collected small land farms of farmers and converted them in extensively state controlled farms. These laws proved to be catastrophic for the farmers. When they revolted against it, Stalin bought his army to suppress the protests. Millions of farmers lost their lives in this operation. During 1930-33, around 6 million people died because of famine.
To end his enemies, Stalin started the Great Purge. During the great purge, Stalin became more aggressive. Before, he used to target his opponents, Trotskyites (follower of Trotsky) and wealthy peasants but now he started targeting friends, families and relatives of people who used to follow Lenin's ideology and people who were getting more popular than Stalin through NKVD.
NKVD was a secret police service of Soviet. They used to supervise labor camps and execute the masses. Sergey Kirov, popular party head of Leningrad was assassinated on 1 December 1934 as Stalin feared his increasing popularity. As per reports, over million of people were imprisoned and 700,000 were executed. He started putting his opposition and their relatives in Gulag camps. These were forced labor camps where millions of prisoners died due to extreme climate, unsanitary conditions, hard labor etc.
22 June 1941, Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded USSR. Nazi soldiers could not withstand the extreme climate of Moscow. Later, Soviets captured Berlin and Hitler was forced to do a suicide. Stalin became a hero for Russian after winning World War 2. People thought their fate will change, but they were wrong. Stalin continued his atrocities even after the war.
Stalin's health started deteriorating after the 2nd world war. He had a heart attack in October 1945. He spent his last days in Dacha in Kuntsevo, a suburb within Moscow. He used to meet Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin here for meal and used to discuss about country's situation. On 28 February 1953, after everyone dispersed, he went back to his room and asked his servants not to disturb him. Next morning, he was found lying on the floor. For next 3-4 days he received various medical treatments but he took hi last breath on 5 March 1953 at 9:50 p.m.
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Next on hitler plz
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