Joseph Stalin was a Russian politician.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ( [ ˈstɑːlɪn ] 18 December 1878 -- 5 March 1953 ) was a Soviet revolutionary , politician and political theorist . He governed the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953 . The Russian Civil War ( [ Гражда́нская война́ в Росси́и , Grazhdanskaya voyna v Rossiy ] ) was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917 , as many factions vied to determine Russia 's political future . The Soviet Union ( [ Сове́тский Сою́з , r = Sovetskiy Soyuz ] [ sɐ ` vʲetskʲɪj sɐˈjʉs ] ) , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ; Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик , [ sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲɛtskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪsˈtʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪˈspublʲɪk ] ) , also known unofficially as Russia ( [ Росси́я , Rossiya , rɐˈsʲijə ] ) , was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991 .