y unknown outside of Lenin's wing of the party and played no important role in Georgia. Unlike the other leading old Bolsheviks, Stalin had spent little time abroad and preferred to take even his long exile (1913-1917) in Siberia. Unlike his fellow exiles, he sought seclusion there, spending his time hunting and fishing. Stalin in 1917 The Czar's abdication on March 15, 1917, led to even greater social and political chaos in Russia. In this setting Stalin, overshadowed by Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and many lesser Bolsheviks who were great orators and creative revolutionaries, moved cautiously and concentrated on party tasks. After returning from exile to Petrograd on March 25, 1917, he joined the editorial board of Pravda, which was then headed by Lev Kamenev. As a senior party member, he chaired on April 11 a national conference of Bolshevik delegates at which he, being still uncertain which direction the revolution would take, urged cautious cooperation with the existing temporary successor government. For the first time, he was elected one of nine members to the party's central committee, gaining the third-largest vote. However, after Lenin's return to Russia in April, Stalin accepted the former's view of the necessity for the overthrow of the temporary Russian government, withdrawal from the war, and social revolution. Stalin played a modest role in the unfolding revolutionary drama, however. In addition to intensive party work, he continued as an editor of Pravda, helped organize Lenin's temporary exile after the abortive July uprising, and, in the absence of the more prominent leaders, chaired the sixth Bolshevik party congress. He backed Lenin fully in the great party debates in September and October, urging Bolshevik seizure of power. But he had little to do with preparing and prosecuting the insurrection itself. The central role fell to Trotsky as head of the military committee of the Petrograd Soviet. Stalin During the Early Years ...
