Stalin, Joseph - Leader of the Soviet Union, Part 1

To help rebuild the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin and his government sent millions of people to forced labor camps.  Along the way, he attempted to erase some of the country’s past (and some of its people) from all memory.  Even Mikhail Gorbachev, who led the Soviet Union from 1985 until it disintegrated in 1991, lost a grandparent to Stalin's terror. 

Early on, not everyone appreciated the extent of Stalin’s terror - especially the famine which had descended on the Ukraine - but his wife did.  After Nadezhda Alliluyev (1901-1932) died, of an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound following a public argument with her husband, historians report that "his heart turned to stone," and from that point on "he was severed from reality."

Although Stalin became an ally of Churchill and Roosevelt during the second world war, he began the conflict as an ally of Hitler. 

This video clip includes historical footage, recreated scenes and interviews (including a discussion with Mikhail Gorbachev).

Credits

Clip from Joseph Stalin: Red Terror - narrated by Jack Perkins.  Interviewees include Mikhail Gorbachev, Janusz Bardach, Valentin Berezhkov, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili and Condi Rice.

Produced for the A&E Biography series, originally airing on March 7, 1996.  Clip online, courtesy Biography Channel.