2-548-152 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Josef Stalin and Mikhail Kalinin, Soviet leaders, 1930s. From a private collection. Born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, Stalin (1879-1953) became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party in 1922, and after the death of Lenin in 1924, effectively became ruler of the Soviet Union. Kalinin (1875-1946) was another of the leading figures in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. A leading member of the Soviet Politburo, he served as Chairman of the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets from 1919-1938 and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1938-1946. He was a supporter of Stalin in the stuggle for the leadership of the Party after Lenin's death.