How Joseph Stalin Became a Bolshevik
Ronald Suny’s Stalin: Passage to Revolution traces Joseph Stalin’s trajectory from his boyhood in Georgia to the Russian Revolution in 1917. In an interview, Suny explains the specificities of the Georgian socialist movement, Stalin’s role in the revolution, and why Stalinism was “bloody, ruthless,” and “the nadir of the Soviet experiment.”
Young Russian revolutionary and political leader Joseph Stalin in 1915. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Joseph Stalin is having a bit of a moment. He is currently more popular in Russia now than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, thanks to a rehabilitation campaign by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The Death of Stalin was one of the most acclaimed films of recent years. And in certain quarters of the internet, young Stalin is regarded not as one of history’s greatest monsters but one of its biggest hotties.
Ronald Suny has devoted his life to studying the history of the Soviet Union and the countries of the South Caucasus. His newest book is the long-awaited biography Stalin: Passage to Revolution, which chronicles the transformation of a sensitive Georgian boy named Iosib “Soso” Djugashvili into the man known to the world as Stalin. Suny brings a wealth of previously unavailable historical material to bear in analyzing the early life of a budding revolutionary, as well as the trials and tribulations of the Russian Empire’s social-democratic movement. It also sheds light on the underappreciated legacy of Georgia’s social democrats, who played a leading role in the 1905 and 1917 revolutions and established an independent, Menshevik-led republic in 1918–1921.
Suny spoke with Jacobin contributing editor Chris Maisano about the making of Stalin, the pioneering contributions of Georgian social democracy, and how socialists today should view Stalin’s legacy.
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