ethnic Georgian Gori Russian Empire Russian Orthodox Russian Social Democratic Labour Party Vladimir Lenin Bolshevik extortion Pravda Siberia October Revolution one-party state Politburo Russian Civil War Polish–Soviet War Soviet Union's establishment bureaucracy his death ruling triumvirate Lev Kamenev Grigory Zinoviev socialism in one country party's ideology Leon Trotsky New Economic Policy first five-year plan rapid industrialisation command economy agricultural collectivisation dekulakisation a famine in 1930–1933 Great Purge Gulag forced labour camps Old Bolsheviks Red Army Soviet Union
Born to a poor ethnic Georgian family in Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia), Stalin initially trained to become a Russian Orthodox priest before abandoning his studies in 1899 and joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, ransom kidnappings, and extortion, and edited its newspaper, Pravda. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent several internal exiles to Siberia. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917 and created a one-party state under the renamed Communist Party, Stalin joined its governing Politburo. He served in the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment in 1922 as  general secretary, a position which he used to appoint loyalists from the party's growing bureaucracy. During Lenin's illness and after his death in 1924, Stalin formed a ruling triumvirate with Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, which broke apart in 1925. Under Stalin, "socialism in one country" became central to the party's ideology, and his rivals (including Leon Trotsky) were expelled or capitulated. In 1928, Stalin broke with the New Economic Policy and launched the first five-year plan, which saw rapid industrialisation and created a highly-centralised command economy. Forced agricultural collectivisation and dekulakisation contributed to severe disruptions in grain production and a famine in 1930–1933 which killed millions. In 1936–1938, Stalin orchestrated the Great Purge, in which more than a million were imprisoned, largely in the Gulag system of forced labour camps, and at least 700,000 executed, including many Old Bolsheviks and Red Army officers.
