Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia on December 18, 1879 and died on March 5, 1953. He was educated at a parochial school in Georgia. Joseph Stalin contracted smallpox at the age of seven, which left him with facial scars and a slight deformity of his left arm. Because of this, children were mean to him and treated him differently, which caused Stalin to aspire to respect and greatness. He also had a bad temper towards those who upset him. Stalin's mother wanted him to be a priest, so she put him in Church school, which Stalin did very well in school and got a scholarship to the Tiflis Theological Seminary in 1894. Although Joseph did well in seminary, he dropped out in 1899, school records show that he was unable to pay the remaining tuition, so he was forced to withdraw. Joseph Stalin was a short guy, he was about 1.70 meters tall. But that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most powerful dictators in history. Stalin was the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union for 30 years, the Soviet Union was not a fun place, Stalin was responsible for many crimes against innocent people, such as expulsions, imprisonment in labor camps , murders and famines. It killed around twenty million people. If this figure is correct, it would mean that Stalin killed 1,830 people per day. This was precisely at the time when he was trying to become the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. It would also be responsible for twenty million additional deaths due to its role in World War II. The cost in lives was not to the detriment of Stalin's desire for more power and land under Soviet control. This has never been more widespread than at the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences. They were the ...... middle of paper ...... his own enemy. It can never be said that he was one of the baddest men in the world. Nothing could sum it up better than his own words: “A death is a tragedy; A million is a statistic. » Source 1: http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723#early-life&awesm=~oDwSnyf3hu5z5oSource 2: by: Mevedev, Aleksandrovich. http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-did-joseph-stalin-kill-1111789Source 3: http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htmSource 4: http:// spartacus-educational.com/RUSstalin.htm Source 5: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1707/were-there-any-attempts-to-assassinate-joseph-stalin Source 6: http://www.britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/531904/Khrushchevs-secret-speech Source 7: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/26/russia.theobserver Source 8: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ quotes/j/josephstal137476.html