1. Josef Stalin One of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history Megan Linde Period 4-A World War II Project

2. T HE BEGINNING OF HIS LIFE Josef Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia on December 21, 1879. He was on of four children and he was the youngest. The first three died at a very young age and Josef was also in bad health. His mother was scared that he would die at a young age as well, there for she was very protective of him and watched his every move. When Josef was only seven years old, he experienced smallpox. He did survive, but he did have scares on his face for the rest of his life. His mother was a very religious person, and kept Josef in a local church school. Josef was a great student and kept his grades where they should be. He was eventually offered a scholarship to Tiflis Theological Seminary.

3. T IFLIS T HEOLOGICAL S EMINARY While Stalin was at school, he joined a secret group called Messme. He was later expelled from school due to lack of respect. He had no respect for anyone and was just rude. Therefore he got kicked out. After being kicked out of school, he had nothing to do. He had no job, nothing to keep him occupied. He was unemployed for several months. He eventually found a job giving private lessons to middle class children. He then found another job and it was surprisingly at Tiflis school, where he had been earlier kicked out of. He was a clerk at the Tiflis Observatory.

4. S OCIAL D EMOCRATIC L ABOR P ARTY In 1901 Stalin joined a group called the Social Democratic Labor Party. At this point he was living in Russia where he had helped organized industrial resistance to Tsarism. Later he was arrested after starting a strike. He was in jail for 18 months, and was eventually sent to Siberia.

5. S TALIN ’ S KILLING TALLY Stalin killed about 20 million people all together. However there were many different ways that this happened. 14.5 million were starved to death and at least one million were executed for political offences. A lot of it was also people being deported to other countries and being killed there. Stalin was definitely not afraid to kill anyone by the looks of it.

7. R ESOURCES “Joseph Stalin : Bibliography.” Spartacus Educational- Home Page. Web. 04 feb. 2011. http://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ RUS stalin.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ RUS stalin.htm. Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: basic, 2010. Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin – The Eastern Front, 1941-1945 BBC – History – Joseph Stalin. “ BBC – Homepage. Web. 04 feb. 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures / stain_joseph.shtml. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures / stain_joseph.shtml