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Joseph Stalin Essay example

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Joseph Stalin, whose real name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, was born on December 21, 1879 in the small town of Gori, Georgia. His family was poor and he was the only child of four to survive. His father was a shoemaker. He was a heavy drinker and died from wounds in a brawl when Stalin was 11 years old. His mother was a pious and hardworking woman. She wanted her son to have a good life so she entered him into priesthood. He attended elementary school run by the Orthodox Church and went on to the Orthodox theological seminary in Tiflis. There he joined a secret study group that opposed the Russian tsarist government. They discussed the radical ideas of Karl Marx and Stalin became a devout Marxist. Eventually, Stalin was expelled …show more content…

Weakened by four long years of war the tsarist regime collapsed and a Provisional Government was set up to maintain control. In October of 1917 the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and took over Moscow. Then in 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk made Russia give up large tracts of land to lots of countries. Then a civil war erupted between Bolsheviks, Reds, and anti-Bolsheviks, Whites. In northern Russia, British, French, and U.S troops are capturing cities, as well as in the Russian Far East. Then Russia declares a policy of war communism with the state taking control of the whole economy causing millions of peasants to starve to death because the army confiscates grain for it own needs. Lenin proposes New Economic Policy which partially returns the market economy and provides a period of stability. A union treaty joins Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Transcaucasia into the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union adopts a constitution based on dictatorship of the working class and the public ownership of land and the means of production. When Lenin dies, Joseph Stalin takes over. Stalin takes the situation of the Soviet Union and uses it to make himself in absolute control of the country. Joseph Stalin becomes a Totalitarian dictator by maneuvering to establish a powerful place in the party. By 1901, Stalin was a member in the Social Democratic Party. Then it split into two separate parties. Stalin supported the more

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