of the Soviet Regime In the new Soviet regime, established on Nov. 7, 1917, Stalin received the relatively minor cabinet post of commissar (minister) for nationalities, which he held for the next five years. In this capacity he issued decrees, handled the affairs of Russia's minority nationalities, and helped draw up the first Soviet constitutions of 1918 and 1924. Like most of the other leaders, he served in a variety of positions after the outbreak of the civil war in June 1918, such as acting inspector general of the Red Army and as a political commissar. With Grigori Ordzhonikidze, a fellow Georgian, he initiated, in February 1921, the brutal reconquest of independent Georgia. These duties imbued him with a lifelong absorption in military affairs, but they also led to an intense rivalry with the brilliant commissar for war, Trotsky. On March 24, 1919, Stalin married his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, the 16-year-old daughter of an old Georgian revolutionary friend, Sergo Alliluyev. She bore him two children: Vasili (1919) and Svetlana (1925). Stalin's real influence during these years derived from his being one of a small number of central committee members who never deviated from Lenin's policies or lost the latter's confidence. He joined Lenin, Kamenev, Trotsky, and Krestinsky in March 1919 on the newly formed inner directorate of the party, the Politburo. While the others concentrated on the making of policy, Stalin increasingly dealt with party affairs and occupied ever more important party posts. Thus he headed, in 1919, the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which had power to investigate every official in the country; in 1921, the Organizational Bureau (Orgburo), which appointed and dismissed party members; and, from 1922, the whole party administration itself, in the newly created post of secretary general. Consequently he was in a powerful position in the intricate struggle for preeminence that ensued after Lenin's dea...
