Joseph Stalin was a man who greatly influenced the practice of Communism in Russia and what used to be the Soviet Union. He was a man of power and ruled by terror. His road to power started in 1912, when Joseph Stalin was appointed to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Three years after this, the Bolsheviks had power over Russia. Years later in 1922, the Soviet Union was founded. In the same year, Stalin became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which allowed him to give his allies government jobs and grow a base of political support.

In the year 1924, Stalin was able to gain power and control the Communist Party, and in the late 1920s he had become dictator of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans that would turn the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. During this five-year plan, the government took control of farms, causing millions of farmers to refuse to cooperate and were shot or exiled as a punishment. This led to a widespread famine which killed millions. In the article “Joseph Stalin,” the author states, “Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps.” In addition to his reign of power, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself, cities were named in his honor, and history books were rewritten to give him a more outstanding role in the revolution. Years later, in the year 1953, Joseph Stalin died after suffering from a stroke. After his death, the Soviets started a de-Stalinization process.