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Stalin's Birth
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born in the Russian province of Georgia, in the hamlet of Gori. Joseph Stalin, the third child of a poor shoemaker and his wife, was the third kid born to them. -
Stalin enrolls in Gori Church School.
Stalin enrolls in the Gori Church School for basic education. Despite the fact that he speaks Georgian at home, Tsar Alexander III's laws require him to speak exclusively Russian in school. -
Stalin is arrested for the first time.
Stalin is apprehended for instigating anti-oil refinery riots. This is the start of a 15-year period in Stalin's life in which he is constantly arrested, exiled, and jailed again after escaping exile. -
Stalin joins the Bolsheviks.
While in Siberia, Stalin discovers that Vladimir Lenin has founded the Bolsheviks, a political party dedicated to Karl Marx's views. Stalin admires Lenin and joins his movement. The Bolsheviks will eventually morph into the Communist Party. -
Lenin appoints Stalin Commissar of Nationalities.
Lenin appoints Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities as a prize for his role in the October Revolution. As a result, Stalin is accountable for millions of non-Russians living under the Tsar's rule, and he wields enormous influence. -
Stalin is named the General Secretary of the Communist Party.
Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party and is in charge of placing others in particular roles when Russia becomes the Soviet Union. He realizes that controlling individuals and what they do is crucial to obtaining power, and he eventually owes many critical people their jobs. -
The first of Stalin's Five-Year Plans begins.
Stalin seizes farms and industries that were critical to the nation's agriculture in a harsh and ill-fated endeavor to push the Soviet economy into the industrial age. Hundreds of thousands of people die as a result of protests or starvation as Stalin continues to send food out of the nation to conceal his plan's failure. -
The Soviet Union allies with Great Britain and the United States in World War II.
Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin decides that the Soviet Red Army will fight alongside the United States and Great Britain in World War II. The Red Army eventually defeats the Nazis and is credited with liberating Auschwitz prison camp in 1945. -
Stalin rejects aid from the Marshall Plan.
When the Marshall Plan is implemented to help Europe recover from World War II devastation, Stalin opposes it. He opposes the idea because it will benefit Germany, and he believes the United States is growing too dominating. When the US airlifts supplies into West Berlin, his attempts to prevent food from reaching in the city fail. -
Stalin grants North Korea permission to invade South Korea.
Stalin authorizes Communist North Korea's Kim Il Sung to invade non-Communist South Korea, resulting in the Korean War. Because of its foreign policy of stopping the spread of communism, the United States supports South Korea in the Korean War. -
Thirteen Soviet Jews are murdered on the Night of the Murdered Poets.
Stalin orders the murder of 13 Soviet Jews suspected of treachery and spies, including five Yiddish poets. This was the start of Stalin's plot to expel Jews from the Soviet Union. -
Stalin's Death
Stalin dies four days after suffering a stroke at home, despite being in terrible health. Long after his death, there are rumors that he was poisoned.