Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili changed his name to Stalin 'Man of Steel' in 1913. On his return from exile he rejoined the editorial board of 'Pravda' and was elected party's Central Committee, helping Lenin to organise a meeting of Bolsheviks that approved an armed uprising.

The Man of Steel
Stalin translates to Man of Steel. AKA Koba, AKA Uncle Joe.

On the 21st December 1879 in Gori, Georgia, Joseph Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. He was the only child of a poor and struggling family. His father, a cobbler, died when he was just 11.

In 1894 Stalin and his mother moved away to Tiflis, where he enrolled at the Tiflis Theological Seminary and joined the Marxist underground. Later he is expelled due to his revolutionary activities.

Lenin
Stalin first met Lenin in 1905 as he acted as the delegate from the Caucasus to the first national conference of the Russian Social Democrats, in Tammerfors, Finland.

In 1912 Lenin appointed Stalin to the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party as one of the leaders of the Bolshevik underground. Later he was made a member of the editorial board of 'Pravda', the Bolshevik's newspaper.

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili changed his name to Stalin meaning 'Man of Steel' in 1913. He was also arrested that year and exiled to Siberia.

He remained in Siberia until 1917, when a general amnesty was proclaimed following the abdication of the Tsar. On his return from exile he rejoined the editorial board of 'Pravda' and is elected to the party's Central Committee, helping Lenin to organise a meeting of Bolsheviks that approved an armed uprising. Following the 'Bolshevik Revolution' of 6 November, Stalin was made commissar of nationalities in the new communist administration.

From 1918 the Bolsheviks refer to themselves as The Communist Party.

In 1921 Stalin was placed in charge of the Communist Party bureau, responsible for appointing and dismissing party members.

Lenin suffered a stroke on May 1922, a troika is formed composing of Stalin, Lev B. Kamenev, and Grigorii V. Zinoviev assumes leadership of the party. Later in that year after Lenin has recovered he recommends that Stalin is removed from the position general secretary, accusing him of using coercion to force non-Russian republics to join the Soviet Union and said he was "crude" and is accumulating too much power through his office, the party takes no action. Stalin remained as general secretary when Lenin died on 21 January 1924.

The Rise to Power
In 1925 following Lenin's death the Kamenev-Zinoviev-Stalin troika came to power again. He then consolidates his power base until he is able to break with Kamenev and Zinoviev. He has the city of Tsaritsin renamed Stalingrad (Volgograd) and starts the development of a personality cult and propaganda campaign.

From 1926 to 1930, he progressively ousts his opponents on the left and right of the party. By 1930 Stalin had emerged as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. He was hailed by cultists as a "shining sun", "the staff of life", a "great teacher and friend", and the "hope of the future for the workers and peasants of the world".

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1928 Stalin introduced the first five year plan, the "revolution from above", to develop the USSR. "We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries," he says in 1931. "We must cover this distance in 10 years. Either we do this or they will crush us." The state takes control of the economy, twenty five million peasant farmers are forced to collectivise their property and then work on the new state-controlled farms. The Wealthy peasants and the uncooperative are either executed or deported to work camps in Siberia.

In the Ukrainian Republic up to five million peasants starve to death in the "famine" of 1932-33 when the state refuses to divert food supplies. One million starve to death in the North Caucasus. By 1937, the social upheaval caused by the "revolution from above" has resulted in the deaths of up to 14.5 million Soviet peasants.

Although industry has failed to meet its production targets by 1932 Stalin announced that the first five year plan had successfully met its goals in only four years. The second five year plan was introduced in 1933 and a third in 1938.

World War II
On 23 August 1939 Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Germany's Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, they sliced up Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, the USSR claimed Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland part of the Balkans and half of Poland.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September. On September the 3rd Britain and France declared war on Germany anf World War II started.

In December 1939, to celebrate his 60th birthday, he is awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title 'Hero of Socialist Labour'.

On the 13 April 1941 Japan and the Soviet Union sign the Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact, removing the threat to the Soviets of invasion by Japan.

Stalin was caught completely off guard when Germany invades on 22 June. He took command of the Soviet forces, appointing himself the supreme commander of the Soviet Armed Forces in what comes to be know in the USSR as the 'Great Patriotic War'.

In 1945 World War II ends and Germany is divided.

1949 Stalin turned 70.

In 1950 he agrees to a plan by the Soviet-backed leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, to force a reunification with South Korea, the Korean war begins.

Stalin was pronounced dead on 5 March 1953, after collapsing four days earlier at his country house outside Moscow, it is declared the cause of death is a cerebral haemorrhage. But rummers are he was poisoned to stop him starting a nuclear war with the U.S.A.