Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a major political leader in 1992-1953.He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. He ran many Labor Camps and would often work people to death. He grew up in a harsh enviorment and had a abusive father, and then got smallpox. He earned a quick scholarship and then studied for priesthood. He secretly read the Communist Manifesto, becoming involved in the Revolutionary Movement against the Russian monarchy. He adopted the name Koba, after a fictional Georgian outlaw-hero. Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party. He was arrested multiple times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia. Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another. During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party. Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more larger role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life.
