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Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, holding the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party and later serving as Premier. He consolidated near-absolute personal power through the 1930s, imposing rapid industrialization and forced agricultural collectivization and carrying out the Great Purge, a campaign of mass repression that killed hundreds of thousands of people. As a central Allied leader during the Second World War he directed the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany, and his regime's wartime victory and postwar consolidation of power over Eastern Europe made the Soviet Union one of the world's two superpowers, even as his rule is widely condemned for mass repression, deportations and famines that caused millions of deaths.

Facts
Birth Date
1878-12-18 1
Wikipedia gives the birth date as 18 December 1878 in the Gregorian calendar (Old Style 6 December 1878, the date used in the Russian Empire at the time).
Death Date
1953-03-05 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Participant In

World War II, Events
Additional Source Wikipedia: Joseph StalinInfobox, State Defence Committee chairmanship
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin
WikipediaLead section
Quote, Lead section
Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...and Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 until his death in 1953.
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1. Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin
WikipediaInfobox (birth)
Quote, Infobox (birth)
18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878
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1. Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin
WikipediaInfobox (death)
Quote, Infobox (death)
5 March 1953
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1. Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin
WikipediaParticipant In: World War II, Infobox, State Defence Committee chairmanship
Quote, Participant In: World War II, Infobox, State Defence Committee chairmanship
1941-1945: Chairman, State Defence Committee of the Soviet Union
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