Stalin was born Ioseb Jughashvili in late 19th century Georgia, then a colony of the Russian empire. Resentful of Tsarist tyranny, he would eventually become attached to Leninism. But his work with the Bolsheviks followed a sideline in subterfuge and bank robbery.

After escaping with his mother from a violent, alcoholic father, Stalin was sent to a seminary in Tbilisi. But he was not the religious type. Instead, he became enamoured with revolutionary texts.

“I think it was becoming quite clear to him that the things he hated about his world, the poverty, the brutality of the Russian officers and the secret police could not be resolved through religion,” says Dr Pablo de Orellana.

De Orellana is one of the experts featured in Russia: The Rise of Stalin on History Hit, the third part in a new series.

“Initially, Stalin is more nationalist and wants to raise the place of Georgia, perhaps within the Russian Empire. But quite quickly he becomes a socialist.”

Stalin became convinced that things needed to change, and that change would have to be violent and revolutionary.

Stalin the highwayman

“His early activities seem to consist of worker strikes, writing pamphlets, organising labour movements,” says De Orellana. “He organises strikes by workers to demand rights to raise wages. He also raises money for revolutionary causes and starts making contacts with larger revolutionary groups.”

In the early 1900s, Stalin encountered the Mensheviks, the biggest revolutionary group in the Caucasus. He then became attached to Leninism. Lenin led the Bolsheviks, who sought immediate revolution by a cadre of dedicated revolutionaries.

Stalin became an important source of funding for the early Bolshevik party.

“Stalin seems to have had a knack for being a criminal organiser from the very beginning,” says De Orellana. “Stalin is a bit of a Robin Hood character.”

Though not a gifted public speaker, Stalin excelled at interpersonal relations and manipulation, an essential skill in a violent criminal enterprise.

“Stalin would have been an exceptional head of a mafia family. He had the charisma, the leadership, the incredible intelligence, the organisational know-how.”

He also kept violent thugs on-side, some of whom were themselves scared of Stalin, presaging his later regime’s network of terror.

However revolutionaries were constantly pursued by the Okhrana, the Tsarist regime’s secret police. After organising a strike involving some 6,000 workers in Georgia, the Okhrana caught up with Stalin and exiled him to Siberia. This raised his profile amongst the national Bolsheviks.

“He’s the man that raises money”

After he escaped Siberia In 1904, he met important Bolshevik figures. Eventually Stalin met Lenin in 1905 at the party congress in Finland. As Lenin’s relationship with Leon Trotsky cooled, Stalin emerged as the perfect ally.

“If Leninism is about immediate revolution, Stalin was the perfect man to make it happen,” says De Orellana.

Stalin became the most important Bolshevik in the Caucasus, already something of a local hero. In 1907, Stalin was involved in an armed robbery of a bank stagecoach in Erivansky Square, Tiblisi.

Yet amongst the other Bolsheviks, he was an outsider. “First of all, he’s not middle class, wealthy, and educated like most of the others,” says De Orellana. “He hasn’t written extensive philosophy, hasn’t studied heavily.”

“He had an accent. He wasn’t Russian, he didn’t speak French and German. He didn’t have an international outlook.”

But he proved his value.

“He’s the man that raises money,” says De Orellana. “He’s the man that illegally prints newspapers. He’s really good at moving illegally, escaping the secret police in ways that Trotsky and Lenin are not.”

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Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin had died in 1924, and in the ensuing power struggle the Georgian Joseph Stalin came to the fore as the General Secretary and the de facto leader of Soviet Russia. 

What was Stalin’s Five Year Plan?

Between 1928 and 1932, Stalin’s Five Year Plan was targeted at collectivizing agriculture and developing heavy industry. This was the first of four so-called plans, which took place in 1928-32, 1933-37, 1938-42 and 1946-53.

After a period of relative economic liberalism Stalin decided that a wholesale restructuring of the economy was needed, claiming that unless the Soviets caught up with the capitalist western powers they would be destroyed.

Stalin famously stated: ”We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they will crush us.”

The requisition of grains from wealthy peasants (kulaks) during the forced collectivization in Timashyovsky District, Kuban Soviet Union. 1933. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Credited to U. Druzhelubov. The date of death is impossible to determine therefore PMA is not known., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mechanisation and collectivisation

Stalin’s first Five Year Plan involved the mechanisation and collectivisation of agriculture in a bid to make it more efficient. It also involved the opening of huge new industrial centres in previously uninhabited areas rich in natural resources, such as Magnitogorsk, built near huge iron and steel reserves east of the Ural Mountains.

Economic activity was pushed in the direction of heavy industries, which lead to a 350 percent increase in output, in a bid to prepare Russia for an industrialised war. The first Five Year Plan also had a revolutionary effect on society, as millions left the farms to pursue new lives in the cities.

The human cost

Despite these successes, Stalin’s Five Year Plan was not an unqualified success. In addition to mechanisation and collectivisation, key features of the first Five Year Plan included the disastrous impact it had on human lives. Aside from the terrible conditions in the new factories, where unskilled workers had little idea of how to operate machines, the collectivisation of agriculture was ruinous.

Political prisoners eating lunch in the Minlag ‘special camp’ coal mine. In ‘special camps’ prisoners had to wear prison garb with personal numbers. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Kauno IX forto muziejus / Kaunas 9th Fort Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Millions died in the subsequent famine and peasant disturbances. An entire social class of wealthier peasants – the Kulaks, who had accumulated more land, livestock, or wealth than their fellow peasants — were accused of sabotaging the progress of the Plan. Consequently they were either massacred or imprisoned in Gulags, which were forced labour camps, so that the state could exploit their land for collectivisation.

As many of the deaths were in non-Russian areas such as Ukraine, the Five Year Plan created lasting divisions between Russians and non-Russians.

The policies also played a role in causing the Holodomor, a mass famine in the Ukraine, and Soviet inactivity in response to the catastrophe has lead to a recent re-categorisation of events as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.

World War Two

In World War Two, the tensions caused by the first Five Year Plan proved consequential. Ukrainians, for example, who were subject to its disastrous effects were more willing to collaborate with the Nazis against the USSR.

The first Five Year Plan actually lasted 4 years, as it supposedly met all of its objectives earlier than expected. On the other hand, this can be ascribed to Russian propaganda efforts. Nevertheless, the first plan and those that followed, which continued the general objectives of the first while also emphasising the production of military hardware, were critical in preparing Russia for an industrialised war.

It seems unlikely that Russia could have resisted Nazi invasion without the immense industrialisation program that had been undertaken in the years prior. However, the vast cost in human life of the Five Year Plans and the invasion of Russia itself remain a dark stain on the history of the 20th century.

So who exactly were these men, and what did they do for the USSR?

1. Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924)

Lenin was a revolutionary socialist: exiled under Tsar Nicholas II for his political beliefs, he returned following the February Revolution of 1917 and played a major role in the October Revolution the same year.

His political ideology was centred on Marxism (communism), but he believed Russia could never make such a dramatic departure from centuries of autocratic rule by the tsars. Instead, he advocated for a period of socialism, a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, to transition from one political state to the next.

The 1917 revolutions were far from a complete victory however, and the next few years saw Russia engulfed in a bitter civil war. Lenin had assumed that there would be widespread support amongst the working classes for Bolshevism – and whilst there was support, it was not as much as he had hoped for. It took 3 years for the White Army to be defeated.

In 1920, Lenin also introduced his divisive New Economic Plan (NEP): described as a retreat by some, NEP was a kind of state-run capitalism, designed to get Russia’s economy back on its feet following a disastrous five years of war and famine.

A photograph of Lenin by Pavel Zhukov, taken in 1920. It was widely disseminated as publicity material across Russia. Image credit: Public Domain.

By the second half of 1921, Lenin was seriously ill. His incapacitation gave his rival Stalin a chance to build up a power base. Despite attempts to dictate his successor (Lenin advocated for Stalin’s removal, replacing him with his ally Trotsky), Stalin’s influence and ability to portray himself as close to Lenin won out.

Lenin suffered a stroke in March 1923, and died in January 1924. His body was embalmed, and is still on display in a mausoleum in Red Square today. Although he showed little care for the immense suffering inflicted on the Russian people during the revolution, civil war and beyond, Lenin is credited with being one of the most important – and often revered – men in Russian history.

2. Joseph Stalin (1924-1953)

Stalin was born in Georgia in 1878: his real name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, but he adopted the name ‘Stalin’ which literally means ‘man of steel’. Stalin began to read Marx’s works and join local socialist groups when he was at seminary school.

After joining the Bolsheviks, Stalin met Lenin for the first time in 1905, and quickly began to climb the ranks within the Bolshevik party. In 1913, he was exiled to Siberia for 4 years, returning just in time to play a part in the revolutions of 1917.

During Lenin’s premiership, Stalin consolidated his position as a senior party official, although his relationship with Lenin was far from perfect. The two clashed over questions of ethno-nationalism and foreign trade.

Stalin quickly assumed power on Lenin’s death: as General Secretary of the party, he was in prime position to do so. He ensured those loyal to him were dispersed through his new administration and across the country in order maintain his position of power.

A new ideology, ‘Socialism in One Country’ was adopted by the party, and in 1928, the first of Stalin’s Five Year Plans was announced. This basically amounted to rapid industrialisation (Stalin was concerned about threats from the West) and collectivisation of farming: this was met with opposition, and resulted in the deaths of millions, both through famine and targeting purges of kulaks (land-owning peasants).

A cultural revolution followed, as conservative social policies were implemented and old ‘elite’ culture was bulldozed, in favour of culture for the masses. By the 1930s, Stalin had begun a period known as ‘The Great Terror’, where any potential opposition was quashed in a brutal series of purges.

After initially signing pacts with Stalin, Hitler turned on his former ally and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy casualties (including famously the Siege of Leningrad), Soviet forces held out, engaging the Wehrmacht in a war of attrition that they were not fully prepared for. The Soviets began launching attacks of their own on weakened German forces, and pushed back into Poland, and eventually, Germany itself.

Stalin’s later years in power were characterized by increasingly hostile relationships with the West, and growing paranoia at home. He died of a stroke in 1953.

3. Georgy Malenkov (March-September 1953)

Malenkov’s inclusion in this list is divisive: he was de facto leader of the Soviet Union for the 6 months following Stalin’s death. With links to Lenin, Malenkov had been one of Stalin’s favourites, playing a major roles in the purges and the development of Soviet missiles during the Second World War.

When Stalin died, Malenkov was his (initially) unchallenged successor. It did not long for the rest of the Politburo members to challenge this, and he was forced to resigned as head of the party apparatus although allowed to remain as premier.

The front page of Pravda announced the severity of Stalin’s stroke – a day before his eventual death. Image credit: Public Domain.

Khrushchev mounted a serious leadership challenge, and following a brief power struggle, Malenkov was forced to resign as premier. Following a failed coup in 1957, he was briefly exiled to Kazakhstan and returned to Moscow once this was over, living the rest of his life out quietly.

4. Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born in western Russia in 1897: he worked his way up the party hierarchy following his role as a political commissar during the Russian Civil War. A supporter of Stalin’s purges, he was dispatched to govern the Ukrainian USSR, where he enthusiastically continued purges.

^{Following the end of the Second World War (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia), Stalin recalled him from Ukraine to Moscow as one of his most trusted advisors. Khrushchev was involved in a power struggle with Malenkov after Stalin’s death in 1953, emerging victorious as the First (General) Secretary of the Communist Party.} 

He is perhaps most famous for his ‘Secret Speech’ in 1956, in which he denounced Stalin’s policies and announced a relaxation of the repressive Stalinist regime, including permitting foreign travel and tacitly acknowledging the West’s more desirable living standards. Whilst this rhetoric was welcomed by many, Khrushchev’s policies were not in fact that effective, and the Soviet Union struggled to keep up with the West.

Khrushchev also backed the development of the Soviet space programme, which in turn helped to lead to some of the most tense periods of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis. For the majority of his time in office, Khrushchev enjoyed popular support, thanks to victories including the Suez Crisis, Syrian Crisis and the launching of Sputnik.

However, his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, combined with his ineffective domestic policies, led members of the party to turn against him. Khrushchev was deposed in October 1964 – pensioned off generously, he died of natural causes in 1971.

5. Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982)

Brezhnev had the second longest term as General Secretary of the Communist Party (18 years): whilst he brought stability, the Soviet economy also seriously stagnated during his tenure.

Becoming a member of the Politburo in 1957, Brezhnev ousted Khrushchev in 1964 and took over his position as Secretary of the Communist Party – a role which was tantamount to leader. Keen to minimise dissent in the party, Brezhnev was a natural conservative and encouraged decisions to be made unanimously rather than dictating them.

Colourised photo of Leonid Brezhnev. Image credit: Public Domain.

However, this conservatism also manifested in an opposition to reform, and lack of progress. Living standards and technologies in the USSR began to lag dramatically behind those in the West. Despite a massive arms build-up and an increased global presence, frustrations grew within the Soviet Union.

Corruption also proved to be a major problem, and there was little done by Brezhnev’s regime to combat this. Brezhnev suffered a major stroke in 1975, and effectively became a puppet leader: decisions were made by other senior politicians, including his eventual successor, Andropov. He died in 1982.

6. Yuri Andropov (1982-1984)

Andropov was born in 1914 and his early life is relatively obscure: he gave away a variety of stories about the year and place of his birth and his parentage.

Named Chairman of the KGB (the USSR’s national security agency) in 1967, Andropov wasted no time on cracking down on dissent and ‘undesirables’. Following Brezhnev’s stroke in 1975, Andropov was heavily involved in policymaking, alongside Gromyko (Foreign Minister) and Grechko / Ustinov (successive Defence Ministers).

In 1982, Andropov formally succeeded Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Soviet Union: he was totally incapable of reinvigorating or saving the increasingly worrying state of the Soviet economy, and further escalated Cold War tensions with the US.

Andropov died in February 1984, 15 months after formally being appointed leader. Whilst his time in office is relatively unremarkable, he did begin to streamline the party system, investigating corruption and inefficiency. Some see his legacy as the generation of reformers who emerged in the years following his death.

7. Konstantin Chernenko (1984-1985)

Chernenko held the role of General Secretary for 15 months: many see Chernenko’s election as a symbolic return to policies of the Brezhnev era, and he did little to ease hostilities with the US, going as far as to boycott the 1984 Olympics.

For most of his premiership his health was seriously failing and he left little tangible mark on the Soviet Union, dying from chronic emphysema (he had smoked from the age of 9) in March 1985.

8. Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991)

Gorbachev was born in 1931, and grew up under Stalin’s rule. He joined the Communist party and went to study in Moscow. After Stalin’s death, he became an advocate of the de-Stalinization proposed by Khrushchev.

As a result, he rose through the ranks of the party, eventually joining the Politburo in 1979.

Gorbachev was elected General Secretary (de facto premier) in 1985 and he promised reform: he is most well known for two of his policies – glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Glasnost meant relaxing rules surrounding press regulation and restrictions on freedom of speech, whilst perestroika involved the decentralisation of government, the relaxation of rules on political dissent and an increased openness with the West. Gorbachev and Reagan worked together to limit nuclear armament and effectively end the Cold War.

Perestroika as a policy undermined the idea of a one-party state, and increasingly nationalistic sentiments from countries within the Soviet Union became problematic. Faced with dissent from both within and outside the party, and attacked in several coups, the Soviet Union eventually dissolved, and Gorbachev resigned his office in 1991.

Whilst he may have been the last leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s legacy is mixed. Some view his regime as a total failure, whilst others admire his commitment to peace, curtailing human rights abuses and his role in ending the Cold War.

In May 1943, the British and Americans successfully defeated the German forces in North Africa, then turning to the invasion of Italy in September 1943. Less than a year later, in June 1944, the Allied powers opened up a front in France. The Normandy landings – then known as Operation Overlord and now often referred to as D-Day – ushered in the eventual defeat of Hitler’s Nazi regime. With losses on both the Eastern Front and now the Western Front too, the Nazi war machine could not keep up with the approaching Allied forces.

It was one of the most pivotal military operations in history. Here’s a look at D-Day through a series of remarkable photographs.

Photograph of General Dwight D. Eisenhower giving the order of the day, 6 June 1944.

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

During the planning of D-Day, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the commander of the entire invasion force.

US soldiers being carried towards Normandy, 06 June 1944

Image Credit: US Library of Congress

The landing operation began at about 6:30 AM, with Allied forces landing on Utah beach, Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach in northern France.

Personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of the U.S. Army’s First Division on the morning of 6 June 1944 (D-Day) at Omaha Beach.

Image Credit: Chief Photographer's Mate (CPHOM) Robert F. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Some 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships and 500 naval vessels began discharging 156,000 men onto the beaches of Normandy. It was not only American and British troops that took part in the amphibious assault, but also Canadian, French, Australian, Polish, New Zealand, Greek, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian and Czechoslovakian men.

Photograph of paratroopers just before they took off for the initial assault of D-Day, 06 June 1944

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

The invasion not only utilised the Allies’ superior naval capabilities but also their air fleets. Fighter planes played a crucial role in the campaign’s success, with around 13,000 craft taking part in the D-Day operation. Even prior to the transport ships arriving, 18,000 British and American troops had parachuted behind enemy lines.

Members of the French Resistance and the US 82nd Airborne division discuss the situation during the Battle of Normandy in 1944

Image Credit: US Army Signal Corps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The French Resistance coordinated their actions with the Allied D-Day landings, sabotaging German lines of communication and transport networks.

Supplies for D-Day

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

The German troops suffered from serious supply shortages and received few reinforcements. Hitler, meanwhile, did not realize the seriousness of the invasion, believing it to be an Allied attempt to distract the Germans from other military operations.

Photograph of a Nazi German flag being used as a table cloth by Allied troops

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

In spite of all of this, the German troops managed to inflict heavy damage on the Allied forces. The number of casualties was high on both sides, with the landing on Omaha beach causing especially grave Allied losses.

Allied soldiers landing in Normandy, 06 June 1944

Image Credit: Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com

In total, over 10,000 Allied soldiers and roughly 4,000-9,000 German soldiers perished in the Battles of Normandy. It’s thought that some 150,000 Allied soldiers participated in Operation Overlord.

An American soldier of the 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Inf. Div., takes a ‘breather’ after storming ashore from a landing craft

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

The Allies failed to achieve any of their key goals on the first day, though they did still make some territorial gains. Eventually, the operation gained a foothold, allowing the Allies to press inland and gradually expand over the coming months.

A large group of American assault troops in Omaha beach, 06 June 1944

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

The defeat at Normandy was a significant blow to Hitler and his war plans. Troops had to be kept in France, not allowing him to redirect resources to the Eastern Front, where the Red Army started pushing the Germans back.

Soldiers raising a flag over a german pillbox, 07 June 1944

Image Credit: National Archives at College Park

By the end of August 1944, northern France was under Allied control. In less than a year, Nazi Germany surrendered. The D-Day landings were pivotal in turning the tide of World War Two and wrenching control from Hitler’s forces.

After 1917, Russia’s new leaders had plenty of ideas about radically reforming Russia’s economy in a very short period of time. Lenin’s mass electrification project utterly transformed Russia in the early 1920s and signalled the start of radical economic change in the country.

As Russia entered the 1930s, its path towards economic modernisation was steered by Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Through a series of ‘Five Year Plans’ and at a huge human cost, he transformed Russia into a 20th-century powerhouse, putting the country once again at the forefront of global politics. Here’s how Stalin transformed Russia’s economy.

Under the tsars

Russia had long been an autocracy, subject to absolute rule by the tsar. Bound by a strict social hierarchy, serfs (peasants of feudal Russian) had been owned by their masters, forced to work the lands and receiving nothing in return. Serfdom had been abolished in 1861, but many Russians continued to live in conditions which were little better.

The economy was predominantly agricultural, with limited heavy industry. The introduction of railways in the mid 19th century, and their expansion right up until 1915, looked promising, but ultimately they did little to transform or change the economy.

After the outbreak of World War One in 1914, the limited nature of Russia’s economy became all too apparent. With millions conscripted to fight, there were massive food shortages as no one could work the land. The railways were slow, meaning food took long periods of time to reach the starving cities. Russia did not experience the wartime economic boost to industry other, more developed countries felt. Conditions became increasingly dire for many people.

Lenin and the revolution

The Bolsheviks, leaders of the 1917 Russian Revolution, promised the people of Russia equality, opportunity and better living conditions. But Lenin was not a miracle worker. Russia was engulfed in civil war for several more years, and things would get worse before they got better.

However, the advent of electrification across Russia made the development of heavy industry possible and transformed the lives of millions of people. Eschewing capitalism, the state assumed control of the means of production, exchange and communication, with the aim of completing the process of collectivisation in the near future.

However, ‘War Communism’ and ‘New Economic Policy’ (NEP) were not truly communist in nature: they both involved a certain degree of capitalism and pandering to the free market. For many, they did not go far enough and Lenin found himself clashing with those who wanted more radical reform.

Stalin’s first Five Year Plan

Joseph Stalin seized power in 1924 following Lenin’s death, and announced the advent of his first Five Year Plan in 1928. The idea was to transform the new Soviet Russia into a major industrial powerhouse in a virtually unprecedented period of time. To do this, he would need to implement large-scale social and cultural reforms too.

Newly collectivised farms, controlled by the state, transformed the lifestyle and existence of peasant farmers: as a result, peasants resisted the reforms much of the time. The programme also saw the infamous ‘dekulakisation‘ of the countryside, where kulaks (land-owning peasants) were dubbed class enemies and rounded up to be arrested, deported or executed at the hands of the state.

A parade in the Soviet Union under the banners “We will liquidate the kulaks as a class” and “All to the struggle against the wreckers of agriculture”. Sometime between 1929 and 1934.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Andrej K. Sokolov / GNU Free Documentation Licence via Wikimedia Commons.

However, whilst the collectivised farming system proved to be more productive in the long run (farms were required to sell their grain to the state at a fixed price), its immediate consequences were dire. Famine began to stalk the land: millions died during the plan, and millions more found themselves snapped up to jobs in the fast-developing industrial sector. Those peasants still farming often tried to squirrel away grain for their own use rather than reporting it and handing it over to the state as they should have done.

The first Five Year Plan could be considered a success in that, according to Soviet statistics at least, it met its targets: Stalin’s major propaganda campaigns had seen industrial output increase exponentially. The widespread famine and starvation had claimed the lives of millions, but at least in Stalin’s eyes, this was a price worth paying for Russia to become the second most industrialised nation in the world.

Subsequent Five Year Plans

Five Year Plans became a standard feature of Soviet economic development and before 1940, they proved relatively successful. Throughout the 1930s, as it became clear war was on the horizon, heavy industry was built up further. Benefitting from natural resources like coal, iron ore, natural gas and gold, the Soviet Union became one of the world’s largest exporters of these commodities.

Russia’s biggest tractor factory, Chelyabinsk, in the late 1930s.

Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Railways were improved and expanded, and the introduction of childcare freed more women up to do their patriotic duty and contribute to the economy. Incentives were offered for meeting quotas and targets, and punishments were an ongoing threat for those who failed in their mission. Everyone was expected to pull their weight, and for the most part, they did.

By the time the Soviet Union entered World War Two, it was an advanced industrial economy. In under 20 years, Stalin had utterly transformed the essence of the nation, albeit at the high cost of famine, conflict and social upheaval.

The devastation of war

For all of the advancements of the 1920s and 1930s, World War Two ruined much of Russia’s economic progress. The Red Army suffered the loss of millions of soldiers and millions more died of hunger or disease. Farms, livestock and equipment had been ravaged by the advances of the German army, 25 million people had been made homeless and around 40% of the railways had been destroyed.

The high casualties meant that there was a labour shortage after the war, and despite being one of the victorious powers, the Soviet Union struggled to negotiate terms for a loan for Soviet reconstruction. This, in part, was driven by American fears over the potential power and ability of the Soviet Union should they return to the levels of industrial output they were reached pre-war.

Despite receiving reparations from Germany and other Eastern European countries, and then subsequently linking these countries to the Soviet Union economically through Comecon, Stalin never returned the dynamism and record-breaking achievements of the 1930s Russian economy to the Soviet Union.

1. There were actually two Russian Revolutions in 1917

The February Revolution (8 – 16 March) overthrew Tsar Nicholas II and installed a Provisional Government. This was itself overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution (7 – 8 November).

2. The dates of the Revolutions are slightly confusing

Although these revolutions occurred in March and November, they are referred to as the February and October Revolutions respectively because Russia was still using the old-style Julian Calendar.

3. Severe Russian losses in World War One contributed heavily to growing dissent in 1917

Russian military blundering had led to combatant losses in the millions, while hundreds of thousands of civilians had died or been displaced due to the effects of the war. Meanwhile, economic hardship was mounting at home.

4. 12 March was the decisive day of the February Revolution in 1917

Unrest had been building in Petrograd throughout March. On 12 March, the Volinsky Regiment mutinied and by nightfall 60,000 soldiers had joined the Revolution.

This revolution was one of the most spontaneous, unorganised and leaderless mass revolts in history.

5. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on 15 March

His abdication marked the end of over 300 years of Romanov rule over Russia.

6. The Provisional Government continued the war with Germany with devastating consequences

During the Summer of 1917 the new Minister for War, Alexander Kerensky, attempted a large-scale Russian attack called the July Offensive. It was a military catastrophe that destabilised an already unpopular government, sparking unrest and domestic demands to end the war.

Russian infantry practising manoeuvres some time before 1914, date not recorded. Credit: Balcer~commonswiki / Commons.

7. The October Revolution of 1917 was spearheaded by the Bolshevik Party

The Bolsheviks considered themselves the leaders of the revolutionary working class of Russia.

8. The principal figures in the October Revolution were Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky

Lenin had formed the Bolshevik organisation back in 1912 and had been in exile until just before the October Revolution. Meanwhile Trotsky was a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee.

A painting of Vladimir Lenin in exile.

9. The October Revolution was a prepared and organised coup d’etat

Seeing the anarchy that engulfed Russia following the February Revolution, the Bolsheviks had started making detailed preparations for an uprising long before it occurred (in complete contrast to the first revolution). On October 25 Lenin and Trotsky’s followers seized many strategic points in Petrograd.

10. The Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd on 7 November

Formerly a residence of the Tsar, in November 1917 the Winter Palace was the headquarters of the Provisional Government. Although there was some resistance, the storming was almost bloodless.

The Winter Palace today. Credit: Alex ‘Florstein’ Fedorov / Commons.

11. The October Revolution established the permanent dictatorship of the Bolsheviks…

Following the overthrow of the Provisional Government, Lenin’s new state was called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

12. …but this was not accepted by everyone

Civil War broke out in Russia in late 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution. It was fought between those supporting Lenin and his Bolsheviks, ‘the Red Army’, and a conglomeration of anti-Bolshevik groups: ‘the White Army’.

Bolshevik forces advance during the Russian Civil War.

13. The Russian Civil War was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history

Having suffered greatly in World War One, Russia was engulfed another hugely destructive conflict. At least 5 million people died as the result of fighting, famine and disease. It lasted until 1922, and some anti Bolshevik rebellions were not extinguished until the 1930s.

14. The Romanovs were assassinated in 1918

The former Russian royal family were held under held under house arrest in Yekaterinburg. On the night of 16-17 July 1918, the former Tsar, his wife, their five children and others who had accompanied them in their imprisonment were executed. The execution allegedly happened at Lenin’s own request.

15. Lenin died shortly after the Bolshevik victory

The Red Army won the Russian Civil War, but the Communist leader died after a series of strokes on 21 January 1924. One of the most influential people of the 20th century, his body was put on show in a mausoleum in the centre of Moscow, and the Communist Party developed a personality cult around their former leader.

16. Josef Stalin won the ensuing power struggle for party leadership

Stalin was General Secretary of the Central Committee and used his office to outmanoeuvre his political opponents during the 1920s. By 1929 his main rival and former Red Army leader Leon Trotsky was forced into exile, and Stalin became de facto dictator of the Soviet Union.

17. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution

In Orwell’s novella (published in 1945), the animals of Manor Farm unite against their drunken master Mr Jones. The pigs, as the most intelligent animals, assume command of the revolution, but their leader Old Major (Lenin) dies.

Two pigs, Snowball (Trotsky) and Napoleon (Stalin) battle for political control of the farm. Eventually, Napoleon is victorious, with Snowball being forced into exile. However, many of the ideas which drove the revolution are extinguished, and the farm returns to a mode of autocracy as it was at the beginning, with the pigs assuming the previous role of the humans.

The Tehran Conference had happened prior in November 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. Yalta was the last conference that Roosevelt would attend before his death in April 1945.

The conference was held in Yalta because Stalin was unwilling to travel very far. He was supposedly advised by his doctors that he should not take any long-haul trips. Stalin was also afraid of flying, a fear that was connected to his general paranoia.

By the time of the Yalta Conference, the Allies were assured of victory in Europe. Zhukov’s forces were a mere 65 kilometres from Berlin, having driven the Nazis out of the majority of Eastern Europe, while the Allies had control of the entirety of France and Belgium.

Soldiers of 130th Latvian Rifle Corps of the Red Army in Riga. October 1944. Credit: Commons.

The goals of each power

Each leader aimed at different objectives for the post-war settlement. Roosevelt wanted Russian assistance in the war against Japan, and was prepared to concede influence in Europe if it meant that the lives of GIs could be spared in the Pacific theatre.

It should be noted that Roosevelt was under the impression that the Russians would be sorely needed to defeat the Japanese.

There is still historical dispute about whether the Japanese surrender was forced by the nuclear bombs or the Soviet establishment of a second front in the Pacific.

Consensus is shifting slowly towards the Soviet attack on Manchuria and the northern islands of Japan as the key factor in ending the war with unconditional Japanese surrender.

The American delegation also wanted Soviet participation in the United Nations, which was set to be created after the end of the war.

Churchill wanted democratic governments created by free elections in Eastern and Central Europe and to contain the Soviet share of the postwar settlement as much as was feasibly possible.

It was difficult to assure the independence of nations such as Poland, despite Polish assistance in the RAF and the British army more generally. The Red Army had overrun Eastern Europe during Operation Bagration, and was essentially at Stalin’s mercy.

Stalin wanted the inverse, and pushed for greater Soviet control and influence over the postwar makeup of Eastern Europe. This was a critical part of the USSR’s security strategy.

The issue of Poland

Much of the debate centred around Poland. The Allies were keen to press for Polish independence because of the assistance of Polish troops on the Western front.

As mentioned however, the Soviets held most of the cards when it came to negotiations over Poland. According to one member of the U.S. delegation, James F. Byrnes, “it was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could get the Russians to do.”

For the Russians, Poland held strategic and historic significance. Poland had served as a historical corridor for armies set on invading Russia. Stalin’s statements concerning Poland employed extensive doublespeak. Stalin argued that:

“…because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland, the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins. Poland must be strong [and] the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free and independent Poland.”

This ultimately meant that the USSR kept the territory it had annexed in 1939, and instead Poland’s territory would be extended at the expense of Germany.

Stalin promised that there would be free Polish elections whilst establishing a Soviet sponsored provincial government in Polish territories occupied by the Red Army.

Stalin did also eventually agree to entering the Pacific war three months after the defeat of Germany, provided that he could recover lands that the Russians had lost to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, and that the Americans recognised Mongolian independence from China.

Winston Churchill shares a joke with Marshal Stalin (with the help of Pavlov, Stalin’s interpreter, left) in the conference room at Livadia Palace during the Yalta Conference. Credit: Imperial War Museums / Commons.

The Mongolian People’s Republic had been a Soviet satellite state since its creation in 1924.

The Soviets also agreed to join the United Nations, provided that the UN employed the Security Council system wherein it could veto any unwanted decisions or actions.

Each power also ratified an agreement around the division of postwar Germany into zones. The USSR, USA and the UK all had zones, with the UK and the USA agreeing to subdivide their zones further to create a French zone.

General Charles de Gaulle was not allowed to attend the Yalta conference, which he attributed to longstanding tension between him and Roosevelt. The Soviet Union also were unwilling to accept the French representation as full participants.

Since de Gaulle did not attend Yalta, he also could not attend Potsdam, as he would have been honour-bound to re-negotiate issues discussed in his absence at Yalta.

Joseph Stalin gesturing as he speaks with Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov during the conference at Yalta. Credit: National Museum of the U.S. Navy / Commons.

The Soviet totalitarian turn

By mid-March, the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. messaged Roosevelt to argue that:

“…the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it.”

Roosevelt realised that his view of Stalin had been excessively optimistic and conceded that “Averell is right.”

A communist government was installed in Poland on the end of the war, and many Poles in England and elsewhere felt betrayed by their allies.

A propaganda photo of a citizen reading the PKWN Manifesto.The PKWN was the Polish Committee of National Liberation, also known as the Lublin Committee. It was the puppet provisional government of Poland. Credit: Commons.

The NKVD arrested many Polish opposition leaders who had been invited to participate in negotiations for a provisional government. They were taken to Moscow, forced through a show trial and sent to the Gulag.

The Russians consolidated control over Poland, which became a full communist state in 1949.

While Yalta was initially celebrated as proof that the US and Soviet wartime co-operation through lend-lease and the like could be continued into the postwar period, it became more controversial with Russian actions towards eastern Europe.

Stalin broke his promise of free elections, and installed Soviet-controlled government in the region. Western critics alleged that Roosevelt had “sold out” eastern Europe to the Soviets.

Header image credit: The National Archives / Commons.

Stalin is also considered one of the most dangerous totalitarian leaders in history, his violent excesses often compared to those of Adolf Hitler. Here are 10 facts about Joseph Stalin.

1. Smallpox as a child left him with lasting scars and a deformity

Born into poverty in 1878 to an alcoholic cobbler father and washerwoman mother, Stalin caught smallpox at the age of seven and was left with pockmarks on his face and a slightly deformed left arm. He was bullied by other children while also enduring beatings at the hands of his father.

2. His mother sent him to study to become a priest

In December 1895, Stalin’s mother sent him to a seminary in the Georgian capital of Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi). He rebelled against studying scripture, however, instead reading the writings of Karl Marx and joining a local socialist group. Eventually he became an atheist, and in 1899 was expelled from the seminary for failing to attend exams.

Stalin in 1902.

3. His nom de guerre means “man of the steel hand”

Stalin was born Ioseb (Joseph) Besarionis dze Jughashvili. But, like other Russian revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin, he later adopted the alias by which he is now best known.

4. At one point he lived in the Kremlin with Lenin and Leon Trotsky

Following the October Revolution of 1917, the three men became part of an informal group leading the new Bolshevik government. This group was completed by Yakov Sverdlov, though he died little more than a year later. When the government moved from Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg) to Moscow in March 1918 due to the ongoing world war, it based itself in the Kremlin. And it was there that all four men lived.

5. He became the de facto dictator of the Soviet Union…

Stalin sits with an ailing Lenin in 1922.

When Lenin died in 1924, he was succeeded by Alexei Rykov as chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, and thus the head of the government. Stalin, meanwhile, remained general secretary of the Communist Party. But he immediately set about promoting himself as Lenin’s true political successor.

By the late 1920s he had established himself as the supreme leader of the party, though there is some debate over when the Soviet system of governance evolved from an oligarchy to a dictatorship under Stalin.

6. …exiling Trotsky in the process

After Lenin’s death a bitter power struggle broke out between Stalin and and the more idealistic Trotsky. Both sides had their supporters – Lenin himself had said before he died that Trotsky should replace Stalin as general secretary of the Communist Party. But in the end Stalin won out, exiling Trotsky to Kazakhstan in 1928 before deporting him from the Soviet Union altogether the following year.

Eleven years later, Stalin dealt Trotsky the ultimate blow and had him assassinated in Mexico City.

7. He developed his own brand of Marxism

Like Lenin before him, Stalin also had his own interpretation of Marxism. In Stalin’s case this interpretation was very nationalistic and focused on building up the Soviet Union rather than on global revolution.

8. He oversaw the country’s industrialisation

Fearing that communism would fail if the Soviet Union did not modernise, from the late 1920s Stalin began initiating a series of brutal five-year plans to industrialise the still almost feudal country. Under his leadership, the production of coal, oil and steel grew exponentially and the country saw huge economic growth. But these gains came at a huge human cost.

People were forced into leaving their homes to work in factories where they laboured in terrible conditions – and those who refused were killed. At least 5 million people are believed to have died during this industrialisation process.

9. He ordered the 1940 Katyn Massacre

One of the most ruthless political leaders in history, the deaths attributed to Stalin number in their millions. Among the dead are the estimated 22,000 Polish prisoners of war who were executed by the Soviet secret police in April and May 1940. The Soviet Union initially blamed the Nazis for the killings and it wasn’t until 1990 that it admitted responsibility.

10. His eldest child died in a Nazi concentration camp

Stalin’s son from his first marriage, Yakov, was a soldier in the Red Army during World War Two and was either captured or surrendered in the initial stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Nazis proposed to free him in a prisoner swap but Stalin refused, possibly because he believed that Yakov had surrendered voluntarily. He died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943.

1. October 1933 – Germany renounces League of Nations

Nine months after Hitler took over as Chancellor, Germany renounced its role as a member at the League of Nations Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments. One week later he announced Germany’s total withdrawal from it, backed by a national referendum held on 12 November 1933, where 96% of voters approved the decision with a 95% vote in favour of Hitler’s decision. The German people supported him completely.

2. January 1934 – non-aggression pact with Poland

Polish Minister of Military Affairs Jozef Pilsudski.

Germany signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland which included a bilateral trade agreement. The Polish were concerned about the Maginot Line in France where France was maintaining a defensive stance in case of hostilities with Germany.

Jozef Pilsudski, the Polish Minister of Military Affairs, believed it would benefit and protect them from becoming a future victim of Germany; as well as protect them against the greater threat from the Soviet Union.

3. January 1935 – Germany regains the Saarland

France was given the Saar region by the Treaty of Versailles 15 years earlier, but in 1935, the people voted to return it to German control. This was called a Plebiscite; an old Roman word which means a ballot or poll by the members of an electorate on an important public question. Germany now had access to the richest coal basin in Europe, where German weapons and chemical industries had been since the 1870’s.

4. March 1935 – rearmament

Hitler announced Nazi Germany’s new plans for military activity, breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Military conscription was introduced with a target of 300,000 men to be employed by the Wehrmacht.

Germany’s delegation left the Geneva Conference on Disarmament when the French refused to accept the same level of demilitarisation as was imposed on Germany and the conference refused to allow Germany to hold equal armaments to France.

5. June 1935 – naval agreement with Britain

An agreement was signed with Britain that allowed Germany to increase its naval surface fleet to one third of the total, and its submarines to an equal number held by the British Navy.

The Versailles Treaty had limited the German Navy to only six warships and banned any submarines, which made it physically impossible for Germany to adequately defend its boarders against the Soviets.

6. November 1936 – new foreign alliances

Benito Mussolini.

Germany made two new diplomatic alliances. The Rome-Berlin Axis agreement with Mussolini and the Anti Comintern Pact with Japan, which was an agreement to jointly oppose Communism.

7. March 1938 – Anschluss With Austria

The political union with Austria was called the ‘Anschluss’ and was another Plebiscite, or vote by the Austrian people for Germany to regain their political rule, after its removal by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Hitler encouraged unrest among the Austrian people and sent troops in to assist the uprising and restore German order. This was approved by the people with their citizen’s vote.

8. September 1938 – Germany reclaims Sudetenland

With 3 million Germans living in this area of Czechoslovakia, Hitler demanded it be returned to Germany. At the Munich agreement, Britain, France and Italy agreed, on the condition that this would be Germany’s final claim for territory in Europe.

9. March 1939 – Germany occupies Czechoslovakia

Germany broke the Munich agreement 7 months later by military occupation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia. It had only been an independent State since the end of World War One just 21 years before and prior to that had been part of the Germanic Empire going back hundreds of years.

10. August – 1939 German agreement with Soviet Russia

Joseph Stalin.

Hitler made an agreement with Stalin for no aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union in order to boost collective security against Britain and France, who were both anti-communist. Stalin believed this would be to his advantage.

In conclusion, in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. The British reacted quickly and declared War on Germany, but no conflicts took place between the two nations until seven months later when the Germans then invaded Denmark and Norway.

The pact was a surprise to contemporary observers. The Nazis hated communism and the Soviets hated fascism. So why did these ideologically opposed powers enter into such an agreement?

The first Nazi-Soviet talks failed

In 1933, the Nazi party gained power in Germany and Hitler set about implementing his aggressive rearmament programme. Stalin considered creating an alliance with the increasingly powerful Nazi leader, but ideological differences prevented this from taking place.

Instead, Stalin turned to western liberal democracies and joined the League of Nations in September 1934. Members of the League similarly opposed communism, but they accepted the USSR into the body as a potential ally against any future aggression from Nazi Germany.

Stalin grew impatient

Despite joining the League, Stalin opposed Britain and France’s appeasement policy, which he believed was encouraging the Nazis to march east against the Soviets.

In the spring of 1939, it seemed likely that Britain and France would soon be at war with Hitler, and Stalin feared German military aggression. In April of that year, the Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov, proposed a treaty of collective security between Britain, France and the USSR.

However, Britain and France took six weeks to reply and Stalin grew impatient. He dismissed Litvinov for being too friendly to Britain and France and appointed Vyacheslav Molotov. The Soviet leader then held secret talks with both sides in order to obtain the best deal for the USSR.

The pact proposals

In May 1939, Molotov initiated secret talks with Germany about a potential alliance. Hitler offered Stalin a non-aggression pact, which stated that Germany would not attack the USSR and that the two countries would remain neutral if attacked by external forces. Hitler also promised the USSR eastern Poland and territories it had lost during World War One, such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Before signing a treaty with Germany, however, Stalin first wanted to hear Britain and France’s offer. In August 1939, representatives from Britain, France and the USSR met in Leningrad.

They envisioned a pact stating that the USSR would join Britain and France in the fight against Germany if the Nazis invaded Poland. Yet, Soviet troops would not be allowed to enter Poland. The USSR would also receive no extra land and would likely be at war very soon.

Russian foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov (left) and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (second from right) signed the pact on 23 August 1939.

The choice was easy: Stalin chose to ally with Hitler. The agreement seemingly marked the official end of Nazi-Soviet hostility. On 23 August 1939, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Russian foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

What happened to Poland?

A secret protocol in the pact stated that Germany and the USSR would divide and occupy Poland and bring their shares of the country under their respective spheres of influence. Both the Nazis and the Soviets subsequently invaded Poland.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and the campaign that followed was short yet destructive, with bombing raids devastating Poland’s physical landscape.

Hitler watches German troops marching into Poland during the so-called “September Campaign”. Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S55480 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Red Army likewise invaded the country on 17 September 1939. Poland was only able to resist for six weeks before surrendering on 6 October 1939.

Germany and the USSR subsequently divided Poland into separate occupation zones. The USSR annexed areas east of the Narew, Vistula and San rivers, while Germany annexed western Poland. The Nazis also united southern Poland with northern parts of Ukraine to create the “General Government”, a Nazi-occupied zone.

The aftermath

The pact remained in effect for almost two years. On 22 June 1941, it was declared void when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the USSR. This was a crucial turning point in the war, as it led to the USSR joining the Allies in the fights against the Nazis and Axis powers.

At the end of the war, the Red Army found itself entering Poland once again, only this time it was to liberate the Poles from Nazi occupation.

Even after the war, the Soviet government continued to deny the existence of the secret protocol to divide and occupy Poland. It was only revealed, acknowledged and denounced in 1989 with the fall of the USSR.