From 1924 to his death in 1953, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who ruled the Soviet Union. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952 and Chairman of the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers from 1941 to 1953. In spite of ruling the nation as part of a collective management, he ultimately combined power and ended up being the totalitarian leader of the Soviet Union by the 1930s. Stalin, a Communist dedicated to Lenin's grasp of Marxism, formalized these concepts as Marxism-Leninism, while his personal policies were called Stalinism.

Stalin was born into an penniless family in Gori, Georgia, under the Russian Empire. He participated in the Tbilisi Spiritual Academy before signing up with the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. He went on to modify the party's paper, Pravda, and used thefts, kidnappings, and security rackets to raise cash for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction. He was usually imprisoned and banished within the nation. Stalin ended up being a member of the freshly formed Communist Party's ruling Politburo when the Bolsheviks took power at the time of the October Revolution and developed a one-party state. 

Following Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin got control of the nation after serving in the Russian Civil War and managing the development of the Soviet Union in 1922. "Socialism in one nation" ended up being a major component of the party's concept under Stalin. The nation observed farming collectivization and quick industrialization because of the Five-Year Plans launched under his management, leading to a central command economy. That led to serious food production disturbances, which added to the starvation of 1932-33. 

Between 1934 and 1939, Stalin carried out the Great Purge to rid the nation of declared "working-class adversaries". Over a million people were sent to prison and at least 700,000 were executed. He obtained complete control of the party and the federal government by 1937.

Other war atrocities and crimes against humanity have been committed by Stalin. If you want to know more about that, listen to the audiobook.