Molnija Pocket Watch - Stalin

One of the most powerful and murderous dictators in human history, Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. His regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions of his subjects, but he was also in charge of the war machine that played a significant role in the defeat of Hitler's armies during World War II. A Georgian by birth, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili grew up in modest circumstances and only learned Russian at school. He studied at a theological seminary but never graduated, instead embarking on a life as a professional revolutionary. This included robbing banks to fill the Bolshevik party chest and spending years in Siberian exile.

After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin promoted himself as his political heir and gradually outmanoeuvred rivals. Unlike Trotsky, Stalin believed that socialism could be introduced in one country without being accompanied by a world revolution. By the late 1920s, Stalin was effectively the dictator of the Soviet Union.