Stalin Research Paper

Joseph Stalin was born on Dec. 21, 1876 in Gori, Georgia. Joseph Stalin's original name was Iosef Vissaronovich Ozhungashvili, but he adopted his name to Joseph Stalin which means, "man of steel". His fathers' name was Vissarion Ivanovich Djugashvili. His father was a drunk and had a job being a shoemaker. Since Joseph's father didn't make much money Joseph's mom, Ekaterina Gleladaz Djugaholi, who became a washerwoman to help support her family. The Stalin's lived in a small shack, and Joseph was an only child. When Joseph was a young boy Stalin's father left him. In 1888 Stalin was sent to a church school in Gori.

He spent 5 years there and was a brilliant student. Stalin received a scholarship at the religious seminary in Tbilisi. To a surprise, Stalin entered his school to study priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church in the year 1984. In 1898, Stalin joined a secret Marxist revolutionary group. Stalin got expelled from his school for not appearing for an examination.

Stalin joined a Marxist movement and when it split in 1903, he went with more radical Bolsheviks. In 1904 he married but his wife died of tuberculosis after 3 years. He married again in 1919, but his 2nd wife killed herself, leaving Stalin with a son and daughter. The son became an alcoholic and his daughter defected to the United States

Modernity lead to the liberation of women and brought people off farms and into cities. Although this may seem to be beneficial towards a society, in the Soviet Union, it brought nothing but distress and disruption to family life.

During Stalin's underground career he was arrested at least 6 times and spent time as an exile in Siberia. He engaged in robbery, murder, labor agitation, and served as editor and writer for various newspapers, where he first used the name "Stalin". When the communist come to power in 1922 Stalin got a great position as a Secretary General of Communist Party. Before Lenin died he thought that Stalin was too vicious of a man. Lenin wrote a note to Leon Trotsky to succeed him.

Stalin had Lenin's note suppressed and joined with two other members the Poliboro to defeat Trotsky. Then Stalin turned on the two who helped him defeat Trotsky and by 1928 had made himself the dictator of the Soviet Union. With power in his hand Stalin began his "five-year plan." The plan was to industrialize the country, a program that went hand-in-hand with a plan to bring all agriculture under state country.

This initial attempt to industrialize the country - as compared with later attempts - was generally successful, but collectivization was extremely unpopular and was resisted by the peasants. In response Stalin had millions of them killed, or allowed to starve to death. In 1934 Stalin began a massive slaughter of party members and military leaders, and in 1937 entered into the famous "nonagression pact" with Adolph Hitler. Hitler later broke the pact and attacked the Soviet Union. 1953 Stalin died.