Tag: Stalin

• Podcast

20th August 1940: Leon Trotsky attacked with an ice axe in Mexico

• 20th August 2026
• Tagged as: Assassination, Communism, Mexico, Stalin, Trotsky

Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Spanish communist Ramón Mercader.

• Podcast

22nd June 1941: Operation Barbarossa begins as German forces and their allies invade the Soviet Union during the Second World War

• 22nd June 2026
• Tagged as: Germany, Hitler, Nazi, Operation Barbarossa, Russia, Second World War, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR, World War 2, WW2

By the end of 1940 Hitler had authorised the invasion of the USSR, with the intention of securing agricultural land and raw materials, alongside the eradication of communism.

• Podcast

27th March 1958: Nikita Khrushchev consolidates his power over the USSR as Chairman of the Council of Ministers

• 27th March 2026
• Tagged as: Cold War, Communism, Khrushchev, Russia, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR

Khrushchev had already been elected First Secretary of the Communist Party, and his later rise to Chairman of the Council of Ministers placed both the party leadership and the government administration under his direct control.

• Podcast

4th February 1945: Yalta Conference begins, attended by the ‘Big Three’ of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin

• 4th February 2026
• Tagged as: America, Britain, Churchill, Crimea, Germany, Nazism, Roosevelt, Second World War, Stalin, United States, USA, USSR, Yalta, Yalta Conference

The conference saw Allied leaders United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet to discuss the government of post-war Europe.

• Podcast

12th January 1913: The name “Stalin” meaning “man of steel” first used in print by Joseph Dzhugashvili

• 12th January 2026
• Tagged as: Dictatorship, Georgia, Russia, Stalin, USSR

Like many underground revolutionaries, Joseph Dzhugashvili made frequent use of pseudonyms to evade police surveillance, and first used the alias “K. Stalin” as the signature to a letter in the Social Democrat.

• Podcast

30th December 1922: Foundation of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

• 30th December 2025
• Tagged as: Bolshevik, Communism, Lenin, Russia, Soviet Union, Stalin, Ukraine, USSR

In 1922 the USSR consisted of just four Soviet republics – the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR.

• Podcast

27th December 1929: Stalin calls for the ‘liquidation of the kulaks as a class’

• 27th December 2025
• Tagged as: Communism, Dekulakization, Kulak, Socialism, Stalin, Ukraine, USSR

The Soviet dekulakisation campaign began when Joseph Stalin announced the ‘liquidation of the kulaks as a class’.

• Podcast

1st December 1934: Assassination of Sergei Kirov, one of the most prominent figures in the Soviet Communist Party

• 1st December 2025
• Tagged as: Assassination, Communism, Great Purge, Kirov, Leningrad, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR

The authorities claimed that the murder was part of a broader conspiracy involving former oppositionists,, and used it as a catalyst for the purges that began in 1935 and escalated into mass arrests, show trials, and executions.

• Podcast

25th November 1940: Nikolai Yezhov, former head of the Soviet secret police, executed in Moscow

• 25th November 2025
• Tagged as: Execution, Great Purge, NKVD, Purge, Soviet Union, Stalin, USSR, Yezhov

Under Yezhov’s leadership the NKVD launched a campaign of arrests targeting party members, military officers, and civilians that saw widespread purges, forced confessions, and executions. Estimates of those killed range into the hundreds of thousands.

• Podcast

1st October 1928: The USSR introduces the first five-year plan under Joseph Stalin

• 1st October 2025
• Tagged as: Communism, Economy, Stalin, USSR

Although the targets were constantly revised to the point where they could never be achieved, the first five-year plan firmly set the USSR on the road to becoming a world superpower.