In 1922 a person that was later to become the best known tyrant (leader) of all time, became the secretary-general of the Bolshevik party. He got to power by his close friendship with the General Secretary who told him about everything that was going on in the party and made sure all the posts were filled with his supporters. He brought on economic reforms by his “five year plans” and collectivization and he perhaps avoided occupation and total annihilation by Germans for “Lebensraum” (place to live). Stalin definitely wasn’t a good person but for the time being he was a very good leader for a backward society which had to deal with poverty, economic repression and possible German occupation.

Stalin or Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili as he was named at birth was born on December 21, 1879 in Gori the republic of Georgia. His father was a drunk and his mother was a made. His father died when Stalin was about 10 years old so he became closely attached to his mother. He attended a Theological Seminary like his mother asked him to but was later expelled for propaganda of Marxism. Stalin began his career by working as a secretary general for the Bolshevik party, which meant he had access to information before anyone else did and he had the chance to censure it in any way he wished to. It was a job no one wanted but Stalin took it, in order to get into the party. He had experience in this kind of work since he used to work as an editor in the “Pravda” magazine. He slowly made sure the party was filled with his supporters so he could later become the Leader of the Party. Since he became the leader, many people were against him, so he became an extremely paranoid person. It was very terrible thing that he had so much power because his way’s of “taking care of things’ were horrific. Even his family was afraid of him and especially since one of the first people to be deported was his own wife. Everyone who was against him was either killed or sent to the Gulags where they would work until they died. Almost 5 million people disappeared and were never seen again. This way, no one dared to even say a bad word about him without worrying about their life. He killed almost 7 million people by the purges method. He also used show trials to get rid of the Top Bolshevik leaders where they had to confess to ridiculous crimes they couldn’t possibly commit. In the 1930s Stalin began to rewrite the history of Russia and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century.