Joseph Stalin

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvilid 18 DecemberO.S. 6 1878 Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire

5 March 1953(1953-03-05) (74) Kuntsevo Dacha, Kuntsevo, Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)

3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953 "Stalin" redirects here. For other uses, see Stalin (disambiguation). In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Vissarionovich and the family name is Stalin. Joseph StalinИосиф Сталин  (Russian) იოსებ სტალინი  (Georgian) 1937 portrait used for state publicity purposesGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionIn office 3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov (as Responsible Secretary)Succeeded by Georgy Malenkov (de facto )Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet UnionIn office 6 May 1941 – 15 March 1946Preceded by Vyacheslav MolotovSucceeded by Office abolishedChairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet UnionIn office 15 March 1946 – 5 March 1953PresidentMikhail Kalinin Nikolay ShvernikFirst Deputies Nikolai Voznesensky Vyacheslav Molotov Nikolai Bulganin Preceded by Vyacheslav MolotovSucceeded by Georgy MalenkovMember of the Russian Constituent AssemblyIn office 25 November 1917 – 20 January 1918Served alongsideNikolai Kutler, Pavel Milyukov, Rodichev, Maxim Vinaver, Cherepanov, Evdokimov, Mikhail Kalinin, Józef Unszlicht, Grigory Zinoviev, Boris Kamkov, ShreiderPreceded by Constituency establishedSucceeded by Constituency abolishedConstituencyPetrograd MetropolisMinister of DefenceIn office 15 March 1946 – 3 March 1947Preceded by himself as People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet UnionSucceeded by Nikolai BulganinPeople's Commissar for Nationalities of the RSFSRIn office 8 November 1917 – 7 July 1923Preceded by Position establishedSucceeded by Position abolishedPeople's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet UnionIn office 19 July 1941 – 25 February 1946Preceded by Semyon TimoshenkoSucceeded by himself as People's Commissar of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union Personal detailsBornIoseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili 18 December  1878 Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire (now Georgia)Died5 March 1953(1953-03-05) (aged 74) Kuntsevo Dacha, Kuntsevo, Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)Cause of deathCerebral hemorrhageResting placeLenin's Mausoleum, Moscow (9 March 1953 – 31 October 1961) Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow (from 31 October 1961)Political partyRSDLP (1898–1903) RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1903–1918) CPSU (1918–1953)Spouse(s) Ekaterine Svanidze ​ ​(m. 1906; d. 1907)​ Nadezhda Alliluyeva ​ ​(m. 1919; d. 1932)​ Children Yakov Dzhugashvili Vasily Dzhugashvili Svetlana Alliluyeva Artyom Sergeyev (adopted) MotherEkaterine GeladzeFatherBesarion JughashviliEducationTbilisi Spiritual SeminaryCabinetStalin I–IISignatureMilitary serviceNickname(s)KobaAllegianceSoviet UnionBranch/serviceSoviet Armed ForcesYears of service 1918–1920 1941–1953 RankMarshal of the Soviet Union (1943)Commands Southern Front (1918–1920) (commissar) Southwestern Front (1920) (commissar) Soviet Armed Forces (1941–1953) (Supreme Commander) Battles/wars Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War Polish-Soviet War Winter War World War II Korean War Awards Hero of the Soviet Union Order of the Red Banner (4) Order of Lenin (3) Order of Victory (2) Order of Sukhbaatar (2) Order of Suvorov First Class Order of the Red Star First Class Order of the White Lion Central institution membership 1917–1953: Full member, 6th–19th Presidium 1922–1943: 11th–19th Secretariat 1920–1952: 9th–18th Orgburo 1912–1953: Full member, 5th–19th Central Committee Other offices held 1941–1947: Minister of Defense 1941–1945: Chairman, State Defense Committee 1920–1922: Chairman, Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the Russian SFSR 1917–1922: People's Commissar, Nationalities of the Russian SFSR Leader of the Soviet Union ← Lenin Malenkov→ Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili; 18 December  1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and political leader who governed the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He served as both General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he ultimately consolidated power to become the Soviet Union's dictator by the 1930s. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism while his own policies are known as Stalinism. Born to a poor family in Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia), Stalin attended the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary before eventually joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He went on to edit the party's newspaper, Pravda, and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings and protection rackets. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent several internal exiles. After the Bolsheviks seized power during the October Revolution and created a one-party state under the newly formed Communist Party in 1917, Stalin joined its governing Politburo. Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment in 1922, Stalin assumed leadership over the country following Lenin's death in 1924. Under Stalin, socialism in one country became a central tenet of the party's dogma. As a result of the Five-Year Plans implemented under his leadership, the country underwent agricultural collectivisation and rapid industrialisation, creating a centralised command economy. This led to severe disruptions of food production that contributed to the famine of 1932–33. To eradicate accused "enemies of the working class", Stalin instituted the Great Purge, in which over a million were imprisoned and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. By 1937, he had absolute control over the party and government. Stalin promoted Marxism–Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements during the 1930s, particularly in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, his regime signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, resulting in the Soviet invasion of Poland. Germany ended the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941. Despite suffering enormous losses and numerous defeats in the early stages of the conflict, the Soviet Red Army ultimately repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945, thereby ending World War II in Europe. In the process of defeating Germany and its allies, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and established Soviet-aligned governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea. By the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers. The ensuing deterioration of relations between the Soviet-backed Eastern Bloc and U.S.-backed Western Bloc gave rise to a sustained period of tensions known as the Cold War that lasted until 1989. In the final years of his leadership, Stalin presided over the post-war reconstruction of the Soviet Union as well as the development of a Soviet atomic bomb in 1949. During these years, the country experienced another major famine and an antisemitic campaign that culminated in the doctors' plot. After Stalin's death in 1953, he was eventually succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who subsequently denounced his rule and initiated the de-Stalinisation of Soviet society. Widely considered to be one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist–Leninist movement, which revered him as a champion of the working class and socialism. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Stalin has retained popularity in Russia and Georgia as a victorious wartime leader who cemented the Soviet Union's status as a leading world power. Conversely, his regime has been described as totalitarian, with Stalin achieving a personal dictatorship by the 1930s, and has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repression, ethnic cleansing, wide-scale deportation, hundreds of thousands of executions, and famines that killed millions.