Vissarion Dzhugashvili

A Georgian shoemaker, and Stalin's father

Nadezhda Alliluyeva

Stalin's second wife, and the mother of Vasily and Svetlana. She killed herself in 1932.

Nikolai Bukharin

The leader of the Politburo "Rightists," he was outmaneuvered by Stalin in the late 1920s, and executed in 1938

Adolf Hitler

The Nazi ruler of Germany, and Stalin's adversary in World War II

Lev Kamenev

A Politburo "Leftist," executed by Stalin in 1936

Nikita Krushchev

Stalin's successor as ruler of the Soviet Union, he repudiated his predecessor's deeds and legacy

Lenin

Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, he founded the Bolsheviks and led the Russian Revolution. He died in 1924.

Vyacheslav Molotov

A loyal Stalinist from the 1920s on, he concluded the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Nicholas II

The last Tsar of Russia, executed with his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918

Alexei Rykov

A member of Lenin's Politburo, and one of Bukharin's allies, he was a victim of the Great Terror.

Yekaterina Svanidze

Stalin's first wife, and the mother of Yakov. She died in 1907.

Svetlana

Stalin's only daughter

Mikhail Tomsky

A "Rightist" member of Lenin's Politburo, he committed suicide in 1936, during the Great Terror.

Leon Trotsky

A former Menshevik, he joined the Bolsheviks before the Revolution and organized the Red Army. He was one of Lenin's favorites, but he was outmaneuvered by Stalin and exiled in 1929. In 1940 a Soviet agent assassinated him in Mexico City.

Vasily

Stalin and Nadezhda's son, he became a dissolute playboy.

Yekaterina

Stalin's mother. She urged her son in his education, in the hopes that he would become a priest.

Yakov

Stalin's son from his first marriage, he was executed by the Germans during World War II.

George Zhukov

The great general who orchestrated the Soviet victory in World War II

G.E. Zinoviev

A "Leftist" member of Lenin's Politburo, he would be executed by Stalin in 1936.

Popular pages: Joseph Stalin

Take a Study Break