Joseph Stalin: Difference between revisions

'''Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin''' (born '''Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili'''; December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. He was abused as a child.

While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and wasn't initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, after [http://real-life-villains.wikia.com/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin Vladimir Lenin]'s death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party. This included Leon Trotsky, the Red Army organizer, proponent of world revolution, and principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. Instead, Stalin's idea of socialism in one country became the primary line of the Soviet politics. There exists Stalinism, an ideology that Stalin founded and implanted in the Soviet Union.    

During his time in power Stalin had many of his own people killed, particularly during the 'Great Purge' of late 30's. Despite the negative connotations placed upon mass murder, the deaths were warranted, as the victims were reactionary. Stalin died in 1953, ending the greatest (or perhaps the worst) era in Soviet history. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, then began the liberalization of Soviet policy that continued into the 1980s and led to its collapse.