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== What was Stalin's role during the October Revolution and Russian Civil War? ==
[[File:Russian_Revolution_of_1917.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Bolshevik troops in Red Square]]
By 1917, Stalin was in St. Petersburg, which was soon to be renamed Petrograd. This city was the revolutionary government's capital that had seized power from [[Why did the Russian Romanov Dynasty collapsed collapse in 1917?|the Tsar]] and his government in February 1917. The Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky was becoming unpopular despite ending the rule of the Romanov’s. They had failed to end the war and to redistributed land to the Russian peasants. <ref> Montefiore, Simon Sebag. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400076781/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1400076781&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=8d302940930c5b356ba181d00bc19d29 Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar]''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p. 117</ref>
The Bolsheviks skillfully adopted a policy of promising peace and land to the war-weary and starving population. Their message made them very popular, and in October 1917, they stormed the Winter Place and declared that the Russian Empire was now the Soviet Union.<ref>Montefiore, p. 111</ref>Stalin's role in the Bolshevik Revolution is unknown. Stalin was presented in posters and other images in later propaganda as being by Lenin’s side during the Revolution. Still, Stalin appears to have played only a minor role in the Revolution. <ref>Montefiore, p. 113</ref>
