Joseph Djugashvilli (Stalin), was born in Gori, Georgia on 21st Decembe, 1879. His mother, Ekaterina, was married at the age of 14 and Joseph was her fourth child to be born in less than four years. The first three died and as Joseph was prone to bad health, his mother feared on several occasions that he would also die. Understandably, given this background, Joseph's mother was very protective towards him as a child.

Joseph's father, Vissarion Djugashvilli, was a bootmaker and his mother took in washing. He was an extremely violent man who abused both his son and wife. As a child, Joseph experienced the poverty that most peasants had to endure in Russia at the end of the 19th century.

Stalin, a political name adopted when he was 34, meaning Man of Steel, studied for the priesthood under his real name, Dzhugashvili. While studying at the seminary he joined a secret organization called Messame Dassy (the Third Group). Members were supporters of Georgian independence from Russia. Some were also socialist revolutionaries and it was through the people he met in this organization that Stalin first came into contact with the ideas of Karl Marx.

In May, 1899, Joseph Stalin left the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Several reasons were given for this action including disrespect for those in authority and reading forbidden books. According to the seminary conduct book he was expelled "as politically unreliable".Stalin was later to claim that the real reason was that he had been trying to convert his fellow students to Marxism.

Soon after leaving the seminary he began reading Iskra (the Spark), the newspaper of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP). It was the first underground Marxist paper to be distributed in Russia. It was printed in several European cities and then smuggled into Russia by a network of SDLP agents. The editorial board included Lenin and Trotsky

In Stalin's early years he was continually in trouble with the local authorities. During this period he took the nickname Koba, after the famous Georgian outlaw and the name of a character in the romance "Nunu", by the Georgian author Kazbek. The celebrated brigand Koba was known as a fighter for the the rights of the people, while the fictional Koba was depicted as sacrificing everything in his struggle against the Tsarist authorities on behalf of his people, but unsuccesful, freedom was lost.

In 1901 Stalin joined the Social Democratic Labour Party and whereas most of the leaders were living in exile, he stayed in Russia where he helped to organize industrial resistance to Tsarism. he would end up being arrested and exiled to Siberia for coordinating a Strike at the large Rothschild plant at Batum.

Stalin escaped prison exile several times, at his last escape he fled to St. Petersburg, where he became a member of the editorial staff of Pravda in 1912. Within a year, Stalin was arrested again and exiled to Siberia. He was released from exile by general amnesty after the February Revolution of 1917, and went back to the editorial staff of Pravda in Petrograd.

During this time the Split in the SDLP between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks would happen with Stalin Siding with Lenin. Lenin was impressed with Stalin's achievements in the Caucasus and in December 1905, he was invited to meet him in Finland

Stalin would Settled in Baku to expand the influence of bolsheviks in the Caucasus, Joseph Stalin worked closely with his friends in developing the political consciousness of the workers in the region. The workers in the oil fields belonged to a union under the influence of the Bolsheviks, and Stalin was one of the Union's delegates

He returned to St. Petersburg in February 1912, he became editor of Pravda. Lenin, who described him as my "wonderful Georgian" arranged for him to join the Party's Central Committee, he was Exiled to Siberia on 1913. he would return to St Petersburg in 1917 with the overthrow of the Tzar and the pardon to all political prisoners by Prince Lvov. He would join the then Petrograd Soviet

At this time, Stalin, like most Bolsheviks, took the view that the Russian people were not ready for a socialist revolution. He therefore called for conditional support of the Provisional Government, declaring that at this time it "would be utopian to raise the question of a socialist revolution". He also urged policies that would tempt the Mensheviks into forming an alliance. However, he disagreed with Molotov, who was calling for the immediate overthrow of Prince Lvov.

When Lenin returned to Russia on 3rd April, 1917, he announced what became known as the April Theses. Lenin attacked Bolsheviks for supporting the Provisional Government. Instead, he argued, revolutionaries should be telling the people of Russia that they should take over the control of the country. Lenin ended his speech by telling the assembled crowd that they must "fight for the social revolution, fight to the end, till the complete victory of the proletariat".

As an Editor for Pravda Stalin was aware that he was being held partly responsible for what Lenin had described as "betraying socialism". In the newspaper he wrote an article dismissing the idea of working with the Provisional Government and denouncing Kerensky and Chernov.

On 26th October, 1917, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars. Lenin was elected chairman and Joseph Stalin (Nationalities), As a Georgian and a member of a minority group who had written about the problems of non-Russian peoples living under the Tsar, Stalin was seen as the obvious choice for the post as Minister of Nationalities. Nearly half of the population of the Empire was made up of non-russians. To show his good faith, Stalin appointed several assistants from the various nationalities within Russia.

At the Tenth Party Congress in April 1922, Lenin proposed a resolution that would ban all factions within the party. Stalin was appointed as General Secretary and was now given the task of dealing with the "factions and cliques" in the Communist Party

Following Lenin's death in 1924, There was a big power struggle in the party between 3 main factions. The Left opposition (trotsky), the Centre (Stalin) and the Right opposition (Bukharin).

Trotsky had argued in 1917 that the Bolshevik Revolution was doomed to failure unless successful revolutions also took place in other countries such as Germany and France. Lenin had agreed with him about this but by 1924 Stalin began talking about the possibility of completing the "building of socialism in a single country". Nikolay Bukharin joined the attacks on Trotsky asserted that Trotsky's theory of "permanent revolution" was anti-Leninist. in 1925 Trotsky was removed from the goverment and 2 years later from the Party and exiled for Factionalism.

During the Collectivation of Land Stalin Blame the policies of Bukharin for the failure of the 1927 harvest. By this time kulaks made up 40% of the peasants in some regions, He also advocated the setting up of collective farms. By 1935, 94 per cent of crops were being produced by peasants working on collective farms.

Stalin during this time would also introduce the 5 year plan who's main goal was the rapid industrialization of the USSR. The USSR moved from complete devastation and destruction after WWI and the Civil War, to become a nation that was one of the most powerful in the world: achieving such goals that 30 years previous would have been viewed as wholly impossible.

During WWII Stalin organised and lead the Soviet Union to victory over the invading Nazi armies.

Stalin would pass away on February 1953, his death just like Lenin's would end up in a 3-way Power struggle between Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev

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