[904] In addition, while archival data shows that 1,053,829 perished in the Gulag from 1934 to 1953,[905] the current historical consensus is that of the 18million people who passed through the Gulag system from 1930 to 1953, between 1.5 and 1.7million died as a result of their incarceration. [222] In December 1918, he drew up decrees recognising Marxist-governed Soviet republics in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia;[223] during the civil war these Marxist governments were overthrown and the Baltic countries became fully independent of Russia, an act Stalin regarded as illegitimate. "If Stalin was such a bad guy, why do all these people have to resort to attributing to him almost entirely quotes he didn't make, or manipulate his actual quotes just enough to make them seem evil?" Joseph Stalin 19 likes Like "We don't let them have ideas. [92] In March 1907 she bore a son, Yakov. [59] Held first in Batumi Prison[60] and then Kutaisi Prison,[61] in mid-1903 he was sentenced to three years of exile in eastern Siberia. [66] There, he co-edited a Georgian Marxist newspaper, Proletariatis Brdzola ("Proletarian Struggle"), with Philip Makharadze. [3] "Charismatic rule has long been neglected and ridiculed, but apparently it has deep roots and becomes a powerful stimulus once the proper psychological and social doubt that millions believe in it" (Neumann, 1942: p. 75). Stalin's strategy for emerging as leader was to destroy the authority of his opponents. [747], As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin typically awoke around 11am,[748] with lunch being served between 3 and 5pm and dinner no earlier than 9pm;[749] he then worked late into the evening. First, it is necessary to recognize the factors involved in this decision that will affect you. [808] Lenin was his favourite author but he also read, and sometimes appreciated, a great deal of writing by Leon Trotsky and other arch-enemies. [286] The Left Opposition believed the NEP conceded too much to capitalism; Stalin was called a "rightist" for his support of the policy. [859] There are unproven rumours that from 1934 onward he had a relationship with his housekeeper Valentina Istomina. [693] According to Sandle, Stalin was "committed to the creation of a society that was industrialised, collectivised, centrally planned and technologically advanced. [868] According to historian Kevin McDermott, interpretations of Stalin range from "the sycophantic and adulatory to the vitriolic and condemnatory. ("Koba" is the Georgian diminutive of Yakobi, or Jacob, and Stalin later named his first-born son in Egnatashvili's honour. Because Stalin was not diagnosed during his life, we can never be sure. [112] There he had affairs with at least two women; his landlady, Maria Kuzakova, later gave birth to his second son, Konstantin. [452] Stalin initiated a military build-up, with the Red Army more than doubling between January 1939 and June 1941, although in its haste to expand many of its officers were poorly trained. By 1937, he had absolute control over the party and government. [664] That month featured a surge in arrests for "anti-Soviet agitation," as those celebrating Stalin's death came to police attention. [86] Although Stalin held Lenin in deep respect, he was vocal in his disagreement with Lenin's view that the Bolsheviks should field candidates for the forthcoming election to the State Duma; Stalin saw the parliamentary process as a waste of time. [354] Nationalist sentiment among ethnic minorities was suppressed. [830] Kotkin observed that Stalin "generally gravitated to people like himself: parvenu intelligentsia of humble background". He was in bed. At Lenin's funeral Stalin gave a speech creating the impression he was deeply upset at the passing of his former superior. [906] Historian and archival researcher Stephen G. Wheatcroft and Michael Ellman attribute roughly 3million deaths to the Stalinist regime, including executions and deaths from criminal negligence. [345] To promote intensification of labour, a series of medals and awards as well as the Stakhanovite movement were introduced. [409] Germany and Italy backed the Nationalist faction, which was ultimately victorious in March 1939. [575], Stalin's health was deteriorating, and heart problems forced a two-month vacation in the latter part of 1945. [910], Shortly after his death, the Soviet Union went through a period of de-Stalinization. [341] Millions of peasants moved to the cities, although urban house building could not keep up with the demand. [166] After the demonstration was suppressed, the Provisional Government initiated a crackdown on the Bolsheviks, raiding Pravda. [460] On 17 September, the Red Army entered eastern Poland, officially to restore order amid the collapse of the Polish state. [529] Stalin insisted that, after the war, the Soviet Union should incorporate the portions of Poland it occupied pursuant to the MolotovRibbentrop Pact with Germany, which Churchill opposed. [586], In the aftermath of the Second World War, the British Empire declined, leaving the U.S. and USSR as the dominant world powers. [143], In adulthood, Stalin measured 1.70m (5feet 7inches). 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. [893], Leninists remain divided in their views on Stalin; some view him as Lenin's authentic successor, while others believe he betrayed Lenin's ideas by deviating from them. [378] Like its predecessor, this plan was repeatedly amended to meet changing situations; there was for instance an increasing emphasis placed on armament production after Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. [499] They achieved high levels of industrial productivity, outstripping that of Germany. [848] They had two biological childrena son, Vasily, and a daughter, Svetlana, and adopted another son, Artyom Sergeev, in 1921. [782], Stalin was ruthless,[783] temperamentally cruel,[784] and had a propensity for violence high even among the Bolsheviks. [454], As Britain and France seemed unwilling to commit to an alliance with the Soviet Union, Stalin saw a better deal with the Germans. [381], The Soviet Union experienced a major famine which peaked in the winter of 193233;[382] between five and seven million people died. [552] At the conference, Stalin repeated previous promises to Churchill that he would refrain from a "Sovietization" of Eastern Europe. Stalin has also been described as 5ft 4,5,6.Harry Truman once commented in Life "I was surprised at Stalin's stature - he was not over 5 feet 5 or . [157] Stalin was required to serve four more months of his exile, and he successfully requested that he serve it in nearby Achinsk. "[865], The historian Robert Conquest stated that Stalin perhaps "determined the course of the twentieth century" more than any other individual. 18 April 2019. Joseph Stalin was the leader of Soviet Russia. [373] In November 1932, after a group dinner in the Kremlin in which Stalin flirted with other women, Nadezhda shot herself. Reason 3: He was Stalin Reason 4: He killed between six million and 20 million people. [259] Another disagreement came over the Georgian affair, with Lenin backing the Georgian Central Committee's desire for a Georgian Soviet Republic over Stalin's idea of a Transcaucasian one. [711] Stalin's doctrine held that socialism could be completed in Russia but that its final victory there could not be guaranteed because of the threat from capitalist intervention. [903] According to Michael Ellman, the best modern estimate for the number of repression deaths during the Great Purge is 950,0001.2million, which includes executions, deaths in detention, or soon after their release. [30] According to Stalin's biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore, they became "minor Georgian classics"[31] and were included in various anthologies of Georgian poetry over the coming years. [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. [48] By this point, the empire's secret police, the Okhrana, were aware of Stalin's activities in Tiflis' revolutionary milieu. [577] He demoted Molotov,[578] and increasingly favoured Beria and Malenkov for key positions. [651] He had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. [213], In December 1918, Stalin was sent to Perm to lead an inquiry into how Alexander Kolchak's White forces had been able to decimate Red troops based there. [432] His personal writings from the period were according to Khlevniuk "unusually convoluted and incoherent", filled with claims about enemies encircling him. [774] He was a good organiser,[775] with a strategic mind,[776] and judged others according to their inner strength, practicality, and cleverness. [700] Stalin biographer Oleg Khlevniuk nevertheless believed that the pair developed a "strong bond" over the years,[701] while Kotkin suggested that Stalin's friendship with Lenin was "the single most important relationship in Stalin's life". Severe disruptions to food production contributed to the famine of 193033 that killed millions. [209] In Tsaritsyn, Stalin commanded the local Cheka branch to execute suspected counter-revolutionaries, sometimes without trial[210] and in contravention of government orders purged the military and food collection agencies of middle-class specialists, some of whom he also executed. These reasons build to why Stalin emerged as leader of the USSR by 1929. [406] In turn, the anti-communist governments of Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936. The question that needs to be asked is whether a mental illness can explain Stalin's ability to engage in such behavior. [148] In the hamlet, Stalin had a relationship with Lidia Pereprygina, who was fourteen at the time but within the legal age of consent in Tsarist Russia. [645] In 1950, Stalin issued the article "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics", which reflected his interest in questions of Russian nationhood. [683] Volkogonov believed that Stalin's Marxism was shaped by his "dogmatic turn of mind", suggesting that this had been instilled in the Soviet leader during his education in religious institutions. Stalin's enemies. [194] In November 1917, he signed the Decree on Nationality, according ethnic and national minorities living in Russia the right of secession and self-determination. [265] In the final years of his life, Krupskaya provided governing figures with Lenin's Testament, a series of increasingly disparaging notes about Stalin. [304] His growing influence was reflected in naming of various locations after him; in June 1924 the Ukrainian mining town of Yuzovka became Stalino,[305] and in April 1925, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad on the order of Mikhail Kalinin and Avel Enukidze. [835], Stalin was no womanizer. Stalin was officially the leader of the Communist party, but to many in the Party, he was only a figurehead. [420], Stalin orchestrated the arrest of many former opponents in the Communist Party as well as sitting members of the Central Committee: denounced as Western-backed mercenaries, many were imprisoned or exiled internally. [448] According to historian James Harris, contemporary archival research shows that the motivation behind the purges was not Stalin attempting to establish his own personal dictatorship; evidence suggests he was committed to building the socialist state envisioned by Lenin. [126] After two months, Stalin and Sverdlov escaped back to Saint Petersburg. [17] In September 1888, Stalin enrolled at the Orthodox Gori Church School,[18] a place secured by Charkviani. [1] [2] He has led campaigns against the militarisation of education in Sri Lanka. [65] His second attempt, in January 1904, was successful and he made it to Tiflis. [751] As leader, he rarely left Moscow unless to go to one of his dachas for holiday;[752] he disliked travel,[753] and refused to travel by plane. [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. [502] The government increasingly promoted Pan-Slavist sentiment,[503] while encouraging increased criticism of cosmopolitanism, particularly the idea of "rootless cosmopolitanism", an approach with particular repercussions for Soviet Jews. [421] The first Moscow Trial took place in August 1936; Kamenev and Zinoviev were among those accused of plotting assassinations, found guilty in a show trial, and executed. [579] In 1949, he brought Nikita Khrushchev from Ukraine to Moscow, appointing him a Central Committee secretary and the head of the city's party branch. 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