Josef Stalin and the URSS

Under the leadership of Josef Stalin, U.R.S.S. has become fast an industrialized state, and having won the Second World War, a super power. In the same time, though, Stalin's tyranny has brought the ruin of the Russian society.

Even before the death of the Soviet ruler Lenin, the leaders of the Communist Party have begun the fight for succession. Controlling the party meant in fact holding control of the whole country - the first socialist country, giant but extremely unevolved. The '20 witnessed some big fights for power. In 1923 Stalin, the General Secretary of the Party, allies with Zinoviev and Kamenev in order to defeat the plans of a brilliant and apparent dangerous rival - Leon Trotki. In 1925 Stalin finds new allies in Bucharin and Ricov, getting rid of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Finally in 1929, Stalin beats his former allies and becomes the only ruler of the U.R.S.S.

The real name of Stalin was Iosif Djugasvili. The name under which he became popular was adopted during the revolutionary acts. Stalin was born under the sign of poverty and obscurity, not a Russian citizen, but in Georgia, ruled at that time by the czarist Russia. He learnt a fluent Russian at one of the Sunday Schools organized by the church, afterwards being sent at a seminar in order to become a priest. He proved however a special interest for the socialist writings and ideas which was the reason why he was expelled in 1899. He entered in the circle of the revolutionaries and spent the next years supporting the cause of the revolution, being often thrown in prison or forced to live in intern exile.

In 1912, he enrolls in the Bolshevik Party (later known as Communist), becoming member of the Central Committee. The role played in the Revolution in October 1917 was insignificant (which was hushed up later), but afterwards he proved himself skilful in solving the problems which popped during the Civil War. He was named first Minister of the Nationalities, and in 1922 became the General Secretary of the Communist Party. This desk work, apparently boring, was for Stalin the road to power, giving him the opportunity to control the party's committees and so to promote his own sustainers. So the '20 were for Stalin full of important successes against his rivals.

The German-Soviet agreement. The Germans invade Poland. The U.R.S.S occupies the East of Poland. The Russian-Finnish War

Germany attacks the Soviet Union

The end of the Second World War

The communists regimes are installed in Eastern Europe

The death of Stalin