The 19th century was a time of great change and upheaval for humanity. The collapse of entire systems of government that had been the status quo for centuries, the fall of empires, the establishment of brand new systems of government, the two bloodiest wars in human history, the division of the atom, the ensuing Cold War between the two superpowers and their allies, and the potential extinction of the human race all characterized this century. It goes without saying that such an extraordinary time would feature some of the most extraordinary people, but also some of the most heinous. The person discussed in the rest of this article will be part of this last group of individuals. His birth name in his native Georgia was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but the world would come to know him as Joseph Stalin, the man of steel and undisputed dictator of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. C It is therefore the aim of this article to detail the life of Joseph Stalin to the best of its ability in a short period of time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay Born in the Russian Empire, in the former Kingdom of Georgia, in 1878, Stalin was born into a poor family and d 'an abusive father. He would study at a parish school and learn Russian while reading the writings of Karl Marx before being expelled from school. He would continue to live in Georgia and eventually become increasingly involved in politics and labor protests before joining Lenin's faction of the Bolsheviks. After multiple arrests and daring escapes, Lenin appealed to Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Exiled to Siberia in 1913, Stalin returned to Petrograd in the spring of 1917 and participated in the overthrow of the government in October of the same year. After this overthrow, Stalin would become one of the most important members of the Council of People's Commissars alongside Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov. Stalin advocated and strongly encouraged the elimination of the free press hostile to the Bolsheviks and the creation of a secret police force known as the Cheka which would spawn the Red Scare and brutally kill and suppress opposition elements in the early days of Lenin's reign and the Second World War. Russian Civil War which engulfed the country from 1917 to 1920. During the brutal Russian Civil War, Stalin would assume a number of positions, including leading the Cheka forces during the crucial Battle of Tsaritsyn. During his time there, Stalin would become noted for his brutality in executing people without trial and sending thousands of Red Army soldiers to their deaths in massive assaults, which would become a trademark of the Soviet Union at the start of World War II. After the Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War and the subsequent Polish–Soviet War, Lenin and his Bolsheviks would continue to consolidate power and expand borders into areas previously claimed by the empire. In 1922, Stalin was appointed general secretary of the party by Lenin himself. In 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke and died two years later, in 1924. It is worth noting that although Lenin considered Stalin an ally, in notes to his wife he clearly believed that Stalin did not was not fit to be the next undisputed leader of the party. Soviet Union and had many disagreements with the man. Stalin would retain his post as general secretary of the party until his death, making it the most important post in the Soviet Union.over the coming decades. After Lenin's death, Stalin's main opponent for the leadership of the Communist Party was Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was responsible for the creation of the Red Army and was a famous intellectual and orator who vied for power with the Georgian. StalinHe would form key alliances with Trotsky's opponents and begin removing Trotsky from government positions, before exiling him completely in 1929. Stalin would then turn on his allies and send many of them to the gulag, allowing him to consolidate his power and become the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union in 1929. It was only after his accession to power that Stalin would truly begin to show his cunning and brutality. It should be noted that before Stalin's rise to power in 1929, Stalin implemented a new agricultural policy and sought to collectivize Russian farms. This policy led to the starvation of millions of people in Ukraine during the Great Famine of 1932–1933 and millions more during the broader Soviet famine of 1932–1933. The famine was man-made and directly caused by the decisions of Stalin and his government. The famine was the result of Stalin's first five-year plan in which he hoped to rapidly industrialize the poor Russian state from a backward agricultural country to an industrial power capable of rivaling its more advanced European neighbors. Although the First Five-Year Plan was largely a failure, Stalin declared it a success in 1932, and it had some positive aspects that would be essential to the survival of the Soviet Union in the tumultuous years to come. The Five Year Plan would also put the Soviet Union on the path to becoming a global superpower. Much more death and destruction awaited the Soviet Union in the decades that followed under Joseph Stalin, some of which was caused by foreign actors, but much of it would be the result of decisions made by Stalin himself. Beginning in 1934, Stalin would begin what came to be known as the Great Purge. The purge, as the name suggests, was a brutal crackdown on actors and elements within the communist government. Stalin would use this purge as a pretext to eliminate anyone he considered a threat to his power. Throughout this period, Stalin held large mock trials in which the accused admitted their guilt, most often after suffering weeks of torture and personal promises from Stalin that he would spare them and their families after their admission of guilt, a promise that was broken. most often. Stalin would link their crimes to a conspiracy to overthrow his government in support of Trotsky's exiled and fascist spies operating in the Soviet Union. The purge would also decimate the army's command structure as Stalin would order the expulsion of dozens of top Red Army commanders. Communist Party members and army officers were not the only ones targeted by Stalin's purge. A number of academic and cultural elites residing in Russia were also arrested, tortured and executed by Stalin and the NKVD, his new secret police. After this period, Stalin and his nation would face challenges they had never experienced before. Stalin recognized the threat posed by the Nazis, but he was aware that at the time Hitler was grabbing land in Europe, the Soviet Union was unprepared for war against a newly resurrected Germany. In 1939, Hitler and Stalin concluded a non-aggression pact that divided Poland between the two powers. After the conclusion.