Today marks the birthday of possibly the most well-known Soviet leader in history, Joseph Stalin. While Tsarist records list his birth date as December 18, 1878, December 21, 1879, became the date observed in the Soviet Union. To this day, it remains the date on which communists around the world remember his legacy.

Stalin was born into an impoverished working-class family in Gori, Georgia. Engaging in secret workers’ meetings from a young age, he swiftly climbed the ranks of the socialist movement, emerging as a leading revolutionary across Tsarist Russia. Close to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Stalin assumed the monumental task of steering the Soviet Union through the turbulent aftermath of the revolution following Lenin’s death.

Stalin’s leadership, spanning from 1924 until his passing in 1953, remains polarizing—even among communists. Yet, his most celebrated achievement was leading the Soviet Union to victory over fascism, culminating in the defeat of Hitler’s Germany.

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