Joseph Stalin died on 5 March 1953 in Kuntsevo Dacha, aged 74. A Georgian-born Soviet politician, Stalin rose through the Bolshevik party to become general secretary, and, after the death of Lenin, ruled the Soviet Union as a dictator until his own death. He forced the country through rapid industrialisation and the collectivisation of agriculture, which was followed by a devastating famine, and he conducted the Great Purge of the 1930s, in which many people were executed or sent to labour camps. The Soviet Union under his leadership defeated Nazi Germany in the Second World War and became a superpower with control over Eastern Europe. Nikita Khrushchev denounced his rule in 1956.
Before and after
- 1953The Miller-Urey experiment makes amino acids from simple gases
- 20 January 1953Birth of Jeffrey Epstein
- 24 January 1953Birth of Moon Jae-in
- 19 February 1953Birth of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
- 5 March 1953Death of Joseph Stalin
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 6 May 1953Birth of Tony Blair
- 16 May 1953Birth of Pierce Brosnan
- 17 May 1953Birth of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 12 March 1947 to 25 December 1991Cold War
- from 3 April 1948 to 1 December 1951Marshall Plan
- 10 December 1948Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- 26 July 1953Cuban Revolution
- from 14 October 1962 to 28 October 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
- 26 December 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.