This Day in History: The End of Stalin's Powerful Life

Many articles and books have been written about Joseph Stalin. However, the question of why Stalin rose to the pinnacle of power remains unclear. There are many hypotheses and inferences, including the view that it seems to be just “historical coincidence, surrounded by many coincidences”.

Joseph Stalin's real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. As a provincial, Stalin was far behind in theory but he had an excellent ability to cope with practical tasks. In 1901 in Batumi, in the Caucasus, he was the one who successfully organized the first major demonstration of workers.

From that day on, Stalin experienced all the ups and downs of a professional revolutionary's life: arrests, exile, escapes, and imprisonment. In his first prison, where the majority of the inmates were criminals, this young underground revolutionary not only easily managed to deal with robbers, but also won them over. This showed the extraordinary strength of Stalin's character.

Lenin invited the provincial revolutionary to various party congresses, first in Finland, then in Stockholm and London. But at these congresses Stalin remained silent, which puzzled the other members, because of the fierce debates.

He was silent, but not at all out of shyness. He simply had other work to do. Before the party leadership at that time, there were tasks that were not discussed at the Congress. Lenin more than once created temporary secret groups of his closest confidants to carry out his own special plans, secret from the whole party.

Among the work this group carried out was fundraising for the revolution and financing the lives of the party elite in exile abroad.

Before that, for a long time, Stalin had been entrusted with special tasks by Vladimir Ilich.

Immediately after Lenin returned from abroad, Stalin became the leader's second in command, Lenin's "shadow". In the election of a new narrow group for the party leadership (the Politburo), along with Lenin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, Stalin was also present.

Thus, by May 1917, Stalin was a member of the leadership quartet of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolshevik Party).

But the surface revolutionary work was done by others, here at the forefront of the attack along with Lenin was Trotsky, while Stalin seemed to remain an “invisible” figure.

Even after the February session of the Council, Stalin appeared to be the most moderate of the Bolsheviks. By all accounts, he was forbidden to take part in open and noisy debates. He should not be arrested, for Stalin's secret mission was too important. And that was exactly what happened.

After the events of July 1917, when Lenin tried unsuccessfully to seize power, Stalin was not among the many Bolsheviks arrested. His opportunity then came.

He took over all of Lenin's secret work when news of the arrest of the revolutionary leader arrived: the famous grass hut in Razliv was Stalin's work. From this hiding place, Lenin wrote two reports to the next Party Congress, which Dzhugashvili read. Later, Stalin himself took Lenin to Finland.

After all this, is it any wonder that when Lenin formed the Politburo to command the uprising, he made Stalin a member? However, during the most heated events, Stalin was not present at the headquarters of the revolutionary staff. During the entire most dangerous period, Stalin patiently and quietly sat in the office of the editorial board of Pravda.

“The man who missed the revolution” - many people at that time called him that sarcastically, not realizing that Stalin once again did not simply leave the big game. In case of defeat, Stalin had established secret routes, along which Lenin would be safely escorted abroad. So it was no coincidence that after the victory, Lenin’s “shadow” appeared in the composition of the first Soviet Government.

During the civil war years, Stalin was once again content with not playing a prominent role, while Trotsky was at the head of the Red Army. However, it was Stalin who was responsible for solving the most important tasks.

In 1918, Stalin went south to take care of food, and he used mass violence to get the job done: bread was sent to feed Moscow. And that was not all. Stalin also made connections with Baku and courted local oil industry. After bread, now oil flowed to Moscow.

In 1919, during the Politburo elections, Stalin once again entered the party's supreme power structure. Thus, his political weight during Lenin's active period increased continuously while the weight of prestige and position of many other leaders, first of all Trotsky, decreased in parallel with the gradual cooling of the civil war.

Together with the Politburo, the party established the Central Organizational Commission, in which Stalin also participated. He simultaneously headed two ministries - the People's Commissariat and the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, a structure similar to the party's Internal Court.

Before Lenin became seriously ill in April 1922, a new position appeared in the party: General Secretary of the Central Committee. And Stalin was once again in high esteem.

Among the tasks that the General Secretary was responsible for at that time was personnel work, which, as is clear, was the most important lever in the struggle for power. One can recall Lenin's famous lines in the "Letter to the Congress": "Comrade Stalin, by becoming General Secretary, concentrated enormous power in his hands." However, it was Lenin who handed him the trump card.

The political history of Russia in the 20th century contains many contradictions, but almost all of them are naturally logical.

When World War II broke out, Stalin was said to have been surprised and discouraged in the early days of the war. However, he quickly regained his spirit and called on the Soviet people to expel the fascists from the country. After the war, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by Stalin led the people to restore the economy and society, successfully manufactured the atomic bomb, and brought the Soviet Union to the position of a socialist power to confront the United States in the Cold War.