What was joseph stalin

America, Britain and others provided aid in the form of tanks, planes, ships, foodstuffs, and other war material to the Soviets. After the war in Europe ended, Stalin continued his brutal purges, killing anyone he perceived as an opponent, both in Russia and Eastern Europe.

He precipitated the beginning of the Cold War, which would last until the s. Stalin died of natural causes in Skip to main content.

You are here Home » Biographies. Joseph V. Birth Location:. This including attaching his name to many cities, buildings, and monuments. Stalin was keenly focused on the expansion of Soviet ideals around the world. He envisioned a Soviet Union that had the military capability to expand far beyond Russia. As such, he was eager to pursue any possible military development that could give the USSR an edge over other world powers.

Through these channels, Stalin became aware of the beginnings of a bomb program in Britain by , with knowledge of the upcoming American program soon to follow. After receiving notices from Soviet spies and Soviet physicists who were cognizant of the direction of their field, Stalin began taking steps to creating a Soviet nuclear program. Despite this, he was still skeptical of much of the intelligence he was receiving that directed him to that conclusion, particularly that which would lead him to pricey investments in nuclear physics.

As a result, the initial Soviet nuclear program was quite small. It was not until after the first atomic weapon was used at Hiroshima that Stalin fully realized the potential impact that developing nuclear weapons for the Soviet Union could have on international politics. After the war, Stalin spared no expense on the immediate development of the Soviet nuclear program, even though the country was facing massive amounts of war-related death and destruction.

As the tide of war slowly turned in the Allies' favor, Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin to discuss postwar arrangements. At the first of these meetings, in Tehran, Iran, in late , the recent victory in Stalingrad put Stalin in a solid bargaining position. He demanded the Allies open a second front against Germany, which they agreed to in the spring of In February , the three leaders met again at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.

With Soviet troops liberating countries in Eastern Europe, Stalin was again in a strong position and negotiated virtually a free hand in reorganizing their governments. He also agreed to enter the war against Japan once Germany was defeated. The situation changed at the Potsdam Conference in July Roosevelt died that April and was replaced by President Harry S. British parliamentary elections had replaced Prime Minister Churchill with Clement Attlee as Britain's chief negotiator.

By now, the British and Americans were suspicious of Stalin's intentions and wanted to avoid Soviet involvement in a postwar Japan. The dropping of two atomic bombs in August forced Japan's surrender before the Soviets could mobilize. Convinced of the Allies' hostility toward the Soviet Union, Stalin became obsessed with the threat of an invasion from the West.

Between and , he established Communist regimes in many Eastern European countries, creating a vast buffer zone between Western Europe and "Mother Russia. In , Stalin ordered an economic blockade on the German city of Berlin, in hopes of gaining full control of the city.

The Allies responded with the massive Berlin Airlift , supplying the city and eventually forcing Stalin to back down. Earlier, he had ordered the Soviet representative to the United Nations to boycott the Security Council because it refused to accept the newly formed Communist People's Republic of China into the United Nations. When the resolution to support South Korea came to a vote in the Security Council, the Soviet Union was unable to use its veto.

It's estimated that Stalin killed as many as 20 million people, directly or indirectly, through famine, forced labor camps, collectivization and executions. Some scholars have argued that Stalin's record of killings amount to genocide and make him one of history's most ruthless mass murderers. Though his popularity from his successes during World War II was strong, Stalin's health began to deteriorate in the early s. After an assassination plot was uncovered, he ordered the head of the secret police to instigate a new purge of the Communist Party.

Before it could be executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, He left a legacy of death and horror, even as he turned a backward Russia into a world superpower. Stalin was eventually denounced by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev , in However, he has found a rekindled popularity among many of Russia's young people.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Joseph Goebbels served as minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler — a position from which he spread the Nazi message.

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