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Josef Stalin was loved by everyone. He ruled a democratic nation which was to be renamed Antarctica, after Fijian monkey kamikaze bombers invaded his tree house. He came to power after defeating an evil dragon named Stebzilla and was loved for this triumph by every man, woman, and homosexual. He ruled for two days, during 23/5/1990, and 24/5/1990, and during his time, he had duplicated the population of penguins, lions, and lizards, established 14 schools, and ate a roast for dinner. It is certainly unanimous that you could not find a better leader than Stalin, as he was truly a man who loved and made love to his people.
{{for|Scheme compiler|Stalin scheme compiler}}

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'''{{Audio|ru-Stalin.ogg|Joseph Stalin}}''' (], in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин (Josef Vissarionovich Stalin), real name: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили (Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvilli), ]: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (Ioseb Jughashvili); ] (])/] (]), ]{{ref|Register}} &ndash; ], ]) was the leader of the ] from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the ] (1922-1953), a position which had later become that of party leader.

Stalin became ] in ] and following the death of ], he prevailed over ] in a power struggle during the ]. In the ] Stalin eliminated effective political opposition both within the Party and among the population (''see'' ]) and consolidated his authority with the ], a period of widespread arrests and executions which reached its peak in ], remaining in power through ] and until his death. Stalin molded the features that characterized the new Soviet regime; his policies, based on ] ideology, are often considered to represent a political and economic system called ].

Under Stalin, who replaced the ] (NEP) of the ] with ] (introduced in ]) and ], the Soviet Union was transformed from a largely ] society to a major world industrial power by the end of the ]. However, ] was violently resisted by many peasants, resulting in millions of casualties amid famine and mass repression against peasants deemed "]s" by the authorities.

A hard-won victory in World War II (the ], ]&ndash;]), made possible in part through the capacity for production that was the outcome of industrialization, laid the groundwork for the formation of the ] and established the USSR as one of the two major ], a position it maintained for nearly four decades following Stalin's death in 1953.

Stalin's ], his concentration of power and the means of its execution has led to a common characterization of him as a ] and to an opinion that he was personally responsible, directly or indirectly, via his policies, for millions or tens of millions of deaths and unjust imprisonments in the ].

], Stalin's actual successor, denounced his mass repressions and cult of personality in ], initiating the process of "]". {{ref|Khrushchev}}

==Childhood and early years==
].]]
Stalin was born in ], ], to a ] named ]. His mother, ], was born a ]. Their other three children died young; Joseph, nicknamed "Soso" (the Georgian pet name for Joseph, or the equivalent of the nickname "Joe" in the United States), was effectively an only child. Vissarion Ivanovich Jugashvili was a former serf who, when freed, became a cobbler. He opened his own shop, but quickly went bankrupt, forcing him to work in a shoe factory in ] (Archer 11). Rarely seeing his family and drinking heavily, Vissarion often beat his wife and small son. One of Stalin's friends from childhood wrote, "Those undeserved and fearful beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as his father." The same friend also wrote that he never saw him cry (Hoober 15). Another of his childhood friends, Iremashvili, felt that the beatings by Stalin's father gave him a hatred of authority. He also said that anyone with power over others reminded Stalin of his father's cruelty.

One of the people for whom Ekaterina did laundry and housecleaning was a Gori Jew, David Papismedov. Papismedov gave Joseph, who would help out his mother, money and books to read, and encouraged him. Decades later, Papismedov came to the ] to learn what had become of little Soso. Stalin surprised his colleagues by not only receiving the elderly man, but happily chatting with him in public places.

In ], Stalin's father left to live in ], leaving the family without support. Rumors said he died in a drunken bar fight; however, others said they had seen him in Georgia as late as ]. At eight years old, Soso began his education at the Gori Church School. When attending school in Gori, Soso was among a very diverse group of students. Stalin and his classmates were mostly Georgian and spoke one of the seventy Caucasian languages. However, at school they were forced to use Russian. Even when speaking in Russian, their Russian teachers mocked Stalin and his classmates because of their Georgian accents. His peers were mostly the sons of affluent priests, officials, and merchants.

Although Stalin later sought to hide his Georgian origins, during his childhood he was fascinated by Georgian folklore. The stories he read told of Georgian mountaineers who valiantly fought for Georgian independence. Stalin's favorite hero of these stories was a legendary mountain ranger named Koba, which became his first alias as a revolutionary. He graduated first in his class and at age 14 he was awarded a scholarship to the Tiflis Theological ], a ] institution which he attended from ] onward. In addition to the small stipend from the scholarship he was also paid for singing in the choir. Although his mother wanted him to be a priest (even after he had become leader of the Soviet Union), he attended seminary not because of any religious vocation, but because it was one of the few educational opportunities available as the Tsarist government of Russia was wary of establishing a university in Georgia.

]

Stalin's involvement with the ] movement (or, to be more exact, that branch of it that later became the ] movement) began at the seminary. During these school years, Stalin joined a Georgian Social-Democratic organization, and began propagating Marxism. Stalin was expelled from the seminary in ] for these actions. He worked for a ] with the ] underground in the ], experiencing repeated ]s and ] to ] between ] and ]. He adhered to ]'s ] of a strong centralist party of professional revolutionaries. His practical experience made him useful in Lenin's ] party, gaining him a place on its Central Committee in January ]. Some historians have argued that, during this period, Stalin was actually a ]ist ], who was working to infiltrate the Bolshevik party, but there are no reliable documents to substantiate this. In ] he adopted the name Stalin, which means "steel's man" in Russian.

His only significant contribution to the development of Marxist theory at this time was a treatise, written while he was briefly in exile in Vienna, ''Marxism and the national question''. It presents an orthodox Marxist position on this important debate. This treatise may have contributed to his appointment as ] for Nationalities Affairs after the revolution (see Lenin's article ''On the right of nations to self-determination'' for comparison).

==Marriage and family==
Stalin's first wife was ], to whom he was married for just three years until her death in 1907. At her funeral, Stalin said that any warm feelings he had for people died with her, for only she could mend his heart. With her he had a son, ], with whom he did not get along in later years. Yakov served in the ] and was captured by the Nazis. They offered to exchange him for a German officer, but Stalin turned the offer down, allegedly saying "I have no son named Yakov," and Yakov is said to have died running into an electric fence in the camp where he was being held. This however, is the "official report", and to this day, his cause of death is not known. Nonetheless, there are many who believe his death was a suicide.

His second wife was ], who died in ]; she may have committed suicide by shooting herself after a quarrel with Stalin, leaving a suicide note which according to their daughter was "partly personal, partly political"{{ref|Koba}}. "Officially", she died of an illness, but other theories claim that Stalin himself killed her. It is alleged that Stalin had said "She died an enemy," at her funeral. With her, he had two children: a son, ], and a daughter, ]. Vassili rose through the ranks of the Soviet Air Force, but died an alcoholic in ]. Stalin doted on Svetlana when she was young, but she ended up defecting from the Soviet Union in ].

Stalin's mother died in ]; he did not attend the funeral but instead sent a wreath. Stalin is said to have remained bitter at his mother because of her forcing him to join the Tiflis Theological Seminary, and is reputed to have called her "an old whore."

In March ], Russian Independent Television NTV discovered a previously unknown grandson living in ]. Yuri Davydov told NTV that his father had told him of his lineage, but, because the campaign against Stalin's cult of personality was in full swing at the time, he was told to keep quiet. Soviet ] writer ] had mentioned a son being born to Stalin and his ] wife, Lida, in ] during his exile in northern ].

==Rise to power==
]
In ] Stalin was co-opted to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the ]. In ] Stalin was editor of '']'' while Lenin and much of the Bolshevik leadership were in exile. Following the ], Stalin and the editorial board took a position in favor of supporting ]'s ] and, it is alleged, went to the extent of declining to publish Lenin's articles arguing for the provisional government to be overthrown. When Lenin returned from exile, he wrote the ] which put forward his position.

In April 1917, Stalin was elected to the Central Committee with the third highest vote total in the party and was subsequently elected to the ] of the Central Committee (May 1917); he held this position for the remainder of his life.

According to many accounts, Stalin only played a minor role in the ] of ].Other writers such as ] stressed that each man in the Central Committee had a job he was assigned to do.

During the ] and ], Stalin was ] of the ] at various fronts. Stalin's first government position was as ] of Nationalities Affairs (1917&ndash;]). Also, he was People's Commissar of ]<!-- WPI and "people's control" is a neglected USSR topic in the wikipedia --> (]&ndash;]), a member of the ] of the republic (]&ndash;23) and a member of the ] (from 1917).

In April ] Stalin became general secretary of the ruling ], a post that he subsequently built up into the most powerful in the country. This position was an unwanted one within the party (Stalin was sometimes referred to as "Comrade Card-Index" by fellow party members) but Stalin saw its potential as a power base. The position had great influence on who joined the party. This allowed him to fill the party with his allies. Stalin's accumulation of personal power increasingly alarmed the dying ], and in ] he famously called for the removal of the "rude" Stalin, also stating that Stalin's views were too extreme and violent. However, this document was suppressed by members of the ], many of whom were also criticised by the Bolshevik leader in the testament.

After ]'s ] in January ], Stalin, ] and ] together governed the party, placing themselves ] between ] (on the left wing of the party) and ] (on the right).

During this period, Stalin abandoned the traditional Bolshevik emphasis on international revolution in favor of a policy of building "]", in contrast to Trotsky's theory of ]. Stalin would soon switch sides and join with Bukharin. Together they fought a new opposition of Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev. By ] (the first year of the ]s) Stalin was supreme among the leadership, and the following year Trotsky was exiled because of his intrigues. Having also outmaneuvered Bukharin's ] and now advocating collectivization and industrialization, Stalin can be said to have exercised control over the party and the country. However, as the popularity of other leaders such as ] and the so-called ] were to demonstrate, Stalin did not achieve absolute power until the ] of ]&ndash;].

==Stalin and changes in Soviet society==
===Industrialization===
''Main article: ]''.

The ] had had a devastating effect on the country's economy. Industrial output in 1922 was 13% of that in 1914. Under Stalin's direction, the ], which allowed a degree of market flexibility within the context of socialism, was replaced by a system of centrally ordained Five-Year Plans in the late ]. These called for a highly ambitious program of state-guided crash industrialization and the collectivization of ]. In spite of early breakdowns and failures, the first two Five-Year Plans achieved rapid industrialization from a very low economic base. The ], generally ranked as the ] nation in ] in 1922, now industrialized at a phenomenal rate, far surpassing ]'s pace of industrialization in the ] and ]'s earlier in the ].

With no seed capital, little foreign ], and barely any modern ] to start with, Stalin's government ]d industrialization by both restraining consumption on the part of ordinary Soviet citizens, to ensure that capital went for re-] into industry, and by ruthless extraction of ] from the peasantry. In 1933, worker's real earnings sank to about one-tenth of the 1926 level. There was also use of the almost free labor of prisoners in ] and the frequent "mobilization" of communists and ] members for various construction projects.

===Collectivization===
''Main article: ]''
]
Stalin's regime moved to force ] of agriculture. This was in order to increase agricultural output from large-scale mechanized farms, to bring the peasantry under more direct political control, to make tax collection more efficient, and to provide workers for Gulags.

Collectivization meant drastic social changes, on a scale not seen since the abolition of serfdom in ], and ] from control of the land and its produce. Collectivization also meant a drastic drop in living standards for many peasants, and it faced widespread and often violent resistance among the peasantry.

In the first years of collectivization, it was estimated that industrial and agricultural production would rise by 200% and 50%{{ref|histWorld}}, respectively; however, agricultural production actually dropped. Stalin blamed this unexpected drop on ] (rich peasants), who resisted collectivization. Therefore those defined as "kulaks," "kulak helpers" and later "ex-kulaks" were to be shot, placed into ] ]s, or deported to remote areas of the country, depending on the charge.

The two-stage progress of collectivization — interrupted for a year by Stalin's famous editorial, "Dizzy with success" ('']'', ], ]) — is a prime example of his capacity for ]s.

Many historians agree that the disruption caused by forced collectivization was largely responsible for major ]s which caused up to 5 million deaths in 1932&ndash;33, particularly in ] and the lower ] region. (Chairman ] of China would trigger a similar famine in ] to ] with his ].)

Not only rich peasants were killed. ] documents that all grains were taken from areas that did not meet targets, including the next year's seed grain. It also documents that peasants were forced to remain in the starving areas, sales of train tickets were stopped, and the ] set up barriers to prevent people from leaving the starving areas (p. 164). The Soviet Union exported grain while millions of Soviet citizens were starving to death (p. 167). Similar detailed references can be found here .

===Science===
''Main article: ].''

Science in the ] was under strict ideological control, along with art, literature and everything else. On the positive side, there was significant progress in "ideologically safe" domains due to the free ] system and state-financed research. However, in several cases the consequences of ideological pressure were dramatic, the most notable examples being the "]s," ] and ].

In the late ] there were also attempts to suppress ] and ], as well as ], on grounds of "]." However, top Soviet physicists made it clear that without using these theories, they would be unable to create a ].

] was the only area of Soviet academic thought to which Stalin personally and directly contributed. At the beginning of Stalin's rule, the dominant figure in Soviet linguistics was ], who argued that language is a class construction and that language structure is determined by the economic structure of society. Stalin, who had previously written about language policy as People's Commissar for Nationalities, felt he grasped enough of the underlying issues to coherently oppose this simplistic Marxist formalism, ending Marr's ideological dominance over Soviet linguistics. Stalin's principal work discussing linguistics is a small essay, ''Marxism and Linguistic Questions'' {{ref|StalinLinguistics}}. Although no great theoretical contributions or insights came from it, neither were there any apparent errors in Stalin's understanding of linguistics; his influence arguably relieved Soviet linguistics from the sort of ideologically driven theory that dominated genetics.

Scientific research in nearly all areas was hindered by the fact that many scientists were sent to ]s (including ], later a ] winner, who spent a year in prison in ]–]) or executed (e.g. ], shot in ]). They were persecuted for their (real or imaginary) ] views, and seldom for "politically incorrect" research.

Nevertheless, great progress was made under Stalin in some areas of science and technology. It laid the ground for the famous achievements of Soviet science in the ], such as the development of the ]-1 computer in ] and the launching of ] in ]. Indeed, many politicians in the ] began to fear, after the "]," that their country had been eclipsed by the Soviet Union in science and in public education.

===Social services===
] circa 1950, the "Peace will prevail over war" series. The poster reads: "Thank you, dear Stalin, for our happy childhood." The word "родной" (translated "dear") is normally reserved for close relatives.]]

Stalin's government placed heavy emphasis on the provision of free ] services. Campaigns were carried out against ], ], and ]; the number of ]s was increased as rapidly as facilities and training would permit; and death and ] rates steadily declined. General ] was free and was dramatically expanded, with many more Soviet citizens learning to read and write, and higher education also expanded. Likewise, the generation that grew up under Stalin saw a major expansion in job opportunities, especially for women.

===Culture and religion===
It was during Stalin's reign that the official and long-lived style of ] was established for ], ], ], ] and ]. Previously fashionable "revolutionary" ], ], and ] ] were discouraged or denounced as "]."

Careers were made and broken, some more than once. Famous names were repressed, both "revolutionaries" (among them ], ]) and "non-conformists" (for example, ]). Others, both representing the "Soviet man" (]) and remnants of the older pre-revolutionary Russia (]), thrived. A number of former ] returned to the Soviet Union, among them ] in 1925, ] in 1936, and ] in 1943. It is of note that ] was subjected to several cycles of suppression and rehabilitation, but was never herself arrested, although her first husband, poet ], had been shot in 1921, and her son, historian ], spent two decades in the ].

The degree of Stalin's personal involvement in general and specific developments has been assessed variously. His name, however, was constantly invoked during his reign in discussions of culture as in just about everything else; and in several famous cases, his opinion was final.

Stalin's occasional beneficence showed itself in strange ways. For example, ] was driven to poverty and despair; yet, after a personal appeal to Stalin, he was allowed to continue working. His play, ''The Days of the Turbines'', with its sympathetic treatment of an anti-Bolshevik family caught up in the Civil War, was finally staged, apparently also on Stalin's intervention, and began a decades-long uninterrupted run at the Moscow Arts Theater.

Some insights into Stalin's political and ] thinking might perhaps be gleaned by reading his favorite ], '']'', by the ] ] ], a ] on mechanisms of ]. Similarities have been pointed out between this novel and ]'s ], '']'', produced under Stalin's tutelage.

In ], a ] (basically, updated ] on a very large scale, exemplified by the seven skyscrapers of Moscow) replaced the ] of the 1920s. An amusing anecdote has it that the Moskva Hotel in Moscow was built with mismatched side wings because Stalin had mistakenly signed off on both of the two proposals submitted, and the architects had been too afraid to clarify the matter. (This was actually just a joke: the hotel had been built by two independent teams of architects that had different visions of how the hotel should look.)

Stalin's role in the fortunes of the ] is complex. Continuous persecution in the ] resulted in its near-extinction: by ], active parishes numbered in the low hundreds (down from 54,000 in ]), many churches had been levelled, and tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were dead or imprisoned. During ], however, the Church was allowed a partial revival, as a patriotic organization: thousands of parishes were reactivated, until a further round of suppression in ]'s time. The Church Synod's recognition of the Soviet government and of Stalin personally led to a schism with the ] that remains not fully healed to the present day. Just days before Stalin's death, certain religious sects ].

===Purges and deportations===
====The purges====
''Main article: ]''

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| colspan="3" align="left" style="background:#f0f0f0;" |<small>] ] ] letter to Stalin, asking permission to execute 346 "]" who conducted "counter-revolutionary, right-Trotskyite plotting and spying activities." Stalin's handwriting: "за" (affirmative). The Politburo's decision is signed by Secretary Stalin.</small>
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Stalin, as head of the ], consolidated near-absolute power in the ] with a ] of his political and ideological opponents (real or merely suspected), culminating in the extermination of the majority of the original ] ] and of over half of the largely pliant delegates of the 17th Party Congress in ] ]. Measures ranged from imprisonment in ] ]s to execution after a ] or summary trial by ]s. Some argue that a motive for the purge was a feeling that the Party needed to be unified in the face of anticipated conflict with ]; others believe that it was motivated only by Stalin's desire to consolidate his own power.

Several trials known as the ] were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. There were four key trials during this period: the Trial of the Sixteen (August ]); Trial of the Seventeen (January ]); the trial of ] generals, including Marshal ] (June 1937); and finally the ] (including ]) in March ].

Trotsky's August ] assassination in ], where he had lived in exile since 1936, eliminated the last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership. Only three members of the "]s" (Lenin's ]) now remained in Politburo &mdash;Stalin himself, "the all-Union Chieftain" (всесоюзный староста) ], and ] ]. The repression of so many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led ] to claim that a "river of blood" separated Stalin's regime from that of Lenin. However, it has been argued that Stalin only continued the political repressions that had started under Lenin's regime, such as labor camps and express executions of political opponents.

No segment of society was left untouched during the purges. ] of the legal code, listing prohibited "anti-Soviet activities", was applied in the broadest manner. Initially, the execution lists for the ] were confirmed by the Politburo. Over time the procedure was greatly simplified and delegated down the line of command. The Russian word <!-- WARNING: intentionally ambiguous link -->] gained a new meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a ]. Towards the end of the purge, the Politburo relieved NKVD head ], from his position for overzealousness. He was subsequently executed. Some historians such as Amy Knight and Robert Conquest postulate that Stalin had Yezhov and his predecessor, Yagoda, removed in order to deflect blame from himself.

====Deportations====
''Main article: ]''
<!-- Please add factual material to the main article, and keep only summary here. -->

Shortly before, during and immediately after ], Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Over 1.5 million people were deported to ] and the Central Asian republics. Separatism, resistance to Soviet rule and collaboration with the invading Germans were cited as the main official reasons for the deportations.

The following ethnic groups were deported completely or partially: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]s, ], ], ], ], ], ]ns, ]ns, ]ns. Large numbers of ], regardless of their nationality, were resettled to ] and ].

In February ], ] condemned the deportations as a violation of ] principles, and reversed most of them, although it was not until as late as ] that the Tatars, ]s and Volga Germans were allowed to return ''en masse'' to their homelands. The deportations had a profound effect on the peoples of the Soviet Union. The memory of the deportations played a major part in the separatist movements in the Baltic republics, ] and ].

====Death toll====
]
About one million people were shot during the periods 1935&ndash;38, 1942 and ]&ndash;] and millions of people were transported to ] ]. In ] about 80,000 people were shot during 1921, 1923&ndash;24, 1935&ndash;38, 1942 and 1945-50, and more than 100,000 people were transported to Gulag camps.

On ], ], Stalin himself and other Soviet leaders signed the order to execute 25,700 Polish intelligentsia including 14,700 Polish ]s. It became known as ]. See ].

It is generally agreed by historians that if famines, prison and ] mortality, and ] (deportations and political purges) are taken into account, Stalin and his colleagues were directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions. ''How many'' millions died under Stalin is greatly disputed. Although no official figures have been released by the Soviet or ] governments, most estimates put the figure between 10 and 50 million. Comparison of the ]&ndash;] ] results suggests 5&ndash;10 million deaths in excess of what would be normal in the period, mostly through famine in ]&ndash;]. The 1926 census shows the population of the Soviet Union at 147 million and in 1937 another census found a population of between 162 and 163 million. This was 14 million less than the projected population value and was suppressed as a "]'s census" with the census takers severely punished. A census was taken again in 1939, but its published figure of 170 million has been generally attributed directly to the decision of Stalin{{ref|Cunningham}} (see also ]). Note that the figure of 14 million does not have to imply 14 million additional deaths, since as many as 3 million may be births that never took place due to reduced fertility and choice.

Since "the margin of error" with regard to the number of Stalin's victims is virtually impossible to narrow down to a universally accepted figure, various historians have come up with extremely varying , the highest being 60 million deaths.

A quote popularly attributed to Stalin is ''"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."'' (possibly said in response to ] at the ] in 1945).

==World War II==
] ], ] ] and Stalin at the ].]]
After declining Franco-British missions to Moscow in hopes that the USSR would enter a treaty of Polish defense with them, Stalin began to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Hitler's Germany. In his ] on ], ], Stalin prepared his comrades for the great turn in Soviet policy, the ] with ] which divided ] into the two powers' respective spheres of influence. The exact motivations behind this pact are disputed, but it appears that neither side expected it to last very long.

On ] ], the German invasion of ] started ]. According to the Molotov&ndash;Ribbentrop Pact, Eastern Poland was in the Soviet ]. Hence, Stalin decided to intervene and on ] the ] invaded Poland as well. Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to modify the spheres of influences slightly and Poland was divided between these two states.

According to the pact, the Soviets were promised a slice of Poland, the annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and an undisturbed military advance on Finland, which the Soviets acted on almost immediately. In November, 1939, Stalin sent troops over the Finnish border provoking war. The ] between the Soviet Union and Finland proved to be more difficult than Stalin and the Red Army was prepared for, and the Soviets sustained high casualties. The Soviets finally prevailed in March, 1940, but their inferior army had been revealed to the rest of the world, including Germany.

In June ], ] broke the pact and invaded the ] in ]. Stalin had not expected this &mdash; or at the very least, he had not expected an invasion to come so soon &mdash; and the Soviet Union was largely unprepared for this invasion. Until the last moment, Stalin had sought to avoid any obvious defensive preparation which might provoke German attack, in the hope of buying time to modernise and strengthen his military forces. Even after the attack commenced, Stalin appeared unwilling to accept the fact and, according to some historians, was too stunned to react appropriately for a number of days. A controversial theory put forward by ] asserts that Stalin had been preparing an invasion of Germany while neglecting preparations for defensive warfare, which left Soviet forces vulnerable despite their heavy concentration near the border. Such speculations are difficult to substantiate, as information on the Soviet Army from 1939 to 1941 remains classified, but it is known that the Soviets had advanced and detailed warnings of the German invasion through their extensive foreign intelligence agents, such as ].

The Nazis initially made huge advances, capturing and killing millions of Soviet troops. The ]&ndash;] execution of many of the ]'s experienced generals had a severely debilitating effect on the ability of the USSR to organize defences. Hitler's experts had expected eight weeks of war, and early indications evidenced their prescience.
]'', ], ]. ''Time'' had named Stalin ] the first time for the year ].]]

In response on ] ], Stalin addressed the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on ]). He claimed that although 350,000 troops had been killed by German attacks, the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers (an inflated figure) and that Soviet victory was near. The Soviet Red Army did put up fierce resistance, but during the war's early stages was largely ineffective against the better-equipped and trained German forces, until the invaders were halted and then driven back in December 1941 in front of ]. Stalin then worked with independent-minded Soviet Marshal ] to orchestrate the decisive German defeat at the ].

Stalin met in several ] with Churchill and/or Roosevelt in Moscow, ], ], and ] to plan ]. His shortcomings as strategist are frequently noted regarding massive Soviet loss of life and early Soviet defeats. (In his autobiography Khrushchev claimed that Stalin tried to conduct tactical decisions using a world globe.) Yet Stalin did rapidly move Soviet industrial production east of the ] river, far from ]-reach, to sustain the ]'s war machine with astonishing success. Additionally, Stalin was well aware that other European armies had utterly disintegrated when faced with Nazi military efficacy and responded effectively by subjecting his army to galvanizing terror and unrevolutionary patriotism.

Stalin's ] of ] ] illustrates the ruthlessness with which he sought to stiffen army resolve: all those who retreated or otherwise left their positions without orders to do so were to be summarily shot. Other orders declared that the families of those who surrendered were subject to ] terror. Barrier forces of ] were soon set up behind advances to machine-gun anyone who retreated. The surrendering Soviet troops of the first years of Barbarossa were sent to the Gulag after their release from ]s.

In the war's opening stages, the retreating Red Army also sought to deny resources to the enemy through a scorched earth policy of destroying the infrastructure and food supplies of areas before the Germans could seize them. Unfortunately, this, along with abuse by German troops, caused inconceivable starvation and suffering among the civilian population that were left behind.

After the tide of war had changed in the Soviet Union's favor, the Red Army in its 1945 conquest of eastern Germany took revenge for German depredations and genocide by embarking on a systematic program of pillaging, expropriation, rape and murder against the remaining German civilian inhabitants. This program was officially urged on Red Army men by Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg, who among other things wrote: "Follow the words of Comrade Stalin and crush forever the fascist beast.... Break the racial pride of the German woman. Take her as your legitimate booty." Millions of German women were raped, often gang raped, repeatedly. German sources estimate the number of civilians killed in the final days of the war, and in the process of expelling Germans from lands to be annexed to Poland and the Soviet Union, at 1.5 million to 2 million.

The Soviet Union bore the brunt of civilian and military losses in World War II. Approximately 7 million Red Army personnel and 20 million civilians died. The Nazis considered Slavs to be "sub-human," and many people believe the Nazis killed Slavs as an ethnically targeted ]. This concept of Slavic inferiority was also the reason why Hitler did not accept into his army many Russians who wanted to fight the Stalinist regime until 1944, when the war was lost for Germany. In the Soviet Union, World War II left a huge deficit of men of the wartime fighting-age generation. To this day the war is remembered very vividly in Russia, ], and other parts of the former Soviet Union as the ], and ], Victory Day, is one of Russia's biggest national holidays.

] after the ]'s 1949 victory over the ] in the ]]]

==Post-war era==
Following ], the Red Army occupied much of the territory that had been formerly held by the Axis countries: there were ]s in ] and ]. ] and ] were under practical military occupation, despite the fact that the latter was formally an Allied country. Soviet-friendly governments were established in ], ], ], and homegrown communist regimes existed in ] and ]. ] retained formal independence, but was politically isolated and economically dependent on the Soviet Union. ], ] and ] were under the strong influence of local communist parties, which were at the very least friendly towards Moscow. Stalin hoped that the withdrawal of the Americans from Europe would lead to Soviet hegemony over the whole continent. The foundation of ] and American help for the anti-communist side in the ] changed the situation. ] was proclaimed a separate country in ], ruled by German communists. Moreover, Stalin made a decision to switch to direct control over his satellites in Central Europe: all of the countries were to be ruled by local communist parties that tried to implement the Soviet template locally.

In ] this decision led to the establishment of Stalinist governments in ], ], ], ] and ], later called the "Communist Bloc". Communist ] remained an ally, but Yugoslavia under ] broke with the USSR. Stalin viewed Soviet consolidation of power in the region as a necessary step to protect the USSR by surrounding it with countries with friendly governments, to act as a buffer against possible invaders.

This action reversed the hopes of ] that ] would be friendly to the West and form a ''cordon sanitaire'' (buffer) against Communism. It confirmed the fears of many in the West that the Soviet Union still intended to spread communism across the world. The fear and suspicion was further amplified in 1949 when ]'s ] defeated the pro-Western ] in the ]. The Soviet Union immediately recognized the ], which it regarded as a new ally. The relations between the Soviet Union and its former World War II western allies soon broke down, and gave way to a prolonged period of tension and distrust between east and west known as the ]. (See also ].)

Meanwhile, relations between Russia and China were at the highest point of the century, with the signing of the ].

At home, Stalin presented himself as a great wartime leader who had led the USSR to victory against the Nazis. By the end of 1940s, Russian nationalism increased. For instance, some inventions and scientific discoveries were reclaimed by ethnic Russian researchers. Examples include the ], reclaimed by father and son ]s; the ], by ] and ]; the ], by ]; the ], by ]; etc.

Stalin's internal repressive policies continued and intensified (including in newly acquired territories), but never reached the extremes of the 1930s.

According to some witness accounts, the ] campaigns of 1948-1953 (see ], ], ]) were only the precursors of greater repression to come, but if such plans did indeed exist, Stalin died before he could implement them.

==Stalin as theorist==
Stalin made very few contributions to Communist (or, more specifically, Marxist-Leninist) theory, but the contributions he did make were to be accepted and upheld by all Soviet political scientists during his rule.

In ], Stalin announced that the society of the Soviet Union consisted of two non-antagonistic classes: workers and ] peasantry. These corresponded to the two different forms of property over the ] that existed in the Soviet Union: state property (for the workers) and collective property (for the peasantry). In addition to these, Stalin distinguished the stratum of ]. The concept of '''non-antagonistic classes''' was entirely new to Leninist theory.

Stalin and his supporters, in his own time and since, have highlighted the notion that socialism can be built and consolidated in just one country, even one as underdeveloped as Russia was during the 1920s, and indeed that this might be the only means in which it could be built in a hostile environment.{{ref|Stalin-Voprosy}}

==Death==
According to Khrushchev's autobiography, Stalin frequently engaged in all night partying, with his aides, after which he would sleep all day and expect them to stay up and run the country. On ] ], after an all-night dinner with interior minister ] and future premiers ], ] and ], Stalin collapsed in his room, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. Although his guards thought it odd that he did not rise at his usual time the next day they were under orders not to disturb him and he was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on ], ], at the age of 73, and was buried on ]. Officially, the cause of death was listed as a ]. His body was preserved in ] until ], ], when ] was taking place in the Soviet Union. Stalin's body was then buried by the Kremlin walls.

It has been suggested that Stalin was murdered. The ex-Communist exile Avtorkhanov argued this point as early as ]. The political memoirs of ], published in ], claimed Beria had boasted to Molotov that he poisoned Stalin: "I took him out." In ], a joint group of Russian and American historians announced their view that Stalin ingested ], a powerful rat poison that thins the blood vessels and causes strokes and hemorrhages. Since it is flavorless, warfarin is a plausible murder weapon. But the facts of Stalin's death will probably never be known with certainty. His demise, however, arrived at a convenient time for Beria and others, scheduled to be swept away in another Stalin purge. Whether or not Beria or others were directly responsible for his death it is true that the ] did not summon medical attention for him for more than a day after he had been found.

==Cult of personality==
] ] by ].]]
Stalin is well known for having created a ] in the Soviet Union around both himself and Lenin. The ]ing of the Soviet founder in ] was done over the objection of Lenin's widow, ]. Stalin became the focus of massive adoration and even worship. Numerous towns, villages and cities were renamed after the Soviet leader (see ]) and the ] and ] were named in his honor. The dictator relished grandiloquent titles (e.g. "Coryphaeus of Science," "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness"), and helped rewrite Soviet history to provide himself a more significant role in the revolution, meanwhile insisting that he be remembered for "the extraordinary modesty characteristic of truly great people."

Trotsky criticized the cult of personality Stalin built as being against the values of socialism and Bolshevism by exalting the individual above the party and class and making criticism of Stalin unacceptable. The personality cult reached new levels during the ] with Stalin's name even being included in the new Soviet ]. Stalin became the focus of a body of literature including poetry as well as music, paintings and film.

:O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
:Thou who broughtest man to birth.
:Thou who fructifies the earth,
:Thou who restorest to centuries,
:Thou who makest bloom the spring,
:Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
:Thou, splendor of my spring, O thou,
:Sun reflected by millions of hearts.
: (])

In recent years, Stalin's cult of personality has resurged. Millions of Russians, exasperated with the downfall of the economy and instability after the breakup of the Soviet Union, want Stalin back. A recent poll revealed that over twenty-five percent of Russians would vote for Stalin if he were still alive, and the number of people who want a leader like Stalin continues to grow.

]

==Policies and accomplishments==
Overall, under Stalin's rule the Soviet Union was transformed from an agricultural nation to a global superpower. The USSR's industrialisation was successful in that the country was able to defend against and eventually defeat the Axis invasion in ] though at an enormous cost of human lives. However, historian ] and other Westerners claim that the USSR was bound for industrialisation which was not necessarily enhanced by Bolshevik influence. Several other "what if" speculations do exist, but they are by their very nature unprovable. Many have also argued that Stalin was partially responsible for the initial military disasters and enormous human causalities during WWII, because Stalin eliminated many of the military officers during the purges, especially the most senior ones, and ignored the massive amount of information warning of the German attack .

While Stalin's social and economic policies laid the foundations for the USSR's emergence as a superpower, the harshness in which he conducted Soviet affairs was subsequently repudiated by his successors in the Communist Party leadership, notably the denunciation of Stalinism by Nikita Khrushchev in February ]. In his "Secret Speech", "]", delivered to a closed session of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his ] and his regime for "violation of Leninist norms of legality". However, his immediate successors continued to follow the basic principles of Stalin's rule &mdash; the political monopoly of the Communist Party presiding over a command economy and a security service able to suppress dissent. On the other hand the large-scale purges were never repeated.

==Other names ==
His first name is also ] as ''Josif''. His original surname, ჯუღაშვილი (''Jughashvili''), is also transliterated as ''Jugashvili''. The ] transliteration is Джугашвили, which is in turn transliterated into English as ''Dzhugashvili'' and ''Djugashvili''. &ndash;შვილი (&ndash;''shvili'') is a Georgian suffix meaning "child" or "son".

There are several etymologies of the ჯუღა (''jugha'') root. In one version, it is the ]n for "rubbish"; the name ''Jugayev'' is common among Ossetians, and before the revolution the names in ] were traditionally written with the Georgian suffix, especially among Christianized Ossetians. In a second version, the name derives from the village of Jugaani in ], eastern Georgia. An article in the newspaper ''Pravda'' in ] claimed that the word derives from the Old Georgian for "steel," which might be the reason for his adoption of the name ''Stalin''. Сталин (''Stalin'') is derived from combining the Russian сталь (''stal''), "]," with the possessive suffix &ndash;ин (''&ndash;in''), a formula used by many other Bolsheviks, including ] and ].

Also like other Bolsheviks, he became commonly known by one of his revolutionary ], of which ''Stalin'' was only the most prominent. He was also known as '']'' (after a ] folk ], a ]-like brigand); and he is reported to have used at least a ] other names for the purpose of ] ]s, but for obvious reasons most of them remain unknown. Directly following World War II, as the Soviets were negotiating with the Allies over many matters, Stalin often sent directions to Molotov as ''Druzhkov''. Among his other nicknames and aliases were ''Ivanovich'', ''Soso'' or ''Sosso'' (mainly his boyhood name), ''David'', ''Nizharadze'' or ''Nijeradze'', and ''Chizhikov''.

<!-- Provide sources supporting this theory then uncomment
There are a number of rumors about Stalin's ancestry, none of which are confirmed. One of the rumors is that he was the son of his godfather, a wealthy Georgian noble Egnatashvili, whose family were hereditary clerics. Several facts support this case: Stalin's mother worked for Egnatashvili; he attended seminary; it was a prestigious seminary, which was not possible for a child from a poor family; and he kept in contact with Egnatashvili throughout his life, including the war period. On the other hand, it would not have been unusual for a godfather to help his godson out.
-->

==Stalin in media==
* ]: '''Symphony No. 2: The Death of Stalin''' tells of the astonishing events surrounding the death and funeral of ] leader ]. The piece was commissioned by Nottingham Youth Orchestra and was premiered by them, conducted by Derek Williams, at the Royal Concert Hall, ], in ] - the 50th anniversary of ]'s death.
* '']'' - A ] ] movie.
* '']'' - A ] Hollywood movie.

==Notes==
# {{note|Register}} Joseph Dzhugashvili is listed in the records of the Uspensky church in ], ] as born on ] (]: ]) ]. This birth date is maintained in his School Leaving Certificate, his extensive tzarist Russia police file, and all other surviving pre-revolution documents. Stalin himself listed ] ] in a curriculum vitae as late as 1920, in his own handwriting. However after his coming to power in 1922 the date inexplicably changes to ] ] (], ]), and that was the day his birthday was celebrated in the ].
#{{note|histWorld}} From http://historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ac14&ParagraphID=qxe#qxe
# {{note|Khrushchev}} Excerpts from ]'s speech "]" can be read online (Internet Modern History Sourcebook) at .<br/>
# {{note|Koba}} page 133, ''Koba the Dread'', ISBN 0786868767; page 354, ''Stalin: The Man and His Era, ISBN 0807070017, In a footnote he quotes the press announcement as speaking of her "sudden death"; he also cites pages 103&ndash;5 of his daughter's book, ''Twenty Letters to a Friend'', the Russian edition, New York, 1967
# {{note|StalinLinguistics}} , J.V. Stalin, '']'', ]-], available online as including other articles and letters published (also in Pravda) soon after on ]-] and ]-].
# {{note|Cunningham}} , Hugo S. Cunningham, 1999 & 2001, retrieved ]-] from http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/revision.html
# {{note|Stalin-Voprosy}} Stalin, "Voprosy leninizma", 2nd ed., Moscow, p. 589 "Istoricheskij materializm", ed. by F. B. Konstantinov, Moscow 1951, p. 402; P. Calvert, "The Concept of Class", New York 1982, pp. 144&ndash;145

==Further reading==
*Alan Bullock, ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'', HarperCollins, 1991, ISBN 0679729941
*], ''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'', Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN 0195071328
*], ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'', Oxford University Press, 1987, ISBN 0195051807
*], ''Stalin: A Political Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1966, ISBN 0195002733
*Walter Laqueur, ''Stalin'', Ediciones B, 2003, ISBN 8466613161
*Donald Rayfield, ''Stalin and His Hangmen : The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him'', Random House, 2004, ISBN 0375506322
*Simon Sebag Montefiore, ''Stalin: The court of the Red Tsar'', Knopf, 2004, ISBN 1400042305
*Robert C. Tucker, ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879&ndash;1929'', Norton, 1973, ISBN 039305487X
*Robert C. Tucker, ''Stalin in Power. The Revolution from Above, 1928&ndash;1941'', Norton, 1990, ISBN 039302881X
*Adam B. Ulam, ''Stalin : The Man and His Era'', Beacon Press, 1987, ISBN 080707005X
*
*RJ Rummel, "Death By Government"

==Related articles==
*] (Stalin's second wife)
*]
*]
*] (], Stalin's daughter)

==External links==
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Revision as of 07:57, 9 October 2005

Josef Stalin was loved by everyone. He ruled a democratic nation which was to be renamed Antarctica, after Fijian monkey kamikaze bombers invaded his tree house. He came to power after defeating an evil dragon named Stebzilla and was loved for this triumph by every man, woman, and homosexual. He ruled for two days, during 23/5/1990, and 24/5/1990, and during his time, he had duplicated the population of penguins, lions, and lizards, established 14 schools, and ate a roast for dinner. It is certainly unanimous that you could not find a better leader than Stalin, as he was truly a man who loved and made love to his people.