Editing Joseph Stalin

{{Message box/Missing Sources}}{{Infobox revolutionary
| name = Josef Stalin
| native_name = Иосиф Сталин<br>იოსებ სტალინი
| image = File:Iosif_Stalin.jpg
| image_size = 225px
| caption = Portrait of comrade Stalin
| nationality = Georgian
|political_party=[[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]| birth_name          = Ioseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1878|12|21}}
| birth_place         = Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]])
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1953|3|5|1878|12|18}}
| death_place         = Moscow, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| death_cause         = Cerebral hemorrhage
| political_line = [[Marxism–Leninism]]
}}
'''Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili''' (21 December 1878 – 5 March 1953), better known as '''Joseph Stalin''', was a Georgian [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]]<nowiki/>revolutionary, political theorist, and the elected<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1949|title=Joseph Stalin: a political biography|page=34, 48|quote=After the conference, in May 1917, a Political Bureau of the Central Committee was instituted, to which Stalin was elected and to which he has been successively re-elected ever since.
[...]
On Lenin's motion, the Plenum of the Central Committee, on April 3, 1922, elected Stalin, Lenin's faithful disciple and associate, General Secretary of the Central Committee, a post at which he has remained ever since.|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=26C959185500A43A5CFF3947ECEF2FCB}}</ref> leader of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] from 3 April 1922 to 16 October 1952, serving several terms as the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] during that time.

Stalin oversaw the great period of [[collectivization|collectivisation]] and industrialisation which transformed the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a [[Socialism|socialist]] superpower by the late-1930s and early-1940s. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of [[German Reich (1933–1945)|Nazi Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Imperial Japan]] during [[Second World War|World War II]].

== Life and work ==

=== Early life (1878–1899) ===
[[File:StalinAtTiflisSeminary.jpg|thumb|Stalin in 1896 as a student at the Tiflis Seminary]]
Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili was born on 21 December, 1878<ref group="lower-alpha">Although some historians claim he was born in 18th December, his birthday was officially celebrated on 21st December.</ref> in Gori,<ref group="lower-alpha">The city of Gori was part of the Tiflis Governorate, which was one of the administrative divisions of the [[Russian Empire]].</ref> a city of the [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian Empire]], in the family of a craftsman, later a worker of a shoe factory. Like his parents, Stalin was an ethnic [[Georgia|Georgian]], and he grew up speaking the Georgian language. Both his father and his mother came from a family of serfs.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ian Grey|year=1979|title=Stalin, man of history|chapter=|section=|page=9|quote=Vissarion, his father, came from the village of Didi-Lilo, near Tiflis, where his parents, like their forebears, had been peasant serfs. For Vissarion emancipation meant that he was free to follow his trade as a cobbler. Around 1870 he moved to Gori, where in 1874 he married Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, daughter of a serf family from a nearby village. She was about eighteen years of age, some five years younger than her husband. They were humble working people, poor and illiterate.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A341F7377CB157DD7730A9A416CDC302|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> 

Stalin's revolutionary activities can be traced to his time as a student after 1894, when he joined the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1949|title=Joseph Stalin: a political biography|page=5|quote=In the autumn of 1888 Stalin entered the church school in Gori, from which, in 1894, he passed to the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.

This was a period when, with the development of industrial capitalism and the attendant growth of the working-class movement, Marxism had begun to spread widely throughout Russia. The St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, founded and led by Lenin, had given a powerful stimulus to the Social-Democratic movement all over the country.|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=26C959185500A43A5CFF3947ECEF2FCB}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|year=1931|title=[[Library:Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig|Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig]]|quote=I joined the revolutionary movement at the age of fifteen, when I became connected with certain illegal groups of Russian Marxists in Transcaucasia. These groups exerted a great influence on me and instilled in me a taste for illegal Marxian literature.}}</ref> In 1896 and 1897, Stalin was a part of Marxist study groups in the seminary, and in August 1898, he formally joined the Tiflis branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and began to conduct [[propaganda]] work among the workers in the Tiflis railway workshops. An avid reader, he read ''[[Capital, vol. I|Capital]]'' and the ''[[Manifesto of the communist party]]'', written by [[Marx|Karl Marx]], subsequently taking a profound interest in [[Marxism]]. At that time, he became acquainted with some of Lenin's articles criticizing the [[Narodniks]] and the "Legal Marxists".<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1945|title=Joseph Stalin: a short biography|page=5|quote=Jn 1896 and 1897, Stalin conducted Marxist study circles in the seminary, and in August 1898 he formally enrolled as a member of the Tiflis Branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. [...]

Stalin worked hard to broaden his knowledge. He studied Capital, the Communist Manifesto and other works of Marx and Engels. He acquainted himself with Lenin's polemical writings against Narodism, "Legal Marxism" and "Economism." His theoretical interests were extremely broad. He studied philosophy, political economy, history and natural science. He read widely in the classics. He thus trained himself to he an educated Marxist. Even at this early date Lenin's writings made a deep impression on him. "I must meet him at all costs," one of Stalin's friends. reports him to have said. after reading an article by Tulin (Lenin).|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=034C4C1A4DBC437BC939DCF13A1D9EBD}}</ref> In 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary for the propaganda of Marxism, and he went to an illegal position and became a professional revolutionary.

=== Beginning of revolutionary activities (1900–1917) ===
Stalin played a central role in the revolutionary activities of the [[Bolsheviks]], a faction of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labor Party|Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] (RSDLP) led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], before and during the [[Russian revolution of 1917|October Revolution]].[[File:Stalin1902Mugshot.jpg|thumb|Stalin's mugshot after being arrested in 1902]]
[[File:Stalin exile painting.png|thumb|Stalin in exile in Siberia]]
While organizing in the [[Caucasus]], Stalin exposed the [[Mensheviks]] as [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[Reformism|reformists]]. He met Lenin in person for the first time at a [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolshevik]] conference in Tampere, [[Grand Duchy of Finland (1809–1917)|Finland]] in 1905.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm}}</ref> In 1912, the party elected Stalin to the Central Committee even though he was in exile at the time.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Stolypin Reaction. The Bolsheviks Constitute Themselves an Independent Marxist Party|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch04.htm}}</ref> In 1912, Stalin helped found the newspaper ''Pravda''.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party during the New Rise of the Working Class Movement before the First Imperialist War|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch05.htm}}</ref>

After the [[February Revolution]], Stalin returned from exile in [[Siberia]]. He called for an overthrow of the [[Russian Republic (1917–1918)|provisional government]] and opposed the [[Imperialism|imperialist]] [[First World War]]. At a party conference in April 1917, he argued with [[Nikolai Bukharin|Bukharin]] and [[Georgy Pyatakov|Pyatakov]], who did not support the right of [[Nation|nations]] to [[self-determination]]. In September, Stalin opposed participating in the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] [[Provisional Council of the Russian Republic|Provisional Council]] and called for a revolution instead.

On 29 October 1917, the Central Committee elected Stalin as head of the Party Center to direct the [[Russian revolution of 1917|October Revolution]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Preparation and Realization of the October Socialist Revolution|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch07.htm}}</ref>

=== Civil War (1918–1920) ===
In summer 1919, the Central Committee sent Stalin, [[Kliment Voroshilov|Voroshilov]], [[Sergo Orjonikidze|Orjonikidze]], and [[Semyon Budyonny|Budyonny]] to the southern front, where he organized an attack against [[Anton Denikin]] from the [[Donbass]]. The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] defeated Denikin in October 1919 and liberated all of [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1991)|Ukraine]] by early 1920.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=[[Library:History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#The Bolshevik party in the period of foreign military intervention and civil war (1918—1920)|The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Foreign Military Intervention and Civil War]]|chapter-url=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch08.htm}}</ref>

=== Establishment of the USSR (1921–1924) ===
[[File:Stalin painting 1920s.png|thumb|270x270px|Painting of Stalin from the 1920s]]
After the defeat of the interventionists and the [[Russian Civil War|Civil War]], in transition to a peaceful economic construction, the anti-party groups led by [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] launched a struggle against the party line developed by [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=[[Library:History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#The Bolshevik party in the period of transition to the peaceful work of economic restoration (1921—1925)|The Bolshevik party in the period of transition to the peaceful work of economic restoration]]|chapter-url=|quote=The small opposition groups—the Trotskyites, "Workers' Opposition," "Left Communists," "Democratic-Centralists," etc.—wavered and vacillated in face of the difficulties attending the transition to peaceful economic construction. There were in the Party quite a number of ex-members of the Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary, Bund and Borotbist parties, and all kinds of semi-nationalists from the border regions of Russia. Most of them allied themselves with one opposition group or another.
[...]
It was Trotsky who started the discussion and the fight against Lenin, against the Leninist majority of the Central Committee. With the intention of aggravating the situation, he came out at a meeting of Communist delegates to the Fifth All-Russian Trade Union Conference, held at the beginning of November 1920, with the dubious slogans of "tightening the screws" and "shaking up the trade unions." Trotsky demanded that the trade unions be immediately "governmentalized." He was against the use of persuasion in relations with the working class, and was in favour of introducing military methods in the trade unions. Trotsky was against any extension of democracy in the trade unions, against the principle of electing trade union bodies.|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch09.htm}}</ref> Stalin defended the [[Leninist]] line and fought against anti-party groups and factions ([[Trotskyism|Trotskyists]], "workers' opposition"). At the 10th Congress of the Party (1921) Stalin presented "The Report on the next tasks of the Party in the [[national question]]". After the 11th Party Congress (1922) the Plenum of the Party Central Committee elected Joseph Stalin as the Secretary General of the Central Committee.

Under the leadership of V. I. Lenin, the Party during this period carried out extensive work on the creation of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]. Lenin believed that the USSR should be a voluntary union of equal and sovereign [[Soviet republic|union republics]]. On this question, Stalin at first took the wrong stand, putting forward the project of so-called "autonomization", i.e., the entry into the RSFSR of other Soviet republics on the rights of autonomous units. V. I. Lenin strongly opposed this proposal, criticized Stalin's mistakes in conducting the national policy, his partiality to the manifestations of great-power [[chauvinism]]. The Leninist principles were accepted by the Central Committee and formed the basis of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The report on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922) was made at the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR by the order of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) by I.V. Stalin in view of Lenin's illness.

After Lenin's death, the Communist Party, under the leadership of the Central Committee, firmly and confidently led the Soviet people along the path of implementation of Lenin's precepts, on the path of building socialism. At this time, Stalin made a number of works that were of great importance in the protection and propaganda of Leninism and in the ideological defeat of the currents hostile to Leninism. In this respect, a great role was played by Stalin's work "On the Foundations of Leninism" (1924), which set forth the basic issues of Leninism and disclosed the new things that Lenin contributed to Marxism. The defense by I. V. Stalin, together with other leaders of the Party, of the Leninist theory of the possibility of the victory of socialism initially [[Socialism in one country|in one country]], and of the possibility of the victory of socialism in the USSR in the capitalist encirclement, was of particular importance in the struggle against the Trotskyists.{{Citation needed}} 

=== 14th Party Congress (1925–1926) ===
Based on the instructions of V. Lenin, who developed a scientifically sound program for building socialism in the USSR, the party set a course for the [[socialist industrialization]] of the country. This line was set out in the political report of the Central Committee at the XIV Party Congress (1925), made by Stalin. The report emphasized that the essence of [[industrialization]] was the priority development of [[heavy industry]], and first of all the [[mechanical engineering]], the fundamental difference of socialist industrialization, which was inextricably linked with the improvement of the working people's material condition, from the capitalist one, which was held by means of colonial seizure, robbery and ruthless exploitation of the working people. 

In early 1926 he published a book of Stalin "Toward Leninism", which was criticized opportunistic views of [[Grigory Zinoviev|Zinovievites]], who were descending to the ideological positions of Trotskyism and wanted wanted the Soviet Union to stay mostly [[Agriculture|agricultural]] and import its industry from [[Capitalism|capitalist]] countries.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Transition to the Peaceful Work of Economic Restoration|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch09.htm}}</ref> At the 15th Party Conference (November 1926) Stalin made a report "On the Social Democratic bias in our party" and at the VII Extended Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (December 1926) with the report "About the Social Democratic bias in our party again". Both these reports played an important role in rallying the party ranks under the banner of Leninist ideas and in exposing the Trotskyites, their capitulation to capitalism and their disorganizing activities. 

=== Collectivization campaign (1927–1934) ===
Based on the successes of socialist industrialization and guided by Lenin's [[cooperative plan]], the 15th Congress of the CPSU (b) (1927) put forward [[collectivization]] of the [[agriculture]] as the most important task of the Party and Soviet people. These questions were covered in the political report of the Central Committee of the Party, made at the Congress by I. V. Stalin. During this period, an anti-party group of [[Opportunism|right-wing opportunists]]—[[Bukharin]], [[Alexei Rykov|Rykov]], [[Mikhail Tomsky|Tomsky]] and others—openly opposed the general line of the Party. In the reports of Stalin "On the industrialization of the country and the right deviation in the CPSU (b)" (1928), "On the right - the deviation in the CPSU (b)" (1929), etc. exposed the line of the right opportunists, which expressed the ideology of the [[kulak]], rich peasant class. 

In 1930, Stalin released the ''Pravda'' article "Dizzy with Success," criticizing people who were overenthusiastic about [[collectivization]] and forced [[Peasantry|peasants]] onto collective farms. This issue was most severe in [[Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Transcaucasia]] and Central Asia, where collectivization was not scheduled to finish until 1933.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle for the Collectivization of Agriculture|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch11.htm}}</ref>

At the XVI Congress of the CPSU(b) (1930) and XVII Congress of the CPSU(b) (1934) Stalin made reports on the work of the Central Committee of the Party. During this period, the Communist Party and the Soviet state carried out an all-out offensive of socialism against the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] elements. Under the conditions of a tense international situation, the country overcame enormous difficulties in order to put an end to the technical and economic backwardness within the shortest historical period. In pursuing a course of priority and predominant development of heavy industry, the Party made decisive progress in the socialist industrialization of the country and the collectivization of agriculture. 

=== 1936 Constitution and later (1936–1939) ===
[[File:Stalin 1936.jpg|thumb|Stalin in 1936]]
Stalin helped draft the [[1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union]], which the Eighth Congress of Soviets approved in November 1936.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle to Complete the Building of the Socialist Society. Introduction of the New Constitution|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch12.htm}}</ref> This constitution remained in effect until 1977.

In 1938 Stalin wrote his work "On dialectical and historical materialism", which gives a brief coverage of the foundations of Marxist-Leninist philosophy and shows its importance for the practical work of the Party.

In March 1939 the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was held. In the report of the Central Committee at the Congress Stalin outlined the program developed by the Central Committee of the struggle of the party and the Soviet people for the completion of building a socialist society in the gradual transition from socialism to communism.{{Citation needed}}

=== Second World War (1939–1945) ===
From December 1940 to January 1941, Stalin attended a military conference with all top military officers. The 18th Congress of the CPSU in February 1941 focused on preparing industry and transportation for the war. In early March, [[Semen Tymoshenko|Tymoshenko]] and [[Georgy Zhukov|Zhukov]] asked him to call up 800,000 reservists, which he initially refused but approved at the end of the month.<ref name=":022332">{{Citation|author=Ludo Martens|year=1996|title=Another View of Stalin|chapter=Stalin and the anti-fascist war|page=192–8|pdf=https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceab64vxtxpqt2cdl4zsrsftmedqidn4foq74gr25qkd35z5nwogdi?filename=Ludo%20Martens%20-%20Another%20View%20of%20Stalin-Editions%20EPO%20%281996%29.pdf|publisher=Editions EPO|isbn=9782872620814}}</ref> The size of the Red Army grew from two million in 1938 to over six million in 1941.<ref name=":05">{{Citation|author=Ludo Martens|year=1996|title=Another View of Stalin|chapter=Socialist industrialization|page=35–42|pdf=https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceab64vxtxpqt2cdl4zsrsftmedqidn4foq74gr25qkd35z5nwogdi?filename=Ludo%20Martens%20-%20Another%20View%20of%20Stalin-Editions%20EPO%20%281996%29.pdf|publisher=Editions EPO|isbn=9782872620814}}</ref>

On 21 June 1941, a German defector said that Germany would attack the Soviet Union the next night. Stalin alerted all units and told troops to camouflage themselves and their aircraft. He ordered them to secretly occupy firing posts on the border. Germany began bombing border cities at 3:40 a.m. on 22 June, and Stalin met with the Politburo at 4:30. He approved Zhukov's request to immediately attack the enemy, which was sent at 7:15 a.m. On 26 June, Stalin began creating a reserve front 300 kilometers behind the main front.<ref name=":022332" />

Joseph Stalin became [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars]] in 1941, a position he would hold until his death.<ref>{{Citation|author=Samuel Totten, Paul Bartrop|year=2008|title=Dictionary of Genocide: A–L|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313346422}}</ref> He worked fourteen or fifteen hours daily during the war, taking his first vacation since 1937 in 1946.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=Domenico Losurdo, David Ferreira|year=2020|title=Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend|chapter=The Complex and Contradictory Course of the Stalin Era|section=Bureaucracy or “Zealous Faith”?|page=121|quote=[At least during the years of the war] Stalin worked fourteen or fifteen hours a day in the Kremlin or at the dacha [...]. In autumn of 1946, Stalin went to the south to enjoy a vacation for the first time since 1937 [...]. A few months before his death, and ignoring urgent recommendations from doctors, Stalin rejected the possibility of taking a break in the autumn or winter of 1952, despite the enormous amount of time and effort dedicated to organizing the XIX party congress in October.|lg=http://library.lol/main/fab891d8f6bbf7bb49e78240483751e4|trans-lang=Italian}}</ref> At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin was appointed Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar of Defense, and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and remained in these positions until the victorious end of the war. The great victory over the [[Adolf Hitler|Hitlerite]] coalition was won by the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party and its Central Committee, headed by Stalin.

Stalin had extensive knowledge of the war situation and demanded exact accuracy from his staff. He required front commanders to send reports every day and criticized [[Rokossovsky]] when he did not do so on 16 August 1943. Stalin also had an excellent memory and remembered all the names of over 100 front commanders in addition to many other commanders, members of the [[People's Commissariat of Defense]], and party officials. He personally knew and often convened builders of planes, artillery, and tanks.<ref name=":0223323">{{Citation|author=Ludo Martens|year=1996|title=Another View of Stalin|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Another_view_of_Stalin|chapter=Stalin and the anti-fascist war|page=229–236|pdf=https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceab64vxtxpqt2cdl4zsrsftmedqidn4foq74gr25qkd35z5nwogdi?filename=Ludo%20Martens%20-%20Another%20View%20of%20Stalin-Editions%20EPO%20%281996%29.pdf|publisher=Editions EPO|isbn=9782872620814}}</ref> 

During the war, Joseph Stalin, as a head of the Soviet government, took part in the conferences of the leaders of the three powers—the USSR, the USA and Great Britain—in Tehran (1943), in Yalta and Berlin (1945). During these years, Stalin maintained everyday correspondence with the presidents of the USA and the prime-ministers of Great Britain, in which he insistently fought for strengthening of anti-Hitler coalition, consistently defended the national interests of the peoples of the countries which were subject to Hitlerite aggression. 

=== Postwar period and death (1946–1953) ===
[[File:StalinFinalSpeech1952.jpg|thumb|Stalin giving his final speech to the CPSU congress on October 14, 1952]]
In the postwar period, I. V. Stalin published his works "Marxism and questions of linguistics" (1950) and "Economic problems of socialism in the USSR" (1952), which considers important questions of Marxist-Leninist theory. "The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" had a great influence on the development of some positions in the political economy of socialism. I.V. Stalin stressed the objective character of economic laws in socialism; based on the classical Marxism-Leninism statements, he formulated the main economic law of socialism, the law of systematic and proportional development of national economy; noted the importance of priority growth of means of production for the expanded socialist reproduction. At the same time, the work contains a number of erroneous and controversial positions (e.g.: assertion that commodity circulation begins to hinder the development of productive forces of the country and the gradual transition to product exchange is necessary; underestimation of the law of value in production, especially with regard to means of production; the statement about inevitability of reduction of the volume of capitalist production after World War II and about inevitability of wars between capitalist countries in the current conditions).{{Citation needed}}

In October 1952 the 19th Congress of the CPSU was held. At the closing session of the Congress Stalin made a speech. The Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, which took place after the Congress, elected Joseph Stalin a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin continued to fight against [[revisionism]] and [[opportunism]] but underestimated the strength it would have without a capitalist [[Base and superstructure|base]].<ref name=":02233232">{{Citation|author=Ludo Martens|year=1996|title=Another View of Stalin|chapter=From Stalin to Khrushchev|isbn=9782872620814|publisher=Editions EPO|pdf=https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceab64vxtxpqt2cdl4zsrsftmedqidn4foq74gr25qkd35z5nwogdi?filename=Ludo%20Martens%20-%20Another%20View%20of%20Stalin-Editions%20EPO%20%281996%29.pdf|page=253–262}}</ref> 

Outstanding work of Stalin was highly appreciated by the Soviet Union. Stalin's outstanding activities were highly appreciated by the Soviet government. He was awarded the ranks of a Hero of Socialist Labor (1939), a Hero of the Soviet Union (1945) and Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). He was awarded with three Orders of Lenin, the Order of Victory, the Order of the Red Banner, Suvorov of the 1st degree and medals. 

==== Death ====
Stalin's health declined during the early 1950s due to overwork during the war. He rejected to take a break in the autumn or winter of 1952, despite recommendations from doctors.<ref name=":2" /> In the last few months before his death, his security was dismantled. [[Alexander Proskryobychev|Proskryobychev]], Stalin's personal secretary since 1928, was put under house arrest, and [[Nikolai Vlasik]], Stalin's bodyguard, was arrested in December 1952 and died in prison. [[Pyotr Kosynkin]], Vice-Commander of the Kremlin Guard, died of a supposed heart attack on 17 February 1953. [[Lavrentiy Beria|Beria]] was the only one capable of such a plot, and [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] suspected that MVD chief [[Lavrentiy Beria|Beria]] poisoned Stalin, while [[Enver Hoxha|Hoxha]] believed [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] and [[Anastas Mikoyan|Mikoyan]] had planned to assassinate him.<ref name=":02233232" />

On 1 March 1953, at 23:00 Stalin's guards found him unconscious in his room but did not call a doctor. He did not receive first aid until twelve hours after his collapse and died on 5 March.<ref name=":02233232" />

== Common myths ==

===Antisemitism===

While anti-semitism has been a historical tool of the [[Far-right politics|far-right]] and [[Fascism|fascists]] in particular, "[[Cultural Marxism|Judeo-Bolshevism]]" and "cultural bolshevism" being classic fascist [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] linking the communist movement with fictional [[Judaism|Jewish]] cabals plotting world domination or ethnic domination, some historians still claim that Stalin too was an [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semite]]. While [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russia]] had a long and troubled history with [[Mikhail Bakunin|anti-Semitism]] before revolution, there is no evidence that Stalin held these views. The below letter from Stalin opposes this notion.

{{Quote|In answer to your inquiry:

National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at [[capitalism]]. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.|J. Stalin|Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States {{Refn|Stalin: ''Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States'' [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/01/12.htm MIA link]}}}}During Stalin's time in office, Jews made up 4.3% of party membership, which was much higher than their share of the total population. [[Lazar Kaganovich|Kaganovich]] and [[Maxim Litvinov|Litvinov]], two members of Stalin's leadership, were both Jewish. During the late 1930s, 10% of Central Committee members were Jewish even though only about 1% of the total population was Jewish.'''<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=Albert Szymanski|year=1984|title=Human Rights in the Soviet Union|chapter=The European Nationalities in the USSR|page=88–94|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceazdmtb2y3qq27fve5ib3gk7uv2unt6ae2xss74xmfpur7k5uhl5m?filename=Albert%20Szymanski%20-%20Human%20Rights%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union_%20Including%20Comparisons%20with%20the%20U.S.A.-Zed%20Books%20Ltd.%20%281984%29.pdf|city=London|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|isbn=0862320186|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=C597B1232D9EA6B0F3DCB438D7E15A81}}</ref>'''

=== Autocratic rule ===
It is accepted in bourgeois circles that Stalin was a dictator who imposed his personal will on the entire country. However, during the Great Patriotic War, the Politburo and military leadership made collective decisions. If they could not agree, they would create a commission of opposing sides to create a proposal. Stalin, as Commander in Chief of the Red Army, took his generals' opinions into account and listened to their advice.<ref name=":0223323" /> The CIA itself admitted in now-declassified documents that the USSR always operated under collective leadership, and that Stalin was not the 'dictator' that the Western powers portrayed him to be.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|newspaper=Central Intelligence Agency|title=Comments in the Change in Soviet Leadership|date=2008-02-26|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf|archive-url=https://shared.prolewiki.org/uploads/2/28/Comments_on_the_change_in_Soviet_leadership.pdf|quote=Even in Stalin's time there was collective leadership. The western idea of a dictator within the communist setup is exaggerated. Misunderstandings on that subject are caused by lack of comprehension of the real nature and organization of the Communist power structure.}}</ref>

Stalin was elected Chairman of the CPSU several times by the Plenum of the Central Committee.<ref name=":1" /> He also tried to resign four times, but each time was turned down by the Central Committee.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Socialist Musings|title=Stalin’s Four Attempts at Resignation|date=2017-02-23|url=https://socialistmlmusings.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/stalins-four-attempts-at-resignation/}}</ref>

=== Personality cult ===
While there is no doubt that Stalin was a revered figure in the USSR, there is no evidence to suggest he made any active efforts to build up a [[cult of personality]] around himself. In fact, in 1938 he requested the destruction of a book that portrayed him too positively and stated that the theory of "heroes" was an [[Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries|SR]] and not a [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolshevik]] theory.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1938|title=Letter on Publications for Children Directed to the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Youth|title-url=https://mltheory.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/stalin-on-the-cult-of-personality/|city=London|publisher=Red Star Press|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1938/02/16.htm}}</ref> Stalin also condemned the "Great man" in a speech to collective farmers in 1933:

{{Quote|The times have passed when leaders were regarded as the only makers of history, while the workers and peasants were not taken into account. The destinies of nations and of states are now determined, not only by leaders, but primarily and mainly by the vast masses of the working people. The workers and the peasants, who without fuss and noise are building factories and mills, constructing mines and railways, building collective farms and state farms, creating all the values of life, feeding and clothing the whole world—they are the real heroes and the creators of the new life.|Joseph Stalin|[https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1933/02/19.htm Speech Delivered at the 1st All-Union Congress of Collective Farm Shock Brigadiers]|1933}}Kaganovich proposed the replacement of Marxism-Leninism with Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, to which Stalin rejected saying: "you want to compare a dick to a guard tower."<ref>{{Citation|author=Domenico Losurdo, David Ferreira|year=2020|title=Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend|chapter=How to Cast a God into Hell: The Khrushchev Report|section=The Cult of Personality in Russia, from Kerensky to Stalin|page=33|quote=In fact, when Kaganovich suggests substituting the term Marxism-Leninism for Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, the leader to whom that tribute is directed responds: “you want to compare a dick to a guard tower."|lg=http://library.lol/main/fab891d8f6bbf7bb49e78240483751e4|trans-lang=Italian}}</ref> After winning the Great Patriotic War, Stalin declined the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union".<ref>{{Citation|author=Domenico Losurdo, David Ferreira|year=2020|title=Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend|chapter=How to Cast a God into Hell: The Khrushchev Report|section=The Cult of Personality in Russia, from Kerensky to Stalin|page=33|quote=Immediately after the victory parade, a group of marshals reach out to Molotov and Malenkov: they propose to them the commemoration of the victory achieved in the Great Patriotic War by offering the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union” to Stalin, who nonetheless rejects the offer.|lg=http://libgen.li/ads.php?md5=fab891d8f6bbf7bb49e78240483751e4|trans-lang=Italian}}</ref> Not only that, but he declared to tour Berlin.<ref>{{Citation|author=Domenico Losurdo, David Ferreira|year=2020|title=Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend|chapter=How to Cast a God into Hell: The Khrushchev Report|section=The Cult of Personality in Russia, from Kerensky to Stalin|page=33|quote=The Soviet leader also sought to escape rhetorical excesses on the occasion of the Potsdam Conference: “Both Churchill and Truman took their time walking among Berlin’s ruins; Stalin showed no such interest. Without drawing attention, he arrived by train, and even ordered Zhukov to cancel any welcoming ceremony with a military band and an honor guard.|lg=http://library.lol/main/fab891d8f6bbf7bb49e78240483751e4|trans-lang=Italian}}</ref>

On his 70th birthday, he categorically refused a state award.<ref>{{Citation|author=Domenico Losurdo, David Ferreira|year=2020|title=Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend|chapter=How to Cast a God into Hell: The Khrushchev Report|section=The Cult of Personality in Russia, from Kerensky to Stalin|page=33|quote=He [Stalin] called in Malenkov and warned him: “Don’t even think about honoring me again with a ‘star’." “But comrade Stalin, on an anniversary like this? The people would not understand.” “It’s not up to the people. I don’t want to argue. No personal initiative! Understand me?” “Of course, comrade Stalin, but the politburo members think…” Stalin interrupted Malenkov and declared the discussion closed.|lg=http://libgen.li/ads.php?md5=fab891d8f6bbf7bb49e78240483751e4|trans-lang=Italian}}</ref>

== Popular support ==
In a poll made in 2019, 70% of [[Russian Federation|Russians]] said they had a positive view of Stalin's role in history. This was a 12% increase from 58% in 2015.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=[[In Defense of Communism]]|title=Anticommunism Fails: 70% of Russians have a positive opinion on Joseph Stalin|date=2019-04-17|url=http://www.idcommunism.com/2019/04/anticommunism-fails-70-of-russians-have-positive-view-on-joseph-stalin.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629093512/https://www.idcommunism.com/2019/04/anticommunism-fails-70-of-russians-have-positive-view-on-joseph-stalin.html|archive-date=2021-06-29}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Quotes:Joseph Stalin]]
* [[:Category:Library works by Joseph Stalin|Stalin's works in ProleWiki's Library]]

== Further reading ==

* ''[[Library:Another view of Stalin|Another View of Stalin]]''
* ''[[Library:Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend|Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend]]''

==References==
<references />

=== Notes ===
<references group="lower-alpha" />
[[Category:Communist leaders]]
[[Category:Debunking myths]]
[[Category:Former heads of state]]
[[Category:Joseph Stalin]]
[[Category:Marshals of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Marxist theorists]]
[[Category:Russian Marxists]]
[[Category:Targets of bourgeois media]]