How long stalin ruled

He also launched an invasion of Finland. Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.

As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August to February , during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia. As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including those in Tehran and Yalta His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire.

Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign—especially Western—influence. He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. Stalin, who grew increasingly paranoid in his later years, died on March 5, , at age 74, after suffering a stroke.

By some estimates, he was responsible for the deaths of 20 million people during his brutal rule. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. In , the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he named Joseph Goebbels , his trusted friend and colleague, to the key post of minister for public enlightenment and propaganda.

In this capacity, Goebbels was charged with presenting Hitler to At the height of the Ukrainian famine under Joseph Stalin, starving people roamed the countryside, desperate for something, anything to eat. In the village of Stavyshche, a young peasant boy watched as the wanderers dug into empty gardens with their bare hands. Many were During the late s and early s, the prospect of communist subversion at home and abroad seemed frighteningly real to many people in the United States.

For many Americans, the most enduring Since its start a century ago, Communism, a political and economic ideology that calls for a classless, government-controlled society in which everything is shared equally, has seen a series of surges—and declines.

What started in Russia, became a global revolution, taking The question of where Russia begins and ends—and who constitutes the Russian people—has preoccupied Russian thinkers for centuries. Joseph Hooker was a career U. Hooker entered the Civil War in as a brigadier general and gained a reputation as a reliable combat Perhaps unsurprisingly, his only daughter, Svetlana, found it extraordinarily difficult growing up in the Kremlin under his care.

Convinced of the Allies' hostility toward the Soviet Union, Stalin became obsessed with the threat of an invasion from the West. Between and , he established Communist regimes in many Eastern European countries, creating a vast buffer zone between Western Europe and "Mother Russia. In , Stalin ordered an economic blockade on the German city of Berlin, in hopes of gaining full control of the city. The Allies responded with the massive Berlin Airlift , supplying the city and eventually forcing Stalin to back down.

Earlier, he had ordered the Soviet representative to the United Nations to boycott the Security Council because it refused to accept the newly formed Communist People's Republic of China into the United Nations.

When the resolution to support South Korea came to a vote in the Security Council, the Soviet Union was unable to use its veto. It's estimated that Stalin killed as many as 20 million people, directly or indirectly, through famine, forced labor camps, collectivization and executions. Some scholars have argued that Stalin's record of killings amount to genocide and make him one of history's most ruthless mass murderers. Though his popularity from his successes during World War II was strong, Stalin's health began to deteriorate in the early s.

After an assassination plot was uncovered, he ordered the head of the secret police to instigate a new purge of the Communist Party. Before it could be executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, He left a legacy of death and horror, even as he turned a backward Russia into a world superpower. Stalin was eventually denounced by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev , in However, he has found a rekindled popularity among many of Russia's young people.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Joseph Goebbels served as minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler — a position from which he spread the Nazi message.

Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that communists had infiltrated the U. State Department. He became chair of the Senate's subcommittee on investigations. Joseph Conrad was an author who is remembered for novels like 'Heart of Darkness,' which drew on his experience as a mariner and addressed profound themes of nature and existence. Joseph P. Kennedy is best known as the father of three political leaders: President John F. Kennedy, U. Representative Ted Kennedy and Robert F.

Kennedy, who served as a U. Ivan the Terrible was the first tsar of all Russia. During his reign, he acquired vast amounts of land through ruthless means, creating a centrally controlled government.

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II tried to strengthen the Habsburg empire with his enlightened reforms, but the changes he made were met with fierce opposition. Newspaper editor and publisher Joseph Pulitzer helped set the pattern of the modern newspaper. In his time, he was one of the most powerful U. Best known as the "Elephant Man," Joseph Carey Merrick has been the subject of many medical studies, documentaries and works of fiction.

Joseph L. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, instituting a reign of death and terror while modernizing Russia and helping to defeat Nazism. Olivia Rodrigo —. Joseph Stalin. This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia with only minor checks and changes see www.

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