Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin (/ˈstɑːlɪn/; birth surname: Jughashvili; 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state.

Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the party's Central Committee in 1922. He subsequently managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenin's criticisms (in the postscript of his testament) and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained general secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, concurrently serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 onward.

Sibir (steamship icebreaker)

The Sibir (built 1938 as I. Stalin) was the first Soviet icebreaker built at a domestic shipyard.

Owing to many delays, it took over two years to finish. It was built at the Ordzhonikidze Yard in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) between 1937 and 1938.

The I. Stalin was the biggest icebreaker of the Soviet fleet at that time. In 1938 it reached the Arctic in its first expedition.

The I. Stalin, freed the icebreaker Sedov on January 18, 1940 between Greenland and Svalbard after it had been drifting as a scientific Soviet polar station for a long time.

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