| Joseph Stalin was the Communist
dictator of the USSR during World War II and the
beginning of the Cold War. A brilliant politician, Stalin was able to maneuver
his way to the top seat of his party following the death of V.I. Lenin.
He was able to easily turn the Bolsheviks against the most popular choice
as Lenin’s successor, Leon Trotsky. Stalin became the supreme dictator
of Russia, and during the 1930’s enacted a political program of death of
destruction. He investigated nearly every citizen as a traitor, and killed
uncounted millions. He set up concentration
camps to send his enemies to, and built up his military in preparation
for World War II. When Hitler betrayed Stalin
in 1941 and Operation Barbarossa,
Stalin personally conducted World War II, and led the Russian army to victory.
This won him acclaim at home, despite his apparent lack of remorse for
the mass killings. Following the war, he led the Soviet Union into the
Cold War era, and defined many of the boundaries that lasted between the
two sides for years to come. He died suddenly in 1953, after falling ill
and weak during his final months of life. |
