Who was Joseph Stalin – Joseph Stalin Story

He was so apathetic that he let his son die in prison. And so cruel to cause the death of over 20milion people. At the same time so timid to lose consciousness on hearing the enemy\’s attack. Yet he got the fame of as a \’man of steel\’ and called Stalin. He was Joseph Stalin, the man of steel of Soviet Russia.

I am Faisal Warraich and Dekho, Suno, Jano\’s series, \’Wo Kaun Tha\’ I will show you…

the tale of the same dictator of Soviet Russian. Stalin was neither Russian nor it was his real name though he was counted among 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 beautiful river Mtkvari. The house on the screen is where Stalin was born. Stalin had grown up in the streets on the screen.

This rural site has now turned into a beautiful city. The village of Stalin was quite attractive but he was not. He had smallpox scars on the face and lived in sheer poverty. His father was a cobbler who drank and used to beat Stalin. His mother was a clothe-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 fig the shopkeeper gave it to him wrapped in a 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 Russain Socialist Democratic Labour Party. But he was much attached to the Balchevic faction of the Party. Lenin was leading this faction. The Balchevics 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 Balchevic faction. Viewing his rising popularity Lenin also took Stalin under his patronage. So Stalin became the second top leader of the Balchevics 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. Know what was his main job?

It was committing robberies. 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 labour. But whenever Stalin was lodged in the working camp of the jail, he escaped and came back. The got a new name after he withstood the hardships of the jail. Steel is called \’Stal\’ in 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, Balchevic 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 to Siberian jail. He spent four years in jail. In 1917, a revolution took place in Russia and Stalin again fled from the 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 Salin.

Criticizing Stalin in his 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 the Soveit 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 the Soveit Russia. The Russian government asked the land holders 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 hellbent on taking away lands of the farmers. The farmers revolted the decision about the nationalisation 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. On Salin\’s directions, the Red Army killed 3 million farmers of their own country. A large number of farmers were sent to Siberia and the forced labour 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 the large part of the yield whatever being produced in 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 of 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 labour 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 were put to death. As many as 81 of 103 army generals and the 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 labour 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 Hilter 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 the Hilter\’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 25million Russians lost their lives in this war.

Among them also included Stalin\’s son, Jacob. Jacob was in not good terms with his father. He had once attempted suicide on which Stalin rebuked him as coward. Jacob was an artillery officer when 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 success of Russia against Germany. Ths city was named after Stalin. 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.

Hilter committed suicide. Russian dictator Stalin had triumphed over the German dictator Hilter. 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 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 heart beat 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 honour 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. Here his body was laid beside the preserved corpse of Lenin. 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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