Born as Ioseb Jughashvili, this son of a cobbler would strike fear in the hearts of millions as the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. In the first episode of this two part series, learn how Stalin built perhaps history’s most ruthless dictatorship, why it became a living nightmare for those who lived through it (especially for members of the Communist Party).  Among other topics, the episode discusses the leadership battle to succeed Lenin (20:39), the Great Purges of  1930s (43:00), the establishment of GULAGs (1:05:30), Collectivization (1:17:23) and the Holodomor – a Holocaust-like planned famine that targeted Soviet Ukraine (1:21:21).

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