Joseph Stalin (born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) (18 December 1878  – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian politician who became leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953 from a cerebral haemorrhage. He replaced Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union. His ideas and policies turned the Soviet Union into a powerful, relatively modern country, as the largest on Earth. His way of thinking was called Marxism-Leninism, and his form of government was later called Stalinism.