He was born as Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili on December 18, 1878 (regrettably, I share my birthday with him) in Gori, then in the Russian Empire, now in the Republic of Georgia. He was an ethnic Georgian, and latter russianized his name to "Joseph Vissarionovich."
As with the man who would become his uneasy ally, and then his great enemy, Adolf Hitler, his mother wanted him to become a priest. Instead, he became what we would call a gangster, committing robberies and kidnappings, and running protection rackets, in the name of the Communist Party.
In 1913, he published an article titled Marxism and the National Question, under the name "K. Stalin." The K stood for "Komrade," and his pen name meant "Man of Steel" -- and, eventually, the Soviet people would think of him as something of a superman.
The article got the attention of Vladimir Lenin (who was, himself, using a pen name, as he was born with the surname Ulyanov). Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Stalin joined the Politburo, and became part of the Soviet government at Lenin's invitation.
How close Stalin was to Lenin has been debated for nearly 100 years. But by the time Lenin died on January 21, 1924, Stalin, in anticipation of this, had already shored up support to become the new General Secretary of the Communist Party. By forcing out his rivals, especially Lenin's ally Leon Trotsky, he achieved absolute rule.
Every so often, Russia (at this point, the largest part of the Soviet Union) falls into a backward state, and a strong leader comes along to drag it into the modern world. It happened under Ivan the Terrible in the 16th Century, Peter the Great in the early 18th, and Catherine the Great in the late 18th. In the late 1920s, Stalin tried a modernization plan, and carried the Soviet Union a long way. But it resulted in the imprisonment of millions of political prisoners, the murders of a large number of them, and the starvation of many in rural areas, especially in the Ukraine.
In 1939, he accepted a Non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany, with an understanding that the two countries would split Poland between them. In 1941, Hitler betrayed Stalin by invading the Soviet Union. He nearly won, partly because Stalin had "purged" so many officers from the Red Army in the preceding years.
By 1943, with the world's largest army in place and military aid from America and Britain, the Soviets pushed the Nazis back from the brink of victory. In 1945, the Soviets pushed the Eastern Front back to Berlin.
Stalin was now the 2nd-most powerful man in the world, behind America's President, Harry Truman. In 1949, the Soviets made their 1st successful test of a nuclear bomb. The Cold War had already been underway, but now, the Soviets were effectively the equal of the Western democracies.
Stalin had taken control of the Eastern European nations of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and the eastern sector of Germany. And his aid led to the Communist takeover of China and the early gains of North Korea in the Korean War. But he had failed to take West Berlin with his 1948 blockade, lost the support of Marshal Josip Tito in Yugoslavia, failed to take either Greece or Turkey, and the early gains in Korea were lost, as that war became a stalemate.
And his health began to fail. He was a heavy smoker, often photographed with a pipe. Within a few days of victory in World War II (known in Russia as "The Great Patriotic War"), he suffered a mild stroke. Before the year was out, he had a massive heart attack.
In January 1952, one of his doctors told him that he should retire as dictator to help his health. He tossed the doctor in prison. In September of that year, he had several doctors arrested for plotting to kill him and other senior officials. He gave a speech lasting an hour and a half to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in October 1952 -- the month in which Vladimir Putin was born. It was to be Stalin's last public speech.
On February 28, 1953, Stalin gathered some of his inner circle at the Kuntsevo Dacha. These men included Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lavrentiy Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, Anastas Mikoyan and Nikita Khrushchev. They drank until 4:00 AM on March 1, and Stalin went to bed, giving strict instructions that he not be disturbed until they heard sounds suggesting that he had woken up.
But no such sounds were heard. Finally, at 11:00 PM on March 1, his housekeeper went in, and found him lying on the floor, unconscious. He was examined, and found to have suffered a stroke. He died at 9:50 PM on March 5. Like his former wartime ally, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he essentially died due to hypertension -- very high blood pressure. As with FDR, the smoking was a big reason why. (But, somehow, Winston Churchill lived to be 90.)
A rumor got around that Beria had Stalin poisoned. The surviving autopsy report does not support this. Indeed, 3 months later, Beria was arrested, and of all the charges against him, none were connected to the death of Stalin.
Stalin was interred in Lenin's Mausoleum. People rushed to see the funeral, and many were trampled to death. Khrushchev, who would emerge as the absolute ruler, estimated that 109 people died. It may have been thousands. Even in death, Stalin led to the deaths of many of his people.
Malenkov was named Premier, and consolidated his position by having Beria arrested and executed. But he couldn't secure his position, and was deposed in 1955, replaced by Khrushchev. A coup attempted in 1957 failed, and he was exiled, eventually allowed to return, dying in 1988.
In 1956, speaking before the Politburo, Khrushchev gave a speech denouncing Stalin, and providing evidence for his crimes against humanity. In 1961, on Khrushchev's order, Stalin's body was taken out of Lenin's Mausoleum, and moved to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Not exactly a dishonor for a man who had caused the deaths of tens of millions of people.
Following viewer demands for a battle with a Russian, a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, featured a five-man "battle royale": "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Rasputin, Vladimir Lenin and Vladimir Putin; while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev.
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March 5, 1953 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. It was the off-season for the NFL. There were 3 games in the NBA that day, but only 1 of the 6 teams involved still operates under the same name:
* The New York Knicks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 80-69 at the Baltimore Coliseum. The Bullets went out of business early in the 1954-55 season. A new Baltimore Bullets began play in 1963, but moved to Washington in 1973, and became the Washington Wizards in 1997.
* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Rochester Royals, 78-69 at the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. The Royals moved to Cincinnati in 1957, to Kansas City and became the Kings in 1972, and to Sacramento in 1985. The Warriors moved to San Francisco in 1962, to Oakland in 1971 and became the Golden State Warriors, and back to San Francisco but keeping the "Golden State" name in 2019.
* And the Syracuse Nationals beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 94-91 at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse. The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. The Nats moved to Philadelphia to take the Warriors' place in 1963, and took the name 76ers.
All of the NHL's "Original Six" teams were in action on the day:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 7-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-0 at the Boston Garden. This turned out to be a preview of the Stanley Cup Finals, but the Canadiens would win that series.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
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