Joseph Stalin

Generalissimo Joseph Stalin Marshal Vozhd HSU HSL HM
Иосиф Сталин იოსებ სტალინი
Official portrait, 1950
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952[a]
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov (as Responsible Secretary)
Succeeded by	Nikita Khrushchev (as First Secretary)
2nd Leader of the Soviet Union
In office 21 January 1924 – 5 March 1953
President	Mikhail Kalinin Nikolai Shvernik
Premier	Alexei Rykov Vyacheslav Molotov Himself
Preceded by	Vladimir Lenin
Succeeded by	Georgy Malenkov
4th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 6 May 1941 – 5 March 1953
President	Mikhail Kalinin Nikolai Shvernik
First Deputies	Nikolai Voznesensky Vyacheslav Molotov Nikolai Bulganin
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov
Succeeded by	Georgy Malenkov
Minister of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union[b]
In office 19 July 1941 – 3 March 1947
Premier	Himself
Preceded by	Semyon Timoshenko
Succeeded by	Nikolai Bulganin
People's Commissar for Nationalities of the Russian SFSR
In office 8 November 1917 – 7 July 1923
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (1878-12-06)6 December 1878 Gori, Russian Empire (present-day Georgia)
Died	5 March 1953(1953-03-05) (aged 74) Moscow, Soviet Union
Resting place	Lenin's Mausoleum, Moscow (1953–1961) Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow (since 1961)
Political party	CPSU (from 1912)
Other political affiliations	RSDLP (1898–1912) Bolshevik (faction from 1903)
Spouse(s)	Ekaterine Svanidze ​ ​ (m. 1906; died 1907)​ Nadezhda Alliluyeva ​ ​ (m. 1919; died 1932)​
Children	Yakov Dzhugashvili Vasily Stalin Artyom Sergeyev (adopted) Svetlana Alliluyeva
Parents	Besarion Jughashvili (father) Ekaterine Geladze (mother)
Alma mater	Tiflis Theological Seminary
Awards	Full list
Signature
Military service
Nickname(s)	Koba Soso
Allegiance	Soviet Russia Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Years of service	1918–1920
Rank	Generalissimo (from 1945)
Commands	Soviet Armed Forces (from 1941)
Battles/wars	Russian Civil War Polish–Soviet War World War II

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin^[c] (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili;^[d] 6 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a communist revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 to his death.

In the Soviet Union, Stalin created a totalitarian political system now called Stalinism. He also used Marxism–Leninism and made it the Soviet Union's official political ideology.

After World War II, Stalin gained control over all of Eastern Europe, including part of Germany. There he set up a series of loyal Marxist-Leninist single-party states. This made the Soviet Union a superpower. Stalin's policies turned the Soviet Union into a powerful, relatively modern country that was the largest on Earth.
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