Joseph Stalin, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in the Georgian village of Gori, was a ruthless dictator who transformed the Soviet Union into a major world power. His early years were marked by significant hardship and trauma, which may have contributed to his later development as a ruthless leader.
Stalin’s father was a shoemaker with a history of beating and violence, possibly due to smallpox scars and a carriage accident. His mother didted on him, but his father was a drunk who routinely beat him. Stalin was unhappy and was hit by both his father and mother due to his alchoholic nature. At eight years old, he was sent to Orthodox school in Gori, Georgia.
Stalin’s childhood was marked by significant hardship and trauma, which may have contributed to his later development as a ruthless leader. At the age of eight, he could barely talk, grabbed at food, and behaved like a wild animal that the orphanage had taught her. One could possibly assume contradicting, i.e., loyal and disloyal, attitudes to the regime simultaneously, according to the concrete issue concerned.
The paper will look at Joseph Stalin’s childhood/early life, how he came to power, what he did that was significant, and how the world changed because of him. The slogan “Thanks to Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood” rang without fail, reflecting the lasting fascination with the demon dictator.
📹 Why You Wouldn’t Want Joseph Stalin As Your Dad #shorts
What is feminine for Stalin?
Stalin is a given name and surname strongly associated with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin was a prominent figure in Russian and world history from the early to mid-20th century. Other notable individuals with the surname include Kerstin-Maria Stalín, Rezauddin Stalin, Sanjeev Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Vasily Dzhugashvili Stalin, Erick Stalin Morillo Calderón, M. K. Stalin, and others. Stalin was a trade unionist, a politician, a film producer, a Soviet general, and a filmmaker.
Other notable individuals include Peruvian footballer Erick Stalin Morillo Calderón, Indian politician M. K. Stalin, American footballer Colinet, Venezuelan politician, Indian cricketer, Indian filmmaker, Colombian footballer Motta, Venezuelan basketball player, Venezuelan footballer Rivas, and Ecuadorian footballer Stalin Valencia.
What kind of childhood did Joseph Stalin have?
Besarion, a young man who became violent towards his family, moved into the house of Father Christopher Charkviani, a devout Christian and a strict but affectionate mother. Keke was determined to send her son to school, which none of the family had previously achieved. Stalin was enrolled at Gori Church School when he was ten, claiming to be the son of a deacon.
There were many local rumors that Beso was not Stalin’s real father, which Stalin himself encouraged in later life. However, Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore thought it likely that Beso was the father due to their strong physical resemblance. Beso eventually attacked a policeman while drunk, leading to his expulsion from Gori. He moved to Tiflis, where he worked at the Adelkhanov shoe factory.
As a child, Stalin exhibited idiosyncrasies, excelled academically, and displayed talent in painting and drama classes. He began writing poetry and was a fan of Georgian nationalist writer Raphael Eristavi. He was also a choirboy, singing both in church and at local weddings. A childhood friend of Stalin’s later recalled that he was the best but also the naughtiest pupil in the class.
When Stalin was twelve, he was seriously injured after being hit by a phaeton, hospitalized for several months, and sustained a lifelong disability to his left arm. His father subsequently kidnapped him and enrolled him as an apprentice cobbler in the factory, which was his only experience as a worker. According to Stalin’s biographer Robert Service, this was his “first experience with capitalism” and was “raw, harsh, and dispiriting”.
Several priests from Gori retrieved the boy, and Beso cut all contact with his wife and son. In February 1892, Stalin and his classmates witnessed the public hanging of several peasant bandits, leaving a deep and lasting impression on him. Stalin decided to become a local administrator to deal with the problems of poverty that affected the population around Gori. Despite his Christian upbringing, he had become an atheist after contemplating the problem of evil and learning about evolution through Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
What was Stalin like as a person?
Stalin, like Lenin, acted modestly and unassumingly in public, often editing reports of Kremlin receptions to diminish the importance of individual leaders and the cult around him. He emphasized the importance of broader social forces, such as the working class. Stalin’s public actions seemed to support his disdain of the cult, as he often edited reports of Kremlin receptions, cutting applause and praise aimed at him and adding applause for other Soviet leaders.
A banner featuring Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin in 1934 was removed, but by 1938, Stalin was more comfortable with the banner featuring his name. In 1936, Stalin banned renaming places after him. In some memoirs, Molotov claimed that Stalin had resisted the cult of personality, but soon became comfortable with it.
In 1935, Finnish communist Arvo Tuominen reported a sarcastic toast proposed by Stalin himself at a New Year’s Party. In 1938, Nikolai Yezhov proposed renaming Moscow to “Stalinodar”, but Stalin reacted negatively to this idea, resulting in the city remaining the name Moscow.
How many died under Stalin?
Historians like J. Arch Getty and Stephen G. Wheatcroft argue that the opening of Soviet archives has confirmed lower estimates put forth by the revisionist school. American historian Timothy D. Snyder stated that Stalin deliberately killed about 6 million people, which could rise to 9 million if foreseeable deaths from policies are considered. American historian William D. Rubinstein concluded that even under most conservative estimates, Stalin was responsible for the deaths of at least 7 million people, or about 4. 2 of the USSR’s total population.
However, some historians believe that the official archival figures of the categories recorded by Soviet authorities are unreliable and incomplete. For example, Canadian historian Robert Gellately and Montefiore argue that many suspects beaten and tortured to death while in “investigative custody” were likely not to have been counted among the executed. Wheatcroft states that prior to the opening of the archives for historical research, our understanding of the scale and nature of Soviet repression has been extremely poor.
British historian Michael Ellman argues that mass deaths from famines should be placed in a different category than repression victims. He also states that famines were widespread throughout the world in the 19th and 20th centuries in countries such as China, India, Ireland, and Russia. Ellman compares the behavior of the Stalinist regime vis-à-vis the Holodomor to that of the British government (towards Ireland and India) and the G8 in contemporary times.
Stalin has been accused of genocide in the cases of forced population transfer in the Soviet Union. Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent who initiated the Genocide Convention and coined the term genocide himself, assumed that genocide was perpetrated in the context of the mass deportation of the Chechens, Ingush, Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, and Karachay.
Some academics disagree with the classification of deportation as genocide. Professor Alexander Statiev argues that Stalin’s administration did not have a conscious genocidal intent to exterminate the various deported peoples but rather that Soviet political culture, poor planning, haste, and wartime shortages were responsible for the genocidal death rate among them.
When did Stalin take power?
In March 1922, Grigory Zinoviev appointed Stalin as General Secretary, with him officially starting in April 1922. Stalin held posts in the Orgburo, Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate, and the Commissariat for Nationalities Affairs, but agreed to delegate his workload to subordinates. Lenin suffered a stroke in May 1922, and he went into semi-retirement and moved to his dacha in Gorki. Bolsheviks were concerned about who would take over if Lenin died.
Lenin and Trotsky had a personal and theoretical relationship, while Lenin and Stalin had a political and apparatical relationship. Stalin visited Lenin often, acting as his intermediary with the outside world. They quarrelled over economic policy and consolidating the Soviet republics. One day, Stalin verbally swore at Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, for breaching Politburo orders by helping Lenin communicate with Trotsky and others about politics.
As their relationship deteriorated, Lenin dictated increasingly disparaging notes on Stalin in his testament. The veracity of Lenin dictating the writing of this letter has been disputed, but most historians consider it an accurate reflection of Lenin’s views. Lenin’s proposal to appoint Trotsky as a Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union as evidence of his intention to appoint Trotsky as his successor as head of government is also cited.
Who has the most kills in history?
The list of history’s most lethal leaders includes Hideki Tojo, George W. Bush, King Leopold II, Hong Xiuquan, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. These leaders have committed millions of deaths, both directly and indirectly, due to their military and political actions. As technology improved, so did our ability to kill one another en masse. While not all numbers are 100% verifiable, these leaders are considered history’s most lethal.
Did Stalin have a son?
In 1941, the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany, and Stalin’s son Vasily was transferred to the front. Vasily, who was often accompanied by a formation, took part in 29 combat missions and shot down two enemy aircraft. However, he was hated by his colleagues who believed he was an informant for his father. In 1942, he was sent back to Moscow and was given the role of inspecting the air force’s condition.
After an incident involving explosives dropping into the Moskva River, Vasily was demoted but later promoted to command an air division. He was promoted to the rank of general and at 25 was the youngest major-general in the Red Army. He was awarded several decorations, including the Order of Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and the Order of Suvorov. After the war, he was transferred to Germany as part of the Soviet occupation. He was promoted to major-general in 1946, Lieutenant-General in 1947, and Commander of the Air Forces of the Moscow Military District in 1948.
What dictator killed the most people?
Mao Zedong, a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist, and communist leader, is widely considered a savior of the nation. During his first five years from 1949 to 1953, he is said to have systematically killed between 4 to 6 million people by sentencing them to death or sending them to “reform through labor” camps. He organized mass repressions, established execution quotas, and defended his actions as necessary for securing power for “The People’s Republic of China”.
His social programs, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, are two of the most ill-fated initiatives ever. The first was an effort to rapidly industrialize China, focusing on making China a premier exporter of steel. However, this led to many citizens making smelting shops in their backyards, resulting in 20 million deaths.
In the interim, Mao started the socialist education movement, which aimed at young people who would eventually wrest power away from the older guard. This movement was renamed the “four cleanups movement” in 1964, aiming to cleanse politics, economics, ideas, and organization of “reactionaries”. This led to the formation of the “Red Guards” who were organized to punish intellectuals and take out Mao’s political adversaries.
The Cultural Revolution was underway, with its overriding mission to abolish Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Mao believed that destruction and chaos could bring re-birth, so he told his followers to destroy buildings, sacred objects, talk back to elders, punish them, turn them in, and kill those who did not agree. By 1968, Mao implemented the decade-long “Down to the Countryside Movement”, forcing young intellectuals to move out to the country to become farmers. Estimates of the death toll range from 40, 000 to 7 million depending on who you ask.
What was Stalin’s backstory?
Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia, was a prominent figure in the Bolshevik movement. He attended school in Gori before moving to Tiflis to study at Tiflis Theological Seminary. During his time at the seminary, he embraced Marxism and became a close follower of Vladimir Lenin. After being marked by the Okhrana, he became a full-time revolutionary and was involved in various criminal activities.
Stalin became one of the Bolsheviks’ chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda, and raising money through bank robberies and extortion. He was captured and exiled to Siberia multiple times but often escaped. Stalin became one of Lenin’s closest associates, helping him rise to power after the Russian Revolution.
In October 1917, Lenin declared himself chairman of the new government, the Council of People’s Commissars (“Sovnarkom”). Stalin supported Lenin’s decision not to form a coalition with the Socialist Revolutionary Party, but a coalition was formed with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Stalin became part of an informal leadership group alongside Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Yakov Sverdlov, with direct access to Lenin without an appointment.
📹 Joseph Stalin – Dictator | Mini Bio | BIO
Born on December 18, 1879, in Gori, Georgia, Joseph Stalin rose to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party, …
It’s actually said Stalin was distraught about his son’s death. After he heard he died he said something like “he was a brave soldier after all.” He just could risk public backlash of playing favorites with his son while enforcing order 227 on everyone else’s son. He was cold but in that particular situation he was fair.
A little more on it: Yakov committed suicide in the camp by guard or walking into the electrified fence. The west did find out how he died but never told Stalin as it’d alert him that they had the camp records. Stalin never found out even right before he died in 1953. Edit: How Yakov was captured went as follows: Yakov commanded a battery of Artillery in the RKKA (Workers’ and Peasants Red Army). On July 16th, 1941, during the Battle of Smolensk, him and his battery were surrounded by German forces. His battery was given orders to fall back, but Yakov refused to fall back to stay loyal to his father. The ensuing battle resulted in his capture. Before this happened, he cut off his rank insignia as he was a Leytenant (or Lieutenant in English), an officer rank. Though this failed when the Abwehr recognized his face. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his actions in the battle.
Ngl I laughed so hard when he said ” he can’t even shoot straight” but on a separate note. Stalin never saved his son because he also stated ” millions of my soldier die during battles. All of them are children of someone. My son is no exception. ” ( something along that line cause translation could be slightly off) In all fairness, he saw his son the same way he saw any soldier. So although he was cold hearted on this particular subject he was fair. He wasn’t going to risk giving back a high general for the sake of personal feelings.
After hearing about his sons death Stalin reportedly said “He was a real man!” As if this was somehow showing remorse for his sons death(when in all reality, he could have gotten him back if he really wanted to) This reminds me of an episode of tales from the crypt: A general has a son who is a soldier, and the soldier gets court marshaled and sentenced to death by firing squad for being scared and running away from battle, leaving his platoon to die… The general got to speak to his son before his death sentence, and the son was crying uncontrollably, so the general dad told him “stop crying like that, ur my son, u think I’d really let them kill u? I’m gonna make sure they shoot blanks at you and u play dead until I can get you outta here” So the son is happy and agrees to act as if he’s accepted his fate and goes to the firing squad stood up straight with his chest out, ready to take his punishment. And then the firing squad shoots REAL rounds actually killing him. Then one of the lieutenants goes up to the general and says “I’m sorry about ur son sir, but atleast he accepted the consequences and took his punishment like a man” and the general smiles and says “YES! MY SON WAS NOT A COWARD 😁” smh
People think this is off brand for Stalin or Hitler. Hitler was into eugenics–he believed parentage was paramount. Stalin was a strict pragmatist–if you didn’t do what you needed to do the way you needed to do it then you weren’t needed. The reason the Red Scare broke up was this difference in ideology.
Stalin was no doubt a awful father, but the trade for his son situation was smart, Imagine how that would destroy the moral of the soldiers if they found out that they traded a marshel for a lieutenant just cause its his son. And on the other had you have Patton who led many men who were sons to there deaths in a assault behind enemy lines just to save his son. Which is really selfish
The comments on this article are ridiculous. Yakov when he was captured was a private in the red army, the Germans were asking him to trade a field marshal. Obviously anyone who thinks about this like this will see how critiquing Stalin on this is absurd. The exchange would of been hugely unfair and seen as an embarrassment and offensive to every family in the USSR who had sons in the red army.
It’s not that Stalin didn’t want to rescue his son from the Germans, it’s that the Germans wanted the Soviets to realise very well experienced German general who scored hundreds of victories against them and killed many of their people as bargain coin. If you had to choose between saving your son by realising a dangerous man who can potentially kill milions of people, or not save your son at all but save thousands of soldiers what would you choose?
Well, it’s normal that Stalin didn’t care about his son. Lenin, the first captain of the communism, understood that Stalin wasn’t a really good person. The differences between them is that Lenin loved his country and tried to make it better while Stalin only thought about himself. That’s also why after the death of Lenin with Stalin as the communist captain started the dictatorship. There are people who say that Stalin is the best one and other shits. Those who say this are just some ignorants who think they are cool saying those things.
He also had two other kids that he had way better relationships with. His daughter he loved dearly and she remembers him fondly. His other son was very close to him and was convinced that his father’s colleagues had conspired to kill him, or had at least let him die of his stroke. He lived the rest of his life broken. Also, regarding the capture of Stalin’s first son, part of the reason why he didn’t agree to the prisoner transfer was because he didn’t want to show favoritism for his family. That’s not to say that he didn’t have a poor relationship with his son, but he was a complicated man and wasn’t entirely irredeemable.
He made that trade, because he cared more about Soviet Union and because he needed to win in WW2 no matter what. Was it cruel towards his son? – yes Was it important for Red Army and Soviet’s morale? – absolutely You see Stalin as a tyrant, I see him as sigma who won WW2 nearly by himself. Soviet Union did all the dirty job and they made it first to Berlin.
The popular phrase “I do not trade a lieutenant for a field marshal” is a post-war fabrication. It has no documentary evidence nor in official correspondence nor in memoirs. Moreso, Germans weren’t interested in getting Paulus back. He was promoted to fieldmarschal to foster him to commit suicide and not to surrender. Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, remembered: “In the winter of 1943-44, after Stalingrad, my father suddenly told me in one of our then rare meetings: “The Germans offered to exchange Yasha for one of their own … I will not bargain with them! No, a war is a war!”” In his memoirs, Marshal Georgy Zhukov wrote that during one of his walks, Stalin thoughtfully said: “Yakov will not get out of captivity. The Nazis will shoot him.” The reasons for not exchanging Yakov were purely practical. If Yakov was exchanged, Germans would have latched on that fact and translated to every Soviet POW something like “Stalin exchanges his son but not you!” leading to more dissatisfaction with Soviet regime and rise in collaborationism.
He also had an adopted son, who was treated in the same way as their own children. Reportedly, Stalin was after all not a bad parent. He could not play favorites, the Soviet people would not approve. Adopted son was in particular fighting in the battle of Stalingrad and he survived. He was wounded 24 times, yet every time returned to the front.
Hitler: “we got your son, let made a trade about it Yes? OR we will kill him” Stalin: “I am sorry WHO?” Hitler: “your so-” Stalin: “nah thats ok kill him, he can’t even shoot him self straight that fact he is nothing worthy or anything” hang up Hitler: “……” Stalin son: “what did he say?” Hitler: “you couldn’t shoot your self straight, well at least we can shoot you right now is that ok?” Stalin son: “YES WOOOO Clap*” *some German soldier clap and say WOOOOO and say YES Hitler: “what a worst dad ever” gunshot
I mean this could have been a very very hard thing for Stalin because imagine if he shows that he doesn’t even care about his own son that means he is truly powerful and has no weak point, he is cruel and a strong leader but if he cares a lot about his sons that may show that he is soft hearted or weak therefore maybe this was the reason he decided this way, and he had given up his own son for the power and the Ussr.
There is one story about Stalin that is truly terrifying. His minister of the interior was a guy named Lavrentiy Beria, who was in charge of the NKVD, all of the lists that Stalin signed, Beria was the one to compile the list and carry out the orders. Now, Beria was a serial rapist, who would frequently have girls kidnapped by his policemen and threatened them with adding their family to a list. Stalin knew this, but was willing to let it slide because, you know, he was a bad guy. However, at one point, Stalin was away and his daughter was at the Dacha, and Beria was also there, one of Stalins guards phoned him and told him that Beria was there, so Stalin rushes home and tells Beria “if I ever catch you with my daughter again, I’ll kill you myself.” Edit: I should clarify that Beria never did anything to Stalins kids, Stalin just knew that this man cannot be left alone with them
Why do people think it’s bad? Yes Stalin was terrible but the invasion of the USSR by Germany caused so many suffering and death and destruction, imagine if Stalin just decided to end the war or trade Paulus because of his son, 1 person, amongst the millions of dead, raped, tortured and mauled for no reason but to achieve Hitler’s ideological goal, it is reasonable that he refused the trade. If FDR’s son was caught by the Japanese similarly, FDR would definitely not have done any drastic measure that will give Japan an advantage.
He didnt rlly care about yakov bcs its probably he’s his son from stalin’s first wife.stalin loved his second wife more hence vasily and svetlana got treated better (especially svetlana) Edit : ok, so i did some research from the book Stalin: The Court of The Red Tsar by the one and only Simon Sebag Montefiore (amazing book btw) and Stalin has this pattern where everytime where his wife died, he would “abandon” his son. He in fact did loved his wifes. When Kato died, it took a heavy toll on him so decided to focus on his revolusionary acts therefore abandoning Yakov and sending him to be raised by his wife’s family hence putting a huge strain on their relationship. After Nadezhda died, he still cared about Svetlana (even thought she hated him) but again abandon Vasily to the point where Vasily got alcohol problems from young age. Srry for the long explaination but since I’m interested in Stalin i kinda wanna have a discussion (srry for bad grammars too)
Stalin was called “Father of nations”, he said that his son was a soldier like others and if he saved his son when he could not save other soldiers he would be a bad leader. Not sure that i said everything correctly but that was the idea… Can’t say that he was right or wrong but it wasn’t same life as we have now.
1. There isn’t any data about stalins hate to his son 2. The fact that he let his don die proves that his priciples were stro ger tha his feelings, because if he accepted the trade, he would have betrayed the people, because a normal citizen wouldnt had the choice of trading his son, so Stalin needed to behave like part of the people
It’s cool to see this covered but a few things are off (Not that it makes Stalin any better). Yakov shot himself in the chest, not the head; his stepmother bandaged him and had doctors remove the bullet. It was retrieved from his lung almost striking his heart. There was also a second deal, after Stalin refused to exchange field marshal Paulus. Hitler offered Yakov back for his own nephew back, who was a closer rank (luftwaffe pilot). Stalin said no to this too. Stalin did try two secret operations to rescue Yakov but both failed. I recommend you should’ve mentioned the controversy of how Yakov died too, Its good speculation, I covered this story on my website. Cheers and keep History alive.