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Stalin (1879-1953) Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born on December 21, 1879, in the village of Gori, Georgia. He was born to Vissarion and Yekaterina Dzhugashvili. His father Vissarion, was an unsuccessful cobbler who drank heavily and beat him savagely. Wh ....

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.... 20th Century. In his personal life, he withdrew almost completely, living either in his Kremlin apartment or in his new country house at Kuntsovo, constantly surrounded by officers and bodyguards until his death. Frantic to catch up with the West in 1928, Stalin and his men launched a set of policies known as the "five-year plans," designed to turn backward Russia into an industrial and military world power, which he accomplished in only one decade. Though this was a great success, the peasants paid dearly, most with their lives. Most of starved to death from famine. Those that survived were killed off in Stalin's "purges" to rid him of opposition. ....