Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union.

After growing up in Georgia, Stalin conducted discreet activities for the Bolshevik Party for twelve years before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, Stalin took military positions in the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War. Stalin was one of the Bolsheviks’ chief operatives in the Caucasus and grew close to Lenin, who saw him as a tough character, and a loyal follower capable of getting things done behind the scenes. Stalin played a decisive role in engineering the 1921 Red Army invasion of Georgia, adopting a particularly hardline approach to opposition.

Stalin’s connections helped him to gain influential positions behind the scenes in the new Soviet government, eventually being appointed General Secretary in 1922. In 1922, a stroke forced Lenin into semi-retirement, while Lenin grew critical of Stalin in late 1922 and early 1923, recommending Stalin’s dismissal from the post of General Secretary. However, a very debilitating stroke in March 1923 ended Lenin’s political career. In the years following, opponents of Stalin, most notably Leon Trotsky, became isolated politically and were sidelined from the government by Stalin. Eventually, this led Stalin to become the uncontested highest leader of the Party and the Soviet Union.