 During the years 1929-53 almost everyone in the USSR would have been very familiar with this face. With its high cheekbones, its broad brow and its bushy moustache, it stared down at them from hoardings in the street and from the walls of government offices. It was the face of a man whose policies were transforming their lives.
Stalin was one of the most powerful dictators the world has ever known. His impact on the twentieth century was possibly greater than that of any other individual. During his lifetime he aroused a great deal of hatred, and even greater amount of fear, and a certain amount of respect.
Stalin was born in 1879. His real name was Joseph Djugashvili, Stalin man of steel being a name he adopted later in life. At the time of the 1917 revolutions he was already 37 years old. The biggest part of his life had therefore been spent in a country still ruled by the Tsars. When studying Stalin the dictator during the 1930s and 1940s remember that many of his attitudes were those of a young man who had grown up during the 1890s and early 1900s.
Stalin's parents were poor peasants. His father worked as a cobbler and his mother as a washer woman. They lived in a two-roomed shack and were usually short of money. They were Georgians, not Russians, and Stalin grew up speaking only the Georgian language. His mother was cry ambitious for her son and made great sacrifices in order to provide him with an education. He went away to a school which, like many at the time, was run by the Orthodox Church. He learned Russian and was very successful in his studies. At the age of 15 he transferred to a church seminary (or college) that prepared young men for the priesthood. The future dictator of the world's first atheist state thus began life as a trainee priest.
At the seminary Stalin read widely, especially books of which the monks disapproved. This reading confirmed the feelings he already had that there was a great deal that was wrong with Tsarist Russia. In particular he grew to hate the upper classes and all organisations, such as the Church, that seemed to be connected with them. He made contact with some of the revolutionary groups. He was always inventing excuses to get away from the seminary in order to attend their meetings. Eventually the monks discovered what he was up to and expelled him from the seminary.
During the next few years Stalin lived as a socialist revolutionary in different parts of southern Russia, organising demonstrations, planning strikes, holding secret meetings and carrying out bank raids. He joined the Bolsheviks, perhaps attracted by their toughness and strong discipline.
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