Soviet leader Stalin - brilliant politician and military leader

(Baonghean) - Steering the Soviet Union during the most critical period of human history in the 20th century, under the talented leadership of Ioseb Vissarionovich Stalin, the Soviet Red Army won a complete victory over fascism. The victory of the Soviet Red Army not only saved humanity from the barbarism, brutality and extremism of fascism initiated by Adolf Hitler, but also encouraged peace-loving people around the world to rise up for national liberation. 70 years have passed, although there are still many different opinions about the way the Soviet Union was led at that time, it cannot be denied that Stalin is one of the symbols that lives forever with time because of the courageous spirit of an outstanding politician and military leader...

Stalin was born in 1878 to a shoemaker's family in the town of Gori in the Tiflis region of the Russian Empire, now part of Georgia, under the name Ioseb Jughashvili. At the age of 10, Ioseb began attending a seminary where Georgian students were taught Russian. At the age of 16, Ioseb was awarded a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary in Tbilisi. However, he was forced to leave school after missing his final exams in 1899. However, according to the seminary's records, he was unable to pay the tuition fees and was forced to leave school.

During this time, Joseph read the works of Lenin and joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. After leaving the seminary, Joseph worked part-time as a clerk in a meteorological office. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1903 and took the name "Stalin", which means "Strong as Steel". His full Russian name was Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. In early 1912, at the Sixth All-Russian Conference of the Social-Democratic Labor Party, Stalin was elected to the Party's Central Committee.

An elderly man holds a calendar with a picture of Josef Stalin as he watches a television broadcast of Russian President Putin giving a speech in Sevastopol, Crimea.

In 1917, the February Revolution triumphed in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the Tsarist autocracy was overthrown. By order of the Provisional Government, political prisoners were released and Stalin returned to the capital St. Petersburg. In February 1917, Stalin was added to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party and to the Editorial Board of the newspaper Pravda - a very famous party newspaper of the Soviet Union. In July 1917, Stalin was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Party. During the October Revolution of 1917, Stalin was a member of the revolutionary military agency established by the Central Committee of the Party to lead the uprising.

After the October Revolution, Stalin held the position of People's Commissar of the Ministry of Nationalities (Minister of the Ministry of Nationalities) in the Council of People's Commissars (Revolutionary Government). He was also a member of the Revolutionary Military Council during the civil war and against foreign military intervention. In April 1922, Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and held that position until his death (1953). For more than 30 years, he held the highest position of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, especially from the beginning of World War II until the end of the war (1939-1945) and the beginning of the equally fierce Cold War period. But under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union became increasingly powerful and gradually asserted itself as one of the world's superpowers.

Returning to the great patriotic war of the Soviet army and people when they defeated the powerful Nazi army equipped with modern weapons of Adolf Hitler in World War II. From the very beginning, A. Hitler had the ambition to annex the world by sending troops to occupy the Rhineland, and in 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. After Austria was annexed to Germany, Hitler demanded the Sudentenland region of Czechoslovakia.

By this time, Hitler's ambition was clear, Stalin proposed to Britain and France to put aside the conflicts between the two sides and form an alliance to stop Hitler, but was rejected by the two countries. Only when the German army attacked Poland were Britain and France forced to declare war, because the two countries had signed an alliance agreement before. However, the army with iron discipline and equipped with modern weapons, so Hitler quickly overwhelmed the battlefield. Adolf Hitler and his generals commanded soldiers to attack countries near the border with the Soviet Union. In June 1941, Germany suddenly broke the non-aggression agreement with the Soviet Union and launched Operation Barbarossa, a giant attack plan with 3,300,000 German troops and 600,000 troops of vassal states to occupy Moscow before the end of the year, the Soviet-German war began.

Initially, due to the situation of forces and means of war being far inferior to Germany, the fascist army had the upper hand. However, with justice and courage, the Soviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Stalin gradually regained the upper hand. Especially after Nazi Germany lost the battle at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Later, historians assessed this battle as the first step towards the Soviet Union's victory in World War II.

And after the defeat at Stalingrad, the German army could not recover its strength as before, nor could it regain the initiative on the Eastern front, and was forced to switch to a defensive position. The battlefield situation changed, the Soviet Red Army grew stronger and stronger and turned the situation from defense to counterattack and attack. With storm-like strength, with the mission of saving humanity from the darkest period of history, the Soviet Red Army attacked the fascist army and its allies to their last lair in the capital Berlin.

And not only did the Soviet Red Army defeat the German fascists in Europe, it also defeated the Japanese fascist Kwantung Army in China, contributing to Japan's surrender to the Allies (August 1945). As for Vietnam, the Soviet Red Army's defeat of the Japanese fascists was one of the factors that greatly encouraged our army and people to rise up and gain independence in August 1945.

70 years have passed since the victory over fascism, the great sacrifice of the Soviet Red Army under the leadership of Marshal Stalin will forever be a symbol of the fighting spirit to protect sovereignty and defend justice. After Stalin passed away, there were many conflicting opinions about his merits and crimes. However, for peace-loving people around the world, Stalin was an outstanding politician and military leader who made great contributions to creating peace as we know it today.

Commenting on Stalin, there are no more convincing words than Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), British Prime Minister during World War II - whom Stalin considered his "number 1 enemy" during his lifetime: "It is a great happiness for Russia that in the years of enormous trials, this country was led by the genius, the iron general Stalin. He was the most outstanding figure, covering the turbulent times through which his life passed. Stalin was a man of extraordinary enthusiasm and unbreakable will, tough, fierce in conversation, a man whom even I, educated in the British Parliament, could not resist. Stalin had above all a rich sense of humor, the ability to absorb ideas accurately. This power became so great in Stalin that he became unique among national leaders of all times and places."

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