Joseph Stalin: The Red Terror

Joseph Stalin: The Red Terror

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, a Soviet politician and revolutionary, governed the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952, as well as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1941 until his death. Stalin began as part of a collective leadership and gradually solidified control until he became a dictator in the 1930s. He formalized his Leninist interpretation of Marxism as Marxism-Leninism, and the totalitarian political system he founded was known as Stalinism.