JUGASH ww), general-secretary of the Russian Communist Party, was born in 1879, son of a Georgian peasant shoemaker. Young Joseph secured an education through being selected for a course at a Russian religious seminary. However, he was expelled for "unreliability." At 17 he joined a Social Democratic group and agitated among the workers of Georgia.
For organising demonstrations in Batoum in 1902 he was im prisoned, and in 1903 was exiled to Eastern Siberia for three years. In Jan. 1904 he escaped and returned to his political activities, frequently changing his pseudonym. He evaded arrest until 1908, when he was again exiled to Vologda province for three years. He escaped once more in 1909, returning to Baku and re newing his activities, but was speedily arrested and sent to Solvichegodsk for six years. Inside a year he escaped to St. Peters burg, but was arrested a third time after a few months and sent back to Vologda province for a further three years. He escaped in Dec. 1911, was again exiled in April 1912, but was once more in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) in September.
In March 1913 he was arrested and exiled to Turukhansk in Northern Siberia, where he remained until Feb. 1917. He was responsible for the Bolshevik campaign for the State Duma in 1913, directing the Bolshevik group in that Duma from outside, and in 1912-13 acting as one of the editors of the Bolshevik journals "Sviezda" (Star) and "Pravda" (Truth). He belonged to the central committee, and in the Soviet Government he be came commissar for nationalities. Stalin fought against Yude nitch, Denikin and the Polish army, in 1919 and 1920 he was commissar for workers' and peasants' inspection, and from 1920 to 1923 was a member of the revolutionary military council. As general secretary of the central committee of the Russian Communist party, after Lenin's death he became the most powerful figure in the U.S.S.R., and held his position when his policy was assailed by other Communist leaders, securing the exile of Trotzky and other opponents.