Joseph Stalin

1. Joseph Stalin Matthew Headley March 14, 2013 Period 4

2. Early Life He was born on December 18, 1878 in Gori, Russia. His parents were poor and his mother worked as a housekeeper and found whatever job opportunities were available. His father was a cobbler or a shoemaker. Joseph had two brothers but they both died during infancy. As a child, Joseph had numerous health issues. He was born with two adjoined toes and contracted small pox when he was seven, which scared his face for life. At the age of twelve, Joseph injured his arm in an incident involving a horse-drawn carriage. His left arm was left shorter and stiffer than his right. He and his mother were constantly abused by his alcoholic father. After going on a rampage, Joseph’s father was banished from Gori. When he was 16, Joseph was given a scholarship to attend Georgian Orthodox Tiflis Theological Seminary in Tbilisi. He excelled at the school but was expelled when he missed his final exams. Soon after leaving school, he joined the Bolshevik’s, the group that ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Joseph became one of their chief operators and now his duties included organizing paramilitaries, inciting strikes, spreading propaganda, and raising money through bank robberies, ransom kidnappings, and extortion. He even robbed a bank and in the process, killed 40 people and stole the equivalent of 3.4 million dollars.

3. Involvement in Russian society • After being exiled, Stalin made an important act in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After an enemy prevailed at April 1917 Communist conference, he shifted to oppose the Provisional Government. After the conference he was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee. With his new power he was able to point out the bad things about his enemy to the leader of the Bolshevik Central Committee and in the end, Stalin’s enemy was arrested. During the Russian Civil War Stalin was sent to the Red army to command it and take down the white army. After the Russian Civil War, Poland invaded Ukraine, but the Bolshevik pushed them back into Poland. Stalin was the leader of the Southern Army and he was bent on taking the Polish city of Lviv. The objective was to take the city of Warsaw farther north. When the Northern Army engaged Warsaw, Stalin refused to bring his troops in as reinforcements. Both the Battle of Warsaw and the Battle of Lviv were lost and Stalin was to blame.

4. World War II At the beginning of World War II, there was a failed attempt to sign an anti-Germany military alliance with France and Britain. Instead, Soviet Russia agreed to sign a non-aggression alliance with Germany. For this pact, Stalin met with Hitler and the deal was set in stone. Leading up to the 1940s, Soviet Russia and Germany were invading territories in Poland and Finland. By the end of the year, 10% of Finland’s territory belonged to Soviet Russia and a good portion of Poland was lost to Germany and Soviet Russia. In June of 1941, Hitler broke the pact and invaded Soviet Russia. By the end of 1941, there were 4.3 million Soviet casualties and the German’s had advanced 1,050 miles into the Russian Heartlands. In late 1941, Stalin contacted Great Britain and made an agreement with them that Soviet Russia would sign an assistance/aid pact and at the end of the war, Soviet Russia would gain back all of the territory that it had taken with the help of Hitler. The German raid was finally put to rest with the help of Britain and France. While 1.9 million German soldiers faced Stalin’s 6.4 million Red Army troops. 1 million German troops advanced on Britain. That afternoon, Stalin broke through the German lines and just as he was about to apprehend Hitler, Hitler committed suicide.