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Joseph Stalin was born in 1878 in a state of poverty in Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire. He had originally gone on to study and enter the priesthood of the Georgian Orthodox Church. It was during this time that he began to read the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx. After being expelled from the seminary, Stalin took up politics.
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Stalin worked his way through the Communist Party in the Soviet Union under Lenin and after the death of Lenin, Stalin was able to gain power and become the dictator of the Soviet Union. During his time as dictator he ruled ruthlessly. He transformed the Soviet Union into an industrial empire and away from an agrarian society. He killed and tortured those who opposed him which led to his long tenure as dictator. He was the leader of the Soviet Union which opposed Hitler during World War Two and was an ally of the United States despite their use of Communism. Stalin was the leader until he died in 1953 from a stroke.
Information from History.com.