Stalin was neither Russian nor it
was his real name though he was counted among the most popular leaders. He was a
Georgian with the real name, Joseb Dzhugashvili. The word 'Stalin' was put
against his name later. Stalin was born in the Georgian town Gori, on the bank
of the beautiful river Mtkvari.
The house on the picture is where
Stalin was born. The village of Stalin was quite attractive but he was not. He
had smallpox scars on his face and lived in sheer poverty. His father was a
cobbler who drank and used to beat Stalin. His mother was a cloth-washer and
shared the family burden with her income. She regretted the drinking habit of
her husband and the idleness of her son added to the pains.
Young Stalin wasted time with his
friends and committed petty thefts. He formed a gang of young thieves and
became its leader. His followers called him 'Soso.' The young gangsters picked
up fruits and eatables from the shops and ran away. They would cross over to
the other side of the river Mtkvari if anyone chased them.
The poor parents of Stalin wanted
their son to be a priest and not a thief. So they admitted Stalin at 14, at a
school in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. They believed their son at this
school would become disciplined away from his idle friends and learn religion
to their salvation in the life after. But Stalin had staunch rebellious
sentiments that remained alive despite strictness at the school.
One day when he bought a fig the
shopkeeper gave it to him wrapped in paper. The paper was the propaganda
pamphlet of the Russian Communist Revolutionaries. It was written by the
Communist leader Vladimir Lenin. Stalin read the pamphlet and put it in his
pocket. An unusual situation awaited him at his hostel room when he reached
there. The secret police were searching his room. The police alleged Stalin
involved in anti-government revolutionary activity. The police might have
learned about the pamphlet with Stalin. But they did not know it was in his
pocket. Therefore they did not bodily search Stalin and found nothing in the
room. Therefore they left after a while.
After the police left, Stalin
burned the pamphlet. But his rebellious temperament had got the effect of
anti-government contents of the pamphlet. He knew the Communists were impressed
by the ideology of Karl Marx. So he quietly began to read books of Karl Marx. Karl
Marx's philosophy ran contrary to the religious conventions so when the
teachers turned Stalin out of the school when they knew he was studying Marx. Stalin
took to odd jobs after he was expelled from the school.
In 1899, he also worked as a clerk
at an observatory in Tbilisi. Stalin had developed deep ties with the
Communists in that course. He got the membership of Russian Socialist
Democratic Labour Party. But he was much attached to the Bolshevik faction of
the Party. Lenin was leading this faction. The Bolsheviks believed in armed
struggle and violence to overthrow the government. It was also in line with his
rebellious temperament and liking for secret activity. Therefore Stalin and
Lenin became a good match for each other.
In 1901 Stalin launched the
Communists' newspaper, the Mass Struggle. It was published secretly from a shop
in Baku. The newspaper published articles of Stalin which made him very
popular. Then he organized three successful strikes of the factory workers in
Batum in 1902. It gave him such fame that he began to be ranked among the top
leaders of the Party.
1903 he became a formal active
member of the Bolshevik faction. Viewing his rising popularity Lenin also took
Stalin under his patronage. So Stalin became the second top leader of the Bolsheviks
after Lenin. He was also counted as the most promising pupil of Lenin. Stalin
was doing such jobs in the party that did not relate to politics.
He looted banks and gave the
booty in the Party funds. That was why he was named "Koba." In
Georgian literature Koba was a Robinhood-like character; looting the rich and
helping the poor. Now Soso of Gori had become Koba of the Communists revolution.
He had yet to get a new name. That was the Man of Steel or Stalin.
In 10 years from 1903 to 1913,
Stalin was arrested many times and exiled to Siberia as punishment. Siberia had
huge size jails for keeping hardened criminals in custody. The criminals were
subjected to very tough labor. But whenever Stalin was lodged in the working
camp of the jail, he escaped and came back. He got a new name after he
withstood the hardships of the jail. Steel is called 'Stal' in the Russian
language. So he became popular by the name of Stalin, meaning the Man of Steel.
Now he had three nicknames, 'Soso', 'Koba', and 'Stalin'. But in history, he
goes by the name of Stalin only.
By 1912, the Bolshevik faction
separated from Social Democrats became an independent party by the name of
Communists' Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin made Stalin a member of the
Central Committee of the Party. But in 1913, the police arrested him again and
sent him to Siberian jail. He spent four years in jail.
In 1917, a revolution took place
in Russia and Stalin again fled from jail. The Soviet Party also captured
the rule the same year. The power of Stalin increased further under his party
rule. But he got the biggest success five years later in 1922. When Lenin
created secretary general office in the Party and appointed Stalin to it. A few
months later Lenin became bedridden due to brain hemorrhage. And within two
years he passed away. But he had become dead opposed to the dictatorial
thoughts of Stalin. Criticizing Stalin in the secret documents he wanted to
remove Stalin from the office of the Secretary-General. But Stalin happened to
get this letter first before anyone else. So Stalin did not let this letter
reach the persons concerned.
Lenin had two persons to succeed
him after his death. One was Stalin and the other was head of the Red Army Leon
Trotsky. Trotsky did not command much support in the Central Committee of the
Party. Stalin first expelled him from the Party in 1926 and then in 1929 he
turned him out of Soviet Russia. Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940. Stalin
had taken total complete control over the Party after he expelled Trotsky in
1926. Now he had emerged as a nasty dictator.
Stalin announced to nationalize
the agricultural land of Soviet Russia. The Russian government asked the
landholders to consolidate their lands to shape up huge agricultural farms. And
the government would get 90 percent of the produce of these farms and the
farmers keep the rest 10 percent. It was a highly tyrannical decision. It was
also contrary to the spirit of Communism. Communism aimed at maximum benefits
to the farmers and the workers. But Stalin was hell-bent on taking away the lands of
the farmers.
The farmers revolted against the decision
about the nationalization of lands. They burned their crops and killed their
cattle. They concealed the rest of the produce in graves. So they refused to
give this all to the government. The infuriated Stalin over it declared war
against the Kulaks. In Stalin's direction, the Red Army killed 3 million
farmers of their own country. A large number of farmers were sent to Siberia
and the forced labor camps. These camps were called Gulaks where anyone would
hardly survive. After crushing the farmers, Stalin nationalized 99 percent of
the Russian agricultural lands. The government set up huge agricultural farms
on these lands.
The dry season had already cut
down the agricultural produce and generated feminine. And the government was
taking away a large part of the yield whatever being produced on the farms. The
government would feed the urban population with this yield or export it. The
farmers had left with nothing to eat. As a result, it, 6 million people died
of starvation only in 3 three years from 1930 to 1933.
Stalin who stole fruits in
childhood was now looting crops of the farmers and too on the gunpoint. Stalin
now was not running to escape through the river Mtkavry rather the farmers were
running away from him for survival. 17 million farmers shifted to the cities
for labor in 10 years only. But it was just nothing. As the worst was going to
unfold.
Stalin ordered murdering all his
opponents in the Party and the army in 1934. 93 of the total 139 members of the
Communist Party was put to death. As many as 81 of 103 army generals and admirals were killed. One million of the three million workers of the Party
were also cut down. People also fell victim to this assassination spree. 20
million suspected opponents of the Communist Party were sent to Siberian forced
labor camps. At least one million of them did not return alive. The people in
Chechniya and Ingushetia also could not escape Stalin's oppression. These were
Russian states struggling against the government.
On Stalin's order, 500,000 the
whole population of these states was arrested on 23 February 1944. The old and
the ill persons were shot dead on the spot. And the rest were exiled to the
Central Asian states. They were permitted to return after 13 years when Stalin
was no more. But more than half of the exiled people had died by then. Stalin
was accused of killing around 20 million people directly or indirectly. Media
also faced complete censorship during Stalin's era. Except admiring the
government nothing was allowed to be published. This policy was known as Iron
Curtain.
But Stalin not alone committed
this oppression. At that time Stalin alone was an oppressor in the world. Even
a dictator superior to him was giving sleepless nights to the Europeans. It was
the German leader, Adolf Hitler. Stalin and Hitler both wanted control over
Europe.
A war between Russia and German
was likely on this issue. But Stalin feared if he would have war with German,
the Oppressed Russian would throw him down. Hitler also wanted to tackle with
Britain and France before facing Russia. So both the leaders saw expediency in
reaching a no-war pact with each other. Stalin even supplied wheat to German
and also helped it against Poland. But Hitler was planning quietly to attack
Russia.
The German army attacked Russia
on June 22, 1941. Stalin went unconscious due to fear when he was informed
about this sudden attack. After regaining consciousness he remained half-mad
for a week. He struggled hard to normalize himself. He addressed the Russians
on the radio and asked them to get ready to counter the Germans. The Russians
who were opposed to Stalin made him their hero after Hitler’s attack. He
again became 'man of steel' or Stalin for the Russian people overnight.
Russia fought World War II, under
his leadership. As many as a 25million Russians lost their lives in this war. Among
them also included Stalin's son, Jacob. Jacob was on not good terms with his
father. He had once attempted suicide on which Stalin rebuked him as a coward. Jacob
was an artillery officer when the German attacked Russia. On July 16, 1941, he was
arrested by the German army. Stalin turned down the German offer of barbing
Jacob with imprisoned German soldiers. Two years later Stalin's son died in
German imprisonment. It also goes that Jacob was shot dead while attempting to
escape. Stalin went ahead with the war against Germany.
The German army advanced to the Russian
capital Moscow in 1941. Stalin stood against it. The Siberian troops of Russia
inflicted a crushing defeat on the Germans. Stalin ordered everyone regardless
of his/her age, to join the army. So all Russian citizens practically took part
in this war. For that matter, the war is remembered as the "Great
Patriotic War.''
Stalingrad was the most leading the success of Russia against Germany. This city was named after Stalin. The severe cold season set in during the Stalingrad battle. Russians were accustomed to
this weather but the cold was extraordinary for the Germans. Therefore they
faced serious hardships. So 90,000 Germans laid down arms near Stalingrad On
February 2, 1943. It followed back-to-back defeats to the Germans.
The Russians captured the German
capital, Berlin in April 1945. Hitler committed suicide. Russian dictator
Stalin had triumphed over the German dictator Hitler and Russia had emerged as
the second super-power of the world under his leadership. Rather the whole of
Europe was at the mercy of Stalin. At the end of World War II, Stalin had
captured Europe from the Russian border to East Germany.
He took over 900 German
scientists to Russia who made atomic bombs for Russia. Apart from it he also
provided arms to Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Russian fighter jets and pilots
to China and North Korea in the Korean War. But this great dictator, who killed
and exiled millions of people was, after all, a creature of bones and flesh. Stalin,
the man of steel at 73, had a brain hemorrhage at 8am on March 1, 1953. Doctors
attempted to save his life for four days but his condition did not become
stable. His heart went on becoming weaker and the heartbeat frail. He was
struggling with breathing. Stalin had died on March 5 but it was announced the
next day. Like Lenin, his body was also preserved. Four-day mourning was
observed all over Russia. Then his last rituals were performed with complete
military honor on March 9. On that occasion work was halted all over Soviet
Russia. Including, air, road, and rail traffic everything was put on the hold. The
funeral was carried to the Kremlin amid the fire of guns.
In 1961 Stalin's body was buried in a small
cemetery of Moscow where many leaders had been laid to rest. Stalin was a
dictator who got killed millions of his own countrymen. But a BBC report in
2019 said, more than half of the Russian people still accept him as the
national hero.
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