59 Interesting Facts about Joseph Stalin | FactRetriever

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929-1953. He murdered tens of millions of people as he forced an underdeveloped Soviet Union to become an atomic superpower.[4]Farmers under Stalin’s rule harvested enough grain to feed the Russian people during widespread famine that killed millions, but Stalin insisted on exporting it to pay for his new factories.[4]Stalin was not actually a native Russian. He was from Georgia, a region that had been claimed by Russia in 1801. He may also be Ossetian (an Iranian ethnic group) on his paternal side.[6]Historians still debate how far the Allied cause was compromised by using one dictator (Stalin) to stop another (Hitler) during WW II and then handing over tens of millions of Europeans to Soviet servitude after the war.[3]Between 1936-1938, Stalin instigated “The Great Purge” or “The Great Terror” to purge the Communist Party and to consolidate his own power. Millions of people were sent to...