Hence he bore direct responsibility for the course of the war and its outcome. [486] The German advance on Moscow was halted after two months of battle in increasingly harsh weather conditions. [149] In or about December 1914, their child was born but the infant soon died. There were two Five Year Plans - first from 1928 to 1933 and the second from 1932 to 1937. [675] The doctors who had been imprisoned were released and the anti-Semitic purges ceased. He was in bed. [576] He grew increasingly concerned that senior political and military figures might try to oust him; he prevented any of them from becoming powerful enough to rival him and had their apartments bugged with listening devices. Their economy grew, markedly unaffected by the Great Depression, and people usually like leaders who bring prosperity. [289] He was supported in this by Bukharin, who, like Stalin, believed that the Left Opposition's proposals would plunge the Soviet Union into instability. [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. [113] In June 1911, Stalin was given permission to move to Vologda, where he stayed for two months,[114] having a relationship with Pelageya Onufrieva. [243] Stalin opposed the idea of separate Georgian, Armenian, and Azeri autonomous republics, arguing that these would likely oppress ethnic minorities within their respective territories; instead he called for a Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. [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". [337], Officially, the Soviet Union had replaced the "irrationality" and "wastefulness" of a market economy with a planned economy organised along a long-term, precise, and scientific framework; in reality, Soviet economics were based on ad hoc commandments issued from the centre, often to make short-term targets. [128] Stalin returned to Saint Petersburg, where he continued editing and writing articles for Pravda. [315], In early 1928 Stalin travelled to Novosibirsk, where he alleged that kulaks were hoarding their grain and ordered that the kulaks be arrested and their grain confiscated, with Stalin bringing much of the area's grain back to Moscow with him in February. [813] He also enjoyed practical jokes; for instance, he would place a tomato on the seat of Politburo members and wait for them to sit on it. [773] Several historians have seen it as appropriate to follow Lazar Kaganovich's description of there being "several Stalins" as a means of understanding his multi-faceted personality. [562] He was quoted in Pravda on a daily basis and pictures of him remained pervasive on the walls of workplaces and homes. [798] Stalin's favourite subject was history, closely followed by Marxist theory and then fiction. [750] He often dined with other Politburo members and their families. [925] A 2013 survey by Tbilisi State University found 45% of Georgians expressing "a positive attitude" to him. [281], In the wake of Lenin's death, various protagonists emerged in the struggle to become his successor: alongside Stalin was Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, and Mikhail Tomsky. Stalin later implanted the use of fear, as well as the use of a secret police force to keep the people in check. [641] In November, the Slnsk trial took place in Czechoslovakia as 13 senior Communist Party figures, 11 of them Jewish, were accused and convicted of being part of a vast Zionist-American conspiracy to subvert Eastern Bloc governments. Machiavelli in our time. [676] A mass amnesty for certain categories of convicts was issued, halving the country's inmate population, while the state security and Gulag systems were reformed, with torture being banned in April 1953. Stalin allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to retain the churches it had opened during the war. Yet he is increasingly paranoid and purges the Communist party and Army of anyone who might oppose him. [70] Although he established a Bolshevik stronghold in the mining town of Chiatura,[71] Bolshevism remained a minority force in the Menshevik-dominated Georgian revolutionary scene. [256] Lenin twice asked Stalin to procure poison so that he could commit suicide, but Stalin never did so. D. Stalin suppressed Lenin's wishes that Stalin NOT follow him as leader of the Soviet Union, fearing Stalin's approach to power. [542], In April 1945, the Red Army seized Berlin, Hitler committed suicide, and Germany surrendered in May. [72], In January 1905, government troops massacred protesters in Saint Petersburg. [379] At the same time, penal sanctions became more severe; at Stalin's instigation, in August 1932 a decree was introduced wherein the theft of even a handful of grain could be a capital offence. Furthermore, Hitler, in contrast to Stalin, was able to add the authority of "spiritual founder" of national socialism to that of party leader. I therefore propose to comrades that they should devise a means of removing him from this job and should appoint to this job someone else who is distinguished from comrade Stalin in all other respects only by the single superior aspect that he should be more tolerant, more polite and more attentive towards comrades, less capricious, etc. Stalin made a decision to use his power over the country to raise production. [84] On arrival, he met Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, who informed him that the venue had been moved to Tampere in the Grand Duchy of Finland. [552] At the conference, Stalin repeated previous promises to Churchill that he would refrain from a "Sovietization" of Eastern Europe. Eight years have passed since the last elections to the Supreme Soviet. 6 December]1878[4][i] and baptised on 29 December. [369] At its 6th Congress in July 1928, Stalin informed delegates that the main threat to socialism came not from the right but from non-Marxist socialists and social democrats, whom he called "social fascists";[370] Stalin recognised that in many countries, the social democrats were the Marxist-Leninists' main rivals for working-class support. "Today someone is lamenting that the name of Tamil Nadu should not be used. [341] New mines were opened, new cities like Magnitogorsk constructed, and work on the White Sea-Baltic Canal began. Stalin's enemies. He initially refused, leading to an international crisis in 1946, but one year later Stalin finally relented and moved the Soviet troops out. [230] Lenin believed that the Polish proletariat would rise up to support the Russians against Jzef Pisudski's Polish government. [598] In September 1949 the Western powers transformed Western Germany into an independent Federal Republic of Germany; in response the Soviets formed East Germany into the German Democratic Republic in October. [494] Amid the fighting, both the German and Soviet armies disregarded the law of war set forth in the Geneva Conventions;[495] the Soviets heavily publicised Nazi massacres of communists, Jews, and Romani. [416] State repression intensified after Kirov's death;[417] Stalin instigated this, reflecting his prioritisation of security above other considerations. [588] In April 1949, the Western powers established the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), an international military alliance of capitalist countries. The widely covered 1943 Tehran summit saw Allied leaders Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill assemble for the first time. [511] In February 1943, the German troops attacking Stalingrad surrendered. Either we do this or we'll be crushed. [371] This preoccupation with opposing rival leftists concerned Bukharin, who regarded the growth of fascism and the far right across Europe as a far greater threat. [844] When she died, Stalin allegedly said: "This creature softened my heart of stone. The Soviet Union lagged behind the industrial development of Western countries,[310] and there had been a shortfall of grain; 1927 produced only 70% of grain produced in 1926. [435] These purges replaced most of the party's old guard with younger officials who did not remember a time before Stalin's leadership and who were regarded as more personally loyal to him. [266] Some historians have questioned whether Lenin ever produced these, suggesting instead that they may have been written by Krupskaya, who had personal differences with Stalin;[254] Stalin, however, never publicly voiced concerns about their authenticity. [455] On 3 May 1939, Stalin replaced his western-oriented foreign minister Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov. Firstly, the divisions within the party, made his task of eliminating people less complicated, he only had individuals, not groups of people against him. It repels the effects of negativity, prevents abuse of power and of justice, is contagious and promotes self-accountability. [438], Stalin initiated all key decisions during the Terror, personally directing many of its operations and taking an interest in their implementation. [892], A vast literature devoted to Stalin has been produced. [601] In 1949, celebrations took place to mark Stalin's seventieth birthday (although he was 71 at the time,) at which Stalin attended an event in the Bolshoi Theatre alongside MarxistLeninist leaders from across Europe and Asia. "[886] McDermott stated that Stalin had "concentrated unprecedented political authority in his hands. Stalin had called for the Chinese Communists to ally themselves with Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists, viewing a Communist-Kuomintang alliance as the best bulwark against Japanese imperial expansionism. [196] His department allocated funds for establishment of presses and schools in the languages of various ethnic minorities. However, the party was not fully under his control. [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. For this reason, he retained the Leninist view that world revolution was still a necessity to ensure the ultimate victory of socialism. Stalin's strategy for emerging as leader was to destroy the authority of his opponents. 227 in July 1942, which directed that those retreating unauthorised would be placed in "penal battalions" used as cannon fodder on the front lines. [917] In 1969 and again in 1979, plans were proposed for a full rehabilitation of Stalin's legacy but on both occasions were defeated by critics within the Soviet and international MarxistLeninist movement. Joseph Stalin was the leader of Soviet Russia from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953. [14] Ekaterine and Stalin left the home by 1883 and began a wandering life, moving through nine different rented rooms over the next decade. [556] Still, Stalin foresaw the undesirability of a nuclear conflict, saying in 1949 that "atomic weapons can hardly be used without spelling the end of the world. [201] The treaty gave vast areas of land and resources to the Central Powers and angered many in Russia; the Left Socialist Revolutionaries withdrew from the coalition government over the issue. A 2012 survey commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment found 38% of Armenians concurring that their country "will always have need of a leader like Stalin. The Russian Empire became a de facto republic, headed by a Provisional Government dominated by liberals. No, I do not think that Stalin was a good leader. [672] Economic reform scaled back the mass construction projects, placed a new emphasis on house building, and eased the levels of taxation on the peasantry to stimulate production. Stalin, however, did this strategically, executing the murder of Vladimir Lenin in a guiltless manner. [87] In April 1906, Stalin attended the RSDLP Fourth Congress in Stockholm; this was his first trip outside the Russian Empire. Biography: Joseph Stalin became leader of the Soviet Union after the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, died in 1924. He edited the party's newspaper, Pravda, and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings and protection rackets. [931] In this literature, Stalin's repressions are regarded either as a necessary measure to defeat "enemies of the people" or the result of lower-level officials acting without Stalin's knowledge. 03:14. [16] Ekaterine worked as a house cleaner and launderer and was determined to send her son to school. [105] They also kidnapped the children of several wealthy figures to extract ransom money. Since the 1920s, he'd ruled with an iron fist. Answer: No. [278] Stalin also developed close relations with the trio at the heart of the secret police (first the Cheka and then its replacement, the State Political Directorate): Felix Dzerzhinsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. [659], Stalin's death was announced on 6 March. [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. [836] According to Boris Bazhanov, Stalin's one-time secretary, "Women didn't interest him. [155] They arrived in Krasnoyarsk in February 1917,[156] where a medical examiner ruled Stalin unfit for military service because of his crippled arm. [349] The first major show trial in the USSR was the Shakhty Trial of 1928, in which several middle-class "industrial specialists" were convicted of sabotage. [250] At the 11th Party Congress in 1922, Lenin nominated Stalin as the party's new General Secretary. [424] By late 1937, all remnants of collective leadership were gone from the Politburo, which was controlled entirely by Stalin. [551], Stalin attended the Potsdam Conference in JulyAugust 1945, alongside his new British and U.S. counterparts, Prime Minister Clement Attlee and President Harry Truman. [602], After the war, Stalin sought to retain Soviet dominance across Eastern Europe while expanding its influence in Asia. [528] Roosevelt and Churchill also agreed to Stalin's demand that the German city of Knigsberg be declared Soviet territory. [619] Privately, Stalin revealed that he had underestimated the Chinese Communists and their ability to win the civil war, instead encouraging them to make another peace with the KMT. [53], That month, Stalin travelled to the port city of Batum. [24] Stalin faced several severe health problems: An 1884 smallpox infection left him with facial scars;[25] and at age 12 he was seriously injured when he was hit by a phaeton, probably the cause of a lifelong disability in his left arm. In 1929, his son Yakov unsuccessfully attempted suicide; his failure earned Stalin's contempt. [644], From 1946 until his death, Stalin only gave three public speeches, two of which lasted only a few minutes. [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". One is the political scientist Rudolph Rummel (1932-2014), a non-China specialist who made wildly higher estimates than any other historianthat Mao was responsible for 77 million deaths. [464], The Soviets further demanded parts of eastern Finland, but the Finnish government refused. [320] Large numbers died during the journey. [399] By 1938, Stalin's inner circle had gained a degree of stability, containing the personalities who would remain there until Stalin's death. [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. [664] That month featured a surge in arrests for "anti-Soviet agitation," as those celebrating Stalin's death came to police attention. 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