[218] The Polish-Soviet War ended on 18 March 1921, when a peace treaty was signed in Riga. December 6) - March 5, 1953, usually transliterated Josef Stalin, consolidated power to become the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union between 1928 and his death in 1953. [517] Soviet military industrial output also had increased substantially from late 1941 to early 1943 after Stalin had moved factories well to the east of the front, safe from German invasion and aerial assault. [244] The Georgian Communist Party opposed the idea, resulting in the Georgian affair. [224] In February 1920, he was appointed to head the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate;[225] that same month he was also transferred to the Caucasian Front. [653] According to a report published in The New York Times, Stalin was poisoned with warfarin by his own Politburo members. [439] His motives in doing so have been much debated by historians. In 1928 Stalin abandoned Lenin's quasi-capitalist New Economic Policy in favour of headlong state-organized industrialization under a succession of five-year plans. [167] During this raid, Stalin smuggled Lenin out of the newspaper's office and took charge of the Bolshevik leader's safety, moving him between Petrograd safe houses before smuggling him to Razliv. [52] In November 1901, he was elected to the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a Marxist party founded in 1898. [552] At the conference, Stalin repeated previous promises to Churchill that he would refrain from a "Sovietization" of Eastern Europe. [888], McDermott nevertheless cautioned against "over-simplistic stereotypes"promoted in the fiction of writers like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and Anatoly Rybakovthat portrayed Stalin as an omnipotent and omnipresent tyrant who controlled every aspect of Soviet life through repression and totalitarianism. [377] Social unrest, previously restricted largely to the countryside, was increasingly evident in urban areas, prompting Stalin to ease on some of his economic policies in 1932. Stalin, appealing both to socialist revolutionary fervour and to Russian nationalism, launched in the . [616] In Poland, the Soviets merged various socialist parties into the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), and vote rigging was used to ensure that the PZPR secured office. [110] In June, he escaped the village and made it to Kotlas disguised as a woman and from there to Saint Petersburg. [679] According to Montefiore, Stalin's embrace of the Russian nation was pragmatic, as the Russians were the core of the population of the USSR; it was not a rejection of his Georgian origins. [628], The Soviet Union was one of the first nations to extend diplomatic recognition to the newly created state of Israel in 1948, in hopes of obtaining an ally in the Middle East. 1922. [132] In January 1913, Stalin travelled to Vienna,[133] where he researched the 'national question' of how the Bolsheviks should deal with the Russian Empire's national and ethnic minorities. [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. [515] Germany attempted an encirclement attack at Kursk, which was successfully repulsed by the Soviets. [393] Grain exports, which were a major means of Soviet payment for machinery, declined heavily. The ransacking of churches and trials and executions of priests followed, notwithstanding demonstrations against such measures. [847] Yakov had a daughter, Galina, before fighting for the Red Army in the Second World War. 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. [891] Khlevniuk noted that at various points, particularly when Stalin was old and frail, there were "periodic manifestations" in which the party oligarchy threatened his autocratic control. [358] He oversaw proliferation of schools, newspapers, and libraries, as well as advancement of literacy and numeracy. Smallpox as a child left him with lasting scars and a deformity. [98], In Baku, Stalin secured Bolshevik domination of the local RSDLP branch[99] and edited two Bolshevik newspapers, Bakinsky Proletary and Gudok ("Whistle"). [397] A number of authorised Stalin biographies were also published,[398] although Stalin generally wanted to be portrayed as the embodiment of the Communist Party rather than have his life story explored. [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. His own woman [Alliluyeva] was enough for him, and he paid scant attention to her. [932] A number of Georgians resent criticism of Stalin, the most famous figure from their nation's modern history. [613], Stalin suggested that a unified, but demilitarised, German state be established, hoping that it would either come under Soviet influence or remain neutral. [712] Although retaining the Marxist belief that the state would wither away as socialism transformed into pure communism, he believed that the Soviet state would remain until the final defeat of international capitalism. In later years he expressed pride in his humble origins and often . "[730], Stalin had a soft voice,[731] and when speaking Russian did so slowly, carefully choosing his phrasing. [261] Stalin believed this would encourage independence sentiment among non-Russians, instead arguing that ethnic minorities would be content as "autonomous republics" within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. 3.1) features a quotation from Vyacheslav Molotov on the Stalin symbol: 'We have a name that has become the symbol of the victory of socialism. [202] The governing RSDLP party was soon renamed, becoming the Russian Communist Party. [617] Monarchy was abolished in Bulgaria and Romania. The conflict (1939-45) that pitted Nazi Germany and Japan against Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. [53], That month, Stalin travelled to the port city of Batum. [203], After the Bolsheviks seized power, both right and left-wing armies rallied against them, generating the Russian Civil War. [429] That month, Stalin and Yezhov signed Order No. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution and created a one-party state under the new Communist Party in 1917, Stalin joined its governing Politburo. [460] On 17 September, the Red Army entered eastern Poland, officially to restore order amid the collapse of the Polish state. [327] By 1932, about 62% of households involved in agriculture were part of collectives, and by 1936 this had risen to 90%. [712] 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. [240] As People's Commissar for Nationalities, Stalin believed that each national and ethnic group should have the right to self-expression,[241] facilitated through "autonomous republics" within the Russian state in which they could oversee various regional affairs. [171], On 24 October, police raided the Bolshevik newspaper offices, smashing machinery and presses; Stalin salvaged some of this equipment to continue his activities. [158] Stalin was in the city when the February Revolution took place; uprisings broke out in Petrograd as Saint Petersburg had been renamed and Tsar Nicholas II abdicated to escape being violently overthrown. [880] He has also been labelled a "red fascist". [607] In September 1947, a meeting of East European communist leaders was held in Szklarska Porba, Poland, from which was formed Cominform to co-ordinate the Communist Parties across Eastern Europe and also in France and Italy. [473] After the Tripartite Pact was signed by Axis Powers Germany, Japan, and Italy in October 1940, Stalin proposed that the USSR also join the Axis alliance. [229] On 16 July, the Central Committee decided to take the war into Polish territory. [347], In 1928, Stalin declared that class war between the proletariat and their enemies would intensify as socialism developed. During these years, the country experienced another major famine and an antisemitic campaign that culminated in the doctors' plot. [727] Some of Stalin's colleagues described him as "Asiatic", and he supposedly once told a Japanese journalist that "I am not a European man, but an Asian, a Russified Georgian". [181] Stalin became part of an informal foursome leading the government, alongside Lenin, Trotsky, and Sverdlov;[182] of these, Sverdlov was regularly absent and died in March 1919. [406] In turn, the anti-communist governments of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936. [176] Trotsky and other later Bolshevik opponents of Stalin used this as evidence that his role in the coup had been insignificant, although later historians reject this. [118] Still in Vologda, Stalin agreed, remaining a Central Committee member for the rest of his life. [326] Although officially voluntary, many peasants joined the collectives out of fear they would face the fate of the kulaks; others joined amid intimidation and violence from party loyalists. Advertisement. "[842] Stalin married twice and had several children. [615] He gambled that the Western powers would not risk war, but they airlifted supplies into West Berlin until May 1949, when Stalin relented and ended the blockade. . Many millions died as the result of Japanese war crimes during World War II under Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and Emperor Hirohito.. [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. Lenin's Testament, 4 January 1923;[253] this was possibly composed by Krupskaya rather than Lenin himself. [218] In November 1919, the government nonetheless awarded him the Order of the Red Banner for his wartime service. [65] His second attempt, in January 1904, was successful and he made it to Tiflis. He played a significant role in the organisation of the October Revolution, led peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk and as commissar for war, helped form and shape the Red Army.Often viewed as a likely successor to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky was outmanoeuvred by . [139] According to Montefiore, this was "Stalin's most famous work". [763], Trotsky and several other Soviet figures promoted the idea that Stalin was a mediocrity. [516] By the end of 1943, the Soviets occupied half of the territory taken by the Germans from 1941 to 1942. [657] An autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage and also that his cerebral arteries were severely damaged by atherosclerosis. [581], In the post-war period there were often food shortages in Soviet cities,[582] and the USSR experienced a major famine from 1946 to 1947. [124] In July, he arrived at the Siberian village of Narym,[125] where he shared a room with a fellow Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov. By mid-1928 he was unable to rally sufficient support in the party to oppose the reforms. The Russian economy had grown by around 14% per year. [804] He was a voracious reader and kept a personal library of over 20,000 books. Either we do this or we'll be crushed. [89] Lenin and Stalin disagreed with this decision[90] and later privately discussed how they could continue the robberies for the Bolshevik cause. [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. [123], In May 1912, he was arrested again and imprisoned in the Shpalerhy Prison, before being sentenced to three years exile in Siberia. [775] He was a good organiser,[776] with a strategic mind,[777] and judged others according to their inner strength, practicality, and cleverness. [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". [522] Churchill flew to Moscow to visit Stalin in August 1942 and again in October 1944. [279] In his private life, he divided his time between his Kremlin apartment and a dacha at Zubalova;[280] his wife gave birth to a daughter, Svetlana, in February 1926. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 1932 (December) Stalin announced that his first Five Year Plan, introduced in 1928, had been such a success that he was ending it a year early. [149] In or about December 1914, their child was born but the infant soon died. [43] Stalin left the seminary in April 1899 and never returned. [64] He made two escape attempts: On the first, he made it to Balagansk before returning due to frostbite. As a result of his Five-Year Plans, the country underwent agricultural collectivisation and rapid industrialisation, creating a centralised command economy. [706] He read about, and admired, two Tsars in particular: Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. He attracted a group of supporters through his classes in socialist theory[46] and co-organised a secret workers' mass meeting for May Day 1900,[47] at which he successfully encouraged many of the men to take strike action. [537] Roosevelt and Churchill conceded to Stalin's demand that Germany pay the Soviet Union 20billion dollars in reparations, and that his country be permitted to annex Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in exchange for entering the war against Japan. [666] The Chinese government instituted a period of official mourning for Stalin's death. [ 2] Without providing a clear successor, he left the party in chaos and the in-fighting and division . [669] The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as the party's dominant figures. [612], In October 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong took power in China. [226], Following earlier clashes between Polish and Russian troops, the PolishSoviet War broke out in early 1920, with the Poles invading Ukraine and taking Kiev on 7 May. [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. [230] Lenin believed that the Polish proletariat would rise up to support the Russians against Jzef Pisudski's Polish government. [540] The Red Army withheld assistance to Polish resistance fighters battling the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, with Stalin believing that any victorious Polish militants could interfere with his aspirations to dominate Poland through a future Marxist government. [780] He lacked compassion,[786] something Volkogonov suggested might have been accentuated by his many years in prison and exile,[787] although he was capable of acts of kindness to strangers, even amid the Great Terror. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers and entered a period of tension, the Cold War. [418] Stalin issued a decree establishing NKVD troikas which could mete out rulings without involving the courts. [383] The worst affected areas were Ukraine and the North Caucasus, although the famine also affected Kazakhstan and several Russian provinces. [796] Like all Bolshevik leaders, Stalin believed that reading could help transform not just people's ideas and consciousness, but human nature itself. It can, therefore, be expected to have had a major influence on his . [792] By the 1920s, he was also suspicious and conspiratorial, prone to believing that people were plotting against him and that there were vast international conspiracies behind acts of dissent. 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. [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. The pair had a daughter, Yekaterina, in 1950 but the . [509] This resulted in the protracted Battle of Stalingrad. It can be assumed that he believed that most of these medals were given undeservedly. [799] He protected several Soviet writers from arrest and prosecution, such as Mikhail Bulgakov, even when their work was labelled harmful to his regime. [771] According to Volkogonov, "Stalin's private life and working life were one and the same"; he did not take days off from political activities. [809] Lenin was his favourite author but he also read, and sometimes appreciated, a great deal of writing by Leon Trotsky and other arch-enemies. [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. [31] As he grew older, Stalin lost interest in priestly studies, his grades dropped,[32] and he was repeatedly confined to a cell for his rebellious behaviour. A secret speech was allegedly given by Joseph Stalin, on 19 August 1939, to members of the Politburo, wherein he justified the Soviet strategy to promote military conflict in Europe, which would be beneficial for the future territorial expansion of the Communist system. Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin's Gulag", "Reactions of Chinese Citizens to the Death of Stalin: Internal Communist Party Reports", "Stalin, the Pact with Nazi Germany, and the Origins of Postwar Soviet Diplomatic Historiography", "The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 193045", "Controversy in Moscow: Stalin icon revered", "The Stalin Puzzle: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion", "Georgia Divided Over Stalin 'Local Hero' Status in Gori", "Russians name Stalin as the most 'outstanding' figure of all times", "Stalin as a Neo-Pagan Deity in Contemporary Russia", "Moscow's Memory Wars: Putin seeks to whitewash Russia's Stalinist past", "Josef Stalin: communist, murderer - saint? Received titles . Stalin was a fascist as well. [648] In October 1952, Stalin gave an hour and a half speech at the Central Committee plenum. 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