Joseph Stalin: National hero or cold-blooded murderer?

BBC Teach > Secondary Resources > KS3 History / GCSE History > World War Two - The most destructive global conflict in human historyStalin’s name meant "man of steel" and he lived up to it. He oversaw the war machine that helped defeat Nazism and was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century.His regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions. But this powerful man began life as the son of an alcoholic cobbler and a doting mother who sent him to study to be a priest.1879He is born on 18 December 1879 in Gori, Georgia in the Russian empire. He is first named Iosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.Joseph grows up in poverty. His mother is a washerwoman and his father is a cobbler. He catches small pox aged seven and is left with a pockmarked face and a slightly deformed left arm. He is bullied by the other children and feels a continual need to prove himself. His father is an alcoholic who deals out regular beatings. As young Joseph grows up...