Hall of Fame

18 December 1878 (although he lied and said it was 1879, maybe to avoid conscription)

5 March 1953

Stalin is a Russian name derived from the word for steel (stal). His real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Ruthless leader of the Soviet Union

Taught himself Esperanto

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.

Son of a shoe maker

Stalin's initial career plans were centred on the priesthood. After being expelled from his college for revolutionary ideas he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party and sided with the Bolshevik faction. He was exiled to Siberia on six occasions but escaped each time. By 1917 he had become the editor of Pravda and eventually accepted Lenin's plan for a Bolshevik led revolution. In 1922 Stalin became General Secretary of the Communist Party with responsibilities for assigning party positions. Lenin's death in 1923 led to a period often characterised as a struggle for power, by 1929 Stalin had despatched his rivals, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin, leaving him as sole leader.

By the mid 1930's Stalin had become a total dictator. Through his policy of agricultural collectivisation Stalin seized the land of individuals creating vast collective farms. He forced the under developed Soviet Union through rapid industrialisation. He re-wrote Marxism by insisting on 'socialism in one country', rather than calling for an international revolution. Driven by paranoia, he instigated purges of party, military and administrative leaders. Estimates of the number of deaths resulting from his decisions have been put as high as twenty million.

Stalin, who had signed a secret non-aggression pact with Hitler, was caught by complete surprise when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. However, the successful defence of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad led to a fight back and an eventual victory.

The post-war world saw Stalin's dominance of Eastern Europe, the start of the Cold War and the proxy war in Korea.

Increasingly Stalin became the victim of his own paranoia and this proved to be a fatal mistake. He locked up the leading medics in the country fearing a plot to assassinate him. He collapsed on 1 March 1953. His assistants, too terrified to act without orders, dithered. Stalin died, four days later, of the effects of a neglected stroke.

• 1898 Expelled from seminary for priests.
• 1903 Sides with Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party.
• 1913 Joins Bolshevik Central Committee.
• 1917 Editor of Pravda.
• 1922 Appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party.
• 1927 Trotsky expelled.
• 1928 Initiates first five-year plan.
• 1929 Agricultural collectivization doubles.
• 1936 Beginning of the great Show Trials.
• 1941 Nazi Germany invades Soviet Union.
• 1942-1943 Battle of Stalingrad.
• 1953 5 March - Dies.
• 1956 Stalin's successor Khruschev denounces Stalin in a secret speech.