Joseph V. Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili or Dzugashvili, 1879–1953, Soviet political leader: secretary general of the Communist Party 1922–53; premier of the U.S.S.R. 1941–53.
Joseph . original name Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili . 1879–1953, Soviet leader; general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53). He succeeded Lenin as head of the party and created a totalitarian state, crushing all opposition, esp in the great purges of 1934–37. He instigated rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture and established the Soviet Union as a world power
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In the troika of major figures in the Russian Revolution, Trotsky stood for ideas and Stalin represented power; their predecessor, Vladimir Lenin, had fused the two values as the frowning avatar of communist leadership.
Most of Finnish Karelia was grabbed by Joseph Stalin's forces in 1940 after the bloody Winter War, when Finland put up stiff resistance to the Soviets despite overwhelming odds.
He describes Stalin’s promotion to head of the Leningrad Party in 1929, which never happened—Stalin was by that time consolidating his power across the U.S.S.R.
He was 16 when the Hungarian Revolution erupted in October 1956, and he joined a crowd in Stalin Square laboring to tear down a colossal statue of the Soviet leader.
