Childhood to young adulthood: 1878–1899
Stalin's birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. He was born in the Georgian town of Gori, then part of the Tiflis Governorateof the Russian Empire and home to a mix of

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Consolidating power: 1917–1918
On 26 October 1917, Lenin declared himself chairman of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars("Sovnarkom"). Stalin

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Succeeding Lenin: 1924–1927
Lenin died in January 1924. Stalin took charge of the funeral and was one of its pallbearers; against the wishes of Lenin's widow, the Politburo embalmed his corpse and placed it within a mausoleum in Moscow's

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Pact with Nazi Germany: 1939–1941
As a Marxist–Leninist, Stalin expected an inevitable conflict between competing capitalist powers; after

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Post-war reconstruction and famine: 1945–1947
After the war, Stalin was—according to Service—at the "apex of his career". Within the Soviet Union he was widely regarded as the embodiment of victory and patriotism. His armies

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Stalin claimed to have embraced Marxism at the age of fifteen, and it served as the guiding philosophy throughout his adult life; according to Kotkin,

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Ethnically Georgian, Stalin grew up speaking the Georgian language, and did not begin learning Russianuntil the age of eight or nine. He remained proud of his Georgian identity, and throughout his life retained a heavy Georgian accent when speaking Russian.

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