This is the name most people come up with when asked to name a historical figure who was as bad as, or worse than, Hitler. Stalin was a founding member, and leader, of the Soviet Union from the early 1920s through to his death in the 50s. He became one of the most feared a reviled people in the eyes of the West following the end of the Second World War. It was under his control that the Soviet Russia entered into the decades-spanning Cold War with Western Europe and America. However, while Hitler tended to focus on specific social groups (mostly Jewish and Romani families), most of the people killed by Stalin's orders were his own citizens. As a general rule, anyone who stood in his way or was deemed a potential threat to his authority was killed. Estimates on the total number of people directly killed under Stalin's regime range from 10 to 30 million. Starting from 1934, Stalin organised a massive purge of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of 'enemies' of the Soviet people were imprisoned, exiled or executed. The reforms also implemented the Holodomor, or "Hunger-extermination;" an artificially-created famine in the Ukraine that killed somewhere between 2 and 8 million people.
With a (nearly) useless degree in English literature and a personal trainer qualification he's never used, Freddie spends his times writing things that he hopes will somehow pay the rent. He's also a former professional singer, and plays the saxophone and ukulele. He's not really used to talking about himself in the third person, and would like to stop now, thanks.
