Stalin

American  

[stah-lin, -leen, stal-in, stah-lyin] / ˈstɑ lɪn, -lin, ˈstæl ɪn, ˈstɑ lyɪn /

noun

1. 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.

2. a former name of Donetsk.

3. former name of Varna.

4. former name of Braşov.

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Stalin ¹ British  

/ ˈstɑːlɪn /

noun

1. Also called: Stalino.  a former name (from after the Revolution until 1961) of Donetsk

2. the former name (1950–61) of Braşov

3. the former name (1949–56) of Varna

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Stalin ² British  

/ ˈstɑːlɪn /

noun

1. 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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Example Sentences

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.

From The Wall Street Journal

Of Stalin it could truly be said: When Father turns, we all turn.

From Salon

Joseph Stalin once offered: “Quantity has a quality all of its own.”

From Barron's

Louis XIV, Napoleon, imperial Germany, Hitler, Tojo and Stalin all had some good years.

From The Wall Street Journal

Stalin’s behavior, and an unfortunate leak from a highly placed senator, drove Truman to authorize work on “the Super,” a thermonuclear bomb hundreds of times more powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• autocrat
• bully
• despot
• dictator
• oppressor