section_path: Early life
section_name: Early life
paragraph_text: Early life
  
  Stalin's birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. His father, Besarion Jughashvili, was a shoemaker and his mother, Keke Geladze, was a house cleaner. He was born and raised in the Georgian town of Gori, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. Stalin attended school there before moving to Tiflis to join Tiflis Theological Seminary with the aim of becoming a priest. While a student at the seminary, he embraced Marxism and became an avid follower of Vladimir Lenin. After being marked by the Okhrana for his activities, he became a full-time revolutionary and was involved in various criminal activities.
  
  He became one of the Bolsheviks ' chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda and raising money through bank robberies and extortion. Stalin was captured and exiled to Siberia numerous times but often escaped. He became one of Lenin's closest associates, which helped him rise to the heights of power after the Russian Revolution. In 1913, Stalin was exiled to Siberia and remained in exile until the February Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of the emperor. According to Oleg Khlevniuk, Stalin "filled an important role ", and Stephen Kotkin similarly noted Stalin had been "in the thick of events".