Joseph Stalin: Childhood, Early Life, How He Came to Power

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The Union of the Soviet Socialists Republics (USSR) had many outstanding political figures. They include Trotsky, Lenin and Josef Stalin. USSR became a world super power under the leadership of Josef Stalin.The superiority of the USSR was attributed to their military stability, political, industrial powers and their flourishing economy. These were established through strategic plans laid by Stalin as he ascended to power after the death of Lenin in 1924.The paper will look at Josef Stalin’s childhood/early life, how he came to power, what he did that was significant, and how the world changed because of him. Also a brief look at what he did during WWII.

Joseph Stalin was born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, 1878. During his early childhood, his face was permanently scarred after suffering from a small pox attack. Beside that, he permanently damaged his left hand as a result two accidents that happened to him. He enrolled at Georgian Orthodox Seminary through a scholarship unfortunately he did not complete the course because he could not afford the required school fees. This resulted to his being expelled after which, he was inspired by revolutionary writings of Vladimir Lenin. In 1903, his desire for politics was satisfied when he joined the Bolsheviks and became an advocate of Marxism, a movement through which he carried out revolutions i.e. robberies and extortions. These illegal activities led him to be imprisoned many times, he also lived in exile. While in exile in Baku, his wife Ekaterina died. He started a newspaper printing press and named it Pravda. He remained as an editor of the newspaper (Suny 17).

The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War of 1917-1919 was major role that Stalin played. This ended in the victory for the Bolsheviks. As a matter of fact during the revolution Lenin escaped and went into exile thus creating room for Stalin to rise to power. He was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee and became an appointee to hold the seat of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee. This was after Georgia had been attacked by the Red Army. After the death of Lenin, Josef Stalin ascended to power. Stalin eliminated all his former allies who could cause a threat to his leadership and by the year 1928 he was unchallenged leader and none could dispute him in USSR.

In the year 1928 he initiated a rapid industrialization programme, forced collective agriculture and established a five –year plans for economic development. His legacy is commonly remembered especially concerning the means he used to come to power and clinging to power for a long period of time, 1924-1953.During that time many murders were committed using the secret police and intelligence agencies, imprisonment without trials as he once said “Kill one and you are a murderer, kill thousands and you are a legend”. Stalin murdered his political rival Trotsky who had gone in exile in Mexico in 1940 through the use of the secret police and intelligence police (Kanatchikov 42).

Stalin was an outstanding negotiator (Walker 14). During his political career, Stalin was able to act as a middle person and fostered understanding between several political powers. For instance, he was the front runner in ensuring that the USSR stayed as a block after the liberation given to them by the red army. It is true to argue that his single handed efforts, Stalin was able to ensure that the Eastern European countries remained within the powers of the Soviet Union. In addition, Stalin was able to negotiate with Adolf Hitler for a peaceful solution concerning Poland. In his proposition, he offered that the two countries divide Poland between themselves and stay peaceful. This proposition was accepted by Adolf Hitler who later went against his word and attacked the USSR. His negotiation power was also evidenced by his ability to secure three seats within the United Nations Council for his country. During this period, the United Nations was a newly formed organization. Considering that Stalin’s deepest desire was to see the world giving respect the USSR, his negotiation power was able to ensure that USSR had a permanent seat in the Security Council. True to his desire, the USSR was respected as one of the world’s super powers.

As the leader of the USSR Stalin launched a five –year economic development plan that was centralized. The agricultural sector was collectivized and plans for rapid industrial development programs came into force. The experiments that were carried out in the agricultural sector introduced rapid changes in social ladder in the country. Peasant farmers were alienated from their land and produce thus leading to a great resistance from the peasants. This agricultural experiment flopped causing rigorous food shortage that resulted into deaths due to hunger. As a result of these new policies, measures were put in place to restrict consumption by the people and the wealth of the rich peasants were nationalized through capital investment by the government of the USSR. These achievements were made during the first two year plan periods under the 5 year economic development plan (Kanatchikov 42).

Under his leadership Stalin can be remembered for administering and championing equal rights for women. The policies laid down catered for women to get access to education and sound health care. The women had equal job opportunities after completion of their education.Proper road and rail networks were improved in the transportation sector. Technical experts, which included women, ensured that industrial outfit of the country was good. The rate of development was thus enhanced (Suny 13).

One notable character of Stalin was his intolerance for enemies and opposition. During his time in power with the Bolsheviks, Stalin ensured that the leaders of the Lenin party were destroyed (Ginzburg 27). He used the term enemy of the people to ensure that all of them were killed. Although he started by ensuring that most of them were sent to exile, he realized later that their influence on the people even from Diaspora was still great. He devised methods that later put the old leaders to trial which led to most of the killings.

During the Second World War, Stalin was comfortably sure that he was safe from the hands of the Nazi. This made him relax and concentrate less on the events of the war. However, Hitler went against his word and attacked the USSR. As a result of his unpreparedness, Stalin faced great defeat at the hands of the Germans. As a reaction, he stayed locked in his office for a long period of time trying to absorb the shock. Though he later regrouped his army, it had cost him time and lives. In addition, Belarus and Ukraine were already under the German control (Tumarkin 33).

The world has Stalin to thank for his strong opposition of Nazi Germany in 1942. During this time, the German legions had marched forward with a soul objective of liquidating the Russian power. If they had succeeded, Adolf Hitler would have conquered the whole world. He would have become unstoppable. His Nazi ideologies and values would have been spread to the whole world. From Europe, Hitler would have conquered other continents. However, Stalin stopped this Hitler dream. Although he was ambushed unexpectedly at first, he managed to regroup and re-strategize his military and stopped German legions from sweeping past Stalingrad (Tumarkin 32).

After the death of Stalin in 1953 his predecessor undermined his policies. Thus new policies came into effect. Stalin is never championed as the world leader due to his violation of human rights through the use of secret police to thrash those that challenged his power.

Born a humble church going little child, Stalin will be remembered not only by Russians but the world as a whole for the role he played during the Second World War. For the people of the Soviet Union, it was Stalin’s effort that ensured that the eastern European countries remained under the Soviet Influence. In addition, his development plan ensured that the Soviet experienced an industrial revolution which saw the country acquire an industrial outlook and hence competitiveness. To the world, it was Stalin who stopped the German legions from extending their ideologies and conquest over the world. Hitler’s army was stopped from advancing further after experiencing defeat from Stalin. On the other hand, Stalin is known for his iron handed rule over the Soviet. He is known for his destruction of opposition. Despite this, it is true that he is one of the people to be remembered down history lane.

Works Cited

Ginzburg, Eugenia. Journey Into the Whirlwind. NY: Harbrace, 1967.

Kanatchikov, Semen. A Radical Worker in Tsarist Russia: The Autobiography of Semen Ivanovich Kanatchikov. Trans., ed. Reginald E. Zelnik. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986.

Tumarkin, Nina. Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983.

Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR and the Successor States. NY: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Walker, Barbara. “On Reading Soviet Memoirs: A History of the ‘Contemporaries’ Genre As an Institution of Russian Intelligentsia Culture from the 1790s to the 1970s,” Russian Review 59(2000):327-52

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Joseph Stalin: Childhood, Early Life, How He Came to Power

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