Georgian Marxist revolutionary and later virtual dictator of the USSR (1928--53). Born in Gori, Georgia, the son of a cobbler and ex-serf. He studied at Tiflis Orthodox Theological Seminary, from which he was expelled in 1899. After joining a Georgian Social Democratic organization (1898), he became active in the revolutionary underground, and was twice exiled to Siberia (1902, 1913). As a leading Bolshevik he played an active role in the October Revolution, and became people's commissar for nationalities in …showed first 75 words of 1597 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1597 total…