Basic Information
Name: Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili-Stalin (Adopted Name)
Birth Name: Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughasvili
Nickname: Uncle Joe; the Man of Steel; Nominee—World's Greatest Mustache; Winner – One of the Worst People of All Time
Born: December 18, 1878
Died: March 5, 1953
Nationality: Russian
Hometown: Gori, Georgia
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Outlaw, Bolshevik Party Leader, Rumored Spy, Leader of the Soviet Union— officially as "General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union," Ruthless Dictator
Education: Tiflis Spiritual Seminary (later became an Atheist)
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Besarion Jughashvili (cobbler) and Ketevan Geladze (originally born a serf)
Siblings: Two brothers—died in infancy
Spouse: Nadezhda Alliluyeva (1919-1932); Ekaterina Svanidze (1906-1907)
Children: Yakov Dzhugashvili, Artem Sergeev, Vasili Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva
Friends: World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini until 1941, when Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union; then chummy with FDR, Truman and Co. (although Churchill never really trusted him) from about 1941 to 1945
After 1945: [Insert sounds of crickets chirping here]. Really, he had like 0 friends. It's hard to get along with people when you're constantly executing them or taking away their rights.
Foes: Leon Trotsky (friend turned foe); the entire U.S. from 1945 until his death; Winston Churchill; anyone he considered a threat to his power (which ended up being a lot of people)
Analysis
TBH, we could write an entire Shmoop-ography of Joseph Stalin and probably wouldn't get to cover everything about him. But in the context of our little story about Harry and his doctrine, we need to consider the not-so-fun facts about the totalitarian leader/ ruthless dictator of the Soviet Union.
Everyone in Washington—and we mean everyone, from FDR to Truman to Clifford—liked "Uncle Joe" Stalin and thought we would get along with him splendidly after the war.
Unfortunately, things didn't exactly work out that way.
By 1947, Stalin had:
- given a speech saying there was no way communism and capitalism could exist in the same world together
- executed hundreds of political opponents, and either murdered or starved millions of his own people
- ignored promises to FDR and Churchill made at Yalta, supported fixed elections, and set up puppet governments/"spheres of Soviet influence" all over Eastern Europe
The whole thing was like the Batman v Superman movie: everyone got all excited looking at the preview, but once the Western powers sat down and saw the entire picture, they wanted out as soon as possible.
In the context of Truman's speech, Stalin is "an aggressor" and leader of a "totalitarian regime."
Hogwarts House: 100% Slytherin—need we say more?