Joseph Stalin

Joseph or Josef Stalin, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, (PROSE: Endgame) was a communist leader of the Soviet Union. He served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (PROSE: History 101)

Biography
Stalin was born in Georgia (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs) as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Later in life, he adopted the name Stalin, meaning 'Man of Steel', as a revolutionary name. (PROSE: Endgame)

During his several decades as president of his country, Josef encountered the Doctor several times. (PROSE: Closing the Account)

Supporters of Stalin were known as Stalinists. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch, Deadly Reunion) Leon Trotsky, a former ally of Stalin, was murdered by Stalinists with an ice pick in August of 1940. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs, PROSE: Sometime Never..., Spiral Scratch)

Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt once met at Yalta (PROSE: Beguine) to discuss the partitioning of Europe after World War II. (PROSE: Byzantium!) Stalin would once again meet Churchill and new US President Harry S. Truman at the Potsdam Conference in 1945.

In 1951, Stalin frequently had dinner parties with Politburo members which included Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov, Bulganin, and Molotov. Stalin would drink alcohol during these parties and go on various tirades. Most of the Politburo were intimidated by Stalin, aside from Beria, who would sometimes interrupt Stalin. While the Politburo praised Stalin at these parties, in private they thought differently. Khrushchev believed Stalin may have had dementia.

Stalin was mostly intoxicated at these parties. The Politburo members noted that his state of mind ranged from a "jovial clownish drunk" to a "murderous paranoid drunk". To them, the former was better, for as long as Stalin mocked and humilitated them, he was not going to kill them. (PROSE: Endgame)

In his old age, Josef hadn't seen the Doctor in 25 years, and he wanted to meet him again. He had one of his soldiers, Andrei, capture Ace, and the Seventh Doctor arrived. Josef asked what his legacy would be, and the Doctor claimed to him that, though people would vilify him for over a century, they would eventually realise that he had done the right thing, and they would continue his work.

As the Doctor left, the servant Grigori slipped something into Josef's drink. (PROSE: Closing the Account)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline, Simon Brown shared the secrets he had learned about atomic bombs with the world. Fearing every nation having access to atomic weapons, Stalin bombed the planet, and the political organisation known as "the Party" took over. (PROSE: The Winning Side)

Personality
It was said that Stalin liked to listen to the sound of mad dogs barking. (PROSE: Endgame)

Behind the scenes

 * According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, in an alternate universe where all of history happened at once, Stalin played live chess with Cleopatra.
 * Closing the Account depicts Stalin being drugged at the end of his life. In the real world, whether Stalin died from natural causes or poisoning is a topic of academic debate.
 * He was played by Brian Cox in an episode of Thirty-Minute Theatre, David Bradley in an episode of Theatre Night, Bernard Kay in an episode of Screen Two and Simon Russell Beale in the play Collaborators.