Joseph Stalin

1879 - 1953

1899Dropped out of seminary and expelledfor missing exams

1878 Born

1901Joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RDSLP)

1905Met Vladimir Lenin for the first time

1912Named by Lenin a member of the Bolshevik Party central committee

1917Named Commisar of Nationalities (Officer of Nationalities)

Timeline of Stalin's Rise to Power

1922Appointed general secretary of the Communist Party

1929Became dictator of the Soviet Union (ruler with total power)

1935Began great purge (killing) of Communist Party(his plan was to eliminate

1941Named himself premier (1st in importance) of the Soviet Union

1953March 5,Died in Moscow. Towards the end of his life he had become paranoid and had a fatal stroke as a result of this.

ParentsStalin's father was a shoemaker and an alchoholic. Stalin's father was abusive and beat his sonHis mother was a laundress

Deathly ReignBy some estimates he was responsible for the deaths of 20 mill. under his brutal rule

DOBDecember 18, 1878(according to some December 6th)Later, Stalin invented a new birthdate: December 21, 1879

Joseph Stalin

Russian secret police arrested revolutionists and sent them to exile without trial.

NameStalin was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili ,but when he was in his 30s he changed his name to Stalin from the Russian for "man of steel"

FamilyIn 1906 Stalin married "Kato" Vanidze. They had a son ,Yakov, who died as a World War II prisoner. Kato died from typhus when her son was an infant.In 1918 he married "Nadya" Alliluyeva. They had a boy and a girl. She committed suicide in her early 30s in 1932.