Joseph Stalin
The Soviet dictator who industrialized the USSR, defeated the Nazis, and killed millions of his own citizens to do it.
Origin
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (1878–1953) — Stalin, 'man of steel' — was a Georgian seminary dropout turned revolutionary who maneuvered into power after Lenin's death in 1924. His policies — forced collectivization, the Ukrainian famine (Holodomor), the purges, the Gulag — killed somewhere between six and nine million people on top of war deaths. He led the USSR through WWII against Germany, ended it with half of Europe under Soviet control, and died in 1953, possibly poisoned. Khrushchev denounced him three years later.
Modern usage
Shorthand for paranoid, purge-driven leadership. 'Stalinist' is the standard adjective for any organization that disappears dissenters and rewrites the record. The grim quip 'one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic' is attributed to him (probably wrongly). 'Uncle Joe' was the wartime Allied nickname, now used only ironically.
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