Ioseb stalin biography history wikipedia

Joseph stalin children

One of the towering figures of the 20th century, things might have been very different for global politics had Stalin not been around. During his time as Soviet leader, he oversaw the Allied victory against Nazi Germany and the worsening of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. Stalin is also considered one of the most dangerous totalitarian leaders in history, his violent excesses often compared to those of Adolf Hitler.

Here are 10 facts about Joseph Stalin. Born into poverty in to an alcoholic cobbler father and washerwoman mother, Stalin caught smallpox at the age of seven and was left with pockmarks on his face and a slightly deformed left arm. He was bullied by other children while also enduring beatings at the hands of his father. He rebelled against studying scripture, however, instead reading the writings of Karl Marx and joining a local socialist group.

Eventually he became an atheist, and in was expelled from the seminary for failing to attend exams. Stalin was born Ioseb Joseph Besarionis dze Jughashvili. But, like other Russian revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin, he later adopted the alias by which he is now best known. Following the October Revolution of , the three men became part of an informal group leading the new Bolshevik government.

This group was completed by Yakov Sverdlov, though he died little more than a year later.