Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. Stalin’s real name was Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, but changed his last name to Stalin, which, in Russian, means “made of steel." His mother was a devout Russian Orthodox Christian, and wanted him to become a priest. As a teen, Stalin was accepted as a student at the “Orthodox” Seminary of Tbilisi, Georgia, where he trained as a Jesuit priest. In 1899, he was expelled from the seminary for missing exams, although he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda.