Joseph Stalin [real surname: Jughashvili] was born into a family of a shoemaker in the town of Gori, Tiflis governorate. He graduated from the Gori Theological School and entered the Tiflis Orthodox Seminary. 1899 saw him expelled from it. In 1898, he joined the Georgian Social Democratic group Mesame-Dasi [the third group] headed by Noe Zhordania, then the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), Bolshevik. He took part in the revolution of 1905–1907 in Transcaucasia, leading the expropriations. He was a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) since 1912. He was repeatedly arrested and exiled to the Vologda (1909, 1910–1911), Tomsk (1912), and Yenisei (1913–1917) governorates.

After the February Revolution of 1917, he returned from exile to Petrograd. He became a leader of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), a delegate to the 6th Congress of the Party. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), a delegate to the 1st and 2nd All-Russian Congresses of Soviets. He took part in the preparation and implementation of the October coup of 1917: he was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) and the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. He was a Deputy of the Constituent Assembly, a member of the Bureau of the Bolshevik faction.

He held a number of posts in the Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian SFSR: People’s Commissar (Narkom) for Nationalities (October 26, 1917 – July 1923), People’s Commissar of state control (March 1919 – February 1920), People’s Commissar of Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection (February 1920 – April 1922). He was the author of the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, a member of the Constitutional Commission of the First Constitution of the Russian SFSR (1918).

During the Civil War, he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (October 1918 – July 1919, May 1920 – April 1922), as well as the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Western (July–September 1919) and Southern (September 1919 – January 1920) Fronts. He was immediately involved in organizing the defense of Tsaritsyn (July–October 1918), Vyatka (January–May 1919), and Petrograd (May–June 1919). During the Soviet-Polish War, he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front (January–August 1920, the Commander was Aleksander Egorov). He conflicted with the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic Leon Trotsky.

In 1922–1953, he was General Secretary (since 1934, Secretary) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In the 1920s, he emerged victorious in the internal party struggle, that followed the death of Vladimir Lenin, and became the de facto Head of the USSR.