Space Administration (NASA) and then beginning to develop the
first of the photographic intelligence (PHOTINT) satellites,
CORONA, which went into service in 1960.SR-71 BLACKBIRD.See U-2.STALIN, JOSEF (1879–1953). Born as Josif Vissarionovich
Dzhugashvili to illiterate peasants in Georgia, Stalin—whose nick-
name refers to steel—became enamored of socialism while attending
seminary school and honed his Marxist skills as an underground ag-
itator in the Russian Caucasus. Soon after, he joined up with Vladimir
Lenin but took no active part in the 1917 October Revolution that
ousted the Russian czar and brought into being the Soviet Union.
After the revolution, Stalin became general secretary of the new So-
viet Communist Party and secretly began consolidating power. Soon
after Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin took over the reins of power, began
undoing Lenin’s market socialist policies by implementing a program
of draconian industrialization, and forced agricultural collectivization.
Stalin blamed the resulting resistance and food shortages on rich peas-
ants (kulaks) and forced them into prison camps (gulags) in Siberia. In
the 1930s, Stalin also consolidated his power by purging his opponents
from the Communist Party and either killing or imprisoning them.
In 1939, Stalin agreed to a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany.
However, Nazi Germany’s leader, Adolph Hitler, abrogated the pact
and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin, who was unprepared
for the invasion, reorganized the Soviet Red Army and launched a
massive resistance effort that forced German occupation forces from
Soviet territory and drove them into Germany, while Western forces
marched into Germany from the west. Germany surrendered to Allied
forces in May 1945.
Following World War II, Stalin established a series of communist
governments in East European satellite countries, which later formed
the backbone of the Warsaw Pact. Stalin’s actions sparked the Cold
War—the ideological and military competition between the East and
the West—that lasted until 1991. To fight the Cold War effectively,
Stalin sought military power, first by strengthening the role of the
Red Army internally and externally and then building and maintain-
ing strategic nuclear forces. Stalin died in March 1953, officially
from a cerebral hemorrhage, and unofficially from poisoning.192 • SR-71 BLACKBIRD05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 192