Joseph Stalin was one of history’s most ruthless dictators. He murdered millions of his own innocent countrymen, often times without warning or cause. In the process, he took the Soviet Union from a rural country into an industrial super power.
Fact #1 - Joseph Stalin’s official title was General Secretary of the Communist Party. He was given this title in 1922.
This position was actually a modest post when Stalin was first assigned. It was only after several years that Stalin had developed it into the USSR’s most powerful office. I still think the title ‘Dictator’ sounds more ruthless then ‘Secretary’.
Fact #2 - The Russian word stalin means ‘man of steel.’
Joseph does not look like Superman to me.
Fact #3 - At the end of 1930s, Stalin launched the Great Purges, a major campaign of repression. Millions of people who were suspected of being a threat to the party were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia.
Those who opposed or had different views from that of the Communist Party were considered threats to Stalin. It is estimated to up to 2 million people died during the Purge.
Fact #4 - Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany during WWII.
The United States and Great Britain pushed the forces east while the Soviet Union pushed Germany back to the west. Germany was ultimately surrounded and could not fight a war on two fronts.
Fact #5 - It is rumored that Joseph Stalin had a 2-year affair with Lidia Pereprygina, then aged 13, with whom he fathered two children.
Wow! And we thought Michael Jackson liked them young. So not only was Stalin a ruthless murderer, but he was also a pedofile.
