On this day in history in 1913, Josef Dzhugashvili publicly signed his name “Joseph Stalin” for the first time in a letter to the Social Democrat. The name Stalin means “man of steel.” He allegedly adopted this name in 1910.
In the late 19th century, Joseph Stalin was first exposed to the work of Karl Marx and identified with socialist ideals. After being expelled in 1899, his involvement in Russia’s socialist movement, specifically the Bolsheviks, took various forms. In the early 20th century, Stalin wrote articles for a socialist Georgian newspaper, Brdzola Khma Vladimiri; helped develop unions among oil workers in Baku; and sat on the Bolshevik party’s Central Committee. As well, between 1910 and 1915 he wrote numerous anonymous letters to Socialist newspapers.
Shortly thereafter, Stalin’s political involvement moved far beyond letter writing. He participated in the Russian Revolution in 1917, had a high-level role within the Soviet Union under Lenin and succeeded him as dictator in the late 1920s. His leadership role within the USSR has amounted to “Joseph Stalin” being a name that is well-known in history.