This document discusses the life and leadership of Joseph Stalin. It notes that Stalin attended a Georgian Orthodox seminary as a young man and learned about Marxism in 1904. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin gained full control of the Soviet Union in 1930 and started his own revolution, killing many people and attacking private farmers. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II, Stalin refused to trade a high-ranking officer for a lower-ranking one, saying "war is war." Though the Soviets lost many officers early on, Stalin believed the harsh Russian winter would help stop the German advance on Moscow.