Joseph Stalin

Biography

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin was born in Gori, Russian Empire on December 18, 1878, to a poor Georgian family. He rose through the ranks of the Bolshevik party, becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Premier of the USSR, eventually emerging as the de facto dictator of the Soviet Union by the 1930s. Stalin played a pivotal role in formalizing Leninist ideology and implementing policies that became known as Stalinism.