Joseph Dzhugashvili is young. Facts against falsehood former anti-Stalinist - about the path to enlightenment. Participation in the revolutionary movement

How did it happen that an ordinary teenager from the provincial Georgian village of Gori became the “head of the people”? We decided to see what factors contributed to the fact that Koba, who hunted for robberies, became Joseph Stalin.

The father factor

A father's upbringing plays an important role in the maturation of a man. Iosif Dzhugashvili was actually deprived of it. Koba's official father, shoemaker Vissarion Dzhugashvili, drank a lot. Ekaterina Geladze divorced him when her son was 12 years old.

The paternity of Vissarion Dzhugashvili is still disputed by historians. Simon Montefiori in his book "Young Stalin" writes about three "candidates" for this role: the wine merchant Yakov Ignatashvili, the head of the Gori police Damian Davrichui and the priest Christopher Charkviani.

childhood trauma

The character of Stalin in childhood was seriously affected by the injury that he received at the age of twelve: in a traffic accident, Joseph injured left hand, over time, it became shorter and weaker than the right one. Due to his dry hand, Koba could not fully participate in youthful brawls, he could win them only with the help of cunning. A hand injury prevented Kobe from learning to swim. Also, at the age of five, Joseph fell ill with smallpox and barely survived, after which he had the first “special sign”: “a pockmarked face, with smallpox signs.”

The feeling of physical inferiority was reflected in the character of Stalin. Biographers note the vindictiveness of the young Koba, his temper, secrecy and penchant for conspiracies.

Relationship with mother

Stalin's relationship with his mother was not easy. They wrote letters to each other, but rarely met. When the mother visited her son for the last time, this happened a year before her death, in 1936, she expressed regret that he never became a priest. Stalin was only amused. When the mother died, Stalin did not go to the funeral, he only sent a wreath with the inscription "Dear and beloved mother from her son Joseph Dzhugashvili."

Such a cool relationship between Stalin and his mother can be explained by the fact that Ekaterina Georgievna was an independent person and was never shy in her assessments. For the sake of her son, when Joseph was not yet either Koba or Stalin, she learned to cut and sew, mastered the profession of a milliner, but she did not have enough time to raise her son. Ros Joseph on the street.

Birth of Koba

The future Stalin had a lot of party nicknames. He was called "Osip", "Ivanovich", "Vasiliev", "Vasily", but the most famous nickname of the young Joseph Dzhugashvili is Koba. It is significant that Mikoyan and Molotov, even in the 30s, addressed Stalin in this way. Why Koba?

Literature influenced. One of the favorite books of the young revolutionary was the novel by the Georgian writer Alexander Kazbegi "The Parricide". This is a book about the struggle of mountaineer peasants for their independence. One of the heroes of the novel - the fearless Koba - also became a hero for young Stalin, who after reading the book himself began to call himself Koba.

Women

In the book of the British historian Simon Montefiore "Young Stalin", the author claims that Koba was very loving in his youth.

Montefiore, however, does not consider this to be something special; such a way of life, the historian writes, was characteristic of the revolutionaries. Montefiore claims that among Koba's mistresses were peasant women, noblewomen, and party comrades-in-arms (Vera Schweitzer, Valentina Lobova, Lyudmila Stal).

Despite such turbulent relations with women, Koba's main business was, of course, the revolution. In an interview with Ogonyok magazine, Simon Montefiore commented on the information he obtained: “Only party comrades were considered worthy of respect. Love, family were expelled from life, which was supposed to be dedicated only to the revolution. What seems to us immoral and criminal in their behavior did not matter to them.”

"Ex"

Today it is already well known that Koba, in his youth, did not disdain illegal deeds. Koba showed particular zeal during expropriations. At the congress of the Bolsheviks in Stockholm in 1906, the so-called "exes" were banned, a year later, already at the London congress, this decision was confirmed. It is significant that the congress in London ended on June 1, 1907, and the most notorious robbery of two State Bank carriages, organized by Koba Ivanovich, took place later - on June 13. Koba did not comply with the demands of the congress for the reason that he considered them Mensheviks, on the issue of "ex" he took the position of Lenin, who approved them. During the aforementioned robbery, Koba's group managed to get 250 thousand rubles. 80 percent of this money was sent to Lenin, the rest went to the needs of the cell.

Stalin's not too clean reputation could become an obstacle to his advancement in the future. In 1918, the head of the Mensheviks, Julius Martov, published an article in which he cited three examples of Koba's illegal activities: the robbery of the carriages of the State Bank in Tiflis, the murder of a worker in Baku, and the seizure of the Nicholas I steamer in Baku.

Moreover, Martov even wrote that Stalin had no right to hold government posts, since he was expelled from the party in 1907. Stalin was furious at this article, he argued that this exclusion was illegal, since it was carried out by the Tiflis cell, controlled by the Mensheviks. That is, Stalin did not deny the fact of his expulsion. But he threatened Martov with a revolutionary tribunal.

Why "Stalin"?

Throughout his life, Stalin had three dozen pseudonyms. At the same time, it is significant that Joseph Vissarionovich did not make secrets from his surname. Who now remembers Apfelbaum, Rosenfeld and Wallach (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Litvinov)? But Ulyanov-Lenin and Dzhugashvili-Stalin are well known. Stalin chose the pseudonym quite deliberately. According to William Pokhlebkin, who devoted the work “The Great Pseudonym” to this issue, several factors coincided when choosing a pseudonym. The real source when choosing a pseudonym was the surname of a liberal journalist, at first close to the populists, and then to the Social Revolutionaries, Yevgeny Stefanovich Stalinsky, one of the prominent Russian professional publishers of periodicals in the province and translator into Russian of Sh. Rustaveli's poem - "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". Stalin was very fond of this poem. There is also a version that Stalin took a pseudonym based on the name of one of his mistresses, party comrades Lyudmila Stal.

Stalin in his youth

Joseph Stalin had many complexes. At an early age, he had smallpox, and his face kept traces of it all his life, after an accident, also in childhood, his left hand became ten centimeters shorter than his right, the second and third fingers on his left foot were fused, over the years of exile he had his teeth had deteriorated, and, most unpleasantly, he was only 157 centimeters tall, which did not fit in with his significant figure. Despite the fact that custom-made boots made him 3-5 centimeters taller, height, or rather lack of it, turned into a constant source of irritation for him.

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born in the small Georgian town of Gori. At that time, Georgia was part of Russian Empire, a huge clumsy power, squeezed by the fetters of feudalism, which was ruled by the unpopular Romanov dynasty. Stalin was born on December 18, 1878, but for some mysterious reason he always claimed to be born on December 21, 1879, and this date was celebrated throughout his life.

Stalin's father, Vissarion Dzhugashvili, known as Beso, was a shoemaker. A drinker, he spent much of his time in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, located 80 kilometers east of Gori), where he made boots for the Russian army. During his increasingly rare raids, he beat his wife and son in a drunken stupor. Stalin's mother, Ekaterina, or Keke, also often punished her son, but generally cherished her Soso, since her two first children, both boys, died in infancy. Stalin learned to speak Russian only at the age of 9 and never got rid of his strong Georgian accent.

Joseph Dzhugashvili in the seminary. 1894

Stalin grew up in an environment of violence. Violent morals reigned in Gori, men often staged wall-to-wall fights that lasted several hours in a row. On February 13, 1892, he, along with his school friends, witnessed the public execution by hanging of two criminals. The execution was carried out clumsily, and the young Stalin, who received a moral injury, was imbued with hatred for the tsarist regime.

Stalin's mother, who dreamed that her son would achieve an honorable position in society, and wanting to thank the Lord for having mercy and leaving him alive, sent Joseph to a religious school. Little Soso studied well. He sang in the church choir, and his teachers were impressed by his intelligence and remarkable memory, which allowed him to memorize large portions of the Bible. Stalin graduated from the school with excellent marks in 1894, two years ahead of schedule. At the age of 15 he was admitted to the seminary in Tiflis. However, the young Stalin was more interested in the works of Marx and Engels than in the Holy Scriptures, and, declaring himself a Marxist and an atheist, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) and persuaded his classmates to follow his example.

This text is an introductory piece. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (real name: Dzhugashvili) - active revolutionary, leader Soviet state from 1920 to 1953, Marshal and Generalissimo of the USSR.

The period of his reign, called the "era of Stalinism", was marked by the victory in World War II, the amazing successes of the USSR in the economy, in eradicating the illiteracy of the population, in creating the world image of the country as a superpower. At the same time, his name is associated with the horrific facts of the mass destruction of millions Soviet people through the organization of artificial famine, forced deportations, repressions directed against opponents of the regime, intra-party “purges”.

Regardless of the crimes committed, he remains popular among Russians: a 2017 Levada Center poll showed that most citizens consider him an outstanding head of state. In addition, he unexpectedly took a leading position according to the results of the audience voting during the 2008 TV project for the choice greatest hero national history"Name of Russia".

Childhood and youth

The future "father of nations" was born on December 18, 1878 (according to another version - December 21, 1879) in the east of Georgia. His ancestors belonged to the lower strata of the population. Father Vissarion Ivanovich was a shoemaker, earned little, drank a lot and often beat his wife. Little Soso got it from him, as his mother Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze called her son.

The two oldest children in their family died shortly after birth. And the surviving Soso had physical disabilities: two fingers fused on his leg, damage to the skin of his face, an arm that did not fully unbend due to an injury received at the age of 6 when he was hit by a car.

Joseph's mother worked hard. She wanted her beloved son to achieve “the best” in life, namely, to become a priest. At an early age, he spent a lot of time among street brawlers, but in 1889 he was admitted to a local Orthodox school, where he demonstrated extraordinary talent: he wrote poetry, received high marks in theology, mathematics, Russian and Greek.

In 1890, the head of the family died from a knife wound in a drunken brawl. True, some historians argue that the boy’s father was in fact not the official husband of his mother, but her distant relative, Prince Maminoshvili, a confidant and friend of Nikolai Przhevalsky. Others even attribute paternity to this famous traveler, outwardly very similar to Stalin. Confirmation of these assumptions is the fact that the boy was accepted into a very solid spiritual educational institution, where the path was ordered for people from poor families, as well as the periodic transfer of funds by Prince Maminoshvili to Soso's mother for raising her son.

After graduating from college at the age of 15, the young man continued his education at the theological seminary of Tiflis (now Tbilisi), where he made friends among the Marxists. In parallel with his main studies, he began to engage in self-education, studying underground literature. In 1898, he became a member of the first social democratic organization in Georgia, showed himself as a brilliant orator and began to propagate the ideas of Marxism among the workers.

Participation in the revolutionary movement

In the last year of study, Joseph was expelled from the seminary with the issuance of a document on the right to work as a teacher in institutions that provided primary education.

Since 1899, he began to professionally engage in revolutionary work, in particular, he became a member of the party committees of Tiflis and Batumi, participated in attacks on banking institutions to obtain funds for the needs of the RSDLP.

In the period 1902-1913. he was arrested eight times and sent into exile seven times as a criminal punishment. But between arrests, while at large, he continued to be active. For example, in 1904, he organized a grandiose Baku strike, which ended with the conclusion of an agreement between workers and oil owners.

Out of necessity, the young revolutionary then had many party pseudonyms - Nizheradze, Soselo, Chizhikov, Ivanovich, Koba. Their total number exceeded 30 names.

In 1905, at the first party conference in Finland, he first met Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. Then he was a delegate at the IV and V congresses of the party in Sweden and in the UK. In 1912, at a party plenum in Baku, he was included in absentia into the Central Committee. In the same year, he decided to finally change his surname to the party nickname "Stalin", consonant with the established pseudonym of the leader of the world proletariat.

In 1913, the “fiery Colchian,” as Lenin sometimes called him, once again went into exile. Released in 1917, together with Lev Kamenev (real surname Rosenfeld), he headed the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda and worked to prepare an armed uprising.

How did Stalin come to power?

After the October Revolution, Stalin became a member of the Soviet people's commissars, in the Bureau of the Central Committee of the party. During the Civil War, he also held a number of responsible posts and gained tremendous experience in political and military leadership. In 1922, he took the post of general secretary, but the general secretary in those years was not yet the head of the party.

When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin led the country, defeating the opposition, and embarked on industrialization, collectivization, and a cultural revolution. The success of Stalin's policy consisted in a competent personnel policy. “Cadres decide everything,” is a quote from Joseph Vissarionovich in a speech to graduates of the military academy in 1935. During the first years in power, he appointed more than 4 thousand party functionaries to responsible posts, thereby forming the backbone of the Soviet nomenklatura.

Joseph Stalin. How to become a leader

But above all, he eliminated competitors in the political struggle, not forgetting to take advantage of their developments. Nikolai Bukharin became the author of the concept national question, which the Secretary General took as the basis of his course. Grigory Lev Kamenev owned the slogan "Stalin is Lenin today", and Stalin actively promoted the idea that he was the successor of Vladimir Ilyich and literally planted the cult of Lenin's personality, strengthened the leader's moods in society. Well, Leon Trotsky, with the support of economists close to him ideologically, developed a plan for forced industrialization.

It was the latter who became the main opponent of Stalin. Disagreements between them began long before that - back in 1918, Joseph was indignant that Trotsky, a newcomer to the party, was trying to teach him the right course. Immediately after the death of Lenin, Lev Davidovich fell into disgrace. In 1925, the plenum of the Central Committee summed up the "harm" that Trotsky's speeches had inflicted on the party. The figure was removed from the post of head of the Revolutionary Military Council, Mikhail Frunze was appointed in his place. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR, a struggle began in the country against manifestations of "Trotskyism". The fugitive settled in Mexico, but was killed in 1940 by an NKVD agent.

After Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev fell under Stalin's sights, and were finally eliminated in the course of the apparatus war.

Stalinist repressions

Stalin's methods of achieving impressive success in turning an agrarian country into a superpower - violence, terror, repression with the use of torture - cost millions of human lives.

The victims of dispossession (eviction, confiscation of property, executions), along with the kulaks, became the innocent rural population of average income, which led to the actual destruction of the village. When the situation reached critical proportions, the Father of Nations issued a statement about "excesses on the ground."

Forced collectivization (unification of peasants into collective farms), the concept of which was adopted in November 1929, destroyed traditional agriculture and led to terrible consequences. In 1932, mass famine struck Ukraine, Belarus, Kuban, the Volga region, the Southern Urals, Kazakhstan, and Western Siberia.

Researchers agree that the political repressions of the dictator, the "architect of communism" in relation to commanders of the Red Army, persecution of scientists, cultural figures, doctors, engineers, mass closing of churches, deportations of many peoples, including Crimean Tatars, Germans, Chechens, Balkars, Ingrian Finns.

In 1941, after Hitler's attack on the USSR Supreme Commander made many erroneous decisions in the art of warfare. In particular, his refusal to promptly withdraw military formations from Kyiv led to the unjustified death of a significant mass of the armed forces - five armies. But later, when organizing various military operations, he already showed himself to be a very competent strategist.

The significant contribution of the USSR to the defeat Nazi Germany in 1945, he contributed to the formation of the world socialist system, as well as to the growth of the authority of the country and its leader. The "Great Pilot" contributed to the creation of a powerful domestic military-industrial complex, the transformation Soviet Union into a nuclear superpower, one of the founders of the UN and a permanent member of its Security Council with veto power.

Personal life of Joseph Stalin

"Uncle Joe", as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill called Stalin among themselves, was married twice. His first chosen one was Ekaterina Svanidze, the sister of his friend who studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Their wedding took place in the church of St. David in July 1906.

A year later, Kato gave her husband the firstborn Jacob. When the boy was only 8 months old, she died (according to some sources from tuberculosis, others from typhoid fever). She was 22 years old. As the English historian Simon Montefiore noted, during the funeral, 28-year-old Stalin did not want to say goodbye to his beloved wife and jumped into her grave, from where he was taken out with great difficulty.

After the death of his mother, Jacob met his father only at the age of 14. After school, without his permission, he got married, then because of a conflict with his father, he tried to commit suicide. During the Second World War, he died in German captivity. According to one of the legends, the Nazis offered to exchange Jacob for Friedrich Paulus, but Stalin did not take the opportunity to save his son, saying that he would not change the field marshal for a soldier.

The second time the "Locomotive of the Revolution" tied the bonds of Hymen at the age of 39, in 1918. His affair with 16-year-old Nadezhda, the daughter of one of the revolutionary workers Sergei Alliluyev, began a year earlier. Then he returned from Siberian exile and lived in their apartment. In 1920, the couple had a son, Vasily, the future lieutenant general of aviation, in 1926, a daughter, Svetlana, who emigrated to the United States in 1966. She married an American and took the surname Peters.

The family of Iosif Vissarionovich also brought up Artem, the son of Stalin's friend Fyodor Sergeev, who died in a railway accident.

In 1932, the "Father of Nations" was again widowed - after their next quarrel, his wife committed suicide, leaving him, according to her daughter, a "terrible" letter full of accusations. He was shocked and angry at her act, did not go to the funeral.

The leader's main hobby was reading. He loved Maupassant, Dostoyevsky, Wilde, Gogol, Chekhov, Zola, Goethe, without hesitation he quoted the Bible and Bismarck.

Death of Stalin

At the end of his life, the Soviet dictator was praised as a professional in all fields of knowledge. One word of his could decide the fate of any scientific discipline. A struggle was waged against "servile worship of the West", against "cosmopolitanism", and the exposure of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

Stalin's last speech (Speech at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, 1952)

In his personal life, he was lonely, rarely talked with children - he did not approve of his daughter's endless novels and his son's spree. At the dacha in Kuntsevo, he remained alone at night with the guards, who usually could enter him only after a call.

Svetlana, who came on December 21 to congratulate her father on his 73rd birthday, later noted that he did not look well and, apparently, did not feel well, as he suddenly quit smoking.

On the evening of Sunday, March 1, 1953, the assistant commandant entered the leader with mail received at 22 o'clock, and saw him lying on the floor. Transferring him, along with the guards who came running to help, to the sofa, he informed the top leadership of the party about what had happened. At 9 am on March 2, a group of doctors diagnosed the patient with paralysis on the right side of the body. The time for his possible rescue was lost, and on March 5 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

After the autopsy, it was found that Stalin had previously suffered several ischemic strokes on his legs, which provoked disruptions in the functioning of the cardiovascular system and mental disorders.

Death of Joseph Stalin. End of an Era

The news of the death of the Soviet leader shocked the country. The coffin with his body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin. During the farewell to the deceased, a stampede arose in the crowd, which cost the lives of many. In 1961, he was reburied near the Kremlin wall (after the CPSU congresses condemned the revealed violations of the “Leninist precepts”).

Joseph Stalin is an outstanding revolutionary politician in the history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. His activities were marked by mass repressions, which are still considered a crime against humanity today. The personality and biography of Stalin in modern society are still loudly discussed: some consider him a great ruler who led the country to victory in the Great Patriotic War, others accuse him of the genocide of the people and the Holodomor, terror and violence against people.

Childhood and youth

Stalin Iosif Vissarionovich was born (real name Dzhugashvili) on December 21, 1879 in the Georgian town of Gori in a family belonging to the lower class. According to another version, the birthday of Joseph Vissarionovich fell on December 18, 1878. In any case, Sagittarius is considered to be the patronizing sign of the zodiac. In addition to the traditional hypothesis about the Georgian origin of the future leader of the nation, there is an opinion that Ossetians were his ancestors.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin as a child

He was the third, but the only surviving child in the family - his older brother and sister died in infancy. Soso, as the mother of the future ruler of the USSR called, was born not a completely healthy child, he had congenital defects in the limbs (he had two fingers fused on his left foot), and also had damaged skin on his face and back. IN early childhood Stalin had an accident - he was knocked down by a phaeton, as a result of which the functioning of his left hand was disrupted.

In addition to congenital and acquired injuries, the future revolutionary was repeatedly beaten by his father, which once led to a serious head injury and, over the years, affected Stalin's psycho-emotional state. Mother Ekaterina Georgievna surrounded her son with care and guardianship, wanting to compensate the boy for the missing love of his father.

Exhausted at hard work, wanting to earn as much money as possible to raise her son, the woman tried to raise a worthy person who was to become a priest. But her hopes were not crowned with success - Stalin grew up as a street minion and spent most of his time not in church, but in the company of local hooligans.

Embed from Getty Images Young Joseph Stalin

At the same time, in 1888, Joseph Vissarionovich became a student of the Gori Orthodox School, and after graduating he entered the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Within its walls he got acquainted with Marxism and joined the ranks of underground revolutionaries.

In the seminary, the future ruler of the Soviet Union showed himself to be a gifted and talented student, since he was easily given all subjects without exception. Then he became the head of an illegal circle of Marxists, in which he was engaged in propaganda.

Stalin failed to get a spiritual education, as he was expelled from an educational institution before exams for absenteeism. After that, Joseph Vissarionovich was issued a certificate allowing him to become a teacher. elementary schools. At first, he earned a living by tutoring, and then got a job at the Tiflis Physical Observatory as a computer observer.

Path to power

Stalin's revolutionary activity started in the early 1900s - the future ruler of the USSR was then engaged in propaganda, which strengthened his own position in society. In his youth, Joseph participated in rallies, which most often ended in arrests, worked on the creation of an illegal newspaper "Brdzola" ("Struggle"), which was published in the Baku printing house. An interesting fact his Georgian biography is that in 1906-1907 Dzhugashvili led robbery attacks on the banks of the Caucasus.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin

The revolutionary traveled to Finland and Sweden, where conferences and congresses of the RSDLP were held. Then he meets the head Soviet government and famous revolutionaries Georgy Plekhanov, and others.

In 1912, he finally decided to change the name Dzhugashvili to the pseudonym Stalin. Then the man becomes authorized by the Central Committee for the Caucasus. The revolutionary receives the post of editor-in-chief of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, where Vladimir Lenin became his colleague, who saw Stalin as his assistant in solving Bolshevik and revolutionary issues. As a result of this, Joseph Vissarionovich became his right hand.

Embed from Getty Images Josef Stalin on the podium

Stalin's path to power was filled with repeated exile and imprisonment, from which he managed to escape. He spent 2 years in Solvychegodsk, then was sent to the city of Narym, and from 1913 he was kept in the village of Kureika for 3 years. Being away from the leaders of the party, Joseph Vissarionovich managed to keep in touch with them through secret correspondence.

Front October Revolution Stalin supported Lenin's plans, and at an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee, he condemned the position and those who were against the uprising. In 1917, Lenin appointed Stalin People's Commissar for Nationalities in the Council of People's Commissars.

The next stage in the career of the future ruler of the USSR is connected with civil war in which the revolutionary showed professionalism and leadership skills. He participated in a number of military operations, including the defense of Tsaritsyn and Petrograd, opposed the army and.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Klim Voroshilov

At the end of the war, when Lenin was already mortally ill, Stalin ruled the country, while destroying opponents and contenders for the post of chairman of the government of the Soviet Union on his way. In addition, Iosif Vissarionovich showed perseverance in relation to monotonous work, which was required by the post of apparatus manager. To strengthen his own authority, Stalin published 2 books - "On the Foundations of Leninism" (1924) and "On the Questions of Leninism" (1927). In these works, he relied on the principles of "building socialism in a single country", not excluding the "world revolution".

In 1930, all power was concentrated in the hands of Stalin, in connection with which turmoil and perestroika began in the USSR. This period is marked by the beginning mass repression and collectivization, when the rural population of the country was driven to collective farms and starved.

Embed from Getty Images Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov

The new leader of the Soviet Union sold all the food taken from the peasants abroad, and with the proceeds he developed the industry by building industrial enterprises, most of which were concentrated in the cities of the Urals and Siberia. Thus, in the shortest possible time, he made the USSR the second country in the world in terms of industrial production, however, at the cost of millions of lives of peasants who died of starvation.

In 1937, the peak of repressions broke out, at that time there were sweeps not only among the citizens of the country, but also among the leadership of the party. During the Great Terror, 56 out of 73 people who spoke at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee were shot. Later, the leader of the action was destroyed - the head of the NKVD, whose place was taken by, who was part of Stalin's inner circle. The totalitarian regime was finally established in the country.

Head of the USSR

By 1940, Joseph Vissarionovich became the sole ruler-dictator of the USSR. He was a strong leader of the country, had an extraordinary capacity for work, while being able to direct people to solve the necessary tasks. characteristic feature Stalin was his ability to make immediate decisions on issues under discussion and find time to control all the processes taking place in the country.

Embed from Getty Images General Secretary of the CPSU Joseph Stalin

The achievements of Joseph Stalin, despite his tough method of government, are still highly appreciated by experts. Thanks to him, the USSR won the Great Patriotic War, agriculture was mechanized in the country, industrialization took place, as a result of which the Union turned into a nuclear superpower with colossal geopolitical influence throughout the world. Interestingly, the American magazine Time in 1939 and 1943 awarded the title of "Person of the Year" to the Soviet leader.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War Joseph Stalin was forced to change course foreign policy. If earlier he built relations with Germany, then later he turned his attention to former countries Entente. In the person of England and France, the Soviet leader sought support against the aggression of fascism.

Embed from Getty Images Josef Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference

Along with the achievements, Stalin's rule is characterized by a mass of negative aspects, which caused horror in society. Stalinist repressions, dictatorship, terror, violence - all this is considered the main characteristic features of the reign of Joseph Vissarionovich. He is also accused of suppressing entire scientific directions country, accompanied by the persecution of doctors and engineers, which caused disproportionate harm to the development Soviet culture and science.

Stalin's policy is still loudly condemned throughout the world. The ruler of the USSR is accused of mass death of people who became victims of Stalinism and Nazism. At the same time, in many cities, Joseph Vissarionovich is posthumously considered an honorary citizen and a talented commander, and many people still respect the dictator ruler, calling him a great leader.

Personal life

The personal life of Joseph Stalin has few confirmed facts today. The leader-dictator carefully destroyed all evidence of his family life and love relationships, so the researchers were only able to slightly restore the chronology of the events of his biography.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva

It is known that the first time Stalin married in 1906 to Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to his first child. After a year of family life, Stalin's wife died of typhus. After that, the stern revolutionary devoted himself to serving the country, and only after 14 years again decided to marry, who was 23 years younger.

The second wife of Joseph Vissarionovich gave birth to a son and took over the upbringing of Stalin's first child, who until that moment had lived with his maternal grandmother. In 1925, a daughter was born in the leader's family. In addition to his own children, an adopted son, the same age as Vasily, was brought up in the house of the party leader. His father, the revolutionary Fyodor Sergeev, was a close friend of Joseph, died in 1921.

In 1932, Stalin's children lost their mother, and he became a widower for the second time. His wife Nadezhda committed suicide amid a conflict with her husband. After that, the ruler never married again.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin with his son Vasily and daughter Svetlana

The children of Joseph Vissarionovich gave their father 9 grandchildren, the youngest of whom, the daughter of Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared after the death of the ruler - in 1971. At home, only Alexander Burdonsky, the son of Vasily Stalin, became famous, who became the director of the theater Russian army. Also known is the son of Yakov, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, who published the book “My grandfather Stalin. “He is a saint!”, and the son of Svetlana, Iosif Alliluyev, who made a career as a cardiac surgeon.

After Stalin's death, disputes arose repeatedly about the growth of the head of the USSR. Some researchers attributed short stature to the leader - 160 cm, but others were based on information obtained from records and photos of the Russian secret police, where Iosif Vissarionovich was characterized as a person with a height of 169-174 cm. The leader of the Communist Party was also "attributed" weight 62 kg.

Death

The death of Joseph Stalin came on March 5, 1953. According to the official conclusion of doctors, the ruler of the USSR died as a result of a brain hemorrhage. After the autopsy, it was found that he suffered several ischemic strokes on his legs during his life, which led to serious heart problems and mental disorders.

The embalmed body of Stalin was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin, but after 8 years at the Congress of the CPSU, it was decided to rebury the revolutionary in a grave near the Kremlin wall. During the funeral, a crowd of thousands wishing to say goodbye to the leader of the nation was stampeded. According to unconfirmed information, 400 people died on Trubnaya Square.

Embed from Getty Images Gravestone monument to Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin wall

There is an opinion that his ill-wishers were involved in the death of Stalin, who consider the policy of the leader of the revolutionaries unacceptable. The researchers are sure that the “comrades-in-arms” of the ruler deliberately did not allow doctors to approach him, who could put Joseph Vissarionovich on his feet and prevent his death.

Over the years, the attitude towards the personality of Stalin was repeatedly revised, and if during the thaw his name was banned, then later documentaries and feature films, books and articles appeared that analyzed the activities of the ruler. Repeatedly the head of state became the main character of films such as "Inner Circle", "Promised Land", "Kill Stalin", etc.

Memory

1958 - "Day One"
1985 - "Victory"
1985 - "Battle for Moscow"
1989 - "Stalingrad"
1990 - "Jakov, son of Stalin"
1993 - "Stalin's Testament"
2000 - "In August 44th ..."
2013 - "Son of the Father of Nations"
2017 - "Death of Stalin"

Yuri Mukhin - "The Murder of Stalin and Beria"
Lev Balayan - "Stalin"
Elena Prudnikova - “Khrushchev. Creators of terror"
Igor Pykhalov - “The great slandered Leader. Lies and truth about Stalin
Alexander Sever - "Stalin's Anti-Corruption Committee"
Felix Chuev - "Soldiers of the Empire"

The father factor

childhood trauma

The character of Stalin in childhood was seriously affected by the injury that he received at the age of twelve: in a traffic accident, Joseph injured his left arm, over time it became shorter and weaker than his right. Due to his dry hand, Koba could not fully participate in youthful brawls, he could win them only with the help of cunning. A hand injury prevented Kobe from learning to swim. Also, at the age of five, Joseph fell ill with smallpox and barely survived, after which he had the first “special sign”: “a pockmarked face, with smallpox signs.”

The feeling of physical inferiority was reflected in the character of Stalin. Biographers note the vindictiveness of the young Koba, his temper, secrecy and penchant for conspiracies.

Relationship with mother

Birth of Koba

Literature influenced. One of the favorite books of the young revolutionary was the novel by the Georgian writer Alexander Kazbegi "The Parricide". This is a book about the struggle of mountaineer peasants for their independence. One of the heroes of the novel - the fearless Koba - also became a hero for the young Stalin, who, after reading the book, began to call himself Koba.

Women

In the book of the British historian Simon Montefiore "Young Stalin", the author claims that Koba was very loving in his youth. Montefiore, however, does not consider this to be something special; such a way of life, the historian writes, was characteristic of the revolutionaries.

Montefiore claims that among Koba's mistresses were peasant women, noblewomen, and party comrades-in-arms (Vera Schweitzer, Valentina Lobova, Lyudmila Stal).

The British historian also claims that two peasant women from the Siberian villages (Maria Kuzakova, Lydia Pereprygina), where Koba was serving a link, gave birth to sons from him, whom Stalin never recognized.
Despite such turbulent relations with women, Koba's main business was, of course, the revolution. In an interview with Ogonyok magazine, Simon Montefiore commented on the information he obtained: “Only party comrades were considered worthy of respect. Love, family were expelled from life, which was supposed to be dedicated only to the revolution. What seems to us immoral and criminal in their behavior did not matter to them.”

"Ex"

During the aforementioned robbery, Koba's group managed to get 250 thousand rubles. 80 percent of this money was sent to Lenin, the rest went to the needs of the cell. [С-BLOCK]

Why "Stalin"?

On the same topic:

What was Stalin like when he bore the nickname "Koba" Why Joseph Dzhugashvili took the pseudonym "Stalin"