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STALIN - meaning "man of steel."
Stalin was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili on 21st December 1879, in the Georgian hill town of Gori. His father, a poor, unsuccessful shoemaker, was an alcoholic who beat his son unmercifully and who died in a brawl when the boy was 11 years old. Stalin's mother, Ekaterina, was a washerwoman, hopeful that her sole surviving child would be a priest.
Joseph Stalin became the Soviet leader after the death of Vladimir I. LENIN in 1924. From 1929 until his own death in 1953, Stalin held absolute authority.