Joseph Stalin Becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party
On April 3, 1922, Joseph Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, marking a pivotal moment in his rise to power. Born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in Georgia in 1879, Stalin became involved in revolutionary activities early in his life, aligning with the Bolshevik faction of the communist movement led by Vladimir Lenin. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he played a significant role in the Bolsheviks' victory during the subsequent civil war.
As General Secretary, Stalin gained extensive control over party and government appointments, positioning himself as a key figure within Lenin's inner circle. Despite Lenin's concerns about Stalin's ambitions, he passed away in 1924, allowing Stalin to consolidate power further. Over the next few years, he effectively eliminated his rivals, including Leon Trotsky, who was ultimately exiled and later assassinated. By 1929, Stalin emerged as the sole leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, a role he maintained until his death in 1953. This period marked the beginning of a significant transformation in Soviet society and governance under Stalin's authoritarian rule.
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Joseph Stalin Becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party
Joseph Stalin Becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party
On April 3, 1922, the infamous Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was a milestone on his path to achieving supreme power over the country in 1929, after which he would hold the reigns of power until he died, a quarter of a century later.
Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili on December 21, 1879, in the town of Gori in what was then the southern province of Georgia in the Russian Empire. Stalin, which means “man of steel,” was a name he took later in life. As a youth he was educated in schools run by the Russian Orthodox Church and entered a seminary in 1894. However, while attending the seminary Stalin began to read the works of Karl Marx and discuss radical politics with his fellow students. He left the seminary in 1899 shortly before graduation in order to take part in anticzarist activities like distributing Marxist literature among workers and organizing worker protests. In 1903, when the Russian communist movement split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions, Stalin joined the Bolsheviks, the more militant faction headed by V. I. Lenin. He rose rapidly in the party organization and was appointed to its Central Committee by Lenin, but he was arrested by the czarist authorities in 1913 and exiled to Siberia.
The onset of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917 allowed Stalin to return from exile. Lenin had become the leader of the uprising against Czar Nicholas II and the Romanov dynasty of imperial Russia, and Stalin made his way to St. Petersburg, the capital of the empire, to join him. He was a central figure in the Bolsheviks' struggle against proczarist military forces and their foreign supporters during the years of civil war that followed. By 1921 the Bolsheviks had prevailed, the country was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union, and Stalin had been promoted to the Politburo, the policymaking executive committee of the Bolshevik organization, now known generally as the Communist Party.
It was in April 1922 that Stalin was elected General Secretary of the party. This position gave him control over appointments to party and governmental offices, which made him one of the most powerful men in Lenin's inner circle. Unfortunately, Lenin was in bad health and his days as the leader of the Soviet Union were numbered. He expressed his growing reservations over Stalin's aggressive personality and appetite for power in a letter to associates, but after Lenin died in 1924 Stalin had this material suppressed. Over the next five years, Stalin formed an alliance with several other prominent party members to remove Leon Trotsky, his chief rival in the Politburo. Trotsky was forced to flee the country in 1929, and in 1940 he was assassinated by an agent of the Soviet secret police in Mexico, where he had taken up residence. Meanwhile, Stalin had turned against his former allies and removed them from power as well. By 1929 Stalin was the undisputed leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, a position he would hold until his death from a brain tumor on March 5, 1953.