Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1879-1953)

His former surname was Jughashvili, of Georgian nationality, and he was a well-known Marxist-Leninist theorist and an leader and functionary of the international communist movement, the supreme leader of the C.P.S.U. and the Soviet government, and one of the founders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (herein after referred to as “the Soviet Union”).

On December 21, 1879, Stalin was born to a shoemaker family in Gori City, Georgia, Russia. He began to engage in revolutionary activities when he was in middle school in 1894, and he joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in 1898. In 1899, he was expelled from the school due to advocating the idea of overthrowing the government, and then he embarked on the path of a professional revolutionist. In 1903, the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party split into two factions, Stalin joined the Bolsheviks led by Lenin. From 1902 to 1917, he was arrested eight times, exiled and imprisoned many times. In March 1913, he published Marxism and the National Question, signed by K. Stalin (meaning “Iron Man”)".

After the victory of the revolution in February 1917, Stalin returned to Petrograd from exile. He was elected as a member of the Political Bureau and participated in organization and operations of the armed October uprising of Petrograd. After the victory of the revolution, he carried out duties as the commissar of the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities (1917-1922) and commissar of the State Control Commissariat (1919-1922, renamed Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate in 1920).

During the civil war of 1918-1920, Stalin served as a member of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defense, a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council which was responsible for the western front, the southern front, and the southwest front, and participated in the leading organization of the battle to defend Tsaritsyn and Petrograd, as well as the struggle to crush A.I. Denikin’s army. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in November. He was appointed General Secretary at the 11th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in April 1922. He was criticized by Lenin for his rudeness in dealing with Georgia’s national issue.

After Lenin’s death, in May 1924, the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided that Stalin should continue to be the General Secretary of the Central Committee. Stalin, as the supreme leader of the C.P.S.U. (Bolshevik) insisted that development should be based on the basic principles of scientific socialism. From 1924 to 1927, there were serious disagreements within the leaders of the Party about whether a single country can build socialism and besides how to carry out socialist construction and several other issues. The core issue of the first debate was whether the Soviet Union could build socialism itself, alone. Trotsky and Zinoviev mechanically interpreted Marx and Engels’ thought that the socialist revolution could only take place “simultaneously” in several major developed capitalist countries, and asserted that Russia, with backward economy and culture and with a large population of peasants, did not have the objective basis for the realization of socialism. Stalin criticized such ideas. The second debate focused on the speed of industrialization and agricultural collectivization in the Soviet Union. Bukharin opposed Stalin’s policy of giving priority to the development of heavy industry, advocated the development of agriculture as the first step, which could bolster the rapid development of the industry; opposed Stalin’s thought of eliminating the rich peasant class and opposed to the accelerated pace of collectivization.

Stalin, in his struggle with the opposition groups in the party such as Trotsky, defended Leninism, safeguarded the unity of the party and the state, and led the Soviet people in socialist industrialization and agricultural collectivization, which allowed Soviet Union to develop from a backward agricultural country to an outstanding advanced industrial country of the world thanks to the significant improvements on social and economic situation along with the development of productive forces. In December 1936, Stalin presided over the formulation process of the constitution of the Soviet Union, declaring that the Soviet Union basically realized socialism and established a socialist system. In 1937, the industrial output value of the Soviet Union ranked first in Europe and second in the world. The highly centralized political and economic system created by Stalin would later expose its drawbacks and require a comprehensive reform.

From the end of 1934 to 1938, under the leadership of Stalin, Soviet Union launched a suppression campaign against anti-Soviet elements. During this campaign, a part of enemy elements were eliminated, but at the same time many loyal communists and good citizens were erroneously trialed and persecuted or trialed, causing serious losses.

From 1941 to 1953, Stalin served as the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (this post was renamed as “Chairman of the Council of Ministers” after 1946). During the World War II, he served as the Chairman of the State Defense Committee and the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. Stalin led the Soviet people in their resistance to the invasion of German Fascist armies and emerged victorious Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War. He led the Soviet army and allied forces to fight together against fascist countries and made great contributions to the world’s victory in the anti-fascist war. In 1945, he was granted the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

After the end of World War II, Stalin actively supported the Communist Parties of Southeast Europe and East European countries to gain political power and pulled these countries onto the socialist road, thus led the formation of a socialist camp to confront the NATO（North Atlantic Treaty Organization）military alliance led by the United States. In terms of foreign policy, Stalin, on the one hand, resolutely fought against imperialist countries, and on the other hand, assisted other socialist countries, but he made the mistakes such as preserving large party bureaucracy and great power chauvinism and hegemonism in the international issues.

Stalin suffered a serious stroke in January 1953 and died of cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow on March 5, 1953. While Stalin led the socialist construction of the Soviet Union, he also made theoretical contributions, mainly reflected in Foundations of Leninism, “Trotskyism or Leninism?”, Concerning Questions of Leninism, “On the Draft Constitution of the U.S.S.R” and Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. and other works and reports. Stalin’s main theoretical achievements are as follows: Firstly, he systematically expounded Lenin’s theory regarding the structure of the party and extended it; secondly, he further expounded the theory of proletarian dictatorship according to practical experience; thirdly, he defended and developed Lenin’s theory on the victory of socialism at first in one country; fourthly, he summarized the basic characteristics of socialism as follows: The public ownership of means of production is the economic basis of the socialist production relations, the socialist economy is a planned economy, the distribution according to occupation is the distribution principle of socialist personal consumption goods, the Communist Party is the leading force of the socialist country, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the functional form of the socialist country, and Marxism-Leninism is the dominant ideology; fifthly, a comprehensive study is made on how to build socialism in a country like the Soviet Union.

Stalin’s theory had a great influence not only in the Soviet Union, but also within socialist movements around the world and the historical evolution of Marxism.

Stalin’s life is a life of a great Marxist-Leninist and the life of a great proletarian revolutionary. While he made great contributions for the Soviet people and the international communist movement, he also made some mistakes. But Stalin’s achievements are greater than his mistakes. His contributions should be examined before his mistakes. Evaluation of Stalin should be objective and fair, and he cannot be totally denied.