Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili)
The biography of Dzhugashvili - Koba - Stalin, a political long-liver of the 20th century, contains an uncountable number of contradictory characteristics: yes, cruel, but also a dear father; the leader of the Communist Party, but at the end of his reign he practically removed the party bureaucracy from power; The "Leninist Guard" was dispersed, imprisoned, shot - a monster. And at the same time, he did the right thing by executing this very “Leninist guard”, which consisted mainly of people who were deeply non-Russian (and opposed to everything Russian), and essentially dealt with those responsible for the deaths of two or three tens of millions (!) of the best Russian people .
In January 1905, the young revolutionary Soso Dzhugashvili published an article in the newspaper Proletariatis Brdzola, “The Proletarian Class and the Party of Proletarians,” in which he wrote: “The time has passed when they boldly proclaimed: “united and indivisible Russia”. Now even a child knows that “united and indivisible” Russia does not exist, that it was divided long ago...” And this at a time when Russian soldiers are shedding blood on the battlefields in the Far East. So he was a traitor, a subversive element?
But here Joseph Stalin in the 30s, already the ruler of a huge “single and indivisible” power - the Soviet Union - listens to records with songs from the times of the Russian-Japanese War. He puts on the gramophone a record with the song “On the Hills of Manchuria” with the still old words:
The crosses of distant, beautiful heroes turn white
And the shadows of the past swirl around,
They tell us about the sacrifices in vain.
And in deep thought, he moved the needle of the gramophone several times in the words:
But believe me, we will avenge you
And we will celebrate a bloody funeral.
And so in 1945, Stalin and the Red Army came there and avenged those who fell in 1905...
You won’t understand right away whether he was a genius or a villain. This means there is no need to judge right away. Read his speeches and speeches, read his memoirs. CHRONOS has it all: here it is Nikita Sergeevich praises the leader, and then with the same fanatical conviction denigrates him. What am I going to tell you?! I am sure you will understand for yourself why Russia’s enemies of all times find themselves among Stalin’s irreconcilable critics.
Joseph Dzhugashvili in 1902
Started from theological school
Stalin (1878-1953), politician, Hero of Socialist Labor ( 1939 ), Hero of the Soviet Union ( 1945 ), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). From a shoemaker's family. After graduating from the Gori Theological School (1894), he studied at the Tiflis Theological Seminary (expelled in 1899). In 1898 he joined the Georgian social democratic organization Mesame Dasi. In 1902-1913 he was arrested and exiled six times, and escaped from places of exile four times. After 1903 he joined the Bolsheviks. IN 1906-1907 For years he led expropriations in Transcaucasia. IN 1907 one of the organizers and leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. A zealous supporter of V.I. Lenin, on whose initiative 1912 year co-opted into the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In 1917, he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Pravda, a member of the Politburo of the Bolshevik Central Committee and the Military Revolutionary Center. In 1917-1922, People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs, at the same time 1919-1922 years People's Commissar of State Control, RKI, since 1918 member of the RVSR. In 1922-1953, General Secretary of the Party Central Committee.
Since 1941, Stalin has held the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (CM) of the USSR, during the war years - Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar of Defense, Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In 1946 - 1947, Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. During the war he went to create an anti-Hitler coalition with England and the USA; after the end of the war did not prevent the emergence of the Cold War. On 20th Congress CPSU ( 1956 ) N. S. Khrushchev sharply criticized the so-called personality cult of Stalin.
Member of the Constituent Assembly
Dzhugashvili-Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (12/6/1878, Gori - 03/5/1953, Moscow). Petrograd metropolitan area. No. 4 - Bolsheviks.
Petrograd. From the peasants, the son of a shoemaker. He studied at a theological seminary and was expelled. Member of the RSDLP since 1899, Bolshevik. Delegate to the IV and V Congresses of the RSDLP. He was sent to the Irkutsk and Vologda provinces, to the Narym region. In 1917 he returned from Siberian exile. Member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), editor of Pravda, delegate to the VI Congress of the RSDLP. Member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of the RSD, All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Delegate to the I and II All-Russian Congresses of the RSD Councils. Member of the bureau of the Bolshevik fraction of the US, participant in the meeting on January 5. People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs (November 1917 - 1923), General Secretary of the CPSU (b), long-term dictator of the country.
Istoyanik: Political parties of Russia. The end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Encyclopedia. M., 1996.
Materials from the book were used. L.G. Protasov. People of the Constituent Assembly: a portrait in the interior of the era. M., ROSPEN, 2008.
Other biographical materials:
Boris Bazhanov, Memoirs of Stalin's Secretary, Chapter 9 - Stalin. Character. Qualities and disadvantages. Career. Immorality. Attitude towards employees and me. Nadya Alliluyeva. Yashka.
Essays:
Essays , t. 3, 1917, March - October, M. 1946;
On the way to October, M. 1925:
On the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry during the preparation of October. Answer to S. Pokrovsky, in his book: Questions of Leninism, 4th ed., M. 1928.
Literature:
I.V. Stalin. Brief biography, M, 1947.
Antonov-Ovseenko A., Stalin without a mask, M. 1990.
Beladi L., Kraus T., Stalin, M., 1990
Boffa J. History of the Soviet Union. M., 1990. T. 2.
Zalessky K.A. Stalin's Empire. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000.
Medvedev R.A. About Stalin and Stalinism: Historical essays. M., 1990.
Mukhin Yu.I. The murder of Stalin and Beria.
Slusser R., Stalin in 1917. The man who remained outside the revolution, M. 1989.
Tucker R. Stalin. The path to power. 1879 - 1929. History and personality. M., 1990.
Trotsky L.D. Stalin, vol. 1-2, M. 1990.
Simonov Konstantin. Through the eyes of a man of my generation. Reflections on J.V. Stalin. M 1989.
Miliukov P. N. Stalin // Modern Notes. 1935. No. 59;
Fedotov G. Stalinocracy // Ibid. 1936. No. 60;
Gak G. M. Comrade Stalin’s work “On dialectical and historical materialism.” M., 1945;
Questions of dialectical and historical materialism in the work of I. V. Stalin “Marxism and questions of linguistics.” M., 1952. T. 1-2;
Kvasov G. G. Documentary source about I. V. Stalin’s assessment of the group of academician A. M. Deborin (text and commentary) // Domestic philosophy: experience, problems, research guidelines. M., 1992. Issue. 10. pp. 188-197;
Souvarine V. Staline. Aperfu historique du bolchevisme P., 1935;
Deutscher I. Stalin. A Political Biography. L., 1977;
Fischer L. The Life and Death of Stalin. Londres, 1953;
Marie J. J. Staline. P., 1967; UlamA. B. Stalin. N.Y., 1973.
This life was born hopelessly. An illegitimate son assigned to a seedy drunkard shoemaker. Uneducated mother. Little Coco didn't get out of the puddles near Queen Tamara's hill. [Cm. article Stalin's Parents and Family.] Not just to become the ruler of the world, but how can this child get out of the lowest, most humiliated position?
Nevertheless, the culprit of his life bothered him, and, bypassing church regulations, they accepted the boy from a non-clerical family - first to a theological school, then even to a seminary.
From the heights of the darkened iconostasis, the God of Hosts sternly called to the new novice, spread out on the cold stone slabs. Oh, with what zeal the boy began to serve God! how I trusted him! During his six years of study, he hammered home the Old and New Testaments, the Lives of Saints and church history, and diligently served at liturgies.
Here, in the “Biography”, there is this photograph: a graduate of the theological school Dzhugashvili in a gray cassock with a round closed collar; matte, as if exhausted by prayers, the adolescent oval of the face; his long hair, prepared for the priestly service, is strictly combed, humbly anointed with lamp oil and let down over his ears - and only his eyes and tense eyebrows betray that this novice will probably go to the metropolitan.
Stalin while studying at the theological seminary
And God deceived... The sleepy, hateful town among the round green hills, in the windings of Medjuda and Liakhvi, fell behind: in noisy Tiflis, smart people had long been laughing at God. And the ladder that Coco tenaciously climbed led, it turns out, not to heaven, but to the attic.
But the seething bully age demanded action! Time was running out - nothing was done! There was no money for a university, for civil service, for starting a trade - but there was socialism that accepted everyone, socialism that was accustomed to seminarians. There was no inclination towards the sciences or the arts, there was no skill in crafts or theft, there was no luck in becoming the lover of a rich lady - but she called everyone with open arms, accepted and promised everyone a place - the Revolution.
Joseph Dzhugashvili. Photo from 1896
Here, in the “Biography,” he advised including a photo from this time, his favorite shot. Here he is, almost in profile. He doesn’t have a beard, a mustache, or sideburns (he hasn’t decided what yet), but simply hasn’t shaved for a long time, and everything is picturesquely overgrown with lush male growth. He is all ready to rush, but does not know where. What a sweet young man! An open, intelligent, energetic face, not a trace of that fanatical novice. Freed from oil, the hair perked up, adorned the head in thick waves and, swaying, covered what may have been somewhat unsuccessful in it: the forehead was low and sloping back. The young man is poor, his jacket was bought second-hand, a cheap checkered scarf fits his neck with artistic license and covers his narrow, painful chest, where there is no shirt. Isn’t this Tiflis plebeian already doomed to tuberculosis?
Every time Stalin looks at this photograph, his heart is filled with pity (for there are no hearts that are completely incapable of it).
How difficult everything is, how everything is against this glorious young man, huddled in a free cold closet at the observatory and already expelled from the seminary!
(He wanted to combine both for insurance; he went to Social Democratic circles for four years and continued to pray and interpret the catechism for four years - but they still expelled him.) For eleven years he bowed and prayed - in vain, he cried for lost time... The more decisively he shifted his youth to the Revolution!
And the Revolution also deceived... And what kind of revolution was that - the Tiflis one, a game of boastful self-conceit in cellars drinking wine? Here you will disappear, in this anthill of nonentities: no proper promotion through the steps, no seniority, but who will talk to whom. The former seminarian hates these talkers more bitterly than governors and policemen. (Why be angry with those? They serve honestly for a salary and naturally must defend themselves, but there can be no excuse for these upstarts!) Revolution? among Georgian shopkeepers? - will never! And he lost the seminary, lost the right path of life.
And to hell with this revolution, in some kind of poverty, in workers drinking away their pay, in some sick old women, in someone’s underpaid pennies? - why should he love them, and not himself, young, smart, beautiful and - bypassed?
Only in Batum, for the first time leading along the street about two hundred people, counting onlookers, Koba (that was his nickname now) felt the germination of grains and the power of power. People followed him! – Koba tried it, and he could never forget the taste. This was the only thing that suited him in life, this was the one life he could understand: you say - and people should do it, you indicate - and people should go. There is nothing better than this, higher than this. This is beyond wealth.
A month later, the police changed their minds and arrested him. Nobody was afraid of arrests then: what a deal! They’ll keep you for two months, then you’ll be released, and you’ll be a sufferer. Koba handled himself well in the common cell and encouraged others to despise their jailers.
But they grabbed him. All his cellmates were replaced, and he sat. What did he do? No one was punished like that for trivial demonstrations.
Passed year! - and he was transferred to the Kutaisi prison, to a dark, damp cell. Here he lost heart: life went on, but he not only did not rise, but descended lower and lower. He coughed painfully from the prison dampness. And even more justly he hated these professional loudmouths, the darlings of life: why is the revolution so easy for them, why are they not kept for so long?
Meanwhile, a gendarmerie officer, already familiar from Batum, arrived at the Kutaisi prison. Well, have you thought enough, Dzhugashvili? This is just the beginning, Dzhugashvili. We will keep you here until you rot from consumption or correct your behavior. We want to save you and your soul. You were there five minutes before, priest, Father Joseph! Why did you join this pack? You are a random person among them. Say you're sorry.
He really was sorry, how sorry he was! His second spring in prison was ending, his second prison summer was dragging on. Oh, why did he give up his modest spiritual service?
How in a hurry he was!.. The most unbridled imagination could not imagine a revolution in Russia earlier than in fifty years, when Joseph would be seventy-three years old... Why would he need a revolution then?
Yes, not only for this reason. But Joseph had already studied himself and recognized his unhurried character, his solid character, his love for strength and order. So it was precisely on solidity, on slowness, on strength and order that the Russian Empire stood, and why was it necessary to shake it?
And the officer with the wheat mustache came and came. (Joseph really liked his clean gendarme uniform with beautiful shoulder straps, neat buttons, piping, and buckles.) In the end, what I am offering you is public service. (Iosif would have been irrevocably ready to go into government service, but he spoiled things for himself in Tiflis and Batum.) You will receive support from us. At first you will help us among the revolutionaries. Choose the most extreme direction. Among them – move forward. We will treat you with care wherever we go. You will give us your messages in such a way that it does not cast a shadow on you. What nickname will we choose?.. And now, in order not to expose you, we are transporting you to a distant exile, and you leave from there right away, that’s what everyone does.
And Dzhugashvili decided! And he placed the third bet of his youth on the secret police!
In November he was deported to the Irkutsk province. There, among the exiles, he read a letter from a certain Lenin, known from Iskra. Lenin had broken away to the very edge, now he was looking for supporters, sending out letters. Obviously, he should have joined him.
Joseph left the terrible Irkutsk cold for Christmas, and even before the start Japanese war I was in the sunny Caucasus.
Now a long period of impunity began for him: he met with underground members, wrote leaflets, called to rallies - others were arrested (especially those he did not like), but he was not recognized, he was not caught. And they didn’t take me to war.
And suddenly! - no one expected it so quickly, no one prepared it, organized it - but She came! Crowds went around St. Petersburg with a political petition, great princes and nobles were killed, Ivano-Voznesensk went on strike, Lodz rebelled, “ Potemkin“- and the manifesto was quickly squeezed out of the Tsar’s throat, and still the machine guns on Presnya were still knocking and the railways froze.
Koba was amazed and stunned. Was he wrong again? Why can't he see anything ahead?
The secret police deceived him!.. His third bet was beaten! Oh, if only we could give him back his free revolutionary soul! What kind of hopeless ring is this? - to shake the revolution out of Russia, so that on its second day your reports will be shaken out of the secret police archives?
Not only was his will not steel then, but it completely split in two, he lost himself and saw no way out.
Young Joseph Stalin. Photo from 1908
However, they shot, made some noise, hung themselves up, looked around - where is that revolution? She's gone!
At this time, the Bolsheviks adopted a good revolutionary method of expropriation. Any Armenian moneybag was given a letter asking him to bring ten, fifteen, twenty-five thousand. And the moneybags brought it so that they wouldn’t blow up his shop or kill his children. It was a method of struggle - such a method of struggle! - not scholasticism, not leaflets and demonstrations, but real revolutionary action. The clean-cut Mensheviks grumbled that robbery and terror were contrary to Marxism. Oh, how Koba mocked them, oh, he drove them away like cockroaches, that’s why Lenin called him “a wonderful Georgian”! - exes are robbery, but revolution is not robbery? ah, varnished purists! Where does the money come from for the party, and where does it come from for the revolutionaries themselves? A bird in the hands is better than a pie in the sky.
Of the entire revolution, Koba especially fell in love with the exes. And here no one except Koba knew how to find those only faithful people, like Camo who will obey him, who will shake his revolver, who will take away the bag of gold and bring it to Koba on a completely different street, without coercion. And when they raked out 340 thousand in gold from the forwarders of the Tiflis bank - so this was still a proletarian revolution on a small scale, and fools are waiting for another, big revolution.
And the police did not know this about Kobe, and such a pleasant average line between the revolution and the police still remained. He always had money.
And the revolution already took him on European trains, sea ships, showed him islands, canals, medieval castles. It was no longer a stinking Kutaisi cell! In Tammerfors, Stockholm, London, Koba looked closely at the Bolsheviks, at the obsessed Lenin. Then in Baku I breathed in the vapors of this underground liquid, boiling black anger.
Vladimir Lenin. Pre-revolutionary photo
And they took care of him. The older and more famous he became in the party, the closer he was exiled, no longer to Baikal, but to Solvychegodsk, and not for three years, but for two. Between the links they did not interfere with the revolution. Finally, after three Siberian and Ural exiles, he, an implacable, tireless rebel, was driven... to the city of Vologda, where he settled in a policeman’s apartment and could travel by train to St. Petersburg in one night.
But on a February evening in nine hundred and twelve, his younger Baku comrade Ordzhonikidze came to him in Vologda from Prague, shook him by the shoulders and shouted:
"Coco! Coco! You have been co-opted into the Central Committee!”
On that moonlit night, swirling with frosty fog, thirty-two-year-old Koba, wrapped in a doha, walked for a long time around the yard. Again he hesitated. Member of the Central Committee!
After all, here Malinovsky- member of the Bolshevik Central Committee - and deputy of the State Duma. Well, let Lenin especially love Malinovsky. But this is under the Tsar! And after the revolution, today’s member of the Central Committee is a faithful minister. True, don’t expect any revolution now, not in our lifetime. But even without a revolution, a member of the Central Committee is some kind of power. What will he do in the secret police service? Not a member of the Central Committee, but a small spy. No, we must part with the gendarmerie.
Fate Azef like a giant ghost swayed over his every day, over his every night.
In the morning they went to the station and went to St. Petersburg. They were captured there.
Joseph Stalin. Photo from 1912
The young, inexperienced Ordzhonikidze was given three years in the Shlisselburg fortress and then additional exile. Stalin, as usual, was given only exile, three years. True, it’s a bit far away - Narym region, this is like a warning. But communication routes in the Russian Empire were well established, and at the end of the summer Stalin returned safely to St. Petersburg.
Now he has shifted the pressure to party work. I went to see Lenin in Krakow (it was not difficult for an exile). There's a printing house, there's a May rally, there's a leaflet - and at the Kalashnikov Exchange, at a party, they busted him (Malinovsky, but this was learned much later). The Okhrana got angry - and now they drove him into real exile - under the Arctic Circle, in Kureyka's pen. And they gave him a sentence - the tsarist government knew how to create merciless sentences! – four years, it’s scary to say.
And again Stalin hesitated: for what, for whom, did he refuse a moderate, prosperous life, from the protection of the authorities, and allow himself to be sent to this damn hole? “Member of the Central Committee” is a word for a fool. There were several hundred exiles from all the parties, but Stalin looked at them and was horrified: what a vile breed these professional revolutionaries are - firebrands, wheezes, dependent, insolvent. It wasn’t even the Arctic Circle that Caucasian Stalin was afraid of, but being in the company of these lightweight, unstable, irresponsible, negative people. And in order to immediately separate himself from them, disconnect him - yes, it would be easier for him among the bears! - he married a Cheldonian woman with a body like a mammoth, and a squeaky voice - but it’s better to have her “hee-hee-hee” and a kitchen with stinking fat than go to those meetings, disputes, scrapes and comradely courts. Stalin made it clear to them that they were strangers, cut himself off from them all and from the revolution too. Enough! It’s not too late to start an honest life even at thirty-five; at some point you have to stop running around in the wind, pockets like sails. (He despised himself for having spent so many years messing around with these clickers.) So he lived, completely separately, did not touch either the Bolsheviks or the anarchists, they moved on. Now he was not going to run away, he was going to honestly serve his exile to the end. Yes and war began, and only here, in exile, could he save his life. He sat with his chick, hiding; they had a son. But the war never ended. Use your fingernails or teeth to stretch out an extra year of exile—this weak king couldn’t even give real deadlines!
No, the war did not end! And from the police department, with which he had become so accustomed, his card and his soul were handed over to the military commander, and he, knowing nothing about Social Democrats or members of the Central Committee, called up Joseph Dzhugashvili, born in 1879, who had not previously served military service , – into the Russian Imperial Army as a private. This is how the future great marshal began his military career. He had already tried three services, the fourth was about to begin.
He was taken on a sleepy sled along the Yenisei to Krasnoyarsk, from there to the barracks in Achinsk. He was thirty-eight years old, and he was nothing, a Georgian soldier, huddled in an overcoat from the Siberian frosts and being carried as cannon fodder to the front. And his whole great life was to end near some Belarusian farm or Jewish town.
But he had not yet learned how to roll up an overcoat roll and load a rifle (later he did not know either a commissar or a marshal, and it was inconvenient to ask), when telegraph tapes arrived from Petrograd, from which strangers hugged each other in the streets and shouted in the frosty breath: “Christ risen!" The king - abdicated! The Empire was no more!
How? Where? And they forgot to hope and gave up counting. Joseph was taught correctly in his childhood: “Thy ways are mysterious, O Lord!”
I can’t remember when Russian society, all its party shades, had such unanimous fun. But for Stalin to rejoice, another telegram was needed, without it the ghost of Azef, like a hanged man, kept swinging overhead.
And a day later that dispatch came: The security department was burned and destroyed, all documents were destroyed!
The revolutionaries knew that they had to burn them quickly. There, probably, as Stalin realized, there were many like him, many like him...
(The security guard burned down, but for the rest of his life Stalin looked askance and looked around. With his own hands he leafed through tens of thousands of archival sheets and threw entire folders into the fire without looking through. And yet he missed it, it almost opened in the thirty-seventh. And every fellow party member who was later given up brought to trial, Stalin certainly accused him of being an informer: he learned how easy it is to fall, and it was difficult for him to imagine that others would not be insured too.) February Revolution Stalin later refused the title of great, but he forgot how he himself rejoiced and sang, and flew on wings from Achinsk (now he could desert!), and did stupid things and through some provincial window sent a telegram to Lenin in Switzerland.
He arrived in Petrograd and immediately agreed with Kamenev: this is what we dreamed about in the underground. The revolution has been accomplished, now we need to strengthen what has been achieved. The time has come for positive people (especially if you are already a member of the Central Committee). All forces to support the provisional government!
So everything was clear to them until this adventurer arrived, not knowing Russia, deprived of any positive uniform experience, and, choking, twitching and burring, he climbed with his April theses, completely confused everything! And finally he spoke to the party, dragged it to July coup!
This adventure failed, as Stalin correctly predicted, and the entire party almost died. And where has the rooster courage of this hero gone now?
He fled to Razliv, saving his skin, and the Bolsheviks were being smeared with the latest curses. Was his freedom really more valuable than the authority of the party? Stalin openly expressed this to them at Sixth Congress, but did not gather the majority.
In general, the seventeenth year was an unpleasant year: there were too many rallies, the one who lies the best is carried around, Trotsky never left the circus. And where did they come from, the talkative talkers, like flies to honey? We didn’t see them in exile, we didn’t see them on exiles, we hung around abroad, and then they came to rip people’s throats and get into the front seat. And they judge everything like fast fleas. The question hasn’t even arisen in life, hasn’t been posed – they already know how to answer! They laughed offensively at Stalin and didn’t even hide it. Okay, Stalin didn’t get involved in their disputes, and he didn’t get into the stands, he kept quiet for now. Stalin didn’t like this, he didn’t know how to throw out words in a race to see who was bigger and louder. This is not how he imagined the revolution. He envisioned the revolution: taking leadership positions and getting things done.
These pointy beards laughed at him, but why did they decide to blame everything difficult, everything thankless, on Stalin? They laughed at him, but why did everyone in the Kshesinskaya palace get sick with their stomachs and send no one else to Petropavlovka, namely Stalin, when it was necessary to convince the sailors to give up the fortress to Kerensky without a fight, and leave for Kronstadt again? Because the sailors would have thrown stones at Grishka Zinoviev. Because you need to be able to talk with the Russian people.
It was an adventure October revolution, but it was a success, okay. It was a success.
Fine. For this we can give Lenin an A. What will happen next is unknown, but for now it’s good. People's Commissariat? Okay, let it be. Draw up a constitution?
OK. Stalin took a closer look.
Surprisingly, it seemed that the revolution was completely successful in one year. It was impossible to expect this - but it was a success! This clown, Trotsky, also believed in world revolution, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk didn’t want to, and Lenin believed it, ah, book dreamers! You have to be an ass - to believe in the European revolution, how long they lived there themselves - they did not understand anything, Stalin drove through once - he understood everything. Here you need to cross yourself, that yours was a success. And sit quietly.
Think.
Stalin looked around with sober, unbiased eyes. And I thought about it. And I clearly understood that these phrase-mongers would ruin such an important revolution. And only he alone, Stalin, can guide it correctly. By honor, by conscience, he was the only real leader here. He impartially compared himself with these playwrights, jumpers, and clearly saw his superiority in life, their fragility, his stability. He differed from all of them in that understood people. He understood them there, where they connect with the earth, where basis, in that place I understood them, without which they do not stand, will not stand, and what is higher, what they pretend to do, what they show off - this is superstructure, doesn't solve anything.
It’s true, Lenin had an eagle flight, he could simply surprise: in one night he turned - “the land to the peasants!” (and then we’ll see), one day he came up with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (after all, it’s not like it hurts a Russian, even a Georgian, to give up half of Russia to the Germans, but it doesn’t hurt him!). Oh NEP don’t say it at all, this is the trickiest thing of all, it’s not a shame to learn such maneuvers.
What was above all in Lenin, super-remarkable: he held real power very tightly only in his own hands. Slogans changed, topics of discussion changed, allies and opponents changed, but complete power remained only in one’s own hands!
But there was no real reliability in this man; he faced a lot of grief with his household, getting entangled in it. Stalin correctly sensed in Lenin flimsiness, flamboyance, and finally a poor understanding of people, no understanding at all. (He checked this on his own: whichever side he wanted, he turned, and from this side only Lenin saw him.) For the dark hand-to-hand combat that is true politics, this man was not suitable. Stalin felt himself more stable and firmer than Lenin, as much as sixty-six degrees of Turukhansk latitude is stronger than fifty-four degrees of Shushenskaya latitude. And what did this book theorist experience in life? He did not go through low rank, humiliation, poverty, direct hunger: even though he was a poor man, he was a landowner.
He never left exile, he was so exemplary! He hasn’t seen real prisons, he hasn’t even seen Russia itself, he spent fourteen years hanging around in exile. What he wrote, Stalin didn’t read more than half of it, he didn’t expect to become smart. (Well, he also had wonderful formulations. For example: “What is a dictatorship? Unlimited government, not restrained by laws.” Stalin wrote in the margins: “Good!”) Yes, if Lenin had a real sober mind, he would have been from the first days Stalin came closest, he would have said: “Help! I understand politics, I understand classes, I don’t understand living people!” But he couldn’t think of a better way to send Stalin as some kind of grain commissioner, somewhere in a corner of Russia. The person he needed most in Moscow was Stalin, and he Tsaritsyn sent...
And for the whole Civil Lenin settled down to sit in the Kremlin, he took care of himself. And Stalin had to wander for three years, driving around the whole country, sometimes shaking on horseback, sometimes in a cart, and freezing, and warming himself by the fire. Well, it’s true that Stalin loved himself during these years: like a young general without a rank, all fit and slender; leather cap with an asterisk; The officer's overcoat is double-breasted, soft, with a cavalry cut - and not buttoned; chrome boots, tailored to fit the foot; the face is smart, young, clean-shaven, and only a molded mustache, not a single woman can resist (and his third wife is a beauty).
Of course, he didn’t pick up a saber and didn’t get in front of bullets, he was more valuable to the Revolution, he’s not a man Budyonny. And when you come to a new place - to Tsaritsyn, to Perm, to Petrograd - you will be silent, ask questions, straighten your mustache. On one list you write “shoot”, on another list you write “shoot” - then people really start to respect you.
And to tell the truth, he showed himself to be a great military man, as the creator of victory.
This whole gang that climbed to the top, surrounded Lenin, fought for power, they all presented themselves as very smart, and very subtle, and very complex. It was their complexity that they boasted about. Where two and two made four, they muttered in unison that there was one more tenth and two hundredths. But the worst of all, but the nastiest of all, was Trotsky. It’s just that Stalin had never met such a vile person in his entire life. With such mad conceit, with such pretensions to eloquence, but never honestly argued, he never had “yes” - so “yes”, “no” - so “no”, necessarily: and so - and so, neither so - no way! No peace to be made, no war to wage - what reasonable person can understand this? What about arrogance? Like the Tsar himself, he bounced around in the salon carriage. But where do you get into the leadership if you don’t have a strategic streak?
This Trotsky burned and baked so much that at first, in the fight against him, Stalin lost his temper and betrayed the main rule of all politics: do not show at all that you are his enemy, do not show irritation at all. Stalin openly disobeyed him, scolded him in letters, and verbally, and complained to Lenin, and did not miss an opportunity. And as soon as he found out Trotsky’s opinion, decision on any issue, he immediately put forward why it should be quite the opposite. But you can't win like that. And Trotsky kicked him out like a city stick: he kicked him out of Tsaritsyn, kicked him out of Ukraine. And one day Stalin received a harsh lesson that not all means in the struggle are good, that there are forbidden methods: together with Zinoviev, they complained to the Politburo about the arbitrary executions of Trotsky. And then Lenin took several blank forms and signed along the bottom, “I will continue to approve!” - and immediately handed it over to Trotsky in front of them to fill out.
The science! Ashamed! What were you complaining about?! You cannot appeal to complacency even in the most intense struggle. Lenin was right, and as an exception, Trotsky was also right: if you don’t shoot without a trial, nothing at all can be done in history.
We are all human, and feelings push us ahead of reason. Every person has a smell, and you act by smell even before your head. Of course, Stalin was mistaken in opening up against Trotsky ahead of time (he never made such a mistake again). But the same feelings led him in the most correct way to Lenin. If you think with your head, you had to please Lenin, say “oh, how right! I’m for it too!” However, with an unerring heart, Stalin found a completely different way: to be rude to him as harshly as possible, to push him like an ass - they say, he is an uneducated, uncouth, wild person, accept it or not. It wasn’t that he was rude - he was rude to him (“I can still be at the front for two weeks, then let’s rest” - who could Lenin forgive for this?), but it was precisely this way - unbreakable, unyielding - that won Lenin’s respect. Lenin felt that this wonderful Georgian was a strong figure, such people were very needed, and then they would be needed more. Lenin listened to Trotsky a lot, but he also listened to Stalin. If he displaces Stalin, he will also displace Trotsky. He is to blame for Tsaritsyn, and he is to blame for Astrakhan. “You will learn to cooperate,” he persuaded them, but he also accepted that they did not get along. Trotsky came running to complain that there was prohibition throughout the republic, and Stalin was drinking the royal cellar in the Kremlin, that if they found out at the front... - Stalin laughed it off, Lenin laughed, Trotsky turned away his little beard, and left with nothing. They removed Stalin from Ukraine - this is how they gave the second People's Commissariat, the RKI.
It was March 1919. Stalin was in his forties. Who else would have had a shabby RKI inspection, but with Stalin it rose to the main People's Commissariat! (Lenin wanted it that way. He knew Stalin’s firmness, steadfastness, incorruptibility.) It was Stalin who was entrusted by Lenin to monitor justice in the Republic, the purity of party workers, down to the most important ones. By the nature of the work, if we understand it correctly, if we give our soul to it and do not spare our health, Stalin now had to secretly (but quite legally) collect incriminating materials on all responsible workers, send inspectors and collect reports, and then lead the purges. And for this it was necessary to create an apparatus, to select throughout the country the same selfless, the same steadfast, similar to themselves, ready to work secretly, without obvious reward.
Painstaking work, patient work, long work, but Stalin was ready for it.
It is rightly said that forty years is our maturity. Only here do you finally understand how to live, how to behave. Only here did Stalin feel his main strength: the power of an unspoken decision. Inside, you have already made a decision, but whose head it concerns does not need to know it ahead of time. (When his head rolls, then let him know.) The second force: never believe other people’s words, and do not attach importance to your own. You need to say not what you will do (you yourself may not know, it will be clear what it is), but what calms your interlocutor now. The third force: if someone cheated on you, don’t forgive him, if you grabbed someone with your teeth, don’t let him go, don’t let him go under any circumstances, even if the sun goes back and the heavenly phenomena are different. And the fourth strength: not to direct your head on theory, this has never helped anyone (you’ll come up with some kind of theory later), but to constantly think about who you’re on the path with now and to what milestone.
So the situation with Trotsky gradually improved - first with the support of Zinoviev, then with Kamenev. (Emotional relationships were created with both of them.) Stalin realized that with Trotsky he was worrying in vain: a person like Trotsky should never be pushed into a hole, he himself will jump and fall. Stalin knew his stuff, he worked quietly: he slowly selected personnel, checked people, remembered everyone who would be reliable, waited for an opportunity to raise them, move them.
The time has come - and sure enough! Trotsky himself fell on trade union discussion- he made a fool of himself, he was rude, he angered Lenin - he doesn’t respect the party! - and Stalin is just ready with whom to replace Trotsky’s people: Krestinsky- Zinoviev, Preobrazhensky – Molotov, Serebryakova – Yaroslavsky. We joined the Central Committee and Voroshilov, and Ordzhonikidze, all their own. And the famous commander-in-chief staggered on his crane legs. And Lenin realized that Stalin alone stood for the unity of the party like a rock, but he didn’t want anything for himself, didn’t ask for anything.
A simple-minded, handsome Georgian, this is what touched all the presenters, that he did not climb onto the podium, did not strive for popularity, for publicity, like all of them, did not boast of his knowledge of Marx, did not quote loudly, but worked modestly, selected the apparatus - a solitary comrade, very firm , very honest, selfless, diligent, a little ill-mannered, rude, a little narrow-minded. And when Ilyich began to get sick, Stalin was elected general secretary, just as Misha Romanov had once been elected to the throne, because no one was afraid of him.
It was May 1922. And another would have calmed down, sat and rejoiced. But not Stalin. Another person would have read Capital and taken notes. But Stalin only stretched his nostrils and realized: the time is desperate, the gains of the revolution are in danger, not a minute can be lost: Lenin will not retain power and he himself will not transfer it into reliable hands. Lenin's health has deteriorated, and maybe this is for the better. If he stays with the management, you can’t vouch for anything, nothing is reliable: twitchy, hot-tempered, and now still sick, he became more and more unnerving and simply interfered with work. It interfered with everyone's work! He could scold a person for no reason, put him under siege, or remove him from an elected post.
The first idea was to send Lenin, for example, to the Caucasus, for treatment, the air there is good, the places are remote, there is no telephone with Moscow, telegrams take a long time, there his nerves will calm down without government work. And assign to him to monitor his health a trusted comrade, a former expropriator, the Kamo raider. And Lenin agreed, negotiations were already underway with Tiflis, but somehow it was delayed. And then Kamo was crushed by a car (he chatted a lot about exes).
Then, worried about the life of the leader, Stalin, through the People's Commissariat of Health and through professor-surgeons, raised the question: after all, a bullet that is not removed - it poisons the body, it is necessary to do another operation, to remove it. And he convinced the doctors. And everyone repeated what was necessary, and Lenin agreed - but again it dragged on. And he just left for Gorki.
“We need firmness towards Lenin!” – Stalin wrote to Kamenev. Both Kamenev and Zinoviev, his best friends at that time, completely agreed.
Firmness in treatment, firmness in the regime, firmness in removal from business - in the interests of his own precious life. And in removal from Trotsky. AND Krupskaya also curb, she is an ordinary party comrade. Stalin was appointed “responsible for the health of Comrade Lenin” and did not consider this a menial task for himself: to deal directly with the attending doctors and even nurses, to tell them which regime would be most useful for Lenin: the most useful thing for him would be to prohibit and forbid, even if he got worried. The same is true in political matters. He doesn’t like the bill regarding the Red Army - pass it, he doesn’t like the bill about the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - pass it, and not give in for anything, because he is sick, he cannot know what is best. If something insists on doing it quickly, on the contrary, do it more slowly and put it aside. And it may even be rude, very rude to answer him - this is how the Secretary General is out of directness, you can’t break your character.
However, despite all the efforts of Stalin, Lenin recovered poorly, his illness dragged on until the fall, and then the dispute escalated over the Central Executive Committee-All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and it did not take long for dear Ilyich to get to his feet. He only stood up in order to restore a cordial alliance with Trotsky in December 22 - against Stalin, of course. So there was no need to get up for this, it was better to lie down again. Now the doctor’s supervision is even stricter: don’t read, don’t write, don’t know about matters, eat semolina. Dear Ilyich came up with the idea to write secretly from the Secretary General political testament– again against Stalin. He dictated for five minutes a day, he was not allowed more (Stalin did not allow it). But the general secretary laughed in his mustache: the stenographer tapped-tap-tap with his heels, and brought him the obligatory copy. Here Krupskaya had to be punished as she deserved, - dear Ilyich fumed - and the third blow! All efforts to save his life were of no avail.
He died at a good time: Trotsky was just in the Caucasus, and Stalin announced the wrong day of the funeral there, because there was no need for him to come: it was much more decent, and very important, for the general secretary to pronounce the oath of allegiance.
But Lenin left a will. From him, the comrades could have created discord and misunderstanding, they even wanted to remove Stalin from the General Secretary. Then even closer Stalin became friends with Zinoviev, he proved to him that obviously he would now be the leader of the party, and let him XIII Congress makes a report from the Central Committee, as a future leader, and Stalin will be a modest general secretary, he doesn’t need anything. And Zinoviev showed off on the podium, made a report (that’s all there was to it, where to choose him and who to choose, there is no such post - “party leader”), and for that report he persuaded the Central Committee not to even read the will at the congress, not to remove Stalin, he already corrected.
All of them in the Politburo were very friendly at that time, and all were against Trotsky. And they refuted his proposals well and removed his supporters from their posts. And another general secretary would have calmed down. But the tireless, vigilant Stalin knew that peace was still far away.
Was it good for Kamenev to remain in place of Lenin as the head of the Council of People's Commissars? (Even when Kamenev and he visited the sick Lenin, Stalin reported to Pravda that he walked without Kamenev, alone. Just in case. He foresaw that Kamenev would not last forever either.) Isn’t it better - Rykova? And Kamenev himself agreed, and Zinoviev too, that’s how they lived together!
But soon a big blow came to their friendship: it was discovered that Zinoviev-Kamenev were hypocrites, double-dealers, that they only strive for power and do not value Lenin’s ideas. I had to tighten them up. They became the “new opposition” (and the chatterbox Krupskaya got into it too), and Trotsky, beaten and beaten, calmed down for now. This was a very convenient situation. Here, by the way, Stalin developed a great cordial friendship with his dear Bukharchik, the first party theorist. Bukharchik spoke, Bukharchik provided the basis and justifications (they give - “an attack on the kulak!”, And Bukharin and I give - “a bond between the city and the countryside!”). Stalin himself had no claim to fame or leadership, he only monitored the voting and who was in what position. Many of the right comrades have already been in the right positions and voted correctly.
Zinoviev was removed from Comintern, Leningrad was taken away from them.
And it would seem that they would reconcile themselves, but no: they have now united with Trotsky, and that crook came to his senses for the last time and gave the slogan: “industrialization.”
And Bukharchik and I give - party unity! In the name of unity, everyone must submit! They exiled Trotsky, silenced Zinoviev and Kamenev.
This was also very helpful Lenin set : Now the majority of the party consisted of people who were not infected by the intelligentsia, not infected by the previous squabbles of the underground and emigration, people for whom the former height of the party leaders no longer meant anything, but only their current face. Healthy people, loyal people, rose from the ranks of the party and occupied important positions.
Stalin never doubted that he would find such people, and in this way they would save the gains of the revolution.
But what a fatal surprise: Bukharin, Tomsk and Rykov also turned out to be hypocrites, they were not for party unity! And Bukharin turned out to be the first confusion, not the theorist. And his cunning slogan of “a link between the city and the countryside” concealed a restorationist meaning, surrender to the fist and the breakdown of industrialization!.. So here they were, finally, the right slogans were found, only Stalin was able to formulate them: attack on the fist And accelerated industrialization! And – party unity, of course! And this vile company of “rightists” was also swept away from the leadership.
Bukharin once boasted that a certain sage concluded: “lower minds are more capable of governing.” You made a mistake, Nikolai Ivanovich, together with your sage: not inferior - healthy. Sound minds.
What kind of minds were you? processes showed. Stalin sat on the gallery in a closed room, looked at them through the mesh, chuckled: what kind of talkers they once were! what a power it once seemed! and what have we come to? got so wet.
It was knowledge of human nature, it was sobriety that always helped Stalin. He understood the people he saw with his eyes. But he also understood those whom he did not see with his eyes. When there were difficulties in 1931-32, there was nothing in the country to wear or eat - it seemed that if you just come and push from the outside, we will fall. And the party gave the command - to sound the alarm, there is a danger of intervention! But Stalin himself never believed the slightest bit: because he also imagined those Western chatterboxes in advance.
It is impossible to count how much strength, how much health, how much endurance it took to cleanse the party, the country from enemies and purify Leninism - this is an infallible teaching that Stalin never betrayed: he did exactly what Lenin had outlined, only a little softer and without fuss.
So much effort! - but still it was never calm, it was never like no one interfered. Then that crooked-lipped sucker Tukhachevsky jumped in, saying that because of Stalin he Didn't take Warsaw. Either with Frunze it didn’t work out very well, the censor blinked, then in the trashy story they presented Stalin on the mountain as a standing dead man, and they also clapped, idiots. Then Ukraine's bread rotted, Kuban fired sawn-off shotguns, even Ivanovo went on strike.
But Stalin never lost his temper, after the mistake with Trotsky - never again. He knew that the millstones of history were grinding slowly, but they were turning.
And without any formal fuss, all the ill-wishers, all the envious people will leave, die, and be ground into manure. (No matter how those writers offended Stalin, he did not take revenge on them, he did not take revenge for this, it would not have been instructive. He was waiting for another opportunity, the opportunity will always come.) And the truth is: whoever in the civil war commanded even a battalion, even a company in units, those who were not loyal to Stalin - everyone went somewhere, disappeared. And the delegates of the Twelfth, and the Thirteenth, and the Fourteenth, and the Fifteenth, and the Sixteenth, and the Seventeenth Congresses, as if simply following the lists, went to places where you couldn’t vote or speak. And they cleaned out the troublemaker Leningrad twice, a dangerous place. And even friends, like Sergo, had to be sacrificed. And even diligent assistants, like Berry, How Yezhov, I had to clean it up later. Finally, they reached Trotsky and cracked his skull.
The main enemy on earth is gone and, it seems, a respite has been deserved?
But Finland poisoned her. For that shameful trampling on the isthmus I was just ashamed in front of Hitler - he walked around France with a cane! Ah, an indelible stain on the genius of a commander! These Finns, a thoroughly bourgeois hostile nation, should be sent in trains to Kara-Kum, including small children, he would sit by the telephone, writing down reports: how many have already been shot and buried, how many are still left.
And troubles kept coming and going just in bulk. Hitler deceived, attacked, such a good alliance was destroyed due to bewilderment! And the lips trembled in front of the microphone, “brothers and sisters” burst out, now you can’t erase them from history. But these brothers and sisters ran like sheep, and no one wanted to stand to the death, although they were clearly ordered to stand to the death. Why didn't they stand? why didn’t they stand right away?!.. It’s a shame.
And then this departure to Kuibyshev, to empty bomb shelters... What positions I mastered, I never bent, the only time I succumbed to panic - and in vain. I walked from room to room and called for a week: have you already rented out Moscow? have you already passed it? – no, we didn’t pass!! It was impossible to believe that they would stop - stopped!
Well done, of course. Well done. But many had to be removed: it would not be a victory if rumors spread that the Commander-in-Chief was temporarily leaving. (Because of this, I had to photograph a small parade on November 7.) And Berlin radio rinsed dirty sheets about the murder of Lenin, Frunze, Dzerzhinsky, Kuibysheva, Gorky - cities higher! Old enemy, fat Churchill, a pig for Chokhokhbil, flew in to gloat and smoke a couple of cigars in the Kremlin. The Ukrainians changed it (there was such a dream in 1944: to evict all of Ukraine to Siberia, but there was no one to replace it, it was too much); changed Lithuanians, Estonians, Tatars, Cossacks, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Latvians - even the support of the revolution, Latvians! And even native Georgians, protected from mobilizations, seemed not to be waiting for Hitler! And only the Russians and the Jews remained faithful to their Father.
So even the national question laughed at him in those difficult years...
But, thank God, these misfortunes also passed. Stalin corrected many things by outplaying Churchill and Roosevelt-holy. Since the 1920s, Stalin has not had such success as with these two bunglers. When he answered their letters or went to his room in Yalta, he simply laughed at them.
State people, how smart they think they are, but they are dumber than babies. Everyone asks: what will we do after the war, and how? Yes, you send planes, send canned food, and then we’ll see how. You give them the floor, well, the first pass, they are already happy, they are already writing it down on a piece of paper. You pretend to be softened by love, but they are already twice as soft. I got from them for nothing, not for a sniff: Poland, Saxony, Thuringia, Vlasovites, Krasnovtsy, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Port Arthur, half of Korea, and entangled them on the Danube and the Balkans. The leaders of the “village owners” won elections and immediately went to prison. And they quickly turned Mikolajczyk down, Benes and Masaryk’s hearts gave out, Cardinal Mindszenty confessed to the atrocities, Dimitrov in the Kremlin heart clinic he renounced the absurd Balkan Federation.
And all the Soviets who returned from European life were put in camps. And - there for the second ten years all those who served only one sentence each.
Well, it seems everything is finally starting to get better!
And when even in the rustle of the taiga it was impossible to hear about any other version of socialism - a black dragon crawled out Tito and blocked all prospects.
Like a fairy-tale hero, Stalin was exhausted in cutting off more and more growing heads of the hydra!..
How could one go wrong with this Scorpio soul?! - to him! connoisseur of human souls! After all, in 1936 they already held me by the throat and let me go!.. Ay-ya-ya-ya-ay!
With a groan, Stalin lowered his feet from the ottoman and grabbed his already bald head. An irreparable annoyance stung him. I was rolling around mountains, but I stumbled on a stinking hillock.
Joseph tripped over Joseph...
Kerensky, who was living somewhere somewhere, did not interfere with Stalin at all. Let Nicholas II return from the grave or Kolchak- Stalin had no personal grudge against all of them: open enemies, they did not shy away from offering some kind of their own, new, better socialism.
The best socialism! Different from Stalin! Brat! Socialism without Stalin is ready-made fascism!
It’s not that Tito will succeed in anything – nothing can work out for him. Like an old farrier, who had ripped open a lot of these bellies, cut off countless of these limbs in chicken huts, along the roads, looks at the little white medical trainee - that’s how Stalin looked at Tito.
But Tito stirred up long-forgotten trinkets for fools: “workers’ control”, “land to the peasants”, all these soap bubbles of the first years of the revolution.
The collected works of Lenin have already been replaced three times, and the Founders’ works twice. Everyone who argued, who was mentioned in the old notes, fell asleep long ago - everyone who thought about building socialism differently. And now, when it is clear that there is no other way, and not only socialism, but even communism would have been built long ago if not for the arrogant nobles; not false reports; not soulless bureaucrats; not indifference to public affairs; not the weakness of organizational and explanatory work among the masses; not left to chance in party education; not slow pace of construction; no downtime, no absenteeism in production, no production of low-quality products, no poor planning, no indifference to the introduction of new technology, no inactivity of research institutes, no poor training of young specialists, no avoidance of young people from being sent to the wilderness, no sabotage of prisoners, no loss of grain in the field, no waste of accountants, no theft at bases, no cheating of supply managers and store managers, no greed by drivers, no complacency of local authorities! ne liberalism and bribes in the police! ne abuse of housing stock! nah impudent speculators! no greedy housewives! nah spoiled children! no tram talkers! no criticism in literature! no dislocations in cinematography! - when it is already clear to everyone that kamunism is on the right road and is not far from completion, - this cretin Tito sticks out with his Talmudist Kardel and declares that kamunism must be built differently!!!...
Biography and episodes of life Joseph Stalin. When born and died Stalin, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Politician Quotes, Photo and video.
Years of life of Joseph Stalin:
born December 21, 1879, died March 5, 1953
Epitaph
"In this hour of greatest sorrow
I won't find those words
So that they fully express
Our nationwide misfortune."
Alexander Tvardovsky on the death of Stalin
Biography
Joseph Stalin remains to this day one of the strongest and most controversial rulers of the 20th century. The entire biography of Joseph Stalin is shrouded in many theories, interpretations and opinions. It is difficult, years later, to say with certainty whether he was the “father of the Soviet people” or a dictator, a Moloch or a savior. Nevertheless, the significance of Stalin’s personality in the history of the USSR and Russia cannot be denied.
He was born in Gori in 1879 into a poor family. Joseph's father was a shoemaker, and his mother was the daughter of a serf. According to the stories of Stalin himself, the father often beat his son and wife, and then completely went on the street, leaving the family in poverty. At the age of seven, Joseph entered the theological school in Gori - his mother saw in him a future priest. Having graduated with honors, he brilliantly passed the entrance exams to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, but was expelled five years later for promoting Marxism. Stalin later admitted that he became a revolutionary and supporter of Marxism out of protest against the regime of the theological seminary in which he studied.
During his life, Stalin was married several times - Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, who gave birth to Joseph's son Yakov, died of tuberculosis after three years of marriage. Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who gave birth to Stalin's two children, Svetlana and Vasily, committed suicide after thirteen years of marriage, when the couple were already living in a Kremlin apartment. Stalin’s illegitimate son, Konstantin Kuzakov, was born in Turukhansk exile, but Joseph did not maintain a relationship with him.
After expulsion from the seminary, Stalin's political biography began - he entered the Social Democratic organization of Georgia, arrests, exiles and escapes from these exiles began. In 1903, Joseph joined the Bolsheviks - and his path to the post of head of state began; a few years later he was elected general secretary of the party's Central Committee. After Lenin's death, Stalin was able to retain power, despite Vladimir Ilyich's “Letter to the Congress” written in 1922, where he criticizes Joseph and proposes to remove him from office. Thus began the era of Stalin’s reign, an ambiguous time filled with victories and tragedies. During the years of Stalin, the USSR turned into a world power, won the Great Patriotic War, and a breakthrough was made in national economic development and in the military-industrial complex. But all these successes during the years of Stalin's rule were accompanied by large-scale repressions, deportation of peoples, famine as a consequence of collectivization and, finally, the cult of Stalin's personality, according to which the people had to believe that all the merits of the country were the merits of its ruler alone. Busts and monuments to Stalin were erected throughout the country, becoming a symbol of that time in the USSR.
In the post-war years, Comrade Stalin lived in his official residence - in the Near Dacha. On March 1, Stalin’s guard found him lying on the floor; doctors who arrived at Stalin’s dacha the next morning diagnosed him with paralysis. Stalin's death occurred on the evening of March 5. The cause of Stalin's death was a cerebral hemorrhage. The death of Joseph Stalin is still shrouded in a halo of mystery and possible conspiracies - so, according to one version, Beria, as well as Stalin’s associates who were in no hurry to call doctors, could have contributed to Stalin’s murder. Stalin's funeral took place on March 9. So many people wanted to say goodbye to the “father of the people” and honor the memory of Stalin that there was a crush. The number of victims numbered in the thousands. Stalin's body was placed in the Lenin Mausoleum. Years later, it was reburied, and now Stalin’s grave is located near the Kremlin wall. After the death of Stalin, the so-called thaw period began, the new leadership of the country decided to move away from the “Stalinist model” and follow the path of liberalization, however, this period in the history of the country was not without contradictions and excesses.
Joseph Stalin in his youth
Life line
December 21, 1979 Date of birth of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili).
1894 Graduation from the Gori Theological School.
1898 Member of the RCP(b).
1902 First arrest, exile to Eastern Siberia.
1917-1922 Work as People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs as part of the first Soviet government.
1922 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1939 Receiving the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
August 23, 1939 Signing of a non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany.
May 1941 Chairman of the Government of the USSR.
June 30, 1941 Chairman of the State Defense Committee.
August 1941 Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
1943 Receiving the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
1945 Receiving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
March 2, 1953 Paralysis.
March 5, 1953 Date of death of Joseph Stalin.
March 6, 1953 Farewell to Stalin in the House of Unions.
March 9, 1953 Funeral of Joseph Stalin.
November 1, 1961 Reburial of Stalin's body near the Kremlin wall.
Memorable places
1. Stalin Museum in Gori, in front of which is Stalin’s house, where he lived as a child.
2. House-monument to political exiles in Solvychegodsk, located in Stalin’s house, where he served his exile in 1908-1910.
3. Museum “Vologda exile” in Stalin’s house, where he served exile in 1911-1912.
4. Museum "Stalin's Bunker".
5. Near Dacha, or Kuntsevskaya Dacha, where Stalin died.
6. House of Unions, where Stalin’s body was laid out for farewell.
7. Lenin Mausoleum, where Stalin was buried.
8. The Kremlin wall, where Stalin is buried (reburied).
Episodes of life
Stalin's son from his first marriage, Yakov, was captured by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War. According to one version, when the Germans offered to exchange the leader’s son for their field marshal Paulus, Joseph Stalin replied: “I don’t exchange a soldier for a field marshal.” According to another, he took Yakov’s captivity very hard and even blamed his wife Julia for the fact that his son was captured. Yulia spent two years in prison on charges of passing information to the Germans. In 1943, Yakov was shot and killed while trying to escape from a German concentration camp.
According to the stories of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, the day before her mother Nadezhda’s suicide, her parents had a little quarrel - and the quarrel was minor, but apparently served as a trigger for her mother’s act. Nadezhda locked herself in her room and shot herself in the heart with a pistol. Stalin was shocked because he did not understand why? He perceived his wife’s action as a desire to punish him for something and did not understand why. In the first days after his wife's death, he was so depressed that he even said that he did not want to live. Stalin's daughter claims that her mother left her father a letter that was full of not only personal, but also political reproaches, which shocked Stalin even more. After reading it, he decided that all this time his wife had been on the side of the opposition, and not at one with him.
In 1936, information appeared abroad that Stalin had died. A correspondent for an American news agency sent a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin, asking him to refute or confirm the rumors. A few days later he received a response from the Soviet leader with the words: “Dear Sir! As far as I know from reports in the foreign press, I have long since left this sinful world and moved to the next world. Since it is impossible not to trust the reports of the foreign press, if you do not want to be erased from the list of civilized people, then I ask you to believe these reports and not disturb my peace in the silence of the other world. Sincerely, Joseph Stalin."
Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin
Covenant
“When I die, a lot of rubbish will be placed on my grave, but the wind of time will mercilessly sweep it away.”
Documentary story from the series “Soviet Biographies” about Joseph Stalin
Condolences
“It is difficult to express in words the feeling of great sorrow that our party and the people of our country, all progressive humanity, are experiencing these days. Stalin, the great comrade-in-arms and brilliant successor of Lenin’s work, passed away. The person closest and dearest to all Soviet people, to millions of working people around the world, has left us.”
Lavrenty Beria, Soviet politician
“In these difficult days, the deep sorrow of the Soviet people is shared by all advanced and progressive humanity. The name of Stalin is immensely dear to the Soviet people, to the broadest masses of people in all parts of the world.”
Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician
“These days we are all experiencing severe grief - the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the loss of a great leader and, at the same time, a close, dear, infinitely dear person. And we, his old and close friends, and millions and millions, like the working people of all countries, all over the world, say goodbye today to Comrade Stalin, whom we all loved so much and who will always live in our hearts.”
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician
Generalissimo and sole leader of the USSR Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin truly is one of the few leaders who managed to put the country on the track of industrialization, win the Great Patriotic War, defeating Hitler, and save the whole world from an insane tyrant.
short biography
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ( real name – Dzhugashvili) was born December 18, 1878 in the village of Gori, Tiflis province, Georgia.
His father - Vissarion Ivanovich Dzhugashvili, a shoemaker from a peasant family. His mother - Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, a charwoman from a family of serfs.
Soso's childhood
Stalin himself did not like to remember his childhood, since it was difficult for his family: after the birth of Soso (Joseph), his father began to drink and at the same time showed fits of rage, which often ended in beatings, both of his mother and of Soso himself, who stood up for mother.
Education
In 1886, Joseph's mother tried to identify her son as Orthodox theological school in Gori, but due to ignorance of the Russian language, the boy was unable to enter there.
Theological school
Subsequently, for 2 years he studied Russian. His teachers were the children of one of the local priests. Already in 1888 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was able to pass the exams at the school, immediately entering the 2nd preparatory class.
In September 1889, he successfully passed the certification and entered the school itself and in 1894 finished it.
Theological Seminary in Tifliss
Immediately after graduating from college, Joseph entered Tiflis Theological Seminary, where, according to his recollections, he first became acquainted with the works of Marx and began meeting with underground revolutionaries.
His passion and deep penetration into Marxism led to his being expelled from the seminary in his 5th year. The official reason was given as follows:
“...for failure to appear for exams for an unknown reason...”
Koba - revolutionary
After being expelled from the Tiflis Seminary, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin joined RSDLP(Russian Social Democratic Labor Party) and began to propagate revolutionary ideas with even greater zeal. He took his party nickname Koba- the hero of the novel “The Patricide”.
Underground worker
March 21, 1901 The police searched the physical observatory where Stalin lived and worked. He himself, however, escaped arrest and went underground, becoming underground revolutionary.
Bolshevik
When the RSDLP split into 2 camps (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) in 1903, Joseph Vissarionovich joined the Bolsheviks. In 1904, he organized a huge strike of oil workers in Baku, which ended with the conclusion of a collective agreement between the strikers and industrialists.
Trip abroad
In 1905, Stalin was sent abroad from the Caucasian Union of the RSDLP. He first visited the Finnish Tammerfors, where he first met IN AND. Lenin. Then he visited Stockholm.
In 1907, Joseph Vissarionovich visited London as a delegate of the RSDLP. It is also known that he visited Vienna and stayed there for about one month.
For him, a poorly educated Georgian guy who did not know foreign languages, rich foreign countries remained an alien, unknown capitalist world, according to whose laws he could never live.
Stalin
While in exile from 1908 to 1912, Joseph decided to change his party nickname "Koba" to "Stalin"- strong as steel. During this period and later, he actively helped the cause of the party, met with Lenin and spoke to people.
After the 1917 revolution
After the February and October revolutions in Russia, Stalin received a post in the new government - the Council of People's Commissars, led by Vladimir Lenin. He was appointed Commissioner for Nationalities.
General Secretary of the Central Committee
In 1922, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was appointed to the post General Secretary of the Central Committee. His manner of leading the party was in the style of despotism, for which Lenin himself wanted to remove the secretary general in 1823 and even wrote a letter to the party congress.
However, Vladimir Ilyich was very ill at that time and died a year later. Stalin was allowed to read the letter from the “leader of the proletariat,” and he promised to behave more calmly.
The rise of the country and the purge of the NKVD
After Lenin's death, Stalin began to gradually put the USSR on the rails of socialism. In 1928-33. collectivization of personal peasant farms took place, which united into collective farms.
The authorities' measures to carry out collectivization led to mass resistance among peasants, since collectivization was accompanied by the “dekulakization” of everyone indiscriminately. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) declared all dissatisfied and dispossessed people enemies of the people and sent them to special settlements in the Gulags.
In March 1930 alone, there were 6,500 riots, eight hundred of which were suppressed using weapons. Overall during 1930 about 2.5 million peasants took part in 14 thousand protests against collectivization.
USSR before the war
The industrialization carried out by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin in the 30s of the 20th century bore fruit: by 1940, the USSR took first place in Europe in terms of industrial production.
Metallurgy, energy, and mechanical engineering received noticeable development, and the chemical industry was created. The country now has its own aircraft, trucks and cars.
One of the strategic goals of the state was declared cultural revolution. Within its framework, since 1930, universal primary education was introduced in the country for the first time. In parallel with the massive construction of holiday homes, museums, and parks, an aggressive anti-religious campaign was also carried out.
The Great Patriotic War
World War II has begun in 1939 and for almost two years, until June 22, 1941, it walked under the sign of the official friendship of Hitler and Stalin.
Until Hitler's attack, the Soviet Union collaborated with Nazi Germany. There is numerous documentary evidence of cooperation of various kinds, from friendship treaties and active trade to joint parades and conferences of the NKVD and the Gestapo.
Some historians blame Stalin personally USSR's unpreparedness for war and huge losses, especially in the initial period of the war.
Liberator of the whole world from fascism
In a short period, a significant part of the territory of the USSR was occupied, millions of people found themselves behind enemy lines. With great difficulty and enormous sacrifices, the country was rebuilt on a war footing. The further development of events was determined by the commanders, although Stalin was nominally Supreme Commander.
The defeat of the Nazis and the end of the war in 1945 made a huge impression on the occupied countries of Europe. The destruction of fascism began to be associated with the name of Stalin, although they gave their lives for the victory over 28 million Soviet people. Stalin met with the heads of Great Britain and the United States, planning with them the redivision of Europe.
His name was on the lips of many leaders of Eastern European countries. In people's democracies, the Stalinist authoritarian style of one-party leadership was introduced.
After the war, a difficult restoration of the country began, accompanied by repressions and purges of “enemies of the people.”
Death of Stalin
In the evening March 5, 1953 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died at his official residence - Near Dacha (Volynskoye, Kuntsevo district, Moscow region). According to the medical report, death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage.
His body was buried first in the Mausoleum, and in 1961 it was reburied in the necropolis near the Kremlin wall.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin is one of the most controversial personalities in history. Stalin's personality has been and will be the subject of heated discussions all the time. He is respected and criticized, loved and hated. Some consider Stalin the greatest leader who was able to create order in the country and led the people to success in the bloodiest war of our state. Others are convinced that he was a real tyrant who indiscriminately shot and raped innocent people. Modern historians argue and will continue to argue about this. Most likely, this is one of those cases when it is impossible to come to a compromise and definitely say something about this person.Childhood and youth of the future ruler
Joseph Dzhugashvili (the ruler's real name) was born in the small Georgian town of Gori in 1879, on December 21. His family was not rich, they belonged to the lower class. His father worked as a shoemaker, and his mother was the daughter of a serf. Joseph was the third child, but grew up alone because his older brother and sister died as children. Joseph himself was not a completely healthy child. One of his defects was that the toes on his left foot were fused. In addition, Joseph had problems with the skin of his face and back.When little Soso (a diminutive name) turned seven years old, his left hand deteriorated. He received this injury after the boy was hit by a phaeton.
Among other things, Soso’s father, Vissarion, was very fond of drinking, and while intoxicated, he repeatedly beat his wife and boy. Stalin noted how in one of these cases, he threw a knife at his father and almost killed him. Soon Vissarion left his family and began to wander. The date and time of his death remain a mystery to this day. Stalin's neighbor, Joseph Iremashvili, spoke of seeing Stalin's father killed in a drunken brawl. According to another version, Vissarion died of natural causes. 
The mother of the future ruler, Ketevan Geladze, was a strict and wise woman, but she loved her child very much and dreamed of making him a successful career. Ketevan saw her son as a priest. Stalin's mother died in 1937. Joseph was unable to attend the funeral, giving his opponents reason to talk about the fact that there was a bad relationship between mother and son.
In 1888, Stalin was able to enter an Orthodox institution in the city of Gori. After graduating from college, he was enrolled in a religious institution in Tiflis. At this very time, he joined the ranks of revolutionaries, having studied the teachings of Marxism. Stalin studied well, all subjects were very easy for him and he never had any problems with it. While studying at the seminary, Joseph becomes the head of the Marxist movement, actively engaged in propaganda.
Joseph was never able to graduate from the institution; he was expelled for absenteeism and failure to appear for tests. He was given a document allowing him to work as a tutor. For some time he had to earn money through tutoring. At the beginning of 1900, he was accepted into the Tiflis Observatory of Physical Phenomena as a calculator.
The road to power
After Stalin was accepted into the observatory, a new stage of his life began. He began to promote Marxism with even greater activity, thanks to which the position of the future ruler of the Soviet Union was strengthened. He began to engage in revolutionary activities. In 1905, he personally met Vladimir Lenin and other influential revolutionaries. In 1912, Joseph definitely decided to change his last name and became Stalin. The origin of this pseudonym is unknown, but there is a version that this is the correct translation from Georgian into Russian of his real surname. In Georgian “juga” means “steel”.
Before becoming the ruler of the USSR, Stalin had to go through and experience a lot. He spent from 1913 to 1917 in exile. While in prison, Joseph often corresponded with Vladimir Ilyich. After the February Revolution he came back to Petrograd.
Upon arrival in Petrograd, Lenin appointed Stalin to the post of People's Commissar for Nationalities. Joseph received a seat on the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin decided to appoint Stalin to this position because of his article “Marxism and the National Question,” which greatly impressed the “leader.” The future ruler gained a reputation as the main expert on nationalities.
The next stage on the path to Stalin's rule was the Civil War. From 1918 to 1922, with a short break, Stalin was on the Revolutionary Military Council. The civil war became a huge experience for the future ruler. As one historian argued, the Civil War contributed to the development of Stalin's military-political qualities. Here he led large troops on several fronts, including the defense of Tsaritsyn and Petrograd.
Most famous historians noted that during the defense of Tsaritsyn, there were disagreements between Stalin and Voroshilov with Trotsky. Trotsky accused these two of insubordination, and the leader was dissatisfied with the great trust in the “counter-revolutionary” military experts.
In 1922, at the next Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Joseph Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the party. Formally, he led only the party apparatus, and Lenin was still considered the leader of the party and the entire people.
At the same time, Lenin became seriously ill and could no longer engage in politics. In his absence, Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev organized the so-called “troika”, whose main goal was to counter Trotsky. The Troika members held good positions and had influence. Trotsky was the head of the Red Army. 
In September 1922, Joseph Stalin showed an inclination towards Russian autocracy. He developed a plan according to which all nearby republics were to join the RSFSR as autonomous ones. This action of Stalin caused indignation among almost everyone, even Lenin. Under his personal pressure, the republics were included as allies with all the possibilities of statehood.
After this, Lenin’s health condition worsened even more, and a struggle for power began. Stalin turned out to be the strongest of all the contenders. In fact, he was the ruler of the state, gradually eliminating all his opponents. In the end, he achieved his goal and became chairman of the government of the Soviet Union.
Already in 1930, power was completely concentrated in the hands of Joseph Stalin. Very great anxiety and restructuring began in the Soviet Union. This time became one of the most terrible in the entire history of our country. Mass repressions and collectivization took place, which ultimately led to the death of millions of peasants. Ordinary workers were deprived of food and forced to starve. The ruler of the USSR sold all the products that were taken from the peasants abroad. The leader invested the profits earned from the products into the development of the industry, thereby making the Union the second country in the world in terms of industrial production in the shortest possible time. Only the price of such a rise turned out to be too high.
Years of Stalin's power
In 1940, Stalin's power was undeniable; he was the sole leader of the Soviet Union. It is no secret that under Stalin we had a totalitarian regime in our state; he was a dictator. Stalin is known, of course, for his power as a ruler; he was extremely efficient. The ruler knew how to make the most important decision in the shortest possible time. He managed to control absolutely all the processes that took place in the state. All actions were coordinated with him personally; he knew about everything that was happening in the USSR.During his years at the helm of the Soviet Union, Stalin was able to achieve truly great results. Experts in the field of history highly appreciate his contribution to the development of the USSR. Despite his tough management style, he was able to make the USSR victorious in the Great Patriotic War, thanks to him agriculture was intensified. He was able to make his state a superpower, which rivaled the greatness and power of only the United States. The USSR had enormous geopolitical influence in the world, and all this thanks to Joseph Vissarionovich. 
However, the means by which such greatness was achieved scares and horrifies many even now. The basis for governing the country for Stalin was dictatorship, violence, and terror. Many accuse him of major murders of scientists and engineers; this caused enormous harm to the scientific activities of the state.
Despite this, many people who grew up in the USSR deeply respect Stalin and consider him a great man, an outstanding ruler and an honorary citizen.
Personal life
Stalin at one time did everything so that no one knew about his personal life. However, historians, despite all the efforts of the ruler, still managed to restore the sequence of events. The ruler's first marriage took place in 1906; his chosen one was Ekaterina Svanidze. She gave birth to a son, who received the name Yakov. After living with Stalin for a year, Catherine fell ill with typhus and died.Stalin's second and last marriage happened 14 years later, in 1920. This time Nadezhda Alliluyeva became his wife, who was able to give birth to his daughter Svetlana and son Vasily. 12 years after marriage, Stalin found himself a widower twice. Nadezhda committed suicide as a result of a quarrel with her husband. This was the last marriage of the ruler.
Death of Stalin
The death of the ruler occurred in 1953, on March 5. USSR doctors determined that the cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage. After the autopsy, it turned out that Stalin suffered several strokes during his lifetime, which caused heart problems.At first, Stalin’s body was placed in the Mausoleum next to Lenin, but after 9 years it was decided to rebury the ruler near the Kremlin. There are many versions about the death of the ruler. Many believe that his subordinates specifically did not allow doctors to see the ruler so that they could not raise Stalin. His comrades did this because they considered his policies to be incorrect in governing the state.