to the rest of the world. Unlike Trotsky, Joseph Stalin was a ruthless dictator who did not let anyone stand in his way. Throughout his life, Stalin had shown a tendency to be an austere, spiteful, and perhaps even an insane authoritarian. He earned those brutal titles after stunning the world by ordering countless millions of his own countrymen to their deaths. Stalin liquidated millions of peasants. He also accused nationalities of treason and either forced them into labor camps or deported them and eliminated their national republics. Stalin felt that only terror and force could “secure his goals” (Laquer p. 52) of the revolution. However, Stalin was not simply a power crazed manic. He was in fact a very intelligent leader who had “mastered the art of international and domestic politics” (Laquer p. 26). Whether they may have seemed to be evil or pure genius, Stalin had qualities that lifted him to the heights of power and, once there, made him one of history’s worst tyrants. The compelling and hateful qualities that led Joseph Stalin to be a man of action developed as a young child. Stalin, born Vissarionovich Dzhugashvil, grew up in a poor two-room hut in the small Georgian village of Gori. He was the oldest child of a cobbler and a housekeeper. Stalin’s father, Vissarion Ivanovich, drank excessively. Growing up with an alcoholic father may have influenced Stalin’s intolerable attitude. At the age of 11, little Joseph’s heart was shattered into pieces with the agonizing death of his father, who had died in a barroom fight. With nothing left of his heart, the confused young Stalin subsequently turned into a man of steel, who locked away his compassion for others. However, from his mother, Joseph learned ambition and the value of hard work. Stalin’s mother was a religious, hard-working woman who wanted her son to be well educated and eventually enter priesthood. Tho...
