The nineteenth century was a time of great change and upheaval for humanity. The collapse of entire government systems that have represented the status quo for centuries, the fall of empires, the implementation of new systems of government, the two bloodiest wars in human history, the splitting of the atom, the subsequent Cold War between countries of the world two superpowers and their allies and the potential extinction of the human race have characterized this century. It goes without saying, then, that such an extraordinary time will feature some of the most extraordinary people, and also some of the most atrocious. The person we will be talking about for the rest of this article will be a member of this latter group of individuals. His birth name in his native Georgia was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but the world would know him as Joseph Stalin, the Man of Steel and undisputed dictator of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. He is therefore the target of this article to detail Joseph Stalin's life to the best of his ability in a short time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Born in the Russian Empire in the former Kingdom of Georgia in 1878, Stalin was born to a poor family and an abusive father. He studied at a church school and learned Russian there while reading the writings of Karl Marx before being expelled from school. He would continue to live in Georgia and eventually become increasingly involved in politics and trade union demonstrations before joining Lenin's Bolshevik faction. After numerous arrests and daring escapes, Lenin chose Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Exiled to Siberia in 1913, Stalin would return to Petrograd in the spring of 1917 and take part in the overthrow of the government in October of that year. Following this overthrow, Stalin would become one of the most important members of the Council of People's Commissars along with Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov. Stalin supported and pushed strongly for the elimination of the free press that was hostile to the Bolsheviks and the creation of a secret police force known as the Cheka that would generate the Red Scare and kill and brutally suppress opposition elements in the early days of the reign of Lenin and the Russian Civil War that would engulf the country from 1917 to 1920. Throughout the brutal Russian Civil War, Stalin took on a number of assignments, including that of the Cheka forces at the crucial Battle of Tsaritsyn, during his time there Stalin was noted for his brutality as he executed people without trial and sent thousands of Red Army soldiers to their deaths in mass assaults, something that would become a trademark of the Soviet Union in the early parts of World War II. After the Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War and the subsequent Polish-Soviet War, Lenin and his Bolsheviks would continue to consolidate power and expand borders into areas previously claimed by the empire. In 1922 Stalin was appointed general secretary of the party by Lenin himself. In 1922 Lenin suffered a stroke and died two years later in 1924. It is worth noting that while Lenin considered Stalin an ally, in notes to his wife he clearly believed that Stalin was not fit to be the country's next undisputed leader . Soviet Union and had many disagreements with that man. Stalin would retain his position as general secretary of the party until his death and would make the position the most important in the Soviet Union for the next few decades. After the death of Lenin, Stalin's main opponent at the helm of the partycommunist was Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was responsible for the creation of the Red Army and was a famous intellectual and orator who competed for power with the Georgians. Stalin would make key alliances with Trotsky's opponents and begin removing Trotsky from his positions in the government, before exiling him entirely in 1929. Stalin would then turn against his allies and send many of them to the gulags, allowing him to consolidate the power and become the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union in 1929. It was only after his rise to power that Stalin truly began to display his cunning and brutality. It is worth noting that before Stalin's rise to full power in 1929, Stalin implemented a new agricultural policy and sought the collectivization of Russian farms. This policy led to starvation of millions of people in Ukraine during the Great Famine of 1932-1933 and millions more during the larger Soviet famine of 1932-1933. The famine was man-made and directly caused by the decisions of Stalin and his government. The famine was the result of Stalin's first five-year plan in which he hoped to rapidly industrialize the poor Russian state from a backward agricultural sector to an industrial power capable of competing with its more advanced European neighbors. Although the First Five-Year Plan was largely a failure, Stalin declared it a success in 1932, and it had some positive aspects that would be critical to the Soviet Union's survival in the tumultuous years to come. The five-year plan would also put the Soviet Union on the path to becoming a global superpower. Much more death and destruction awaited the Soviet Union in the following decades under Joseph Stalin, some of which was caused by foreign actors, but much of which would be the result of Stalin's own decisions. Beginning in 1934, Stalin began what would become known as the Great Purge. The purge, as the name suggests, was the brutal repression of actors and elements within the communist government. Stalin used this purge as an excuse to eliminate anyone he considered a threat to his power. Throughout this period, Stalin staged large show trials in which defendants admitted guilt, most often after suffering weeks of torture and personal promises from Stalin that he would spare them and their families after their admission of guilt, a promise that was broken. most of the time. Stalin would link their crimes together as a conspiracy to overthrow his government in support of the exiled Trotsky and fascist spies operating within the Soviet Union. The purge would also decimate the army's command structure as Stalin would order the expulsion of dozens of the Red Army's top commanders. Communist Party members and army officers were not the only ones targeted in Stalin's purge. A number of academic and cultural elites residing in Russia were also arrested, tortured, and executed by Stalin and the NKVD, his new secret police. Following this period, Stalin and his nation faced challenges they had never experienced before. Stalin recognized the threat posed by the Nazis, but was aware that at the time Hitler was carrying out his land grabs in Europe, the Soviet Union was not prepared for a war against a newly resurrected Germany. In 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact that divided Poland between the two powers. Following the conclusion of this pact, Hitler kicked off World War II by invading the new Polish state in 1939. This would lead to declarations of war against Germany by Britain and.