Biography

Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili)

Years of life: December, 21, 1879 – March, 5, 1953

Years of governance: 1922-1953

Soviet state political and military figure

From 1922 – Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR

From 1941 – the head of the Soviet government (from 1941 - Chairman of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars, from 1946 – Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR)

From 1945 – Generalissimo of the Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin was born on December, 21, 1879 in Gori, Tiflis province.  His parents were Ekaterina Geladze and Vissarion Dzhugashvili. In 1888 Joseph  was taken to Gori ecclesiastical  school. In 1894 he graduated from the school as an excellent pupil and entered Tifflis Orthodox seminary (1894-1899).

1895 – Georgian writer and public figure Ilia Chavchavadze called “father of nation” published poems by Joseph under the pen-name “Soselo” in his newspaper “Iveria” and predicted great poetic future to the fellow.

In 1912 one of the well-known poems by Soselo “Dila” (“The Morning”) a great Georgian teacher Gogebashvili published in his “Deda ena” (The ABC book”).

From 1895 Soso Dzhugashvili took part in revolutionary movement under the influence of Russian Marxists lived in Trans-Caucasus that time.

In 1898 Soso Dzhugashvili became a member of the first Georgian social-democratic organization. The was expelled from the leavers’ class of the seminary for his participating in Marxsist group.

In 1901 together with a famous Georgian revolutionary Ketkshoveli Soso issued the first Georgian social-democratic newspaper “Brdzola” (“The Struggle”). He founded an illegal printing-house where revolutionary leaflets were published.

Dzhugashvili was a member of Batumi and Tiflis Party committees. He used a Party pseudonym “Stalin”. Surname Dzhugashvili comes of an old Georgian word “dzhuga”, it means “steel” (in Russian “stal”).

On April, 5, 1902 Stalin was arrested as one of the organizers of workers’ demonstration in Batumi. For his revolutionary activities he was arrested seven times.

In 1905 Stalin was a delegate of the first Party conference where he met Lenin.

In 1912 at the VI th Party conference Stalin became a member of the Central Committee and a member of Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. The first issue of “ The Pravda” was published with his active participation.

At that period Joseph Dzhugashvili became “Stalin” and the first scientific work by him “Marxism and the Problem of Nationalities” was published under this pseudonym.

In 1913 Stalin was arrested in Saint-Petersburg and sent to  Turukhansk region.

In 1917 after February revolution he came back to Petrograd and he was included in the editors of the newspaper “The Pravda”.

In May, 1917 Stalin was elected a member of the Political Bureau. He took personal part in the October armed uprising and in its preparation. The was a member of the first Soviet government as the Peoples’ Commissar of nationalities affairs.

1918 – Stalin became a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic and a member of the Workers and Peasants’ Defense Council.

1922 – Stalin was elected to the position of Secretary General of the Central Committee.

In 1941 from the beginning of the war Stalin became Chairman of the government, Chairman of the State Committee of Defense, Peoples’ Commissar of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.

June, 27, 1945 – Stalin was conferred a military rank Generalissimo of the Soviet Union.

March, 5, 1953 – J. Stalin died of cerebral haemorrhage. On March, 9 his body was put into the Lenin Mausoleum next to Lenin’s body.

On October, 31, 1961 Stalin’s body was carried out of the Mausoleum and it was buried  at the Kremlin Wall.