Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin (born Ioseb Jughashvili in Georgia) had by 1941 ruled the Soviet Union for over a decade through collectivisation, the Great Terror, and the destruction of the Red Army's senior officer corps in the purges of 1937-38 — the last of which contributed catastrophically to the army's performance in the early months of Barbarossa. His dismissal of intelligence warnings before Barbarossa, born of his conviction that Hitler would not violate the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was one of the worst intelligence failures in history. Yet his leadership in the war's crisis was effective: he remained in Moscow as German forces approached, rallying the population by invoking Russian patriotism rather than communist ideology, personally directing the industrial evacuation beyond the Urals, and providing coherent if brutal strategic direction through Zhukov and other generals he allowed to operate once he trusted them. His insistence at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) on dominating Eastern Europe produced the post-war order. He died in 1953, possibly murdered by associates who feared his next purge.
- Lived: 1878 CE – 1953 CE
- Nationality: Russian
- Roles: general secretary, supreme commander, dictator
