Joseph Stalin was a politician.
De-Stalinization ( Russian : десталинизация , Destalinizatsiya ) consisted of a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 , and the ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to power . The Great Purge or the Great Terror was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union which occurred from 1936 to 1938 . Joseph Stalin . In this capacity , he served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1953 and as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952 . Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist , he helped to formalise these ideas as Marxism-Leninism while his own policies and theories became known as Stalinism . Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented by Joseph Stalin .