Joseph Stalin was a politician.
The Great Purge or the Great Terror was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union which occurred from 1936 to 1938 . Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin ( [ ˈstɑːlɪn ] 18 December 1878 -- 5 March 1953 ) was a Soviet revolutionary , politician and political theorist . 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 . In August 1939 Stalin entered a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany , resulting in their invasion of Poland in September of that year .