Joseph Stalin's Accomplishments

If we are asked to think about the cruelest leader in history, the first person to pop into our head would probably be Adolf Hitler. He is an obvious choice, having killed about 11 million noncombatants. However, the actions of Joseph Stalin are comparable and maybe even worse than Hitler. Stalin, leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union for short, was responsible for 7-8 million deaths of his own country’s citizens. There were social, economic, and cultural influences on Stalin which affected his lifetime achievements. Even though Stalin ruled in terror, his rule turned his country into a world power. Stalin was born on December 18, 1879 as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in the peasant village of Gori, Georgia. He was the frail child of a cobbler and a washerwoman, born into poverty. His father was an alcoholic who beat him. At age 7, his face was scarred by smallpox. His arm was deformed later in a carriage accident. These injuries lead to
A year later, he came into contact with Messame Dassy, a secret group that wanted Georgian independence from Russia. “While there he began secretly reading the work of German social philosopher and ‘Communist Manifesto’ author Karl Marx, becoming interested in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy” (HISTORY). Stalin became a political activist, involving himself in strikes and labor demonstrations. He was arrested multiple times for his involvement in these activities. During this time, Stalin took the name Stalin, meaning “steel”. He was hunted by the Okhranka, the tsar’s secret police. Stalin continued his work in hiding, funding the revolution through illegal activities such as robberies, kidnapping, and heists. “Stalin gained infamy being associated with the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, which resulted in several deaths and 250,000 rubles stolen (approximately $3.4 million in U.S. dollars)”