Stalin

During the years 1929-53 almost everyone in the USSR would have been very familiar with this face. With its high cheekbones, its broad brow and its bushy moustache, it stared down at them from hoardings in the street and from the walls of government offices. It was the face of a man whose policies were transforming their lives. Stalin was one of the most powerful dictators the world has ever known. His impact on the …

…revolutionary groups. He was always inventing excuses to get away from the seminary in order to attend their meetings. Eventually the monks discovered what he was up to and expelled him from the seminary. During the next few years Stalin lived as a socialist revolutionary in different parts of southern Russia, organising demonstrations, planning strikes, holding secret meetings and carrying out bank raids. He joined the Bolsheviks, perhaps attracted by their toughness and strong discipline.