Vissarion Stalin. Ambitions on a national scale. Education. Entry into revolutionary activity

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili)

The biography of Dzhugashvili - Koba - Stalin, a political long-liver of the 20th century, contains an uncountable number of contradictory characteristics: yes, cruel, but also a dear father; the leader of the Communist Party, but at the end of his reign he practically removed the party bureaucracy from power; The "Leninist Guard" was dispersed, imprisoned, shot - a monster. And at the same time, he did the right thing by executing this very “Leninist guard”, which consisted mainly of people who were deeply non-Russian (and opposed to everything Russian), and essentially dealt with those responsible for the deaths of two or three tens of millions (!) of the best Russian people .

In January 1905, the young revolutionary Soso Dzhugashvili published an article in the newspaper Proletariatis Brdzola, “The Proletarian Class and the Party of Proletarians,” in which he wrote: “The time has passed when they boldly proclaimed: “united and indivisible Russia”. Now even a child knows that “united and indivisible” Russia does not exist, that it was divided long ago...” And this at a time when Russian soldiers are shedding blood on the battlefields in the Far East. So he was a traitor, a subversive element?

But here Joseph Stalin in the 30s, already the ruler of a huge “single and indivisible” power - the Soviet Union - listens to records with songs from the times of the Russian-Japanese War. He puts on the gramophone a record with the song “On the Hills of Manchuria” with the still old words:

The crosses of distant, beautiful heroes turn white
And the shadows of the past swirl around,
They tell us about the sacrifices in vain.

And in deep thought, he moved the needle of the gramophone several times in the words:

But believe me, we will avenge you
And we will celebrate a bloody funeral.

And so in 1945, Stalin and the Red Army came there and avenged those who fell in 1905...

You won’t understand right away whether he was a genius or a villain. This means there is no need to judge right away. Read his speeches and speeches, read his memoirs. CHRONOS has it all: here it is Nikita Sergeevich praises the leader, and then with the same fanatical conviction denigrates him. What am I going to tell you?! I am sure you will understand for yourself why Russia’s enemies of all times find themselves among Stalin’s irreconcilable critics.

Joseph Dzhugashvili in 1902

Started from theological school

Stalin (1878-1953), politician, Hero of Socialist Labor ( 1939 ), Hero of the Soviet Union ( 1945 ), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). From a shoemaker's family. After graduating from the Gori Theological School (1894), he studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary (expelled in 1899). In 1898 he joined the Georgian Social Democratic organization Mesame Dasi. In 1902-1913 he was arrested and exiled six times, and escaped from places of exile four times. After 1903 he joined the Bolsheviks. IN 1906-1907 For years he led expropriations in Transcaucasia. IN 1907 one of the organizers and leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. A zealous supporter of V.I. Lenin, on whose initiative 1912 year co-opted into the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In 1917, he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Pravda, a member of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Military Revolutionary Center. In 1917-1922, People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs, at the same time 1919-1922 years People's Commissar of State Control, RKI, since 1918 member of the RVSR. In 1922-1953, General Secretary of the Party Central Committee.

Since 1941, Stalin has held the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (CM) of the USSR, during the war years - Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar of Defense, Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In 1946 - 1947, Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. During the war he went to create an anti-Hitler coalition with England and the USA; after the end of the war did not prevent the emergence of the Cold War. On 20th Congress CPSU ( 1956 ) N. S. Khrushchev sharply criticized the so-called personality cult of Stalin.

Member of the Constituent Assembly

Dzhugashvili-Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (12/6/1878, Gori - 03/5/1953, Moscow). Petrograd metropolitan area. No. 4 - Bolsheviks.

Petrograd. From the peasants, the son of a shoemaker. He studied at a theological seminary and was expelled. Member of the RSDLP since 1899, Bolshevik. Delegate to the IV and V Congresses of the RSDLP. He was sent to the Irkutsk and Vologda provinces, to the Narym region. In 1917 he returned from Siberian exile. Member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), editor of Pravda, delegate to the VI Congress of the RSDLP. Member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of the RSD, All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Delegate to the I and II All-Russian Congresses of the RSD Councils. Member of the bureau of the Bolshevik fraction of the US, participant in the meeting on January 5. People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs (November 1917 - 1923), General Secretary of the CPSU (b), long-term dictator of the country.

Istoyanik: Political parties of Russia. The end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Encyclopedia. M., 1996.

Materials from the book were used. L.G. Protasov. People of the Constituent Assembly: a portrait in the interior of the era. M., ROSPEN, 2008.

Other biographical materials:

Boris Bazhanov, Memoirs of Stalin's Secretary, Chapter 9 - Stalin. Character. Qualities and disadvantages. Career. Immorality. Attitude towards employees and me. Nadya Alliluyeva. Yashka.

Essays:

Essays , t. 3, 1917, March - October, M. 1946;

On the way to October, M. 1925:

On the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry during the preparation of October. Answer to S. Pokrovsky, in his book: Questions of Leninism, 4th ed., M. 1928.

Literature:

I.V. Stalin. Brief biography, M, 1947.

Antonov-Ovseenko A., Stalin without a mask, M. 1990.

Beladi L., Kraus T., Stalin, M., 1990

Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. M., 1990. T. 2.

Zalessky K.A. Stalin's Empire. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000.

Medvedev R.A. About Stalin and Stalinism: Historical essays. M., 1990.

Mukhin Yu.I. The murder of Stalin and Beria.

Slusser R., Stalin in 1917. The man who remained outside the revolution, M. 1989.

Tucker R. Stalin. The path to power. 1879 - 1929. History and personality. M., 1990.

Trotsky L.D. Stalin, vol. 1-2, M. 1990.

Simonov Konstantin. Through the eyes of a man of my generation. Reflections on J.V. Stalin. M 1989.

Miliukov P. N. Stalin // Modern Notes. 1935. No. 59;

Fedotov G. Stalinocracy // Ibid. 1936. No. 60;

Gak G. M. Comrade Stalin’s work “On dialectical and historical materialism.” M., 1945;

Questions of dialectical and historical materialism in the work of I. V. Stalin “Marxism and questions of linguistics.” M., 1952. T. 1-2;

Kvasov G. G. Documentary source about I. V. Stalin’s assessment of the group of academician A. M. Deborin (text and commentary) // Domestic philosophy: experience, problems, research guidelines. M., 1992. Issue. 10. pp. 188-197;

Souvarine V. Staline. Aperfu historique du bolchevisme P., 1935;

Deutscher I. Stalin. A Political Biography. L., 1977;

Fischer L. The Life and Death of Stalin. Londres, 1953;

Marie J. J. Staline. P., 1967; UlamA. B. Stalin. N.Y., 1973.

Who ruled for 29 years.

Stalin carried out many reforms, boosted the economy and transformed the country in record time after the total devastation of World War II.

Under his rule, the Soviet Union emerged as a nuclear-armed superpower.

So, we present to your attention a biography of Joseph Stalin.

Biography of Stalin

During Soviet times, tons of books were written about Stalin. Today, interest in it still has not cooled down, since it plays one of the most important roles for the world of the 20th century.

In this article we will tell you about the key events in Stalin's biography that made him one of the most famous politicians in the history of mankind.

Childhood

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) was born on December 9, 1879 in the Georgian city of Gori. He grew up in a poor, lower-class family.

His father, Vissarion, worked as a shoemaker and was a very despotic man.

Drunk to the point of unconsciousness, he brutally beat his wife, and sometimes even Joseph himself.

There was an episode in Stalin’s biography when he had to throw a knife at his father in order to protect himself and his mother from beatings.

According to local residents, one day his father beat little Joseph so badly that he almost broke his head.

Stalin's mother, Ekaterina Georgievna, came from a serf family and was poorly educated.

From a young age she had to earn a living through hard work.

Despite the fact that she also often beat her son, she, at the same time, loved him to death and protected him from all everyday worries.

Stalin's appearance

Joseph Dzhugashvili had various physical defects. He had fused second and third toes on his left foot, and his face was covered in pockmarks.

When he was 6 years old, he was hit by the wheels of a phaeton (an open-body car), as a result of which he seriously injured his arms and legs.

Throughout his life, Stalin's left arm was not fully extended. In the future, due to these injuries, he will be declared unfit for military service.

Education

An interesting fact is that until the age of 8, Stalin did not know at all. Years of biography 1886-1888, Joseph, at the request of his mother, was taught Russian by the children of a local priest.

After that, he studied at the Gori Theological School, which he graduated in 1894. Then his mother sent him to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, because she really wanted her son to become a priest.

However, this never happened. It is interesting that it was in the seminary that Joseph first heard about Marxism.

The 15-year-old teenager was so captivated by the new political movement that he began to seriously engage in revolutionary activities. On May 29, 1899, in his fifth year of study, Stalin was expelled from the seminary “for failure to appear for exams for an unknown reason.”

In 1931, in an interview with the German writer Emil Ludwig, when asked “What prompted you to be an oppositionist?” Possibly mistreatment from parents? Stalin replied:

"No. My parents treated me quite well. Another thing is the theological seminary where I studied then. Out of protest against the mocking regime and the Jesuit methods that existed in the seminary, I was ready to become and actually became a revolutionary, a supporter of Marxism...”

Literally immediately after being expelled from the seminary, the young man decides to join the social democratic movement “Mesame Dasi”.

This led to him becoming a professional revolutionary in 1901.

Stalin's name

In the same year, Dzhugashvili took the pseudonym “Stalin”, under which he would go down in history. Why he took this particular pseudonym for himself is not known for certain.

Stalin Koba

Stalin's party friends gave him the nickname "Koba", which greatly flattered the young revolutionary.

Koba is a famous character in the adventure story of the Georgian writer Alexander Kazbegi. Koba was an honest robber fighting for justice.

Revolutionary activities

The period of Stalin's biography of 1902-1913 was full of various events. He was arrested 6 times and sent into exile, from which he made successful escapes several times.

After a split occurred in the party into “Mensheviks” and “Bolsheviks” in 1903, Stalin supported the latter. This choice was made largely because Stalin, whom Stalin admired, was on the side of the Bolsheviks.

At the direction of Lenin, Koba managed to create quite a lot of underground Marxist circles in the Caucasus.

Since 1906, Stalin was a participant and organizer of various expropriations (deprivation of property). All the stolen money was intended for the needs of the party and to finance the underground activities of the revolutionaries.

In 1907, Stalin became one of the leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. Since he was a very literate and well-read person, he also participated in the creation of the newspapers Zvezda and Pravda.

In 1913, Dzhugashvili wrote an article “Marxism and the National Question,” which received good reviews from his comrades.

In the same year, he was arrested and sent into famous exile in the Turukhansk region.

October Revolution of 1917

In the spring of 1917, Stalin was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RSDR, and was also part of the Military Revolutionary Center for the leadership of the armed uprising.

In this regard, he took an active part in the preparation of the coup d'etat.

The party was pleased with his actions, since he coped with any tasks that were entrusted to him, and was absolutely devoted to the ideas of the Bolsheviks.

From the beginning of the Civil War until its end, Stalin held many responsible positions.

According to the recollections of his contemporaries, no matter what he did, he managed to do his job perfectly.

Party work

In 1922, a most important event took place in Stalin’s biography. He becomes the first Secretary General of the Central Committee. It should be noted that initially this position implied only the leadership of the party apparatus.

However, over time, it was turned by Stalin into a post with greater powers. The uniqueness of the position was that it was the Secretary General who had the right to appoint grassroots party leaders.

Thanks to this, the insightful and cautious Stalin selected the most devoted people for himself. In the future, this will help him create and lead a vertical of power.

Power struggle

In 1924, after Lenin's death, many communists from the Central Committee wanted to take his place. Dzhugashvili was among them. Wanting to become the new leader, he proclaimed a course toward “building socialism.”

In order for fellow party members to support this idea, he often quoted Lenin, emphasizing his commitment to socialism.

Stalin's main opponent in the struggle for power was Trotsky. However, he managed to beat him. The majority of party members voted for Stalin's candidacy.

As a result of this, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin became the first person in the country, and almost single-handedly ruled it from 1924 to 1953, until his death.

First of all, he focused his attention on the industrialization of the country and forced collectivization, which was canceled only in the spring of 1930.

In addition, he did everything possible to get rid of the kulaks. During the years of Stalin's rule, millions of people were evicted or sent into exile.

In the future, collectivization led to a wave of protests among peasants. Riots broke out in one place after another, many of which were suppressed by force of arms.

Father of Nations

In the mid-30s, Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet people. Former party leaders such as Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others were subject to repression because they took an anti-Stalinist position.

Researchers claim that the biographical period of 1937-1938 was the bloodiest in the entire history of Stalin's reign.

In a short period of time, millions of Soviet citizens of very different social status were repressed. Even more people ended up in labor camps.

At the same time, the cult of the leader’s personality began to actively develop. Stalin was called nothing less than the “father of nations.”

The Great Patriotic War

Joseph Stalin represented his country at negotiations with allied countries in Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945).

As a result of the bloodiest war in history, the losses of military personnel and civilians amounted to more than 26 million Soviet people.

The Soviet army made the greatest contribution to the victory over the Nazis, becoming the main victorious country. It was the soldiers of the USSR who liberated most of the European countries.

It is important to note that immediately after the war this fact could not be denied or disputed, so the Allies, at least verbally, expressed gratitude to the USSR.

However, today, unfortunately, the history of the Second World War is being actively rewritten.

Post-war years

In the post-war years, much changed in Stalin's biography. After all, he was the main country that defeated world evil.

In this regard, the “father of nations” wanted to create a world socialist system, which ran counter to the interests of Western countries.

As a result of this and other factors, the Cold War began, which affected politics, economics, military power of countries, etc. The main confrontation took place between the USSR and the USA.

On June 27, 1945, Joseph Stalin was awarded the title of Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. A year later, he was approved as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

After the end of the war, totalitarianism resumed again in the Soviet Union. The autocratic regime did not allow people to have their own point of view, and freedom of speech was strictly controlled by official censorship.

By order of the leadership, constant purges were carried out affecting both the state apparatus and ordinary people. At the same time, anti-Semitic sentiments began to appear in society.

Achievements

At the same time, despite the fact that Stalin’s biography has many dark spots, it is fair to note his achievements.

During the reign of the “Father of Nations,” by the end of the 40s, industry developed so quickly that by 1950 it exceeded its indicators by 100% compared to 1940.

An interesting fact is that in 2009 he said that under Stalin’s leadership the country “transformed from agrarian to industrial,” which is simply impossible to argue with.

In addition, the leader attached great importance to increasing the military power of the USSR. He was also the initiator of the “atomic project”, thanks to which the Soviet Union became a superpower.

Personal life

Stalin's first wife was Ekaterina Svanidze, whom he married in 1906. In this marriage they had a son, Yakov.

However, the following year Catherine died of typhus. For Stalin, this was a real tragedy from which he could not recover for a long time.

Stalin's second wife is Nadezhda Alliluyeva. She gave birth to the leader two children: Vasily and Svetlana.

Death of Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died on March 5, 1953 at the age of 74. There are still heated discussions regarding the causes of his death.

According to the official version, he died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. After his death, the leader’s body was exhibited in the Moscow House of Unions so that people could say goodbye to him.

After this, his body was embalmed and placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin.

However, in 1961, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, party members decided that Stalin’s coffin could not be in the Mausoleum, since he “seriously violated Lenin’s covenants.”

Stalin's biography has caused a lot of controversy over the years. Some consider him “the devil in the flesh,” while others say that he was one of the best rulers of Russia, and even the world.

Today, many documents have been declassified that allow us to better understand the character and actions of the Soviet leader.

Based on this, everyone is able to independently draw conclusions about who Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili-Stalin really was.

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Joseph Stalin is an outstanding revolutionary politician in the history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, whose activities were marked by mass repressions, which are still considered a crime against humanity today. The personality and activities of Stalin in modern society are still loudly discussed - some consider him a great ruler who led the country to victory in the Great Patriotic War, others accuse him of genocide of the people and the Holodomor, terror and violence against people.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (real name Dzhugashvili) was born on December 21, 1879 in the Georgian town of Gori in a family belonging to the lower class. He was the third but only surviving child in the family - his older brother and sister died in infancy. Soso, as the mother of the future ruler of the USSR called him, was not born a completely healthy child; he had congenital defects of the limbs (he had two toes fused on his left foot), and also had damaged skin on his face and back. At the age of seven, Stalin had an accident - he was hit by a phaeton, as a result of which the functioning of his left hand was impaired.

In addition to congenital and acquired injuries, the future revolutionary was repeatedly beaten by Father Vissarion, which once led to a serious head injury and over the years affected Stalin’s psycho-emotional state. Joseph Vissarionovich's mother, Ekaterina Georgievna, surrounded her son with immeasurable care and guardianship, wanting to compensate the boy for the missing love of his father. Exhausted from difficult work, in order to earn as much money as possible to raise her son, the woman tried with all her might to raise a worthy man, who, in her opinion, should have become a priest. But her hopes were not crowned with success - Stalin grew up as a street darling and spent most of his time not in church, but in the company of local hooligans.

At the same time, in 1888, Joseph Vissarionovich became a student at the Gori Orthodox School, and upon graduation he entered the Tiflis Theological Seminary. It was within the walls of the seminary that he became acquainted with Marxism and joined the ranks of underground revolutionaries. At the seminary, the future ruler of the Soviet Union proved himself to be a gifted and talented student, as he was easily given all subjects without exception. At the same time, he became the leader of an illegal circle of Marxists, in which he was actively involved in propaganda activities.

Stalin failed to graduate from the seminary, as he was expelled from the educational institution right before the exams for absenteeism. After this, Joseph Vissarionovich was issued a certificate allowing him to become a teacher in primary schools. At first he made his living as a tutor, and then got a job at the Tiflis Physical Observatory as a computer-observer.

Path to power

Stalin's revolutionary activities started in the early 1900s - the future ruler of the USSR was then engaged in active propaganda, thereby strengthening his position in society. Then he meets the head of the Soviet government and other famous revolutionaries. The path to power of Joseph Vissarionovich was filled with repeated exiles and imprisonments, from which he always managed to escape. In 1912, he finally decided to change his surname Dzhugashvili to the pseudonym “Stalin”.

During the same period, he became editor-in-chief of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, where his colleague was Vladimir Lenin, who saw Stalin as his assistant in resolving Bolshevik and revolutionary issues, as a result of which Joseph Vissarionovich became his right hand.

In 1917, for special merits, Lenin appointed Stalin People's Commissar for Nationalities in the Council of People's Commissars. The next stage of the career of the future ruler of the USSR is associated with the Civil War, in which the revolutionary showed all his professionalism and leadership qualities. At the end of the war, when Lenin was already mortally ill, Stalin completely ruled the country, while destroying all opponents and contenders for the post of chairman of the government of the Soviet Union in his path.

In 1930, all power was concentrated in the hands of Stalin, and therefore enormous upheavals and restructuring began in the USSR. This period was marked by the beginning of mass repressions and collectivization, when the entire rural population of the country was herded into collective farms and starved to death. The new leader of the Soviet Union sold all the food taken from the peasants abroad, and with the proceeds he developed the industry, building industrial enterprises. Thus, he quickly made the USSR the second country in the world in terms of industrial production, although at the cost of millions of lives of peasants who died of hunger.

Head of the USSR

By 1940, Joseph Stalin became the sole ruler-dictator of the USSR. He was a strong leader of the country, had an extraordinary capacity for work, and at the same time knew how to direct people to solve problems that were important to him. A characteristic feature of Stalin was his ability to make immediate decisions on any issues under discussion and find time to control absolutely all processes taking place in the country.

The achievements of Joseph Stalin, despite his harsh methods of ruling the country, are still highly valued by historical experts. Thanks to him, the USSR deservedly won the Great Patriotic War, agriculture was actively mechanized in the country, industrialization took place, as a result of which the USSR turned into a nuclear superpower with colossal geopolitical influence throughout the world.

Along with undeniable achievements, Stalin's reign is characterized by a lot of negative aspects, which even now cause horror in society. Stalinist repressions, dictatorship, terror, violence - all these are key characteristic features of the reign of Joseph Stalin. He is also accused of suppressing entire scientific areas of the country, accompanied by persecution of doctors and engineers, which caused disproportionate harm to the development of domestic culture and science.

Stalin's policies are still loudly condemned throughout the world. The ruler of the USSR is accused of mass famine and the death of people who became victims of Stalinism and Nazism. At the same time, in many cities, Joseph Vissarionovich is posthumously considered an honorary citizen and an outstanding warrior, and many Soviet people still respect the dictator-ruler, calling him a great leader.

Personal life

The personal life of Joseph Stalin has few confirmed facts today. The dictator leader carefully destroyed all evidence of his family life and love relationships, so historians were only able to slightly restore the chronology of events.

It is known that Stalin first married in 1906 to Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to his first child, Yakov. After a year of family life, Stalin's wife died of typhus. After this, the stern revolutionary completely devoted himself to serving the country and only 14 years later he again decided to marry Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who was 23 years younger than him.

The second wife of Joseph Vissarionovich gave birth to a son and took upon herself the upbringing of Stalin’s first-born son, who until that moment lived with his maternal grandmother. In 1925, a daughter was born into Stalin's family.

In 1932, Stalin's children were orphaned, and he became a widower for the second time. His wife Nadezhda committed suicide amid a conflict with her husband. After this, Stalin never married again.

Death

Joseph Stalin's death occurred on March 5, 1953. According to the official version of doctors, the ruler of the USSR died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. After an autopsy, it was determined that he had suffered several ischemic strokes on his legs during his life, which led to serious heart problems and mental disorders.

Stalin's embalmed body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin, but 8 years later at the CPSU Congress it was decided to rebury the revolutionary in a grave near the Kremlin wall.

There are versions that Stalin’s ill-wishers were involved in Stalin’s death, considering the policies of the leader of the revolutionaries unacceptable. Almost all historical researchers are confident that the ruler’s “comrades-in-arms” deliberately did not allow doctors to approach him, who could put Stalin back on his feet and prevent the revolutionary’s death.

Biography and episodes of life Joseph Stalin. When born and died Stalin, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Politician Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Joseph Stalin:

born December 21, 1879, died March 5, 1953

Epitaph

"In this hour of greatest sorrow
I won't find those words
So that they fully express
Our nationwide misfortune."
Alexander Tvardovsky on the death of Stalin

Biography

Joseph Stalin remains to this day one of the strongest and most controversial rulers of the 20th century. The entire biography of Joseph Stalin is shrouded in many theories, interpretations and opinions. It is difficult, years later, to say with certainty whether he was the “father of the Soviet people” or a dictator, a Moloch or a savior. Nevertheless, the significance of Stalin’s personality in the history of the USSR and Russia cannot be denied.

He was born in Gori in 1879 into a poor family. Joseph's father was a shoemaker, and his mother was the daughter of a serf. According to the stories of Stalin himself, the father often beat his son and wife, and then completely went on the street, leaving the family in poverty. At the age of seven, Joseph entered the theological school in Gori - his mother saw in him a future priest. Having graduated with honors, he brilliantly passed the entrance exams to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, but was expelled five years later for promoting Marxism. Stalin later admitted that he became a revolutionary and supporter of Marxism out of protest against the regime of the theological seminary in which he studied.

During his life, Stalin was married several times - Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to Joseph's son Yakov, died of tuberculosis after three years of marriage. Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who gave birth to Stalin's two children, Svetlana and Vasily, committed suicide after thirteen years of marriage, when the couple were already living in a Kremlin apartment. Stalin’s illegitimate son, Konstantin Kuzakov, was born in Turukhansk exile, but Joseph did not maintain a relationship with him.

After expulsion from the seminary, Stalin's political biography began - he entered the Social Democratic organization of Georgia, arrests, exiles and escapes from these exiles began. In 1903, Joseph joined the Bolsheviks - and his path to the post of head of state began; a few years later he was elected general secretary of the party's Central Committee. After Lenin's death, Stalin was able to retain power, despite Vladimir Ilyich's “Letter to the Congress” written in 1922, where he criticizes Joseph and proposes to remove him from office. Thus began the era of Stalin’s reign, an ambiguous time filled with victories and tragedies. During the years of Stalin, the USSR turned into a world power, won the Great Patriotic War, and a breakthrough was made in national economic development and in the military-industrial complex. But all these successes during the years of Stalin’s rule were accompanied by large-scale repressions, deportation of peoples, famine as a consequence of collectivization and, finally, the cult of Stalin’s personality, according to which the people had to believe that all the merits of the country were the merits of its ruler alone. Busts and monuments to Stalin were erected throughout the country, becoming a symbol of that time in the USSR.

In the post-war years, Comrade Stalin lived in his official residence - in the Near Dacha. On March 1, Stalin’s guard found him lying on the floor; doctors who arrived at Stalin’s dacha the next morning diagnosed him with paralysis. Stalin's death occurred on the evening of March 5. The cause of Stalin's death was a cerebral hemorrhage. The death of Joseph Stalin is still shrouded in a halo of mystery and possible conspiracies - so, according to one version, Beria, as well as Stalin’s associates who were in no hurry to call doctors, could have contributed to Stalin’s murder. Stalin's funeral took place on March 9. So many people wanted to say goodbye to the “father of the people” and honor the memory of Stalin that there was a crush. The number of victims numbered in the thousands. Stalin's body was placed in the Lenin Mausoleum. Years later, it was reburied, and now Stalin’s grave is located near the Kremlin wall. After the death of Stalin, the so-called thaw period began, the new leadership of the country decided to move away from the “Stalinist model” and follow the path of liberalization, however, this period in the history of the country was not without contradictions and excesses.

Joseph Stalin in his youth

Life line

December 21, 1979 Date of birth of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili).
1894 Graduation from the Gori Theological School.
1898 Member of the RCP(b).
1902 First arrest, exile to Eastern Siberia.
1917-1922 Work as People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs as part of the first Soviet government.
1922 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1939 Receiving the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
August 23, 1939 Signing of a non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany.
May 1941 Chairman of the Government of the USSR.
June 30, 1941 Chairman of the State Defense Committee.
August 1941 Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
1943 Receiving the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
1945 Receiving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
March 2, 1953 Paralysis.
March 5, 1953 Date of death of Joseph Stalin.
March 6, 1953 Farewell to Stalin in the House of Unions.
March 9, 1953 Funeral of Joseph Stalin.
November 1, 1961 Reburial of Stalin's body near the Kremlin wall.

Memorable places

1. Stalin Museum in Gori, in front of which is Stalin’s house, where he lived as a child.
2. House-monument to political exiles in Solvychegodsk, located in Stalin’s house, where he served his exile in 1908-1910.
3. Museum “Vologda exile” in Stalin’s house, where he served exile in 1911-1912.
4. Museum "Stalin's Bunker".
5. Near Dacha, or Kuntsevskaya Dacha, where Stalin died.
6. House of Unions, where Stalin’s body was laid out for farewell.
7. Lenin Mausoleum, where Stalin was buried.
8. The Kremlin wall, where Stalin is buried (reburied).

Episodes of life

Stalin's son from his first marriage, Yakov, was captured by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War. According to one version, when the Germans offered to exchange the leader’s son for their field marshal Paulus, Joseph Stalin replied: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.” According to another, he took Yakov’s captivity very hard and even blamed his wife Julia for the fact that his son was captured. Yulia spent two years in prison on charges of passing information to the Germans. In 1943, Yakov was shot and killed while trying to escape from a German concentration camp.

According to the stories of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, the day before her mother Nadezhda’s suicide, her parents had a little quarrel - and the quarrel was minor, but apparently served as a trigger for her mother’s action. Nadezhda locked herself in her room and shot herself in the heart with a pistol. Stalin was shocked because he did not understand why? He perceived his wife’s action as a desire to punish him for something and did not understand why. In the first days after his wife's death, he was so depressed that he even said that he did not want to live. Stalin's daughter claims that her mother left her father a letter that was full of not only personal, but also political reproaches, which shocked Stalin even more. After reading it, he decided that all this time his wife had been on the side of the opposition, and not at one with him.

In 1936, information appeared abroad that Stalin had died. A correspondent for an American news agency sent a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin, asking him to refute or confirm the rumors. A few days later he received a response from the Soviet leader with the words: “Dear Sir! As far as I know from reports in the foreign press, I have long since left this sinful world and moved to the next world. Since it is impossible not to trust the reports of the foreign press, if you do not want to be erased from the list of civilized people, then I ask you to believe these reports and not disturb my peace in the silence of the other world. Sincerely, Joseph Stalin."

Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin

Covenant

“When I die, a lot of rubbish will be placed on my grave, but the wind of time will mercilessly sweep it away.”

Documentary story from the series “Soviet Biographies” about Joseph Stalin

Condolences

“It is difficult to express in words the feeling of great sorrow that our party and the people of our country, all progressive humanity, are experiencing these days. Stalin, the great comrade-in-arms and brilliant successor of Lenin’s work, passed away. The person closest and dearest to all Soviet people, to millions of working people around the world, has left us.”
Lavrenty Beria, Soviet politician

“In these difficult days, the deep sorrow of the Soviet people is shared by all advanced and progressive humanity. The name of Stalin is immensely dear to the Soviet people, to the broadest masses of people in all parts of the world.”
Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician

“These days we are all experiencing severe grief - the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the loss of a great leader and, at the same time, a close, dear, infinitely dear person. And we, his old and close friends, and millions and millions, like the working people of all countries, all over the world, say goodbye today to Comrade Stalin, whom we all loved so much and who will always live in our hearts.”
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician

Joseph Stalin remains one of the most controversial figures in history to this day. The head of the largest state in the world, the leader of the people who defeated fascism, a tyrant who held everyone in fear until his death, inspiring involuntary awe not only in his subjects and subordinates, but also in his closest associates. Throughout his life, he fully and completely justified the meaning of his pseudonym, while Stalin’s real name, of course, was not distinguished by the same euphony.

Passion by nickname

The active use of pseudonyms (literally, “false names”) began at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, in Russia the need to resort to fictitious names appeared somewhat earlier - with the emergence of socio-political literature in the 40-60s of the century before last. Strict censorship in Tsarist Russia encouraged such tricks. In addition, there were many eminent persons who really wanted to speak out about current political events and decisions and remain incognito.

With the emergence of a clear social bias in the political scheme, which, of course, did not fit into the monarchical system, various methods of conspiracy were sought. In this regard, pseudonyms were used as party nicknames. And there were, as a rule, a lot of them. The most common Russian names were taken as the basis for such nicknames. This is how the name “Lenin” arose - from the female name Lena. One of Stalin's pseudonyms was "Ivanov".

Good choice

Almost all residents of Russia know what Stalin’s real name is thanks to him, as well as Lenin’s real name. This is due to the fact that they were the only major figures in the country who, after the revolution, retained the double spelling in their signatures: V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin and I.V. Dzhugashvili-Stalin. And their fictitious names, nevertheless, are firmly entrenched in history, which, of course, speaks of a successful choice of pseudonyms.

Meanwhile, according to various sources, Stalin had many different party nicknames and names. Some sources claim that there were at least thirty of them - written, printed and oral. It is noted that this is an incomplete list. It is not possible to calculate the exact number, since his official biography, as well as his autobiography, has many dark spots. Although this number cannot be compared with the variety of nicknames that Lenin had - a total of 146, of which 129 were Russian and seventeen foreign.

Koba in the revolution

The information that Stalin's real name was Dzhugashvili was never hidden. The leader knew how to competently manipulate the feelings of the people, pretending to be a “simple” native of them and slightly lifting the veil of his life. The masses paid tribute to him and never called him anything other than “Comrade Stalin.” However, this euphonious name appeared much later. He entered revolutionary history with a different name. Only his closest associates, with whom he began political activities, and many of whom he destroyed during the years of repression, continued to call him this way even after his “entrance to the throne.”

This name was the pseudonym "Koba". According to open sources, this was his first permanent pseudonym. It is worth noting that researchers and biographers of Stalin, having analyzed all the party nicknames and pseudonyms of the Soviet leader known to them, came to the conclusion that the letters he most used when choosing his name were “K” and “S”. They were the ones he mostly beat.

According to official information, the pseudonym “Koba” was established after the escape from Kutaisi prison in the summer of 1903. It was under this name that he became known among participants in the revolutionary movement of Transcaucasia from the beginning of 1904. Researchers are convinced that Stalin, whose real name and surname were of Georgian origin, gravitated towards his pseudonym precisely because of the rather difficult to read meaning, especially outside the Caucasus. It is noted that the name has two hypostases: Church Slavonic and national. In the first case, this word means “magic”. In the second, this is a Georgian interpretation of the name of the king of Persia, Kobadesa, who occupies a prominent place in the history of the small southern country during the early Middle Ages.

Allusions to medieval Georgia

Stalin's real surname, of course, had a powerful Georgian sound, but to informed people, the first permanent pseudonym could indicate the serious ambitions of the future leader. It is known that Kobadesa not only conquered eastern Georgia and contributed to the transfer of the capital from Mtskheta to Tbilisi. Among his contemporaries he gained fame as a great wizard. According to the official version, magicians who were part of the “early communist” sect helped him seize the throne. They advocated precisely for an equal division of everything between everyone. After being installed on the throne, the communist tsar brought his sectarian associates closer to the administration. This decision did not find approval among the ruling elite; they formed a conspiracy and overthrew him from the throne. However, the king, who was thrown into prison, was helped to escape by a woman, and he returned to the throne again.

The coincidences in the biography are more than obvious. Stalin probably saw something mystical in this intertwining of destinies. Moreover, there were further coincidences in the future, much later after he abandoned this pseudonym. Another reflection of the fate of the mystic king appeared in the late 30s, when Stalin carried out reprisals against all his associates in establishing the socialist regime - exactly what the king of Kobades did.

Ambitions on a national scale

The real name of Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich, was too telling. This did not fit into the plans of the fugitive revolutionary, who clearly cherished thoughts of power that was much greater than regional. With the surname Dzhugashvili, he could hardly count on popular love: the basis of the people was still the Russians, on whom Stalin decided to rely.

After the third escape, returning to Moscow in 1912, Stalin finally decided to join the ranks of the curators of the workers’ and peasants’ movement on an all-Russian scale and completely move away from the Transcaucasian region. At that time, Krasin, Kollontai, Litvinov were already shining in Moscow - the educated elite of the Leninist movement, who, moreover, as a rule, spoke several languages. Of course, no one was going to let him into the front row. However, it was already clear that both Stalin’s real name and his pseudonym “Koba” were simply no good. “Koba” in an environment where, of course, no one would understand the deeper meanings and potential ambitions, would sound simply ridiculous. Stalin understood that the new name should have rigor, solidity, restraint, the absence of minimal opportunities for misinterpretation, an impressive meaning, but without a straightforward effect.

Unbending and flexible like steel

The pseudonym “Stalin” definitely met all these criteria. Unfortunately, the extermination of all the old Bolsheviks (quite quickly, in the second half of the 30s) makes it impossible to even imagine what the first reaction to the new name would be. However, some observers already in the 30s assessed him precisely as an iron man, strong and flexible, like steel. This caused admiration among many in those years. It can be assumed that this was the main thought that guided his choice. Joseph Stalin's real name and his previous pseudonyms did not have such categoricalness, composure, straightforwardness and the necessary rigidity. This is exactly the name that the leader of a monolithic empire should have had.