Dzhugashvili

Stalin was born Iosif Dzhugashvili in the town of Gori, in the east of Georgia, in 1878.

He was born Iosif Dzhugashvili in the town of Gori, in the east of the country, in 1878.

Born Ioseb Dzhugashvili to a humble family in 1878, the young Stalin spent his childhood in Gori, before studying in the nearby Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Mr. Perel became an interpreter, at one point interpreting for Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who had been taken prisoner by the Germans.

Dzhugashvili mentions neither the Great Terror nor the gulags, instead hailing Stalin as “an example of those who serve others.”