Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Josef Stalin), was a Soviet revolutionary, politician and political theorist. Stalin became General Secretary in 1922 and the Soviet Union was established that year. Stalin is widely considered one of the most significant and influential figures of the 20th century. Stalin pushed for more rapid industrialization and central control of the economy, contravening Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP). Sometime between 1910 and 1912, he began using the alias "Stalin" in his writings. Stalin was a dictator, who believed in a totalitarian government. He took the right of freedom that a person was born with and made it his own. Stalin was able to take over Russia because of brain wash and worship- he was treated as a god. The Armed forces of the U.S.S.R. were the largest in the world. At the time of its breakup, with a total of about 4 million people in its army, navy, and air force.

On December 29, 1922 the Soviet Union was officially created when Russia joined with three other territories including the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR), the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR. The Soviet Union, especially during the Second World War, was a force to be reckoned with. The Soviet Union was made up of the party known as the Communists, and a rival party known as the Anti-Communists. Early Communists hoped to achieve a classless society—a society with neither rich nor poor people. The Anti-Communists were conservative and classical liberal, they argued that everyone should work in order to acquire the money they deserve. From the mid-1940's to the late 1980's, the Soviet Union was one of the two world superpowers. The other was the United States.

The Red Army was the national army of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1946. The Red Army was created from the Red Guards, a workers’ militia that defended the Communist Party. Initially, the Red Army was a volunteer force led by Leon Trotsky, a Bolshevik leader and commissar (minister) of war. Stalin had expanded the Red Army to about 5 million soldiers. And in August 1939, just before the start of World War II, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a nonaggression pact, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. However, in June 1941, Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, and the Red Army suffered massive losses. In 1946, the Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army.

The Soviet Union fought against Germany in the rush for control over Poland. The Tripartite Pact was signed by the Axis Powers: Germany, Japan and Italy, in October 1940. The bulk of Soviet fighting took place on the Eastern Front—including a continued war with Finland—but it also invaded Iran (August 1941) in cooperation with the British and late in the war attacked Japan (August 1945), with which the Soviets had border wars earlier up until in 1939. German forces eventually surrendered after Soviet forces encircled their troops.

Works Cited

Gallagher, P Matthew. The Soviet HIstory of World War II. Frederick A Praeger. New York, London.

Gill, Graeme. "Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich." Encyclopedia of Russian History, edited by James R. Millar, vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, pp. 1455-1459. Gale Virtual Reference Library, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=flag22111&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX3404101287&it=r&asid=53cdd1576af0efaab41dd1ba3a55188a. Accessed 21 Apr. 2017.

Glantz, David M. "Red Army." World Book Student, World Book, 2017, www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar753733. Accessed 21 Apr. 2017.

Millar, James R. "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)." World Book Student, World Book, 2017, www.worldbookonline.com/student/articlke?id=ar575240. Accessed 21 Apr. 2017.