Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 to 1953. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower. However, he ruled by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his ...
Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. His actions and ideas were a significant factor in the unfolding Cold War.
In the early 1920s, Stalin began plotting to gain power. Before Lenin died in 1924, he expressed misgivings about Stalin's use of power. Nevertheless, Stalin joined in a three-man leadership group, called a troika, to govern the Soviet Union after Lenin's death. He quickly pushed aside ...
At the height of the 1932-33 Ukrainian famine under Joseph Stalin, starving people roamed the countryside, desperate for something, anything to eat. In the village of Stavyshche, a young peasant boy watched as the wanderers dug into empty gardens with their bare hands. Many were so emaciated...
But as a result of Stalin’s rule, millions and millions of innocent people died. Stalin and Trotsky not only had different principles and beliefs on how the Soviet State should be run, but they also had differing views on how socialism should work. While Stalin wanted “Socialism in one ...
As a young child he (Joseph Goebbels) almost died of pneumonia, accompanied by "terrible fever hallucinations." He survived but remained a"sickly little fellow." Shortly after the turn of the century, Joseph contracted osteomyelitis, one of the "decisive events" of his childhood, as he later...
Before it could be executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, 1953. He left a legacy of death and horror, even 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...
Joseph Stalin (born December 18 [December 6, Old Style], 1878, Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire [see Researcher’s Note]—died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was the secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (...
Leon Trotsky, communist theorist and agitator who unsuccessfully struggled against Joseph Stalin for power in the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin’s death.