Joseph Stalin Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Joseph Stalin
OCCUPATION: Dictator
BIRTH DATE: December 18, 1878
DEATH DATE: March 05, 1953
EDUCATION: Church school (Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire), Tiflis Theological Seminary
PLACE OF BIRTH: Gori, Georgia, Russia
PLACE OF DEATH: Moscow, Russia
Originally: Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili
Full Name: Joseph Stalin
AKA: Iosif Dzhugashvili

Best Known For

Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, instituting a reign of terror while modernizing Russia and helping to defeat Nazism.

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Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:13, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723.

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Joseph Stalin. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723. Accessed May 21, 2013.

Earlier, he had ordered the Soviet representative to the United Nations to boycott the Security Council because it refused to accept the newly formed Communist People's Republic of China into the United Nations. When the resolution to support South Korea came to a vote in the Security Council, the Soviet Union was unable to use its veto.

Death and Legacy

Though his popularity from his successes during World War II was strong, Stalin's health began to deteriorate in the early 1950s. After an assassination plot was uncovered, he ordered the head of the secret police to instigate a new purge of the Communist Party. Before it could be executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, 1953. He left a legacy of death and terror as he turned a backward Russia into a world superpower.

Stalin was eventually denounced by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, in 1956. However, he has found a rekindled popularity among many of Russia's young people.