page_title: Early life of Joseph Stalin
section_title: Childhood: 1878–1893
hierarchical_section_title: Early life of Joseph Stalin / Childhood / Childhood: 1878–1893
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a page from the birth registry from the Gori Church of the Assumption of Mary (გორის ღვთისმშობლის მიძინების ტაძარი). Among its entries is the birth record of one Ioseb Besarionis Jughashvili, better known today as Joseph Stalin. The entry is the fifth one of the left page, dated December 6th (Stalin was born on December 6 in the Julian calendar, which corresponds to December 18 in the modern calendar). This image is a crop of File:Joseph Stalin birth registration.jpg, showing only the entry for Ioseb, aka Joseph Stalin. In Georgian: დეკემბერი 6 / 17 / იოსებ / გორში მცხოვრებელი, გლეხი ბესარიონ ივანეს ძე ჯუღაშვილი და სჯულიერი ცოლი ამისი ეკატერინა გაბრიელის ასული, ორივე მართლიმადიდებელისა სარწმუნებისა / გორში მცოვრებელი გლეხი მიხეილ შიოს ძე ციხითარიშვილი / დეკანოზმა ხახანოვმა / პრიჩეტ. კვინიკამიურთ English translation: [born on] December 6 / [baptized on] December 17 / [the newborn's name] Ioseb / [Estate, name, patronymic, surname of parents and their religion] in Gori living, peasant Besarion Ivane's son Jughashvili and lawful wife of the latter Ekaterina Gabriel's daughter, both of Orthodox Faith / [The godfather is] In Gori living peasant Mikheil Shio's son Tsikhitarishvili / [Baptized by] Deacon Khakhanov [with] Clergyman Kvinikidze (Translations provided by Donald Rayfield, a professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London) NOTE: This document says that Stalin's mother was named "Ekaterina Gabrielis asuli", which is a clerical error. Her actual name was "Ekaterine Giorgis asuli".
context_page_description: The early life of Joseph Stalin covers the life of Joseph Stalin from his birth on 6 December 1878 until the October Revolution on 25 October 1917. Born Ioseb Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia to a cobbler and a house cleaner, he grew up in the city and attended school there before moving to Tiflis to join the Tiflis Seminary. While a student at the seminary he embraced Marxism and became an avid follower of Vladimir Lenin, and left the seminary to become a revolutionary. After being marked by Russian secret police for his activities, he became a full-time revolutionary and outlaw. He became one of the Bolsheviks' chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda, raising money through bank robberies, and kidnappings and extortion. Stalin was captured and exiled to Siberia numerous times, but often escaped. He became one of Lenin's closest associates, which helped him rise to the heights of power after the Russian Revolution. In 1913 Stalin was exiled to Siberia for the final time, and remained in exile until the February Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of the Russian Empire.
context_section_description: Stalin was born Ioseb Jughashvili on 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 in the town of Gori, in what is today the country of Georgia. He was baptised on 29 December [O.S. 17 December] 1878 and christened Ioseb, and known by the diminutive "Soso"
  His parents were Ekaterine (Keke) and Besarion Jughashvili (Beso). He was their third child; the first two, Mikheil and Giorgi had died in infancy.
  Stalin's father, Besarion, was a shoemaker and owned a workshop that at one point employed as many as ten people, but which slid into ruin as Stalin grew up. Beso had specialised in producing traditional Georgian footwear and did not produce the European-style shoes that were becoming increasingly fashionable. This, combined with the deaths of his previous two infant sons, precipitated his decline into alcoholism. The family found themselves living in poverty. The couple had to leave their home and moved into nine different rented rooms over ten years.
  Besarion also became violent towards his family. To escape the abusive relationship, Keke took Stalin and moved into the house of a family friend, Father Christopher Charkviani. She worked as a house cleaner and launderer for several local families who were sympathetic to her plight. Keke was a strict but affectionate mother to Stalin. She was a devout Christian, and both she and her son regularly attended church services. In 1884, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him with facial pock scars for the rest of his life.
  Charkviani's teenaged sons taught Stalin the Russian language. Keke was determined to send her son to school, something that none of the family had previously achieved. In late 1888, when Stalin was ten, he enrolled at the Gori Church School. This was normally reserved for the children of clergy, but Charkviani ensured that Stalin received a place by claiming that the boy was the son of a deacon. This may be the reason why—in 1934—Stalin claimed to have been the son of a priest. There were many local rumours that Beso was not Stalin's real father, which in later life Stalin himself encouraged. Stalin biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore nonetheless thought it likely that Beso was the father, in part due to the strong physical resemblance that they shared. Beso eventually attacked a policeman while drunk which resulted in the authorities ejecting him from Gori. He moved to Tiflis, where he worked at the Adelkhanov shoe factory.
  Although Keke was poor, she ensured that her son was well dressed when he went to school, likely through the financial support of family friends. As a child, Stalin exhibited a number of idiosyncrasies; when happy, he would for instance jump around on one leg while clicking his fingers and yelling aloud.
  He excelled academically, and also displayed talent in painting and drama classes. He began writing poetry, and was a fan of the work of Georgian nationalist writer Raphael Eristavi. He was also a choirboy, singing both in church and at local weddings. 
  A childhood friend of Stalin's later recalled that he "was the best but also the naughtiest pupil" in the class. He and his friends formed a gang, and often fought with other local children. He caused mischief; in one incident, he ignited explosive cartridges in a shop, and in another he tied a pan to the tail of a woman's pet cat.
  When Stalin was twelve, he was seriously injured after having been hit by a phaeton. He was hospitalised in Tiflis for several months, and sustained a lifelong disability to his left arm. His father subsequently kidnapped him and enrolled him as an apprentice cobbler in the factory; this would be Stalin's only experience as a worker. According to Stalin's biographer Robert Service, this was Stalin's "first experience with capitalism", and it was "raw, harsh and dispiriting". Several priests from Gori retrieved the boy, after which Beso cut all contact with his wife and son. In February 1892, Stalin's school teachers took him and the other pupils to witness the public hanging of several peasant bandits; Stalin and his friends sympathised with the condemned. The event left a
caption: Stalin's birth registration from the church records of Gori.
exif: {}