J. V. Stalin

Volume 1

Biographical Chronicle

(1879 - 1906)

Source: Works, Vol. 1, November 1901 - April 1907
Publisher:Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954
Transcription/Markup: Salil Sen for MIA, 2008
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2008). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit "Marxists Internet Archive" as your source.


1 8 7 9

December 9
Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili (Stalin) was born in Gori, Georgia.

1 8 8 8

September
J. V. Stalin enters the elementary clerical school in Gori.

1 8 9 4

June
J . V. Stalin graduates from the Gori school with highest marks.

September 2
J. V. Stalin enters first grade of the Tiflis Theological Seminary.

1896 - 1898

In the Theological Seminary in Tiflis J. V. Stalin conducts Marxist circles of students, studies Capital, the Manifesto of the Communist Party, and other works of K. Marx and F. Engels, and becomes acquainted with the early works of V. I. Lenin.

1 8 9 8

January
J. V. Stalin begins to conduct a workers' Marxist circle in the Central Railway Work shops in Tiflis.

August
J. V. Stalin joins the Georgian Social-Democratic organisation Messameh Dassy.

J. V. Stalin, V. Z. Ketskhoveli and A. G. Tsulukidze form the core of the revolutionaryMarxist minority in the Messameh Dassy.

J. V. Stalin draws up a programme of studies for Marxist workers' circles.

J. V. Stalin, V. Z. Ketskhoveli and A. G. Tsulukidze raise the question of founding an illegal revolutionary Marxist press. This gives rise to the first sharp disagreements between the revolutionary minority and the opportunist majority in the Messameh Dassy.

1 8 9 9

May 29
J. V. Stalin is expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary for propagating Marxism.

December 28
J. V. Stalin starts work at the Tiflis Physical Observatory.

1 9 0 0

April 23
J. V. Stalin addresses a workers' May Day meeting in the region of Salt Lake, on the outskirts of Tiflis.

Summer
J. V. Stalin establishes contact with V. K. Kurnatovsky, a well-known supporter of Lenin's Iskra, who had arrived in Tiflis for Party work.

August
J. V. Stalin leads a mass strike at the Central Railway Workshops in Tiflis.

1 8 9 8 - 1 9 0 0

Under the leadership of J. V. Stalin, V. Z. Ketskhoveli and A. G. Tsulukidze, a central leading group is formed within the Tiflis organisation of the R.S.D.L.P. , which passes from propaganda in study circles to mass political agitation. The group organises the printing of manifestoes and their distribution among the workers, forms underground Social-Democratic circles, and leads the strikes and political struggle of the Tiflis proletariat.

1 9 0 1

March 21
J. V. Stalin's lodgings at the Tiflis Physical Observatory are searched by the police.

March 28
J. V. Stalin leaves the Tiflis Physical Observatory and goes underground.

April 22
J. V. Stalin leads the workers' May Day demonstration in the Soldatsky Market Place, in the centre of Tiflis.

September
No. 1 of the illegal newspaper Brdzola, the organ of the revolutionary wing of the Georgian Marxists published on the initiative of J. V. Stalin, appears in Baku. The article "From the Editors," outlining the programme of the newspaper which appeared in that issue, was written by J. V. Stalin.

November 11
J. V. Stalin is elected a member of the first Tiflis Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., which followed the Leninist-Iskra trend.

End of November
The Tiflis Committee sends J. V. Stalin to Batum to form a Social-Democratic organisation there.

December
No. 2 -3 of Brdzola appears, containing J. V. Stalin's article "The Russian Social-Democratic Party and Its Immediate Tasks."

J . V. Stalin establishes contact with the advanced workers in Batum and organises Social-Democratic circles at the Rothschild, Mantashev, Sideridis, and other plants.

December 31
J. V. Stalin organises in the guise of a New Year's party a secret conference of representatives of Social-Democratic study circles. The conference elects a leading group, headed by J. V. Stalin, which acted virtually as the Batum Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. of the Leninist-Iskra trend.

1 9 0 2

January
J. V. Stalin organises in Batum an underground printing plant, writes leaflets and organises the printing and distribution of manifestoes.

January 31 - February 17
J . V. Stalin organises a strike a tthe Mantashev plant which ends in the victory of the workers.

February 27 - beginning of March
J. V. Stalin directs the activities of the strike committee during a strike at the Rothschild plant.

March 8
J. V. Stalin leads a demonstration of strikers who demand the release of 32 of their arrested fellow-strikers.

March 9
J . V. Stalin organises and leads a political demonstration of over 6,000 workers employed in the various plants in Batum who demand the release of 300 worker-demonstrators arrested by the police on March 8.

Outside the prison where the arrested workers were confined, the demonstration was shot at by troops and 15 workers were killed and 54 were injured. About 500 demonstrators were arrested. That same night J. V. Stalin wrote a manifesto on the shooting down of the demonstrators.

March 12
J . V. Stalin leads a workers' demonstration which he had organised in connection with the funeral of the victims of the shooting on March 9

April 5
J . V. Stalin i s arrested a t a meeting of the leading Party group in Batum.

April 6
J. V. Stalin is detained in the Batum jail.

April 1902 - April 19, 1903
While in the Batum jail, J. V. Stalin establishes and maintains contact with the Batum Social-Democratic organisation, directs its activities, writes leaflets, and conducts political work among the prisoners.

1 9 0 3

March
The Caucasian Union of the R.S.D.L.P. is formed at the First Congress of Caucasian Social- Democratic Labour Organisations. J. V. Stalin, then confined in the Batum jail, is in his absence elected a member of the Caucasian Union Committee that was set up at the congress.

April 19
J . V. Stalin i s transferred from the Batum jail to the Kutais jail, where he establishes contact with the other political prisoners and conducts among them propaganda on behalf of the Leninist-Iskra ideas.

Autumn
J . V. Stalin i s retransferred to the Batum jail, whence he i s deported under escort to Eastern Siberia.

November 27
J. V. Stalin arrives at the village of Novaya Uda, Balagansk Uyezd, Irkutsk Gubernia, his place of exile.

December
While in Siberia, J. V. Stalin receives a letter from V. I. Lenin.

1 9 0 4

January 5
J. V. Stalin escapes from his place of exile.

February
J . V. Stalin arrives in Tiflis and directs the work of the Caucasian Union Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

J. V. Stalin drafts the programmatic document entitled Credo dealing with the disagreements within the Party and with the organisational tasks of the Party.

June
J . V. Stalin arrives in Baku where, on the instructions of the Caucasian Union Committee, he dissolves the Menshevik committee and forms a new, Bolshevik committee.

Summer
J. V. Stalin makes a tour of the most important districts of Transcaucasia and debates with Mensheviks, Federalists, Anarchists and others.

In Kutais, J . V. Stalin forms a Bolshevik Imeretia-Mingrelia Committee.

September 1
Proletariat is Brdzola, No. 7, publishes J. V. Stalin's article "The Social-Democratic View of the National Question."

September - October
In connection with the disagreements within the Party, J. V. Stalin, while in Kutais, writes letters to the Georgian Bolsheviks abroad, expounding Lenin's views on the combination of socialism with the working-class movement.

November
J. V. Stalin arrives in Baku and leads the campaign for the convocation of the Third Congress of the Party.

December 13-31
J. V. Stalin leads the general strike of the Baku workers.

1 9 0 5

January 1
Proletariatis Brdzola, No. 8, publishes J . V. Stalin's article "The Proletarian Class and the Proletarian Party." January 8 The manifesto is issued entitled "Workers of the Caucasus, It Is Time to Take Revenge!" written by J. V. Stalin in connection with the defeat tsarism had sustained in the Far East. Beginning of On the initiative of J. V. Stalin, the Caucasian

February
Union Committee dissolves the Menshevik Tiflis Committee, which had announced its withdrawal from the Caucasian Union of the R.S.D.L.P., and forms a new, Bolshevik Tiflis Committee.

February 13
In connection with the Tatar-Armenian massacre in Baku which had been provoked by the police, J. V. Stalin writes the leaflet entitled "Long Live International Fraternity!"

February 15
In connection with the successful demonstration of many thousands of people held in Tiflis to protest against an attempt by the police to provoke massacres among the different nationa lities in that city too, J . V. Stalin writes the leaflet entitled "To Citizens. Long Live the Red Flag!"

April
J. V. Stalin speaks at a big meeting in Batum in a debate with the Menshevik leaders N. Ramishvili, R. Arsenidze, and others.

May
J. V. Stalin's pamphlet Briefly About the Disagreements in the Party is published.

June 12
J. V. Stalin delivers a speech at the funeral of A. G. Tsulukidze in which he outlines a programme of struggle to be waged by the workers and peasants against the autocracy, and subjects the tactics of the Mensheviks to devastating criticism.

July 15
Proletariatis Brdzola, No. 10, publishes J. V. Stalin's article "Armed Insurrection and Our Tactics."

July 18
In a letter to the Caucasian Union Committee, N. K. Krupskaya asks for copies of J. V. Stalin's pamphlet Briefly About the Disagreements in the Party and also for the regular delivery of Borba Proletariata.

July
J. V. Stalin speaks before an audience of 2,000 in Chiaturi in debate with the Anarchists, Federalists and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

August 15
Proletariat is Brdzola, No. 11 , publishes J. V. Stalin's articles "The Provisional Revolutionary Government and Social-Democracy" and "A Reply to Social-Democrat."

October 15
Proletariat is Brdzola, No. 12, publishes J. V. Stalin's articles "Reaction Is Growing" and "The Bourgeoisie Is Laying a Trap."

October 18
J. V. Stalin addresses a workers' meeting in the Nadzaladevi district of Tiflis on the tsar's Manifesto of October 17.

October
In connection with the October all-Russian political strike, J. V. Stalin writes the leaflets "Citizens!" and "To All the Workers!"

November 20
No. 1 of Kavkazsky Rabochy Listok appears with a leading article by J. V. Stalin entitled "Tiflis, November 20, 1905."

End of November
J . V. Stalin directs the proceedings of the Fourth Bolshevik Conference of the Caucasian Union of the R.S.D.L.P.

December 12-17
J. V. Stalin takes part in the proceedings of the First All-Russian Conference of Bolsheviks in Tammerfors as a delegate of the Caucasian Union of the R.S.D.L.P. At this conference he became personally acquainted with V. I. Lenin.

1 9 0 6

Beginning of January
J . V. Stalin's pamphlet Two Clashes is published.

March 8
J . V. Stalin's article "The State Duma and the Tactics of Social-Democracy" appears in Gantiadi, No. 3.

March 17-29
J. V. Stalin's articles "The Agrarian Question" and "Concerning the Agrarian Question," appear in Nos. 5, 9, 10 and 14 of the newspaper Elva.

End of March
J . V. Stalin i s elected a delegate from the Tiflis organisation to the Fourth ("Unity") Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

April 10-25
J. V. Stalin takes part in the proceedings of the Fourth ("Unity") Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. in Stockholm a t which, in opposition to the Mensheviks, he substantiates and defends the Bolshevik tactics in the revolution.

June 20
No. 1 of Akhali Tskhovreba, directed by J. V. Stalin, appears.

June 21-July 9
J . V. Stalin's series of articles Anarchism or Socialism? appear in Nos. 2, 4, 7 and 16 of the Bolshevik newspaper Akhali Tskhovreba.

June-November
J. V. Stalin directs the work of organising the first trade unions in Tiflis (printers, shop assistants, and others).

July 13
J. V. Stalin's article "Marx and Engels on Insurrection" appears in Akhali Tskhovreba, No. 19.

July 14
J. V. Stalin's article "International Counterrevolution" appears in Akhali Tskhovreba, No. 20.

July-August
J. V. Stalin's pamphlet The Present Situation and the Unity Congress of the Workers' Party is published.

September
J. V. Stalin takes part in the proceedings of the Regional Congress of Caucasian Organisations of the R.S.D.L.P.

November 14
No. 1 o f Akhali Droyeba, directed by J . V. Stalin , appears, containing his article "The Class Struggle."

December 4
Akhali Droyeba, No. 4, publishes J. V. Stalin's article "‘Factory Legislation' and the Proletarian Struggle."

December 11
Akhali Droyeba, No. 5, resumes publication of J. V. Stalin's series of articles Anarchism or Socialism?

December 18, 1906 - April 10, 1907
Publication of J. V. Stalin's series of articles Anarchism or Socialism? is continued in the Bolshevik newspapers Akhali Droyeba, Chveni Tskhovreba and Dro.