Stalin was born on December 18, 1878, in Gori, Georgia. Although he later created a new birthday for himself which he decided would be on December 21, 1879. Stalin was born into severe poverty and suffered financially for most of his early life. He had two poor working parents and was beaten by his father throughout most of his childhood. Stalin also suffered smallpox towards the end of his childhood which left him with permanent facial scar tissue.
By his teen years, Stalin began attending a seminary where he was shortly after expelled in 1899. After his expulsion, Stalin began to take up an immense interest in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarch of the time. Stalin soon became politically involved in the movement. He joined the highly militant wing of the democratic movement and took part in protests. During his involvement in this moment is when he began a life of crime, he started to pull off bank heists and steal large sums of money, he ended being arrested on multiple occasions and was even exiled from Serbia.
Stalin then married his first wife Ekaterina who died shortly after during the infancy of his first son. Stalin’s first son then died in World War II, he soon remarried. Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda was the daughter of a Russian revolutionary. Stalin and her had two children, one of which eventually ran away to the United States and betrayed Stalin. Nadezhda then committed suicide in her early thirties and Stalin was once again left with only one son. This is when Stalin began his famous rise to power in Russia and became the dictator he is known for being.
It's always intriguing to read about the lives of powerful people before they rise to power. So often we view these people merely from the things they've done in power and completely disregard the potential reasons as to why they are the way they are. In the case of Stalin, his early life was extremely tragic, and maybe this could partially explain the ruthlessness of his regime.
ReplyDelete