His mother was deeeeply religious, his dad was an ill-tempered drunk who beat him.
He went into the seminary to become a Priest, his mother was delighted.
He read Das Kapital and inspired, he quit the seminary.
He became a bank-robber to finance “The Russian Revolution” (which in fact wasn’t really a revolution and whether it was really Russian, meh, I’m not so sure).
He wasn’t even charismatic, just a real manipulator, and pretty patient when he had to be (and not patient at all when he didn’t).
One time he and Trotsky were really expediting some paperwork, signing a blizzard of documents. By hurrying they seemed to be making time for some task they preferred. A nearby aide was curious, but dared not to ask, as even then Stalin had cemented a pretty good reputation for blood and wrath.
Trotsky and Stalin finished their paperwork to go do the really pressing thing —that turned out to be going to a movie.
The aide picked up the paperwork they’d been hurrying though:
Orders to kill 17,000 people.
And that was nothing in the grand scheme of Stalin’s Democide. Rummel puts the numbers for Soviet Democide at over 60 millions.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Blokhin
Biggest executioner of all time: 7,000 Polish officers in a month, headshots, one by one, 300 in one day (.25 ACP)
A disgusting, cowardly, blood-thirsty insect.