Joseph Stalin Leadership

Matthew Klepach

Mr. Saleeba

English IV

15 March 2018

Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin, born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, was one of the fiercest leaders of the Soviet Union. He ruled Russia with an iron fist from 1929 to 1953. During his rule, approximately twenty-million of his own citizens died. But to understand his leadership and why he was a cruel leader, we must go back to how it all started.

Joseph Stalin was born in the town of Gori on the date December 18th, 1878. Stalin would eventually create a new “birth date” for himself which was on December 21st, 1879. As a child, Stalin grew up in a poor family and as an only child. As a teen, Stalin earned a scholarship to study for priesthood at the Georgian Orthodox Church. While he

He joined the Bolsheviks, which was ran by Vladimir Lenin, and would rob banks occasionally to support their funds. He adopted the nickname “Koba” which was from an old Georgian story. Stalin got married to his first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, in 1906. The two had a son, Yakov, who died in WWII later on. His first wife died from typhus shortly after the birth of their son.

In the year 1915 the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and created the Soviet Union in 1922. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, there was a power struggle within the Communist party. By the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin gained control and became dictator of the Soviet Union. One of Stalin’s first actions was a five year plan that would turn the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower from the peasant society it was. Stalin’s plans also included that the government would take control of the economy and the citizens farms to collect all the

In 1939, right before the start of World War II, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler signed a nonaggression pact. In 1941, Nazi Germany broke their pact and invaded the USSR. The Allied Forces had informed Stalin on the potential invasion, but he decided to ignore the warning, putting his own people in danger. Even though the Soviets were not prepared for a war, they quickly fought back. Stalin stayed in Moscow as the German army marched on, ordering his men to destroy anything of value that may benefit their enemy.

The tide of war changed for the Soviets at the Battle of Stalingrad. At the battle, the Red Army defeated the Nazis and eventually drove them from Russia. Stalin would go on to attend the meetings of the Allied Powers, and would become a loyal ally. Stalin still planned to expand the Soviet Empire after the war. After the war, Stalin did not change that much as a leader. He still reigned in terror, exiled citizens to labor camps, held executions, and suppressed Western influence.

Stalin would go onto establish communist governments across Eastern Europe. A tension between the United States and the USSR would begin to grow, resulting in the Cold War. No battles were ever fought, but the fear of war would linger. As Stalin grew older, he grew paranoid. On March 5th, 1953, Stalin died of a