Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 36. Chapters: Aleksandr Machavariani, Alexander Javakhishvili, Alexander Khakhanov, Alexi Inauri, Anastasia Eristavi-Khoshtaria, Besarion Jughashvili, David Pogosian, Devi Chankotadze, Edvard Mirzoyan, Ekaterine Gabashvili, Ioseb Iremashvili, Joseph Stalin, Kamo (Bolshevik), Lasha Shavdatuashvili, Merab Mamardashvili, Merab Ratishvili, Nicholas Hartwig, Parsadan Gorgijanidze, Roman Akhalkatsi, Soso Palelashvili, Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Vano Muradeli, Vladimer Khinchegashvili. Excerpt: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: born Ioseb Besarionis dze Dzhugashvili, Georgian: 18 December 1878 5 March 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death in 5 March 1953. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the Russian Revolution in 1917, Stalin held the position of General Secretary of the party's Central Committee from 1922 until his death. While the office was initially not highly regarded, Stalin used it to consolidate more power after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, gradually putting down all opposition. This included Leon Trotsky, the principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders. Whereas Trotsky advocated world permanent revolution, Stalin's concept of socialism in one country became primary policy as he emerged the leader of the Soviet Union. In 1928, Stalin replaced the decade's New Economic Policy with a highly centralised command economy and Five-Year Plans, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization in the countryside. As a result, the USSR was rapidly transformed from an agrarian society into an industrial power, the basis for its emergence as the world's second largest economy after World War II. However, the rapid changes saw millions of people sent to correctional labour camps, and deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932 1933. In 1937 38, a campaign against alleged enemies of the Stalinist regime culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repression against the population in which hundreds of thousands of people were executed. Major figures in the Communist Party such as Trotsky and Red Army leaders, were killed, convicted of participating in plots to overthrow the Soviet government and Stalin. In August 1939, after Stalin's attempts to establish an Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance failed, Stalin entered into a pact with Na