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

In “Two Prosecutors,” the inert nobodies blocking Kornev’s progress are crisply choreographed, Stalin’s existential choke hold strangling their very spirit.

From Los Angeles Times

Soviet premier Joseph Stalin installed his high-ranking officials in a network of dachas.

From Salon

Surely, he thinks, Stalin wouldn’t stand for such a travesty.

From The Wall Street Journal

“But when Stalin says ‘play,’ a wise man plays.”

From Salon

Or that Winston Churchill—who in 1919 said Bolshevism should be strangled in its cradle—became Stalin’s puppet 22 years later?

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• autocrat
• bully
• despot
• dictator
• oppressor