It divided Eastern Europe among the two powers. Both leaders promised not to attack each other. In Hitler broke the agreement and invaded the Soviet Union. It was the turning point of the war and from then on the Red Army started marching towards the west. Although the Soviet Union and the Allies defeated Germany millions of Russian civilians and soldiers died. In the Cold War that followed there was always the danger of war between the two superpowers. Although Stalin was a ruthless leader he also did things that helped the Russians.
He gave women education and jobs. The process of removing all potential rivals from the Central Committee was only completed in after a decade of purges, Shamberg said. Shamberg devoted special attention to the role of Georgii Malenkov, whom he knew personally during the s and s. Malenkov, according to Shamberg, was a new addition to Stalin's inner circle in the late s.
Malenkov is largely ignored in recent analyses of the Stalinist period, largely because Nikita Khrushchev—who was an intimate friend of Malenkov—wrote in his memoirs that Malenkov was a mere "errand boy" for Stalin. Shamberg, however, argued that Malenkov was an intelligent man, a skilled manager, and played an important role in Stalin's government. Shamberg also noted that Malenkov was the first top Soviet official to recognize that nuclear war would destroy all of world civilization. In the later years of Stalin's rule, there was considerable scheming within the Communist Party to position people as potential successors for the aging dictator.
According to Shamberg, there were two major factions—the Moscow group, which included Malenkov and Lavrenti Beriia, and the St. The St. Petersburg group was able to get Malenkov relieved of his duties as Secretary of the Central Committee in , but he was reinstated as Secretary in , in Shamberg's view because he was simply a better manager than Kuznetsov and Zhdanov. In , Stalin was expelled from the seminary for missing exams, although he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda. After leaving school, Stalin became an underground political agitator, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes.
He adopted the name Koba, after a fictional Georgian outlaw-hero, and joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party.
He was arrested multiple times between and , and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia. Ekaterina perished from typhus when her son was an infant.
They had two children, a boy and a girl his only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva , caused an international scandal when she defected to the United States in Nadezhda committed suicide in her early 30s. Stalin also fathered several children out of wedlock. Three years later, in November , the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. The Soviet Union was founded in , with Lenin as its first leader.
During these years, Stalin had continued to move up the party ladder, and in he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party , a role that enabled him to appoint his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support.
After Lenin died in , Stalin eventually outmaneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party. By the late s, he had become dictator of the Soviet Union. Starting in the late s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower.
His development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms. The forced collectivization also led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions. Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps.
Some of the members were socialists who introduced him to the writings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Stalin joined the group in Though he excelled in seminary school, Stalin left in Accounts differ as to the reason; official school records state he was unable to pay the tuition and withdrew. It's also speculated he was asked to leave due to his political views challenging the tsarist regime of Nicholas II. Stalin chose not to return home, but stayed in Tiflis, devoting his time to the revolutionary movement. For a time, he found work as a tutor and later as a clerk at the Tiflis Observatory.
In , he joined the Social Democratic Labor Party and worked full-time for the revolutionary movement. In , he was arrested for coordinating a labor strike and exiled to Siberia, the first of his many arrests and exiles in the fledgling years of the Russian Revolution.
It was during this time that he adopted the name Stalin, meaning "steel" in Russian. Though never a strong orator like Vladimir Lenin or an intellectual like Leon Trotsky , Stalin excelled in the mundane operations of the revolution, calling meetings, publishing leaflets and organizing strikes and demonstrations.
After escaping from exile, he was marked by the Okhranka, the tsar's secret police as an outlaw and continued his work in hiding, raising money through robberies, kidnappings and extortion. In February , the Russian Revolution began. By March, the tsar had abdicated the throne and was placed under house arrest. For a time, the revolutionaries supported a provisional government, believing a smooth transition of power was possible.
But in April , Bolshevik leader Lenin denounced the provisional government, arguing that the people should rise up and take control by seizing land from the rich and factories from the industrialists. By October, the revolution was complete and the Bolsheviks were in control.
The fledgling Soviet government went through a violent period after the revolution as various individuals vied for position and control. In , Stalin was appointed to the newly created office of general secretary of the Communist Party. Though not a significant post at the time, it gave Stalin control over all party member appointments, which allowed him to build his base.
He made shrewd appointments and consolidated his power so that eventually nearly all members of the central command owed their position to him. By the time anyone realized what he had done, it was too late. Even Lenin, who was gravely ill, was helpless to regain control from Stalin. After Lenin's death, in , Stalin set out to destroy the old party leadership and take total control. At first, he had people removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations. However, further paranoia set in and Stalin soon conducted a vast reign of terror, having people arrested in the night and put before spectacular show trials.
Potential rivals were accused of aligning with capitalist nations, convicted of being "enemies of the people" and summarily executed.
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